What raw materials are essential to maintain our civilisation and without which it would cease to exist? That is the question posed in this book. The answer offered is that there are six such materials – sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium.
This book is authored by science and technology journalist Sally Adee who worked for ten years as news and features editor at New Scientist and IEEE Spectrum magazines. She has also won awards for her contributions to leading publications including The New York Times and The Economist.
Deep-sea mining promises to provide vast resources needed for electronic devices and electrified vehicles. On the other hand, it also threatens to destroy unique ecosystems that science hasn’t yet had chance to explore. Similar dilemmas are abundant in the oceans and becoming more acute as technology advances.
The author of this book, Ted Anton, is an emeritus professor of English at DePaul University in Chicago, US, who has written articles and monographs on a range of scientific topics with a focus on the engaging applications of agriculture, biology and medicine.
Human history is recorded in ceramics. More than 25,000 years ago, ancient Europeans sculpted figurines from clay and silica and hardened them in fire. Pottery became widespread when agriculture created the need for storage vessels and the invention of the wheel provided the means of producing regularly rounded shapes. It has been a crucial element of the archaeological record ever since.
Shortly after author Jay Owens graduated in geography from University College London, she became fascinated by the subject of dust. Over eight years she was engaged in research on dust that included several fact-finding missions to faraway corners of the globe to gather material for her first book.
Author van Tulleken argues that UPF cannot be regarded as real food and presents several reasons why we should all stop consuming it. An ever-growing body of evidence based on dozens of rigorous studies has established that UPF has a detrimental effect on humans, being associated with a heightened occurrence of cancers, cardiovascular conditions, hypertension, liver disorders, obesity, mental ill-health, metabolic diseases and all-cause mortality.
Wagner puts forward a number of reasons why evolutionary scenarios may at first sight appear impenetrable but goes on to explain that seemingly capricious behaviour can readily be accounted for on the basis of discoveries made by his team. Above all, an indispensable requirement for any kind of evolution to take place is that a supportive environment first be established and that prevailing local conditions then remain close to optimal throughout the entire evolutionary process.
In his book emerging from the Alchemy Research Project, which also produced two exhibitions, David Brafman outlines a brief history of alchemy mainly through its connections to art.
The author of this book, Ross Clark, is a professional journalist whose writings have appeared in The Times, The Daily Mail and The Spectator among other publications. In this, his fourth book, he argues that the consequences of climate change are not as dire as they are often made out to be and that adopting a more pragmatic approach could make our future situation quite manageable.