Nuts and Bolts by Roma Agrawal
Nails and string—they hold our world together. The wheel keeps it turning and the lens helps us see … Most of us never bother to ponder the origins and significance of the fundamental building blocks of human technology. Stuck at home during the Covid lockdown, structural engineer Roma Agrawal was given plenty time to ponder. Her fun to read Nuts & Bolts explores those often small but vital components, investigating engineering as “the meeting of science, design, and history.” To that last point, it appears that all key components trace their origins to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East—except perhaps string. Recent archeological finds indicate that Europe’s Neanderthals were stringing things together as long ago as 50,000 years.
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