Books

In The Powerful Primate I show that we dominate the world more because of our physical prowess and engineering skills than just our intellect. Standing upright enabled our ancestors to wield tools that made them the world’s top predator. Ten thousand years ago, the rigours of cereal cultivation drove them to develop ever more sophisticated tools and find new methods to power them. Finally, three hundred years ago industrialists developed machinery powerful enough to build an urbanised world that keeps us in ease and plenty. But having unleashed unprecedented destruction on the world, we need to find a way to curb our power so we don’t destroy our own planet.

In The Science of Spin I show that rotation is fundamental to our lives. Spin helped create the universe: the solar system, black holes and galaxies. It’s thanks to the earth’s spin that we can survive on our planet, since it creates the earth’s magnetic field and diverts the winds to create our benign climate. We use rotating machinery to drive industry and power our urbanised world. And our bodies are themselves composed of rotating joints which we employ to balance, move around and use tools in ways we barely appreciate. Spin is all around us.

In The Wood Age I show that wood has always been and continues to be our most important material. Coming down from the wooden world of the forest canopy, our ancestors used wooden tools to obtain food, built wooden homes and made wood fires to keep themselves warm and cook their food. As stone and metal tools became available they were used to carve larger wooden buildings, create wooden wheels and build wooden ships. And in the modern age we use more wood than ever to make paper, create furniture and build a new generation of laminated timber buildings. We are still living in The Wood Age.

Trees are the largest organisms on our planet and cover over 40% of the land surface, yet we all too often take them for granted. In Trees I unlock their fascinating lives by answering a few simple questions. Why do trees exist? How have they evolved? How do they lift water to their leaves and stand up against the wind? Why are there so many species? And how and why do we make use of trees? Having read the book you will never look at a wood in the same way ever again.