Size
- Author Vaclav Smil
- Narrator Stephen Perring
- Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
- Run Time 8 hours and 43 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Biology, life sciences, History, History: specific events and topics, Materials science, Mathematical modelling, Popular beliefs and controversial knowledge, Popular science, Probability and statistics, Science: general issues, Scientific standards, measurement etc, Society and Social Sciences.
Titles Purchased
- 1-5
- 6-10
- 11-15
- 16-20
- Over 20
Price p/Title
- £7.99
- £6.99
- £5.99
- £4.99
- £3.99
Listen to a sample
What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
100 words: The New York Times bestselling author returns with a mind-opening exploration of how size defines life on Earth.
Explaining the key processes shaping size in nature, society and technology, Smil busts myths around proportions - from bodies to paintings and the so-called golden ratio - tells us what Jonathan Swift got wrong in Gulliver's Travels - the giant Brobdingnagian's legs would buckle under their enormous weight - and dives headfirst into the most contentious issue in ergonomics: the size of aeroplane seats.
It is no exaggeration to say this fascinating and wide-ranging tour de force will change the way you look at absolutely everything.
10 words: Size, an omnipresent scalar, is the measure of all things.
1 word: Size.
© Vaclav Smil 2023 (P) Penguin Audio 2023
Critics Review
-
An endlessly entertaining career through fascinating territory
Daily Telegraph -
In a world of specialized intellectuals, Smil is an ambitious and astonishing polymath who swings for fences . . . They’re among the most data-heavy books you’ll find, with a remarkable way of framing basic facts
Wired -
There is perhaps no other academic who paints pictures with numbers like Smil
Guardian
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