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Results for 'roland ennos'
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The Powerful Primate
How Homo Sapiens Came to Dominate the PlanetHow did an ungainly hairless ape conquer the planet?
€ 34,50 -
The Powerful Primate
A captivating journey through humanity’s relentless quest to harness and control physical power, fueling groundbreaking innovations while leaving a profound impact on our planet—from the acclaimed author of The Age of Wood.The Powerful Primate presents a compelling argument that flips the traditional view of humanity on its head. Rather than focusing solely on our cognitive abilities, author Roland Ennos argues it’s our physical power and engineering brilliance that have set us apart in the animal kingdom. From our bipedal ancestors wielding simple tools to modern humans mastering complex machinery, Ennos takes us on a gripping journey through the evolution of human dominance. Readers will learn the fascinating history of how humans have progressively harnessed energy from sources such as wood, animals, water, wind, fossil fuels, and even atomic nuclei to drive our rise to being the most powerful species on earth. Our ancestors’ abilities to hit harder, throw farther, and cut deeper than any other animal laid the groundwork for the development of agriculture, industry, and, ultimately, modern civilization. Yet this power has come at a cost: environmental degradation and societal challenges have arisen from our relentless pursuit of energy and technological advancement. There is hope, however—the same engineering skills that have brought us here can pave the way for a more sustainable future. Blending anthropology, biomechanics, engineering, and history, The Powerful Primate is a thought-provoking story of ambition, ingenuity, and the costs of progress—a must-read for anyone interested in the forces that shape human civilization.
€ 28,50 -
The Science of Spin
It's time to stop thinking in straight lines...
€ 25,00 -
The Science of Spin
"From the time women first used rotating bobbins to twist thread and men whirled slings around their heads to throw stones, people have found spin fascinating and baffling in equal measure. Now, in The Science of Spin, Roland Ennos shows how rotational motion dominates the workings of the world around us. It has shaped the solar system, galaxies, and black holes. It controls our climate and weather-from the pattern of trade winds through to the local formation of hurricanes and tornadoes. Harnessing the power of spin helped launch civilization, from the first developments of the wheel to the systems that now power the industrial world-propellers, turbines, centrifugal pumps, electric motors, and computer disk drives. Even our own bodies are complex systems of rotating joints and levers. But scientists have a tendency to ignore the simple and straightforward. So, 17th-century scientists developed the science of mechanics to explain the phenomenon of the orbit of the planets rather than how machines work. As a result, few people realize how spin makes our planet habitable, or how it has been tamed by engineers to make our lives more comfortable. In a lively and engaging style, Ennos presents a new approach to mechanics that not only helps us better understand the world, but also reveals unlikely links between tightrope walkers and tyrannosaurs, catapults and tennis players, stunt cars and long jumpers. By opening our minds, he shows how we can all learn to move about more gracefully, play sports more successfully and safely-and ensure that, like cats, we always land on our feet. A highly entertaining and informative read, whether it be natural or engineered, spin is what really makes the world go round"--
€ 26,50 -
The Wood Age
When our ancestors came down from the trees, they brought the trees with them and remade the world. 'A stunning book on the incalculable debt humanity owes wood...' John Carey, The Sunday Times
€ 25,00 -
The Age of Wood
A groundbreaking examination of the role that wood and trees have played in our global ecosystem—including human evolution and the rise and fall of empires—in the bestselling tradition of Yuval Harari’s Sapiens and Mark Kurlansky’s Salt.As the dominant species on Earth, humans have made astonishing progress since our ancestors came down from the trees. But how did the descendants of small primates manage to walk upright, become top predators, and populate the world? How were humans able to develop civilizations and produce a globalized economy? Now, in The Age of Wood, Roland Ennos shows for the first time that the key to our success has been our relationship with wood. Brilliantly synthesizing recent research with existing knowledge in fields as wide-ranging as primatology, anthropology, archaeology, history, architecture, engineering, and carpentry, Ennos reinterprets human history and shows how our ability to exploit wood’s unique properties has profoundly shaped our bodies and minds, societies, and lives. He takes us on a sweeping ten-million-year journey from Southeast Asia and West Africa where great apes swing among the trees, build nests, and fashion tools; to East Africa where hunter gatherers collected their food; to the structural design of wooden temples in China and Japan; and to Northern England, where archaeologists trace how coal enabled humans to build an industrial world. Addressing the effects of industrialization—including the use of fossil fuels and other energy-intensive materials to replace timber—The Age of Wood not only shows the essential role that trees play in the history and evolution of human existence, but also argues that for the benefit of our planet we must return to more traditional ways of growing, using, and understanding trees. A winning blend of history and science, this is a fascinating and authoritative work for anyone interested in nature, the environment, and the making of the world as we know it.
€ 26,50