Edmund Conway Boeken

THE TIMES SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR Shortlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award Picked as a Book of the Year by FINANCIAL TIMES, ECONOMIST and NEW STATESMANA BBC RADIO 4 Book of the Week'A compelling narrative of the human story' TIM MARSHALL, author of Prisoners of Geography'Lively, rich and exciting... full of surprises' PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk Roads _Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium. They built our world, and they will transform our future.These are the six most crucial substances in human history. They took us from the Dark Ages to the present day. They power our computers and phones, build our homes and offices, and create life-saving medicines. But most of us take them completely for granted.In Material World, Ed Conway travels the globe - from the sweltering depths of the deepest mine in Europe, to spotless silicon chip factories in Taiwan, to the eerie green pools where lithium originates - to uncover a secret world we rarely see. Revealing the true marvel of these substances, he follows the mind-boggling journeys, miraculous processes and little-known companies that turn the raw materials we all need into products of astonishing complexity.As we wrestle with climate change, energy crises and the threat of new global conflict, Conway shows why these substances matter more than ever before, and how the hidden battle to control them will shape our geopolitical future. This is the story of civilisation - our ambitions and glory, innovations and appetites - from a new perspective: literally from the ground up.

"The story of civilization from an entirely new vantage point-the six raw materials that have shaped and will continue to shape humanity's destiny. Sand, iron, salt, oil, copper and lithium: The struggle for these fundamental materials has created empires, razed civilizations, and fed our ingenuity and our greed for thousands of years. It is a story that is far from finished. Though we are told we now live in a weightless world of information, we dug more stuff out of the earth in 2017 than in all of human history before 1950. And it's getting exponentially worse. To make one bar of gold, we now have to dig 5,000 tons of earth. For every ton of fossil fuels, we extract six tons of other materials-from sand to stone to wood to metal. Even as we pare back our consumption of fossil fuels we continue to redouble our consumption of everything else. Why? Because these ingredients are the basis for everything. They power our phones and electric cars, build our homes and offices, enable the printing of our books, and supply our packaging. Our modern world would not exist without them, and the hidden battle to control them will shape our future. This is an epic journey across continents, cultures and epochs that captures the astonishing extent to which humanity's prosperity is intertwined with what we extract from the earth and adapt to our needs and desires. It is a story of our past and future, from the ground up"--

A brilliant narrative history of the most colourful and important summit in history.

"Stories of the Mer-Folk, especially Mermaids, exist in nearly every culture around the world that sailed the oceans or large rivers. Human-like, except for their iridescent, scaly tails, Mermaids and Mermen have fascinated humans for thousands of years. Because the largest of these beings exist in the oceans, most people are not aware that smaller versions of the Mer-Folk live in inland rivers, streams, marshes, and large or small waterfalls. Like many other magickal beings, the Mermaids travel easily between this world and the astral planes, appearing only to those who truly seek to know them and learn their ancient powers. This book brings these fabled creatures out of the storybooks and into real life"--

Edmund Conway, economics editor of the Daily Telegraph, introduces and explains the central concepts of economics in a series of 50 accessible and engaging essays. Beginning with the basic theories, such as Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ and the law of supply and demand, and concluding with the latest thinking on the links between wealth and happiness and the shape of 21st century economics, he sheds light on all the essential topics needed to understand booms and busts, bulls and bears, and the way the world really works.

Sophie Sixpence is a little girl who lives with her mummy and daddy in a village and has just learned to ride a two-wheel bicycle. On a typical day she sets off on her bicycle with either her mummy or daddy walking behind her, to buy shopping in the village from people like the butcher and the baker, and she often says, 'Hello' to people like the postman and the mechanic. Today, however, was not a typical day. It was a very windy day and the wind, looking for mischief, found it in the form of an out of control hot air balloon! Can Sophie Sixpence and a host of characters from the village save whoever is inside the hot air balloon or will the wind whisk the hot air balloon away never to be seen again and at what point will Mrs Sixpence look up from her handwritten shopping list and realise what is going on?

Ekscytująca wyprawa przez kontynenty i stulecia, w trakcie której odkryjesz, z czego zbudowany jest nasz świat. Sześć surowców, dzięki którym budujemy miasta, konstruujemy maszyny i tworzymy cywilizacje. Dzięki którym opanowaliśmy Ziemię i zaczynamy podbój kosmosu. Piasek, żelazo, sól, ropa, miedź i lit – to one zdecydowały o naszej przeszłości i wpłyną na naszą przyszłość. Ed Conway podróżuje po całym świecie: schodzi w głąb europejskich kopalń, poznaje zakamarki tajwańskich fabryk półprzewodników, przygląda się niesamowitej zieleni zbiorników, w których powstaje lit. Odkrywa sekretny świat surowców, o którym rzadko myślimy, a który stanowi część naszego życia. Opowiada historię człowieka widzianą nie przez pryzmat jego osiągnięć i podbojów, ale tworzoną dzięki substancjom, które pozwoliłyzbudować rzeczywistości, jaką znamy. Sześć surowców. Sześć rozdziałów historii naszej cywilizacji. „Fascynującą opowieść o historii człowieka.” Tim Marshall, autor książki Więźniowie geografii „Żywo napisana, bogata i ekscytująca... Książka pełna niespodzianek.” Peter Frankopan, autor książki Jedwabne szlaki „Ed Conway ujawnia mniej znaną historię substancji, dzięki którym powstała nasza cywilizacja. Ta niezwykła opowieść skłania do refleksji na temat ludzkiej pomysłowości i eksploatacji zasobów Ziemi. Fascynująca lektura.” Łukasz Załuski, redaktor naczelny „National Geographic Polska”