Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Stories to Help Us Understand the Modern World
"Vaclav Smil is my favorite author… Numbers Don't Lie takes everything that makes his writing great and boils it down into an easy-to-read format. I unabashedly recommend this book to anyone who loves learning."—Bill Gates, GatesNotes
An essential guide to understanding how numbers reveal the true state of our world—exploring a wide range of topics including energy, the environment, technology, transportation, and food production.
Vaclav Smil's mission is to make facts matter. An environmental scientist, policy analyst, and a hugely prolific author, he is Bill Gates' go-to guy for making sense of our world. In Numbers Don't Lie, Smil answers questions such as: What's worse for the environment—your car or your phone? How much do the world's cows weigh (and what does it matter)? And what makes people happy?
From data about our societies and populations, through measures of the fuels and foods that energize them, to the impact of transportation and inventions of our modern world—and how all of this affects the planet itself—in Numbers Don't Lie, Vaclav Smil takes us on a fact-finding adventure, using surprising statistics and illuminating graphs to challenge conventional thinking. Packed with fascinating information and memorable examples, Numbers Don't Lie reveals how the US is leading a rising worldwide trend in chicken consumption, that vaccination yields the best return on investment, and why electric cars aren't as great as we think (yet). Urgent and essential, with a mix of science, history, and wit—all in bite-sized chapters on a broad range of topics—Numbers Don't Lie inspires readers to interrogate what they take to be true.
1137528538
An essential guide to understanding how numbers reveal the true state of our world—exploring a wide range of topics including energy, the environment, technology, transportation, and food production.
Vaclav Smil's mission is to make facts matter. An environmental scientist, policy analyst, and a hugely prolific author, he is Bill Gates' go-to guy for making sense of our world. In Numbers Don't Lie, Smil answers questions such as: What's worse for the environment—your car or your phone? How much do the world's cows weigh (and what does it matter)? And what makes people happy?
From data about our societies and populations, through measures of the fuels and foods that energize them, to the impact of transportation and inventions of our modern world—and how all of this affects the planet itself—in Numbers Don't Lie, Vaclav Smil takes us on a fact-finding adventure, using surprising statistics and illuminating graphs to challenge conventional thinking. Packed with fascinating information and memorable examples, Numbers Don't Lie reveals how the US is leading a rising worldwide trend in chicken consumption, that vaccination yields the best return on investment, and why electric cars aren't as great as we think (yet). Urgent and essential, with a mix of science, history, and wit—all in bite-sized chapters on a broad range of topics—Numbers Don't Lie inspires readers to interrogate what they take to be true.
Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Stories to Help Us Understand the Modern World
"Vaclav Smil is my favorite author… Numbers Don't Lie takes everything that makes his writing great and boils it down into an easy-to-read format. I unabashedly recommend this book to anyone who loves learning."—Bill Gates, GatesNotes
An essential guide to understanding how numbers reveal the true state of our world—exploring a wide range of topics including energy, the environment, technology, transportation, and food production.
Vaclav Smil's mission is to make facts matter. An environmental scientist, policy analyst, and a hugely prolific author, he is Bill Gates' go-to guy for making sense of our world. In Numbers Don't Lie, Smil answers questions such as: What's worse for the environment—your car or your phone? How much do the world's cows weigh (and what does it matter)? And what makes people happy?
From data about our societies and populations, through measures of the fuels and foods that energize them, to the impact of transportation and inventions of our modern world—and how all of this affects the planet itself—in Numbers Don't Lie, Vaclav Smil takes us on a fact-finding adventure, using surprising statistics and illuminating graphs to challenge conventional thinking. Packed with fascinating information and memorable examples, Numbers Don't Lie reveals how the US is leading a rising worldwide trend in chicken consumption, that vaccination yields the best return on investment, and why electric cars aren't as great as we think (yet). Urgent and essential, with a mix of science, history, and wit—all in bite-sized chapters on a broad range of topics—Numbers Don't Lie inspires readers to interrogate what they take to be true.
An essential guide to understanding how numbers reveal the true state of our world—exploring a wide range of topics including energy, the environment, technology, transportation, and food production.
Vaclav Smil's mission is to make facts matter. An environmental scientist, policy analyst, and a hugely prolific author, he is Bill Gates' go-to guy for making sense of our world. In Numbers Don't Lie, Smil answers questions such as: What's worse for the environment—your car or your phone? How much do the world's cows weigh (and what does it matter)? And what makes people happy?
From data about our societies and populations, through measures of the fuels and foods that energize them, to the impact of transportation and inventions of our modern world—and how all of this affects the planet itself—in Numbers Don't Lie, Vaclav Smil takes us on a fact-finding adventure, using surprising statistics and illuminating graphs to challenge conventional thinking. Packed with fascinating information and memorable examples, Numbers Don't Lie reveals how the US is leading a rising worldwide trend in chicken consumption, that vaccination yields the best return on investment, and why electric cars aren't as great as we think (yet). Urgent and essential, with a mix of science, history, and wit—all in bite-sized chapters on a broad range of topics—Numbers Don't Lie inspires readers to interrogate what they take to be true.
19.0
Out Of Stock
5
1
Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Stories to Help Us Understand the Modern World
368
Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Stories to Help Us Understand the Modern World
368Paperback
$19.00
Related collections and offers
19.0
Out Of Stock
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780143136224 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 05/04/2021 |
| Pages: | 368 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.50(d) |
From the B&N Reads Blog
Customer Reviews
Explore More Items
New York Times Bestseller
New York Times Notable Book of 2016
NPR Great Read of 2016
Economist Best Books of 2016
Brain Pickings Best Science Books of 2016
Smithsonian Best Books about Science of
New York Times best-selling author and renowned science journalist Ed Yong compiles the best science and nature writing published in 2020.
“The stories I have chosen
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “thrilling” (The New York Times), “dazzling” (The Wall Street Journal) tour of the radically different ways that animals perceive the
"[A] quietly terrifying book. . . . It's hard not to feel a bit feverish at times while reading." —The Boston Globe
In The Viral Storm, award-winning biologist Nathan Wolfe tells the story of how
“A quintessential work of technological futurism.” – James Surowiecki, strategy + business, “Best Business Books 2017 – Innovation”
From one of our leading
From one of our leading
Discover the definitive history of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, in this Pulitzer Prize finalist from the author of the New York Times bestseller Area 51.
No one has ever
No one has ever
Recommended by Bill Gates
A thought-provoking and wide-ranging exploration of machine learning and the race to build computer intelligences as flexible as our own
In the world's top research labs
A thought-provoking and wide-ranging exploration of machine learning and the race to build computer intelligences as flexible as our own
In the world's top research labs
Like fan mail addressed to the natural world, Everyday Amazing is filled with uplifting and interesting musings on science from Beatrice the Biologist.
Beatrice the Biologist is an easily amused
Beatrice the Biologist is an easily amused
From New York Times bestselling author Larry Gonick and Davidson College biology professor David Wessner comes this comprehensive and humorous cartoon guide to topics in biology
Did you faint when
If exercise is healthy (so good for you!), why do many people dislike or avoid it? These engaging stories and explanations will revolutionize the way you think about exercising—not to mention
The latest volume in the bestselling series from Edge.org—dubbed “the world’s smartest website” by The Guardian—brings together 206 of the world’s most innovative
How would you go about rebuilding a technological society from scratch?
If our technological society collapsed tomorrow what would be the one book you would want to press into the hands of the
If our technological society collapsed tomorrow what would be the one book you would want to press into the hands of the
The definitive insider's history of the genetic revolution--significantly updated to reflect the discoveries of the last decade.
James D. Watson, the Nobel laureate whose pioneering work helped
James D. Watson, the Nobel laureate whose pioneering work helped
A Nobel Prize–winning neuroscientist’s probing investigation of what brain disorders can tell us about human nature
Eric R. Kandel, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine