Scientific American: How Things Work Today

by Michael Wright, Mukul Patel

Biotechnology, computers, cell phones, and the Internet -- they're all having a major impact on our lives as the twenty-first century begins. Surrounded by today's array of new technologies, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and bewildered. For more than a century, Scientific American has made the machines and technologies that make up our world understandable. In Scientific American: How Things Work Today you'll find over 100 topics explored in easy-to-understand text and made absolutely clear with the aid of more than 600 fully annotated, three-dimensional illustrations and color photographs.

Do you know where all those stairs on the escalator go when they get to the top? Did you know that every time you use a credit card the clerk bounces a signal off a satellite to get an okay for your purchase? Have you ever wondered how your e-mail gets from here to there? Or how the signal finds your cell phone when you're hundreds of miles from home? Scientific American knows, and in Scientific American: How Things Work Today, it tells and shows you how the world around you works, with three-dimensional illustrations, diagrams, and exploded views as well as up-to-the-minute color photographs. And the explanations are in the concise, understandable language that has made Scientific American the most successful popular science magazine in the world.

Scientific American has been the authoritative popular source of science information about how the world works for more than 150 years. Now, in the first book based on the magazine's popular "Working Knowledge" column, Scientific American reveals exactly how the wonders of the modern world work. Assembled by a team of professional science and technology writers, Scientific American: How Things Work Today shows the hidden workings of satellites, the Space Shuttle, subways, sewers, the Internet, electron microscopes, and many of the other systems and devices that help make our world what it is and us who we are. With lavish pictures, photographs, and hundreds of explanations to how our world works, this book is an essential addition to every family's library.

Genres: Reference

288 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 2000

About the author

freelance writer and editor in the areas of science, technology, and medicine. Studied natural sciences at Cambridge University

Reviews

[John Michael Strubhart]

I enjoy the diagramming and detailed discussion of each topic. I've always been pretty happy with anything that Scientific American puts out.

[James]

Fascinating and handy both to understand things as an adult and sometimes to help explain things to children - a great book for anyone who looks at things and wonders what's going on behind what they see.

[Stephanie]

Fascinating. I want this around to browse through because I know I'll never remember how these tings work, but I love the drawings and diagrams and the clear explanations for things that totally baffle me
(like how the hell does a CT scan work? or a color TV? )

[Christøpher Es]

I used to pour over this book before I had internet. I think the first ipod might be in here too. maybe.