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Using the interdisciplinary approach that has won him a wide readership, Smil draws upon history, earth science, psychology, art, and more to offer fresh insight into some of our biggest challenges, including income inequality, the spread of infectious disease, and the uneven impacts of climate change. Size explains the regularities—and peculiarities—of the key processes shaping life (from microbes to whales), the Earth (from asteroids to volcanic eruptions), technical advances (from architecture to transportation), and societies and economies (from cities to wages). This book about the big and the small, and the relationship between them, answers the big and small questions of human existence:
– What makes a human society too big? What about a human being?
– Which alternative energy sources have the best chance of scaling and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels?
– Why do tall people make more money?
– What makes a face beautiful? How about a cathedral? How can changing the size of your plates help you lose weight?
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