A Scientist in the City

In his previous books,A Scientist At The SeashoreandMeditations At Sunset, James Trefil used commonplace settings in the natural world as a point of departure for probing the mysteries of nature. InA Scientist In The City, Trefil takes the opposite tack, looking at the quintessential man-made environment of the city as a way of examining the forces that define our world. What does the heating system of a building or the construction of a bridge tell us about the development of a city? What does the amplified environmental stress of city life on plants and animals suggest about the wild? How have scientific advances in building materials and an understanding of the structure of the atom helped to shape the cities of today? From an explanation of the evolution and influence of plate glass to reinforced steel to an analysis of the future of the skyscraper,A Scientist In The Cityoffers a fascinating study of the promise and the consequences of technology in our everyday urban lives. In addition, Trefil goes on to explore how the new technologies being developed today will help to determine the changing forms that cities will take in the future.A Scientist In The Cityis the kind of book that will open our eyes to the man-made world around us, and show us some of the scientific reasons for why we live the way we do.

James Trefil, the Robinson Professor of Physics at George Mason University, is the author of more than 40 books and 100 articles in professional journals. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the World Economic Forum. He is the recipient of the Andrew Gemant Award from the American Institute of Physics, the Westinghouse and Subaru Awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the 2008 Science Writing Award from the American Physical Society.