An Inventor in the Garden of Eden

The author presents the inventor's view of Nature. A book for all thinking people.

Eric Laithwaite (Author)

9780521441063, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 September 1994

304 pages, 80 b/w illus.
23.6 x 15.7 x 2.3 cm, 0.619 kg

' … a very personal book, unclassifiable, unscholarly, but unfailingly interesting.' The Times Higher Education Supplement

Eric Laithwaite takes the reader on a guided tour through the mysteries of invention, stopping off to examine the laws of nature and engineering. He shows how many of our inventions are based on designs which were evolved by the natural world over millions of years. In fact we learn that the natural world has often found more efficient answers than ourselves to taxing engineering problems. The shapes and sizes of both natural and man-made objects are largely dictated by the size and weight of the Earth and by the properties of materials. An Inventor in the Garden of Eden crosses many boundaries; the author discusses natural history and engineering, religion, economics and cosmology. He also deals with such fundamental topics as habit, experience, wisdom and civilisation. This book dispells the myths surrounding the belief that human inventions are superior to anything that evolution has produced in the living world.

1. Gardens of Eden
2. The human thinker
3. Human laws and the rules of God
4. Size is everything
5. Our assessment of ourselves
6. Topology - the master discipline
7. Growth and decay
8. Nature - master technologist
9. Into the complex.

Subject Areas: Popular science [PDZ]