INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Vaclav Smil is my favorite author." Bill Gates "How the World Really Works represents the highly readable distillation of this lifetime of scholarship Mr. Smil looks over the horizon of the future with humility and calmness, foreseeing 'a mixture of progress and setbacks, of seemingly insurmountable difficulties and near-miraculous advances.' Wall Street Journal An essential analysis of the modern science and technology...

"Vaclav Smil lleva cincuenta a�nos estudiando las posibilidades que tenemos a nuestro alcance para garantizar el futuro energ�etico de nuestro planeta. Debido a la complejidad de las interacciones que mueven el mundo, la atomizaci�on del conocimiento y la volatilidad de la informaci�on es muy dif�icil anticipar con exactitud qu�e ocurrir�a. Por eso es necesario ce�nirse a los datos y a los l�imites que nos ofrece la ciencia, as�i...

Building on his national bestseller The Rational Optimist, Innovation is the main event of the modern age, the reason we experience both dramatic improvements in our living standards and unsettling changes in our society. Forget short-term symptoms like Donald Trump and Brexit, it is innovation that will shape the twenty-first century. Yet innovation remains a mysterious process, poorly understood by policy makers and businessmen alike.Matt Ridley...

"Society is sheltered indoors. The economy is in ruins. People spend their lives addicted to a breakthrough virtual reality technology, desperate for escapism in a troubled world. The Nirvana Effect has taken over. Aaron and Clarissa are members of a subculture of realists who resist the lure of a fake utopia. They watch in horror as the technology spreads across the country with willing participants who easily forgo their freedoms for false pleasures....

"Jeremy Jordan and Alexandra Chen hope to make a quiet home together but struggle to find a space safe from their personal secrets. For Jeremy, this means leaving behind his former life as an intelligence operative during The Troubles in Northern Ireland, while for Alexandra, a vocation in image control for whole countries cannot prepare her for the challenge of guarding a beloved brother's confidences or learning more of his mysterious history. In...

"A guide to raising responsible, safe, and communicative kids in the digital world. From cell phone contracts, rules for earning an allowance, and creating a family mantra, this book teaches readers to solve problems before they happen"--