Tinker belle: A Wknd interview with structural engineer and author Roma Agrawal

Roma Agrawals most recognisable work is The Shard, a 72-storey tower that has dominated the London skyline since 2013 (and is the tallest building in western Europe)..

Published in March 2023, Nuts & Bolts has now been shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize, a prestigious international award that recognises exceptional science writing for a non-specialist audience..

. In Nuts & Bolts, Agrawal revisits the most complex achievements of engineering, with a focus on the role played by seven rudimentary inventions: the nail, spring, wheel, lens, magnet, string and pump..

Her narrative approach is simple and effective: Even as I thought about larger and more complex objects diggers, skyscrapers, factories, tunnels, electrical grids, cars, satellites, and so on again and again, I came back to the same seven foundational innovations..

Agrawal is alert to the privilege in which she was raised, and her books as well as her other outreach work (more on that in a bit) attempt to address gaps in access too..

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