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    Brave Green World

    How Science Can Save Our Planet

    Author Chris Forman, Claire Asher
    Look inside
    Paperback
    $29.95 US
    The MIT Press
    On sale Mar 30, 2021 | 256 Pages | 9780262044462
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    How we can harness cutting-edge biology and manufacturing to fight waste and pollution.

    In Nature, there is little chemical waste; nearly every atom is a resource to be utilized by organisms, ensuring that all the available matter remains in a perpetual cycle. By contrast, human systems of energy production and manufacturing are linear; the end product is waste. In Brave Green World, Chris Forman and Claire Asher show what our linear systems can learn from the efficient circularity of ecosystems. They offer an unblinkered yet realistic and positive vision of a future in which we can combine biology and manufacturing to solve our central problems of waste and pollution.
    Foreword by Dame Ellen MacArthur
    Chapter One: Planet Energy
    Where does planet earth find its energy?
    Chapter Two: Circular Ecology
    Solutions found by nature
    Chapter Three: Humanity's Linear Systems
    Where the end product is waste
    Chapter Four: The 3D Printer
    The game-changer of additive manufacturing
    Chapter Five: Synthetic Biology
    Creating a new kind of biologies
    Chapter Six: Emergence
    -When what's made is more than the sum of its parts
    Chapter Seven: Artificial Intelligence Algorithms
    -The magic ingredient
     Chapter Eight: The Digital Process
    -Smart materials
    Chapter Nine: The Cities of the Future
    -Log on and print out your shopping
    Chapter Ten: Taking It Further
    -Space travel and the bottleneck
    Chris Forman is a physicist with a PhD in protein engineering, conducting research at Northwestern University into the organization of soft matter using experimental, theoretical, and computational approaches. Claire Asher is a biologist with a PhD in evolution and genetics, specializing in the behavior of ants. A widely published science writer, she has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Bloomsbury Theatre and appeared on BBC 4 and BBC Radio 4.
    Chris Forman View titles by Chris Forman
    Claire Asher View titles by Claire Asher
    "Humans are superb problem-solvers, and the authors make a convincing case that technology will mitigate at least some of the devastation we are inflicting on the Earth… An ingenious, if highly speculative, save-the-planet proposal that emphasizes science over politics." – Kirkus Reviews

    "Nothing is wasted in natural systems, yet humankind produces ever-increasing levels of waste. Scientists and science communicators Chris Forman and Claire Asher consider the cycles in nature and how our linear system — production leading to waste — can learn from the cyclical efficiency of ecosystems." – Nature Climate Change

    "[Brave Green World] is an exciting and original contribution to the discussion around sustainability, and it certainly refreshes my appreciation for nature, which has evolved the incredibly complex, ordered and efficient systems that we wish to emulate." – Physics World

    About

    How we can harness cutting-edge biology and manufacturing to fight waste and pollution.

    In Nature, there is little chemical waste; nearly every atom is a resource to be utilized by organisms, ensuring that all the available matter remains in a perpetual cycle. By contrast, human systems of energy production and manufacturing are linear; the end product is waste. In Brave Green World, Chris Forman and Claire Asher show what our linear systems can learn from the efficient circularity of ecosystems. They offer an unblinkered yet realistic and positive vision of a future in which we can combine biology and manufacturing to solve our central problems of waste and pollution.

    Table of Contents

    Foreword by Dame Ellen MacArthur
    Chapter One: Planet Energy
    Where does planet earth find its energy?
    Chapter Two: Circular Ecology
    Solutions found by nature
    Chapter Three: Humanity's Linear Systems
    Where the end product is waste
    Chapter Four: The 3D Printer
    The game-changer of additive manufacturing
    Chapter Five: Synthetic Biology
    Creating a new kind of biologies
    Chapter Six: Emergence
    -When what's made is more than the sum of its parts
    Chapter Seven: Artificial Intelligence Algorithms
    -The magic ingredient
     Chapter Eight: The Digital Process
    -Smart materials
    Chapter Nine: The Cities of the Future
    -Log on and print out your shopping
    Chapter Ten: Taking It Further
    -Space travel and the bottleneck

    Author

    Chris Forman is a physicist with a PhD in protein engineering, conducting research at Northwestern University into the organization of soft matter using experimental, theoretical, and computational approaches. Claire Asher is a biologist with a PhD in evolution and genetics, specializing in the behavior of ants. A widely published science writer, she has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Bloomsbury Theatre and appeared on BBC 4 and BBC Radio 4.
    Chris Forman View titles by Chris Forman
    Claire Asher View titles by Claire Asher

    Praise

    "Humans are superb problem-solvers, and the authors make a convincing case that technology will mitigate at least some of the devastation we are inflicting on the Earth… An ingenious, if highly speculative, save-the-planet proposal that emphasizes science over politics." – Kirkus Reviews

    "Nothing is wasted in natural systems, yet humankind produces ever-increasing levels of waste. Scientists and science communicators Chris Forman and Claire Asher consider the cycles in nature and how our linear system — production leading to waste — can learn from the cyclical efficiency of ecosystems." – Nature Climate Change

    "[Brave Green World] is an exciting and original contribution to the discussion around sustainability, and it certainly refreshes my appreciation for nature, which has evolved the incredibly complex, ordered and efficient systems that we wish to emulate." – Physics World

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