The World in a Grain cover art

The World in a Grain

The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization

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The World in a Grain

By: Vince Beiser
Narrated by: Will Damron
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About this listen

 A finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

The gripping story of the most important overlooked commodity in the world--sand--and the crucial role it plays in our lives.

After water and air, sand is the natural resource that we consume more than any other--even more than oil. Every concrete building and paved road on Earth, every computer screen and silicon chip, is made from sand. From Egypt's pyramids to the Hubble telescope, from the world's tallest skyscraper to the sidewalk below it, from Chartres' stained-glass windows to your iPhone, sand shelters us, empowers us, engages us, and inspires us. It's the ingredient that makes possible our cities, our science, our lives--and our future.

And, incredibly, we're running out of it.

The World in a Grain is the compelling true story of the hugely important and diminishing natural resource that grows more essential every day, and of the people who mine it, sell it, build with it--and sometimes, even kill for it. It's also a provocative examination of the serious human and environmental costs incurred by our dependence on sand, which has received little public attention. Not all sand is created equal: Some of the easiest sand to get to is the least useful. Award-winning journalist Vince Beiser delves deep into this world, taking readers on a journey across the globe, from the United States to remote corners of India, China, and Dubai to explain why sand is so crucial to modern life. Along the way, readers encounter world-changing innovators, island-building entrepreneurs, desert fighters, and murderous sand pirates. The result is an entertaining and eye-opening work, one that is both unexpected and involving, rippling with fascinating detail and filled with surprising characters. Economics Engineering Environment Environmental Economics Natural Resources Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science Middle East China

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All stars
Most relevant
A very interesting book which made me think about our impact on the planet and the need for sand in everything. Well worth listening to/reading.

Interesting Insight

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Vince Beiser does an amazing job in describing the multiple uses of sand in our daily lives. Filled with research results and many encounters with people involved in this crisis, this is a master piece that hopefully will help us to understand the crisis and do something about it. Worth reading 100%

An eye opener on the most underrated commodity on earth

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While the focus of the book is on sand. It does on occasions drift away from this subject. The author could have spent more time on technical issues and markets. However The book is educational and easy to listen too.

Easy listening

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A truly fascinating read on something that is so small and almost hidden away, yet surrounds us and without which modern society could never exist. Vince Beiser truly lays out the details of the fundamental importance of sand to modern man, and Will Damron does a good, measured presentation of it. Together the author and narrator truly managed to take a--on the surface--mundane topic and turn it into something truly awe inspiring.

Fascinating, surprising and very significant

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this book starts well and is quite interesting but becomes a little too strident and lecturing towards the end.

Starts Well

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