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The cover of Material World

Material World

Ed Conway, 2023

See how sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium quietly shape modern life, from chips and batteries to war, climate, and supply chains.

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8 parts, about 25 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • See how sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium sit beneath apps and finance, and why one obscure shortage stops factories
  • Follow one material through its full chain, from quartz in a quarry to chips made in cleanrooms, to see what reshoring really requires
  • Understand why cutting carbon probably means mining more copper, and why recycling cannot cover the near term surge

Who it is for

  • Readers who assume the modern economy is weightless and digital
  • People weighing the energy transition against mining, water and climate costs
  • Readers curious how everyday glass, steel and plastic actually get made

What the summary covers

  1. The World Beneath the World2 min
  2. Sand: Glass, Concrete, Silicon4 min
  3. Salt: Preservation, Power, Chemistry3 min
  4. Iron: The Bones of Development3 min
  5. Copper: The Nervous System3 min
  6. Oil: The Everything Thing4 min
  7. Lithium: White Gold and Hard Tradeoffs3 min
  8. Seeing the Material World Clearly3 min

Recommended by

  • Chris MillerAuthor of Chip War
    With absorbing storytelling, Conway shows why we should not take the material world for granted.
  • Peter FrankopanProfessor of Global History at Oxford
    Lively, rich and exciting . . . Full of surprises.
  • Mark MiodownikMaterials scientist at University College London
    Fascinating and forensic in equal measure . . . Reveals the web of mining and manufacturing that underpins the lives of everyone on the planet.
  • Diane CoyleBennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge
    A masterful exploration of how materials shape our world more than ever – economically, geopolitically and environmentally.
  • Tim HarfordEconomic journalist and Financial Times columnist
    Fascinating, fun, and vitally important. A wonderful exploration of the world we've built yet somehow manage to ignore.

About the author

  • Ed ConwayEnglish journalist and Economics and Data Editor of Sky News
    • Writer and broadcaster; Economics and Data Editor of Sky News and a regular columnist for The Times and Sunday Times
    • Studied English at Pembroke College, Oxford
    • Took a master's degree in public administration at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government on a Fulbright Scholarship
    • Earlier worked as an economics correspondent at the Daily Mail and then as Economics Editor of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph
    • Joined Sky News as its economics editor in August 2011
    • Was the first to reveal the Bank of England's plans to create money through quantitative easing, early in the 2008 financial crisis
    • His first book, 50 Economics Ideas You Really Need to Know (2009), has been translated into thirteen languages
    • Material World was shortlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award in 2023 and the British Academy Book Prize in 2024

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