How Infrastructure Works: Transforming our shared systems for a changing world *Staff PIck 2024*

Every day, we are granted the power to travel at high speeds, fly, see in the dark, summon water from distant mountains and electricity from the sun. The systems that run our world are invisible to us - until they fail. Infrastructure enables lives of astounding ease and productivity that would have been unimaginable just a century ago. It is a way for us to work collectively for the public good - and it consists of the most complex and vast technological systems ever created by humans. But these systems are not designed for a changing world. Engineer and materials scientist Deb Chachra takes readers on a fascinating tour of these essential utilities, revealing how they work, what it takes to keep them running, just how much we rely on them - but also whom they work well for, and who pays the costs. From Snowdonia's Electric Mountain to Telangana solar plant in India, Chachra shows how we can rebuild our shared infrastructure to be not just functional but also equitable, resilient, and sustainable. The cost of not being able to rely on these systems is unthinkably high. We need to learn how to see them - and fix them, together - before it's too late.