Scale

Narrator Bruce Mann uses an appropriately professorial tone for this exciting scientific adventure involving network systems, fractals, and the odd coherence of many large systems. Listeners will hear, for example, how a shrew scales up to a blue whale and subatomic particles to galaxies. Mann's experience narrating hard science makes even the most difficult concepts accessible. The author interjects humor from his youth growing up in England in his analysis of how cities scale. In response, Mann switches smoothly from university don to smart-aleck teen as he discusses the development of the garden city movement in London in the 1950s. This is a serious and insightful work in science brought down to a level of accessibility rarely seen in an undertaking so vast or important. M.C. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine