Laurie Winkless takes us around cities in six continents to find out how they're dealing with the challenges of feeding, housing, powering and connecting more people than ever before. Science and the City is your guidebook to that hidden world, helping you to uncover some of the remarkable technologies that keep the world's great metropolises moving.

But how often do we stop to think about what makes our cities work? Cities are built using some of the most creative and revolutionary science and engineering ideas – from steel structures that scrape the sky to glass cables that help us communicate at the speed of light – but most of us are too busy to notice. More people now live in them than don't, and with a growing world population, the urban jungle is only going to get busier in the coming decades. He worked in Seattle public radio for almost 30 years and is Senior Correspondent for Town Hall Seattle’s In The Moment podcast.Cities are a big deal. Steve Scher is a podcaster and interviewer and has been a teacher at the University of Washington since 2009. Her first book, Science and the City, was published by Bloomsbury Sigma in 2016. Her writing has featured in outlets including Forbes, Wired, Esquire, and The Economist. Since leaving the lab, Laurie has worked with scientific organizations, engineering companies, universities, and astronauts, amongst others. After her post-grad, she joined the U.K.’s National Physical Laboratory as a research scientist, where she specialized in functional materials. Laurie Winkless is an Irish physicist-turned-science-writer, currently based in New Zealand. Steve Scher and Laurie Winkless discuss sticky situations of all kinds in the 129th episode of Town Hall’s In the Moment podcast. Each time humanity has pushed the boundaries of science and engineering, we’ve discovered that friction still has a few surprises up its sleeve.

But this apparent success doesn’t tell the whole story. In her new book, Sticky: The Secret Science of Surfaces, physicist Laurie Winkless explores some of the ways that friction shapes both the manufactured and natural worlds, and describes how our understanding of surface science has given us an ability to manipulate stickiness, down to the level of a single atom. All of these things are controlled by tiny forces that operate on and between surfaces, with friction playing the leading role.

The rumbling of the Earth deep beneath your feet, and the ice that transforms waterways each winter. The fingerprints linked to your identity. The Post-it note and glue in your desk drawer. When you hit the road, whether powered by pedal or engine, you rely on grip to keep you safe. With every step you take, air molecules cling to you and slow you down the effect is harder to ignore in water.

Science and the City by Laurie Winkless