By J. Samuels
The internal combustion engine was born. in search of energy
It is a better idea. J. Samuels is a freelance science writer specializing in the intersection of infrastructure and human behavior. in search of energy
For 200,000 years, humans lived on a bare-bones energy budget: the food we ate (400-600 calories of manual labor per day) and the wood we burned (a few kilowatt-hours for warmth). Today, a single person in a modern city commands the equivalent of 100 “energy slaves” working 24/7—from the fossil fuels in a car tank to the uranium in a reactor core. in search of energy