Previous ed.: published as How things work. 1999.

Includes index.

The New How Things Work updates the original with informative coverage of the objects and ideas that are changing our everyday lives, from DVDs and MP3 music files to plasma screen televisions and wireless internet technology.While most of us are curious about the inner workings of gadgets and machines, we often feel intimidated in our efforts to really understand them. The New How Things Work, a fascinating and clearly written and illustrated volume, uses anecdotal information to help readers understand the mechanisms and principals behind technological wonders, painlessly folding in the basic scientific principles that make each of them work.With chapters including Home, Buildings and Building, Power and Energy, Transportation, Entertainment, Manufacturing, and Tools of Medicine, the book covers every important technological category, focusing on familiar items such as clocks and locks, planes and trains, elevators and escalators, and the not-so-familiar-"smart" clothes and buildings, laser surgery, and DNA manipulation.Like David Macaulay's classic The Way Things Work and Bill Bryson's recent bestseller, A Short History of Nearly Everything, this eminently browsable book presents ideas and concepts in clear, concise language. The text, which is organized into stand-alone spreads, is lavishly illustrated with more than 400 photographs, technical drawings, diagrams, and sidebar concepts that visually reinforce the science explained in the text. National Geographic's The New How Things Work is a comprehensive reference that will satisfy the curious and educate the perplexed. If you are curious about everyday gadgets, machines, tools, even industrial and medical processes, you'll find the answers you've always wanted in The New How Things Work.