The World In A Grain : The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization

The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization by Vince Beiser is a work of investigative nonfiction about sand - humanity's most-consumed natural resource after air and water, and one now facing a surprising global shortage.

Beiser explains how sand underpins nearly everything in modern life, from concrete buildings and pyramids to glass, computer chips, and smartphones, and traces the environmental damage caused by unchecked sand mining, including the erosion of beaches, islands, and coral reefs.

Reporting from India, China, Dubai, and beyond, he profiles the innovators, entrepreneurs, and black-market "sand pirates" fighting over this seemingly ordinary but increasingly scarce resource, in a book that was a finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and won a California Book Award.