Beyond the City

This is as much about the scientist as the science. Chen's persona is curious, gently self-deprecating, and stubborn about measurement. You can hear it when she tapes an accelerometer to a skateboard or splits LED light at her kitchen table.

She never turns the city into a morality play, which keeps trust high even when conclusions are tentative. I wanted more about moments of doubt, but as a guide she's companionable and exacting.

If you enjoy Geoff Manaugh's speculative urbanism and James Bridle's systems thinking, this scratches the same itch while staying grounded in measurements. From Nairobi's dimming constellations to a kitchen spectroscope in Shenzhen, Chen makes big ideas feel neighborly. The blend of rigor and play is rare.

Chen traces the city's entanglement with planetary systems: carbon curves, night-sky brightness, and meticulously synced clocks. Her throughline is that infrastructure is a living sensor, "where streets, lungs, and rivers braid" into feedback loops we barely perceive. The best sections linger like an afterimage and recalibrate how I notice my block after sunset.

• Microcapítulos ágiles y claros
• Datos sorprendentes de Mauna Loa, brillo del cielo nocturno y relojes GPS bajo Tokio
• Ritmo entrecortado y poco contexto para quienes recién comienzan

The microchapter architecture is a tidy mosaic; Chen hops from Phoenix heat drones to a skateboard accelerometer in São Paulo to wastewater RNA in Stockholm with admirable clarity. The prose is precise and often playful, but the speed means transitional tissue is thin and a few punch lines land where I hoped for connective argument.

Slow down occasionally, and the book's strong observational voice would resonate longer.

Chen turns cities into instruments measuring the planet. Short bursts of data and wit make me look up from the train and recalibrate the sky.