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The salmon cannon and the levitating frog : and other serious discoveries of silly science
by Carly Anne York
Carly Anne York shows how unappreciated, overlooked, and simply curiosity-driven science has led to breakthroughs big and small. York invites readers to appreciate the often unpredictable journey of scientific exploration, highlighting that the heart of science lies in the relentless pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Emphasizing the hard work of the people behind the discoveries, this is an accessible, story-driven book that shows how important and exciting it is to simply let curiosity run wild.
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A billion butterflies : a life in climate and chaos theory
by J. Shukla
The Nobel Prize-winning climate scientist's inspiring memoir details his journey from rural India to revolutionizing global weather prediction, saving lives, improving food security and advancing climate science while offering hope in the face of a warming planet. 75,000 first printing. Illustrations.
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Crystals, rocks, and gemstones : exploring Earth's treasures
by Kelsey Oseid
A writer, illustrator and crafter reveals the natural history, cultural significance and mesmerizing beauty of over 80 stones, exploring their formation, colors and uses through fascinating facts and illustrations for nature lovers and crystal enthusiasts alike. Illustrations.
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The ocean's menagerie : how earth's strangest creatures reshape the rules of life
by C. Drew Harvell
Explores the remarkable biology of ocean invertebrates, highlighting their extraordinary adaptations and contributions to medicine, engineering, and ecological balance, while weaving the author's personal journey as a marine biologist with a call to protect these ancient and vital underwater ecosystems. Illustrations.
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The art of uncertainty : how to navigate chance, ignorance, risk and luck
by D. J. Spiegelhalter
In lucid, lively prose, Spiegelhalter guides us through the principles of probability, illustrating how they can help us think more analytically about everything from medical advice to sports to climate change forecasts. He demonstrates how taking a mathematical approach to phenomena we might otherwise attribute to fate or luck can help us sort hidden patterns from mere coincidences, better evaluate cause and effect, and predict what's likely to happen in the future. Sparkling with wit and fascinating real-world examples, this is an essential guide to navigating uncertainty while also retaining the humility to admit what we don't, or simply cannot, know.
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The inherited mind : a story of family, hope, and the genetics of mental illness
by James Longman
Explores the intersection of mental health, genetics and environment as the author reflects on his father's suicide and his own experiences with depression, consulting experts and others with similar familial backgrounds to understand inherited mental health challenges and empower personal resilience through self-awareness and scientific insight.
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Sisters in Science : how four women physicists escaped Nazi Germany and made scientific history
by Olivia Campbell
In the 1930s, Germany was a hotbed of scientific thought. But after the Nazis took power, Jewish and female citizens were forced out of their academic positions. Hedwig Kohn, Lise Meitner, Hertha Sponer and Hildegard Stèucklen were eminent in their fields, but they had no choice but to flee due to their Jewish ancestry or anti-Nazi sentiments. Their harrowing journey out of Germany became a life-and-death situation that required Herculean efforts of friends and other prominent scientists. Lise fled to Sweden, where she made a groundbreaking discovery in nuclear physics, and the others fled to the United States, where they brought advanced physics to American universities. No matter their destination, each woman revolutionized the field of physics when all odds were stacked against them, galvanizing young women to do the same.
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Good Nature : why seeing, smelling, hearing, and touching plants is good for our health
by K. J. Willis
Kathy Willis takes the reader on a journey with her to dig out all the experiments around the world that are looking for this evidence-experiments made easier by the new kinds of data being collected from satellites and big-data biobanks. Having a vase of roses on your desk or a green wall in your office makes a measurable difference to your well-being; certain scents in room diffusers genuinely can boost your immune system; and, in a chapter that Kathy calls "Hidden Sense," we learn that touching organic soil has a significant effect on the healthiness of your microbiome.
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The Miraculous from the Material: Understanding the wonders of nature
by Alan P. Lightman
A gorgeously illustrated exploration of the science behind the universe's most stunning natural phenomena-from atoms and unicellular life to rainbows, snowflakes, spider webs, the rings of Saturn, galaxies, and more Nature is capable of extraordinary phenomena.
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The Lost World of the Dinosaurs: uncovering the secrets of the prehistoric age
by Armin Schmitt
A wide-ranging exploration of dinosaurs, detailing their origins, 200-million-year dominance, and eventual extinction, through firsthand research, global excavations, and cutting-edge discoveries, complemented by vivid illustrations and addressing key questions about their survival and the parallels with today's climate issues.
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Vanishing Treasures: a bestiary of extraordinary endangered creatures
by Katherine Rundell
A tour of the natural world's most awe-inspiring animals currently facing extinction. Beautifully illustrated, and full of inimitable wit and intellect, Vanishing Treasures is a chance to be awestruck and lovestruck, to reckon with the beauty of the world, its fragility, and its strangeness.
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How to Kill an Asteroid : the real science of planetary defense
by Robin George Andrews
There are approximately 25,000 "city killer" asteroids in near-Earth orbit-and most are yet to be found. Small enough to evade detection, they are capable of large-scale destruction, and represent our greatest cosmic threat. But in September 2022, against all odds, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission deliberately crashed a spacecraft into a carefully selected city killer, altering the asteroid's orbit and proving that we stand a chance against them.
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It's A Gas : the sublime and elusive elements that expand our world
by Mark Miodownik
In this engaging follow-up to his best-selling Stuff Matters and Liquid Rules, the acclaimed science writer and materials scientist takes us on an often-humorous tour of gases, which are used to create life-altering technologies, chronicling twelve gases that have shaped human history.
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Why Animals Talk : the new science of animal communication
by Arik Kershenbaum
A leading zoologist explores animal communication and its true meaning. From leading zoologist Arik Kershenbaum, a delightful and groundbreaking exploration of animal communication and its true meaning Animal communication has forever seemed intelligible.
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The Secret Lives of Numbers : a hidden history of math's unsung trailblazers
by Kate Kitagawa
Spanning six continents and thousands of years of untold stories, as well as just about every mathematical discipline, a renowned math historian and a science journalist/mathematician make the case that the history of math is infinitely deeper, broader and richer than the narrative we think we know.
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Quanta and fields : the biggest ideas in the universe
by Sean M. Carroll
The most trusted explainer of the most mind-boggling concepts guides readers into the extraordinary depths of The Standard Model of particle physics, illuminating the mysteries of quantum reality and what the universe is made of.
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An A-Z of Animals in the Garden
by Dr. Twigs Way
Perhaps one of the less known facts about the Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti is that he kept wombats in his garden at Cheyne Walk, London, to whom he and Christina addressed poetry (he also kept zebu - a type of cattle). This is just one of the stories in this entertaining book, which brings together two great British pastimes: animal husbandry and the garden. Taking the reader on a journey from the armadillos owned by merchants in the City of London in the eighteenth century and nourished on garden earthworms, to Queen Charlotte's zebra, which was accommodated close to her house at Buckingham Gate and renowned for its nicotine-fueled filthy temper, here are quirky tales of animals in the garden through the centuries.
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The Secret History of Sharks : the rise of the ocean's most fearsome predators
by John. Long
A world-leading paleontologist on the cutting edge of shark research for decades showcases the global search to discover sharks' secret history, from ancient megalodons to fearsome Great Whites, as he and dozens of other extraordinary scientists embark on digs to all seven continents where they find clues to sharks' singular story.
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This is Why You Dream : what your sleeping brain reveals about your waking life
by Rahul Jandial
Exploring the landscape of our subconscious, and tracing recent cutting-edge dream research and brain science, a dual-trained neurosurgeon and neuroscientist shows why humans have retained the ability to dream across millennia and how we can now harness its wondrous powers in both our sleeping and waking lives.
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Becoming Earth : how our planet came to life
by Ferris Jabr
A leading new voice in science writing looks at how our planet became the world we know, how it is quickly changing and what we can do to help determine the kind of Earth our descendants inherit.
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Origin Story : the trials of Charles Darwin
by Howard Markel
A renowned medical historian recounts the two-year period (1858-1860) of Darwin's On the Origin of Species through its spectacular success and controversy, while delving into the mysterious health symptoms Darwin developed, combing the literature to emerge with a cogent diagnosis of a case that has long fascinated medical historians.
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The Catalyst : RNA and the quest to unlock life's deepest secrets
by Thomas Cech
A Nobel Prize-winning scientist, exploring the most transformative breakthroughs in biology since the discovery of the double helix, brings together years of research to demonstrate that RNA is the true key to understanding life on Earth, from its very origins to our future in the twenty-first century.
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Sing Like Fish : how sound rules life under water
by Amorina Kingdon
Synthesizing historical discoveries with the latest scientific research, an award-winning science journalist takes us beneath the surface of the ocean to show the repercussions of human-made sound on the marine world's delicate acoustic ecosystems, issuing a clarion call for humans to address the ways we invade these critical soundscapes.
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Quanta and Fields : the biggest ideas in the universe by Sean M. CarrollThe most trusted explainer of the most mind-boggling concepts guides readers into the extraordinary depths of The Standard Model of particle physics, illuminating the mysteries of quantum reality and what the universe is made of.
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Secrets of the Octopus
by Sy Montgomery
A new book—written by the author of the international best-seller The Soul of an Octopus and enhanced with vivid National Geographic photography—brings readers closer than ever to these elusive creatures.
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Dispersals : on plants, borders, and belonging by Jessica J. LeeA seed slips beyond a garden wall. A tree is planted on a precarious border. A shrub is stolen from its culture and its land. What happens when these plants leave their original homes and put down roots elsewhere? Combining memoir, history, and scientific research in poetic prose, Jessica J. Lee meditates on the question of how both plants and people come to belong, why both cross borders, and how our futures are more entwined than we might imagine.
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The Asteroid Hunter : a scientist's journey to the dawn of our solar system
by D. S. Lauretta
The Principal Investigator of NASA's historic OSIRIS-Rex Asteroid Sample Return Mission offers a behind-the-scenes account of his team's daring quest to retrieve an asteroid sample—one that held the potential to not only unlock the secrets of life's origins but also to avert an unprecedented disaster.
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Otter Country : an unexpected adventure in the natural world
by Miriam Darlington
Mysterious, graceful, and ever-clever, otters have captivated our imaginations despite the fact that few people have encountered one in the wild. In Otter Country, celebrated nature writer Miriam Darlington captures the fascination she's had for these playful animals since childhood and chronicles her immersive journey into their watery world.
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How to forage for wild foods without dying : an absolute beginner's guide to identifying 40 edible wild plants
by Ellen Zachos
A book for anyone who likes to go on nature walks and would like to learn about the edible plants they're most likely to come across-no matter what region they're in. Author Ellen Zachos shares her considerable expertise, acquired over decades of foraging in every part of North America. She offers clear, concise descriptions of edible wild plants, in addition to any potential lookalikes, as well as critical information about proper harvesting, processing, and cooking.
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The End of Eden : wild nature in the age of climate breakdown
by Adam Welz
Inviting us to meet wild species on our own terms in a range of ecosystems spanning the globe, this radical new kind of environmental journalism connects humans to nature in a more empathetic way than ever before and encourages us to defend the natural world before it's too late.
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Eat, poop, die : how animals make our world
by Joe Roman
Reveals how ecosystems are sculpted and sustained by animals eating, pooping, and dying—and how these fundamental functions could help save us from climate catastrophe.
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The blue machine : how the ocean works
by Helen Czerski
Through stories of history, culture, and animals, the author explains how water temperature, salinity, gravity, and the movement of Earth's tectonic plates all interact in a complex dance, supporting life at the smallest scale-plankton-and the largest-giant sea turtles, whales, humankind. From the ancient Polynesians who navigated the Pacific by reading the waves, to permanent residents of the deep such as the Greenland shark that can live for hundreds of years, she introduces the messengers, passengers, and voyagers that rely on interlinked systems of vast currents, invisible ocean walls, and underwater waterfalls.
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Mountains of Fire : The Menace, Meaning, and Magic of Volcanoes
by Clive Oppenheimer
In Mountains of Fire, Clive Oppenheimer invites readers to stand with him in the shadow of an active volcano. Whether he is scaling majestic summits, listening to hissing lava at the crater’s edge, or hunting for the far-flung ashes from Earth’s greatest eruptions, Oppenheimer is an ideal guide, offering readers the chance to tag along on the daring, seemingly-impossible journeys of a volcanologist.
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The underworld : journeys to the depths of the ocean
by Susan Casey
Drawing on interviews with marine geologists, marine biologists and oceanographers, a premiere chronicler of the aquatic world and New York Times best-selling author provides a fascinating history of deep-sea exploration and shows how urgent it is that we understand the ocean in a time of increasing threats from climate change.
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To infinity & beyond : a journey of cosmic discovery
by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Drawing on mythology, history and literature, a legendary astrophysicist and host of the award-winning StarTalk podcast takes us on entertaining journey to the farthest reaches of the cosmos where, along the way, science greets pop culture as he explains the triumphs—and bloopers—in Hollywood's blockbusters.
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Blight : fungi and the coming pandemic
by Emily Monosson
A prescient warning about the mysterious and deadly world of fungi-and how to avert further loss across species, including our own. Fungi are everywhere. Most are harmless; some are helpful. A few are killers. Collectively, infectious fungi are the most devastating agents of disease on earth, and a fungus that can persist in the environment without its host is here to stay. In Blight, Emily Monosson documents how trade, travel, and a changing climate are making us all more vulnerable to invasion. Delving into case studies at once fascinating, sobering, and hopeful, Blight serves as a wake-up call, a reminder of the delicate interconnectedness of the natural world, and a lesson in seeing life on our planet with renewed humility and awe.
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Chasing shadows : my life tracking the great white shark
by Gregory Skomal
A leading great white shark expert sheds light on these apex predators and the fascinating story behind their resurgence and discusses ways that humans can co-existing with these fearsome creatures. 50,000 first printing.
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Eight bears : mythic past and endangered future
by Gloria Dickie
Bears have always held a central place in our collective memory, from Indigenous folklore and Greek mythology to nineteenth-century fairytales and the modern toy shop. But as humans and bears come into ever-closer contact, our relationship nears a tipping point. Today, most of the eight remaining bear species are threatened with extinction. Some, such as the panda bear and the polar bear, are icons of the natural world; others, such as the spectacled bear and the sloth bear, are far less known.
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The parrot and the igloo : climate and the science of denial
by David Lipsky
Starring heroes, villains, pioneers and con artists, this dramatic narrative of the long, strange march of climate science masterfully traces the evolution of climate denial, which grew out of early efforts to build a network of untruth about products like aspirin and cigarettes.
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The Einstein effect : how the world's favorite genius got into our cars, our bathrooms, and our minds
by Benyamin Cohen
Albert Einstein's face is still one of the most recognizable in the world and he's widely considered to be the first modern-day celebrity. While many of his discoveries continue to define our daily lives, it's not just his genius that continues to shape our world. Today, more people know Einstein as an icon rather than a theorist-decades after his death, he's a celebrity with a massive online following. The Einstein Effect shows all the ways his influence is still with us today-in our systems and in our culture. Interspersed between chapters on his long-lasting scientific legacy, author Benyamin Cohen (the mind behind Einstein's Twitter account!) also tells the story of how Einstein became an unlikely social media figure and pop culture icon in the modern age.
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Size: How it Explains the World
by Vaclav Smil
Grounded in history and drawing on the latest science, the New York Times bestselling author explores the concept of size and how it determines the world around us, explaining the regularities and peculiarities of the key processes of shaping life, the Earth, technical advances and societies and economies.
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The Devil's Element: Phosphorus and a World out of Balance
by Dan Egan
In this major work of explanatory science and environmental journalism, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times best-selling author investigates the past, present and future of phosphorus, exploring the alarming reality that diminishing access to phosphorus poses a threat to the food system worldwide, risking conflict and even war.
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The Possibility of Life
by Jaime Green
One of the most powerful questions humans ask about the cosmos is: Are we alone? While the science behind this inquiry is fascinating, it doesn't exist in a vacuum. It is a reflection of our values, our fears, and most importantly, our enduring sense of hope. In The Possibility of Life, acclaimed science journalist Jaime Green traces the history of our understanding, from the days of Galileo and Copernicus to our contemporary quest for exoplanets.
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On the Origin of Time
by Thomas Hertog
Stephen Hawking's closest collaborator, who worked shoulder to shoulder for 20 years, presents a new vision of the universe's birth that will profoundly transform the way we think about our place in the order of the cosmos and may ultimately prove to be Hawking's greatest scientific legacy.
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Under Alien Skies
by Philip C. Plait
Drawing on the latest scientific research and his prodigious imagination, a renowned astronomer and science communicator takes us on an immersive tour of the universe to view ten of the most spectacular sights outer space has to offer, including the strange, beautiful shadows cast by a hundred thousand stars.
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Flight Paths
by Rebecca Heisman
Details the true story of how a group of scientists obsessed with bird migration developed and built upon existing techniques to determine how to track migratory birds and unlock a better understanding of nature.
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Planta Sapiens
by Paco Calvo
Decades of research document plants' impressive abilities: they communicate with one another, manipulate other species, and move in sophisticated ways. Lesser known, however, is the new evidence that plants may actually be sentient. Although plants may not have brains, their microscopic commerce exposes a system not unlike the neuronal networks running through our own bodies. They can learn and remember, possessing an intelligence that allows them to behave in adaptive, flexible, anticipatory, and goal-directed ways.
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Slime: A Natural History
by Susanne Wedlich
Takes us on a sticky scientific adventure through the 3-billion-year history of slime, exploring its part in the evolution of life and its cultural and emotional significance, from its starring role in the horror genre to its subtle influence on Art Nouveau.
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Reading the Glass: A Captain's View of Weather, Water, and Life on Ships
by Elliot Rappaport
A professional captain of traditional sailing ships who has spent 30 years at sea offers a sailor's-eye-view of the moving parts of our atmosphere, unveiling the larger patterns it holds: global winds, storms, air masses, jet streams and the longer arc of our climate.
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What's Gotten Into You
by Dan Levitt
In this enlightening, entertaining and eminently readable book, a science and history documentarian brings to life the story of our atoms, long strange journey from the Big Bang to the creation of stars, through the assembly of our world and the formation of life as we know it.
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The Wise Hours: A Journey into the Wild and Secret World of Owls
by Miriam Darlington
Owls have existed for over sixty million years, and in the relatively short time we have shared the planet with these majestic birds they have ignited the human imagination. But even as owls continue to captivate our collective consciousness, celebrated British nature writer Miriam Darlington finds herself struck by all she doesn't know about the true nature of these enigmatic creatures.
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Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains
by Bethany Brookshire
A squirrel in the garden. A rat in the wall. A pigeon on the street. Humans have spent so much of our history drawing a hard line between human spaces and wild places. When animals pop up where we don’t expect or want them, we respond with fear, rage, or simple annoyance. It’s no longer an animal. It’s a pest. At the intersection of science, history, and narrative journalism, Pests is not a simple call to look closer at our urban ecosystem. It’s not a natural history of the animals we hate. Instead, this book is about us. It’s about what calling an animal a pest says about people, how we live, and what we want. It’s a story about human nature, and how we categorize the animals in our midst, including bears and coyotes, sparrows and snakes. Pet or pest? In many cases, it’s entirely a question of perspective. Bethany Brookshire’s deeply researched and entirely entertaining book will show readers what there is to venerate in vermin, and help them appreciate how these animals have clawed their way to success as we did everything we could to ensure their failure. In the process, we will learn how the pests that annoy us tell us far more about humanity than they do about the animals themselves.
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The Song of the Cell : An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human
by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Presenting revelatory and exhilarating stories of scientists, doctors and the patients whose lives may be saved by their work, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, drawing on his own experience as a researcher, doctor and prolific reader, explores medicine and our radical new ability to manipulate cells.
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Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories that Make Us
by Rachel Aviv
Raising fundamental questions about how we understand ourselves in periods of crisis and distress, the author draws on deep, original reporting as well as unpublished journals and memoirs to write about people who have come up against the limits of psychiatric explanations for who they are.
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Fossil Future
by Alex Epstein
A philosopher and energy expert presents a case that any negative impacts of fossil fuel use on our climate will be outweighed by the unique benefits of fossil fuels to human flourishing.
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The Last Days of the Dinosaurs
by Riley Black
Walks readers through what happened in the days, years, centuries and million years after an asteroid led to the mass extinction of the dinosaurs and half of known species, and how this worst single day in the history of life on Earth allowed for evolutionary opportunities.
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First Steps: How Upright Walking Made Us Human
by Jeremy. DeSilva
A Dartmouth anthropologist whose team discovered two ancient human species explores how our evolution toward bipedalism rendered us dominant, innovative, more compassionate and more susceptible to health problems.
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Sounds Wild and Broken
by David George Haskell
Starting with the origins of animal song and traversing the whole arc of Earth history, this lyrical celebration of the emergence of the varied sounds of our world also looks how we are now silencing and smothering many of the sounds of our living planet.
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The Mission
by David W. Brown
A narrative chronicle of NASA’s deep-space mission to Jupiter’s ocean moon, Europa, discusses the remarkable work of scientists who overcame formidable hurdles in their effort to determine if organic life exists elsewhere in our solar system.
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Sentient: How Animals Illuminate the Wonder of Our Human Senses
by Jackie Higgins
This extraordinary book analyzes the incredible sensory capabilities of 13 animals, including the cheetah, orb-weaving spider and harlequin mantis shrimp, that hold the key to better understanding how we make sense of the world around us.
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Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas
by Jennifer Raff
In this study of both past and present, a celebrated anthropologist tells the story of who the first peoples in America were based on their complete genomes, providing a glimpse into how the tools of genetics reveal details about human history and evolution.
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The Anthropocene Reviewed
by John Green
The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his groundbreaking podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet-from the QWERTY keyboard and Staphylococcus aureus to the Taco Bell breakfast menu-on a five-star scale. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection that includes both beloved essays and all-new pieces exclusive to the book.
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Unsettled
by Steven E. Koonin
One of America’s most distinguished scientists offers non-political insights and perspectives on the Earth’s changing climate, dispelling common myths and revealing little-known truths that include a decrease in global temperatures from 1940 to 1970.
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Dopamine Nation
by Anna Lembke
This book is about pleasure. It’s also about pain. Most important, it’s about how to find the delicate balance between the two, and why now more than ever finding balance is essential. We’re living in a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting… The increased numbers, variety, and potency is staggering. The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7 for a wired generation. As such we’ve all become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption.
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Frequently Asked Questions about the Universe
by Jorge Cham
A physics professor and a popular online cartoonist use their signature brand of humor honed on their podcast “Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe” to provide short, accessible and lighthearted answers to questions about time, space, gravity, and wormholes.
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Snow: A Scientific and Cultural Exploration
by Giles Whittell
Brimming with interesting facts and surprising anecdotes, this scientific and cultural history opens our eyes to the wonders of one of natures most delicate, delightful, and deadly phenomena: SNOW! Perfect for fans of The Hidden Life of Trees and Rain. Go on an extraordinary journey across centuries and continents to experience the wonders of snow; from the prehistoric humans that trekked and even skied across it tens of thousands of years ago to the multi-billion-dollar industry behind our moving, making, and playing with snow. Blending accessible writing with fascinating science, Giles Whittell explores how snow dictates where we live, provides us with drinking water, and has influenced countless works of art and more. Whittell also uncovers compelling mysteries of this miraculous substance, such as why avalanches happen, how snow saved a British prime ministers life, where the legend of the yeti comes from, and the terrifying truth behind the opening ceremony of the 1960 winter Olympics. Filled with in-depth research and whip-smart prose, Snow is an eye-opening and charming book that illuminates one of the most magnificent wonders of nature.
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On Animals
by Susan Orlean
Examining animal-human relationships through captivating stories she has written over the course of her career, the author, in this book that is equal parts wonderful and profound, celebrates the cross-species connections that grace our collective existence.
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Islands of Abandonment
by Cal Flyn
An investigative journalist looks at places where nature is flourishing in the absence of humans, such as the irradiated grounds of Chernobyl and a vast forest of extinct and endangered species in the DMZ between North and South Korea.
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The Science of Can and Can't
by Chiara Marletto
A young British physicist presents a groundbreaking exploration of a radically different approach to physics, pondering how what is possible can give is a more complete and helpful picture of the physical world.
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Projections: A Story of Human Emotions
by Karl Deisseroth
An internationally acclaimed professor of bioengineering and psychiatry at Stanford, through case studies, tells the larger story of how we can understand the physical and biological origins of human emotion in the brain.
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It's Elemental: The Hidden Chemistry in Everything
by Kate Biberdorf
In this practical pop science book, a scientist dubbed “the Cooler Bill Nye” looks at how we experience chemistry every day, answering questions such as what makes dough rise and how coffee gives us an energy boost.
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Unsolaced: Along the Way to All That Is
by Gretel Ehrlich
The author of The Solace of Open Spaces present a meditative account of how the planet’s animals, elements and natural landforms have shaped her life and understanding of a world besieged by climate change.
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Life's Edge: Searching for What it Means to be Alive
by Carl Zimmer
The New York Times “Matter” columnist investigates the science community’s conflicting views on what it actually means to be alive as demonstrated by laboratory attempts to recreate life and the examples of particularly remarkable life forms.
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Gory Details: Adventures from the Dark Side of Science
by Erika Engelhaupt
Blending humor and journalism, and featuring interviews with leading researchers, the author of National Geographic’s popular Gory Details blog investigates the gross, strange and morbid absurdities of our bodies and our universe.
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Under A White Sky
by Elizabeth Kolbert
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction returns to humanity's transformative impact on the environment, now asking: After doing so much damage, can we change nature, this time to save it? That man should have dominion "over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth" is a prophecy that has hardened into fact. So pervasive are human impacts on the planet that it's said we live in a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. In Under a White Sky, Elizabeth Kolbert takes a hard look at the new world we are creating. She meets scientists who are trying to preserve the world's rarest fish, which lives in a single, tiny pool in the middle of the Mojave. She visits a lava field in Iceland, where engineers are turning carbon emissions to stone; an aquarium in Australia, where researchers are trying to develop "super coral" that can survive on a hotter globe; and a lab at Harvard, where physicists are contemplating shooting tiny diamonds into the stratosphere in order to reflect sunlight back to space and cool the earth. One way to look at human civilization, says Kolbert, is as a ten-thousand-year exercise in defying nature. In The Sixth Extinction, she explored the ways in which our capacity for destruction has reshaped the natural world. Now she examines how the very sorts of interventions that have imperiled our planet are increasingly seen as the only hope for its salvation. By turns inspiring, terrifying, and darkly comic, Under a White Sky is an utterly original examination of the challenges we face.
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Metazoa
by Peter Godfrey-Smith
The scuba-diver author of Other Minds blends philosophical reflections with the latest biological research in an investigation into the evolution of subjective awareness in animals that describes his remarkable encounters with undersea life.
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Molly
by Colin Butcher
A veteran of the Royal Navy and former police officer describes how he rescued a willful but unusually intelligent dog who became his partner in the United Kingdom Pet Detective Agency, which helps owners track down their lost pets.
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Cosmic Queries
by Neil deGrasse Tyson
A legendary astrophysicist offers a unique spin on the mysteries and curiosities of the cosmos, building on rich material from his beloved StarTalk podcast, while a renowned physicist takes on a big questions that humanity has been posing for millennia.
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World Wild Vet: Encounters in the Animal Kingdom
by Evan Antin
World renowned animal expert and host of Animal Planet’s Evan Goes Wild offers humorous stories and descriptions of dangerous encounters with some of the most exotic species on earth, including sharks, venomous snakes and crocodiles.
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Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Reality
by Frank Wilczek
The winner of the Nobel Prize for physics and author of The Lightness of Being explains 10 fundamental ideas that form humanity’s understand of the universe, from time and space to matter and energy.
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Buzz, Sting, Bite: Why We Need Insects
by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson
An enthusiastic, witty, and informative introduction to the world of insects explains why we—and the planet we inhabit—could not survive without them.
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Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
by Neil deGrasse Tyson
The notable host of StarTalk reveals just what people need to be fluent and ready for the next cosmic headlines: from the Big Bang to black holes, from quarks to quantum mechanics, and from the search for planets to the search for life in the universe.
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The First Cell: And the Human Costs of Pursuing Cancer to the Last
by Azra Raza
A world-class oncologist and coeditor of the 3QuarksDaily website explores the medical, scientific, cultural and personal impact of cancer while outlining more beneficial alternatives to today’s high-cost, largely ineffective treatments. 50,000 first printing.
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The Nature of Life and Death: Every Body Leaves a Trace
by Patricia E. J Wiltshire
A leading forensic ecologist blends science writing with true-crime narrative in a tour of the lesser-known interface between crime and nature, drawing on her decades as a college professor and expert consultant for the UK police.
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Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes our Past
by Sarah H Parcak
The National Geographic Fellow and TED Prize winner tours the modern world of satellite-driven "space archaeology" and its role in significantly advancing human discoveries and understandings about the ancient world.
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The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women
by Kate Moore
Recounts the struggles of hundreds of women who were exposed to radium while working factory jobs during World War I, describing how they were mislead by their employers and became embroiled in a battle for workers' rights.
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The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
by Stephen Brusatte
The "resident paleontologist" for BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs presents a narrative scientific history of the dinosaur eras that examines their origins, habitats, extinction and living legacy, chronicling nearly 200 million years of their evolution from small shadow dwellers through the emergences of prehistoric ancestors that became more than 10,000 modern bird species.
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