Best Science Books

In Bryson's biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand?and, if possible, answer?the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To ...

Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner offer the longawaited paperback edition of Freakonomics, the runaway bestseller, including six Freakonomics columns from the New York Times Magazine and a Q & A with the authors.Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming poolWhat do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in commonHow much do parents reall...

Imagine a world where your phone is too big for your hand, where your doctor prescribes a drug that is wrong for your body, where in a car accident you are 47% more likely to be seriously injured, where every week the countless hours of work you do are not recognised or valued. If any of this sounds familiar, chances are that you're a woman.Invisib...

A linguistically informed look at how our digital world is transforming the English language. Language is humanity's most spectacular opensource project, and the internet is making our language change faster and in more interesting ways than ever before. Internet conversations are structured by the shape of our apps and platforms, from the grammar...

"The best study of our times that I know. . . . Of all the books that I have read in the last 20 years, it is by far the one that has taught me the most."Le Figaro Future Shock is about the present. Future Shock is about what is happening today to people and groups who are overwhelmed by change. Change affects our products, communities, organizat...

Cosmos is one of the bestselling science books of all time. In cleareyed prose, Sagan reveals a jewellike blue world inhabited by a life form that is just beginning to discover its own identity and to venture into the vast ocean of space. Featuring a new Introduction by Sagan?s collaborator, Ann Druyan, full color illustrations, and a new Forewor...

A New York Times BestsellerAn eyeopening adventure deep inside the everyday materials that surround us, packed with surprising stories and fascinating science Why is glass seethrough What makes elastic stretchy Why does a paper clip bend Why does any material look and behave the way it does These are the sorts of questions that Mark Miodownik...

Richard Branson recommended this book on his "70 must-read books" blog post.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2019New York Public Library Best Books of 2019 Kirkus Reviews Best Health and Science Books of 2019Science Friday Best Books of 2019 New postscript by the authorFrom an awardwinning journalist, an explosive narrative investigation of the generic drug boom that reveals fraud and lifet...

2019 BestOf Lists: 10 Best Science Books of the Year (Smithsonian Magazine) Best Science Books of the Year (NPR's Science Friday) Best Science and Technology, Books from 2019" (Library Journal) An astute and timely examination of the reemergence of scientific research into racial differences.Superior tells the disturbing story of the persisten...

Carl Zimmer presents a history of our understanding of heredity in this sweeping, resonating overview of a force that shaped human societya force set to shape our future even more radically.She Has Her Mother's Laugh presents a profoundly original perspective on what we pass along from generation to generation. Charles Darwin played a crucial par...

A Science Friday pick for book of the year, 2019 One of America's top doctors reveals how AI will empower physicians and revolutionize patient care Medicine has become inhuman, to disastrous effect. The doctorpatient relationshipthe heart of medicineis broken: doctors are too distracted and overwhelmed to truly connect with their patients, and...

Few writers distinguish themselves by their ability to write about complicated, even obscure topics clearly and engagingly. In Chaos, James Gleick, a former science writer for the New York Times, shows that he resides in this exclusive category. Here he takes on the job of depicting the first years of the study of chaosthe seemingly random patter...

?Science writing as detective story at its best.? ?Jennifer Ouellette, Scientific AmericanA New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a Scientific American Best Book of the Year, and a Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.Ebola, SARS, Hendra, AIDS, and countless other deadly viruses all have one thing in common: the bugs that transmit...

Neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran is internationally renowned for uncovering answers to the deep and quirky questions of human nature that few scientists have dared to address. His bold insights about the brain are matched only by the stunning simplicity of his experiments using such lowtech tools as cotton swabs, glasses of water and dimestore...

The narratives in this book are of journeys made in three wildernesses on a coastal island, in a Western mountain range, and on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. The four men portrayed here have different relationships to their environment, and they encounter each other on mountain trails, in forests and rapids, sometimes with reserve, some...

Learn from a Nobel Peace Prize winner in this entertaining and educational guide to physics, written for the enjoyment of curious beginners and aspiring scientists alike.It was Richard Feynman's outrageous and scintillating method of teaching that earned him legendary status among students and professors of physics. From 1961 to 1963, Feynman deliv...

A fascinating exploration of the science of the impossible?from death rays and force fields to invisibility cloaks?revealing to what extent such technologies might be achievable decades or millennia into the future.One hundred years ago, scientists would have said that lasers, televisions, and the atomic bomb were beyond the realm of physical possi...

From the acclaimed author of Einstein's Dreams and Mr g, a meditation on the unexpected ways in which recent scientific findings have shaped our understanding of ourselves and our place in the cosmos.With all the passion, curiosity, and precise yet lyrical prose that have marked his previous books, Alan Lightman here explores the emotional and phil...

Stephen Hawking was recognized as one of the greatest minds of our time and a figure of inspiration after defying his ALS diagnosis at age twentyone. He is known for both his breakthroughs in theoretical physics as well as his ability to make complex concepts accessible for all, and was beloved for his mischievous sense of humor. At the time of hi...

What would it have been like to be an eyewitness to the Big Bang In 2014, astronomers wielding BICEP2, the most powerful cosmology telescope ever made, thought they?d glimpsed the spark that ignited the Big Bang. Millions around the world tuned in to the announcement, and Nobel whispers began to spread. But had these cosmologists truly read the co...

Rachel Carson?s Silent Spring was first published in three serialized excerpts in the New Yorker in June of 1962. The book appeared in September of that year and the outcry that followed its publication forced the banning of DDT and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Carson?s passionate concern for the fut...

A breakthrough work in neuroscienceand an incisive corrective to a long history of damaging pseudosciencethat finally debunks the myth that there is a hardwired distinction between male and female brainsWe live in a gendered world, where we are ceaselessly bombarded by messages about sex and gender. On a daily basis, we face deeply ingrained be...

National Geographic Explorer and TED Prizewinner Dr. Sarah Parcak welcomes you to the exciting new world of space archaeology, a growing field that is sparking extraordinary discoveries from ancient civilizations across the globe.In Archaeology from Space, Sarah Parcak shows the evolution, major discoveries, and future potential of the young field...

This book takes the concept of a coloring book and, well, evolves it a bit. Interactive elements such as flaps, die cuts, stencils, and mix and match pages can all be colored in and engaged with. Clear text explains Charles Darwin's ideas and big bold drawings are exploding with fun....

From New Scientist, the magazine behind the #1 international bestseller Does Anything Eat Wasps Leading science writers uncover surprising insights into the intangible world of nothingnessIt turns out that almost nothing is as curious or holds as much promise for scientists seeking answers to some of nature s greatest mysteries as, well, nothing. ...

Food chemistry, atom crashing, wave power, food chemistry, and robots! These are just a few of the topics covered in this fantastic new science encyclopedia, which presents a comprehensive overview of physical and life sciences from A to Z. Super smart and kidfriendly, it?s packed with fullcolor photographs, weird but true facts, amazing statisti...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Nature, NonFiction, Science, Hobbies lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for big-picture nonfiction and accessible learning. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

A single species of fly, Drosophila melanogaster, has been the subject of scientific research for more than one hundred years. Why does this tiny insect merit such intense scrutinyDrosophila's importance as a research organism began with its short life cycle, ability to reproduce in large numbers, and easytosee mutant phenotypes. Over time, labo...

Pulitzer Prizewinning author Carl Sagan traces our exploration of space and suggests that our very survival may depend on the wise use of other worlds. This stirring book reveals how scientific discovery has altered our perception of who we are and where we stand, and challenges us to weigh what we will do with that knowledge. Photos, many in colo...

The gripping, untold story of a renegade group of scientists and spies determined to keep Adolf Hitler from obtaining the ultimate prize: a nuclear bomb. In the middle of building an atomic bomb, the leaders of the Manhattan Project were alarmed to learn that Nazi Germany was far outpacing the Allies in nuclear weapons research. Hitler, with just a...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around NonFiction, Fiction, Science, Children's lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

Ever since Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity burst upon the world in 1915 some of the most brilliant minds of our century have sought to decipher the mysteries bequeathed by that theory, a legacy so unthinkable in some respects that even Einstein himself rejected them.Which of these bizarre phenomena, if any, can really exist in our un...

An awardwinning science writer presents a captivating collection of cosmological essays for the armchair astronomer The galaxy, the multiverse, and the history of astronomy are explored in this engaging compilation of cosmological tales by multipleawardwinning science writer Marcia Bartusiak. In thirtytwo concise and engrossing essays, the au...

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL OUTDOOR BOOK AWARD A CHICAGO TRIBUNE TOP TEN BOOK OF 2018 A GUARDIAN, NPR's SCIENCE FRIDAY, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, AND LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF 2018Hailed as "deeply felt" (New York Times), "a revelation" (Pacific Standard), and "the book on climate change and sea levels that was missing" (Chicago Tribune), Rising is both a h...

View a collection of videos on Professor Wilson entitled "On the Relation of Science and the Humanities"Harvard University Press is proud to announce the rerelease of the complete original version of Sociobiology: The New Synthesisnow available in paperback for the first time. When this classic work was first published in 1975, it created a new ...

An indepth look at how elements are discovered, why they matter and where they will take us. The science of element discovery is a truly fascinating field, and is constantly rewriting the laws of chemistry and physics as we know them. Superheavy is the first book to take an indepth look at how synthetic elements are discovered, why they matter an...

A brilliant, soulful, and timely portrait of a twohundredyearold crabbing community in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay as it faces extinction "BEAUTIFUL, HAUNTING AND TRUE." ? Hampton Sides ? ?GORGEOUS. A TRULY REMARKABLE BOOK.? ? Beth Macy ? "GRIPPING. FANTASTIC." ? Outside ? "CAPTIVATING." ? Washington Post ? "POWERFUL." ? Bill McKibben ? "V...

¿Hay otras dimensiones más allá de las de nuestra experiencia cotidiana ¿Hay puertas de acceso a universos paralelos ¿Qué sucedió antes del primer día de la Creación Este tipo de cuestiones están en el centro de la actividad científica actual. En efecto, muchos físicos creen hoy que existen otras dimensiones más allá de las cuatro de nuestro esp...

Accessible introduction to the biology, life cycle, natural history, and classification of mothsMoths are a crucial insect group encompassing more than 160,000 species, and they are among the most ancient of Earth's inhabitants, with some fossils believed to be 190 million years old. This richly illustrated guide to their biology, evolution, and hi...

Our true origins are not just human, or even terrestrial, but in fact cosmic. Drawing on recent scientific breakthroughs and the current crosspollination among geology, biology, astrophysics, and cosmology, Origins explains the soulstirring leaps in our understanding of the cosmos. From the first image of a galaxy birth to Spirit Rover's explorat...

These fun, accessible activities will get your kids learning about the world around them, the human body and laws of force, attraction and energy.Holly Homer and Rachel Miller are the women behind the bestselling book 101 Kids Activities That Are The Bestest, Funnest Ever! and the wildly popular site KidsActivitiesBlog.com.Make pickles glow, mix ma...

Our critically acclaimed bestseller Visual Complexity was the first indepth examination of the burgeoning field of information visualization. Particularly noteworthy are the numerous historical examples of past efforts to make sense of complex systems of information. In this new companion volume, The Book of Trees, data viz expert Manuel Lima exam...

Cece loves science! In this STEMthemed picture book, Cece asks one of life's most pressing questions: Do dogs eat vegetables Cece and her best friend, Isaac, head to the lab to find out.This picture book is perfect for fans of Ada Twist, Scientist, and anyone who enjoys asking questions.Cece's parents say she was born curious. She asks: Why How Wh...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around NonFiction, AstronomyScience lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for big-picture nonfiction and accessible learning. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

Our old familiar globe is suddenly melting, drying, acidifying, flooding, and burning in ways that no human has ever seen. We've created, in very short order, a new planet, still recognizable but fundamentally different. We may as well call it Eaarth.That new planet is filled with new binds and traps. A changing world costs large sums to defendth...

The awardwinning and surprisingly hopeful story of one woman's search for resiliency in a warming worldSeveral years ago, ecologist Lauren E. Oakes set out from California for Alaska's oldgrowth forests to hunt for a dying tree: the yellowcedar. With climate change as the culprit, the death of this species meant loss for many Alaskans. Oakes and...

A contrarian argues that modern physicists' obsession with beauty has given us wonderful math but bad science. Whether pondering black holes or predicting discoveries at CERN, physicists believe the best theories are beautiful, natural, and elegant, and this standard separates popular theories from disposable ones. This is why, Sabine Hossenfelder ...