| Author: | B. Jack Copeland |
June 23, 2012 marks the centenary of Alan Turing's birth, and preparations are being made worldwide for the celebration of his life and work. Turing can be regarded as one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century. But who was Turing, and what did he achieve during his tragically short life of 41 years? Best known as the... read more
| Author: | William Bryant Logan |
Air sustains the living. Every creature breathes to live, exchanging and changing the atmosphere. Water and dust spin and rise, make clouds and fall again, fertilizing the dirt. Twenty thousand fungal spores and half a million bacteria travel in a square foot of summer air. The chemical sense of aphids, the ultraviolet sight ... read more
| Author: | Piers Bizony & Jamie Doran |
On April 12 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to leave the Earth's atmosphere and venture into space. An icon of the 20th century, he also became a danger to himself and a threat to the Soviet state. At the age of 34, he was killed in a plane crash. Based on KGB files, restricted documents from Russian space authori... read more
| Author: | Matt Ridley |
Shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction 2011. Life is on the up. We are wealthier, healthier, happier, kinder, cleaner, more peaceful, more equal and longer-lived than any previous generation. Thanks to the unique human habits of exchange and specialisation, our species has found innovative solutions to e... read more
| Author: | Herve This |
Herve This (pronounced 'Teess') is an internationally renowned chemist, a popular French television personality, a bestselling cookbook author, a longtime collaborator with the famed French chef Pierre Gagnaire, and the only person to hold a doctorate in molecular gastronomy, a cutting-edge field he pioneered. Bringing th... read more
| Author: | David McCandless |
A visual guide to how the world really works, through stunning infographics and data visualisations, thoroughly revised, recalculated and reimagined for this new edition. We are overwhelmed by information - from our phones, our televisions, our computers, our newspapers. This new edition of Information is Beautiful has been r... read more
| Author: | Wade Davis |
This years best selling Massey Lecture The Wayfinders takes readers on a journey through time on a discovery of ancient wisdoms, languages and cultures. Some are already extinct, others are quickly on their way out. It is estimated that 50% of the languages spoken today will disappear in our lifetime. The Wayfinders is an e... read more
| Author: | Frank Bowden |
Frank Bowden, a specialist in the field of infectious disease and sexual health, looks at one bug at a time, weaving around them the stories of his patients and their families, the doctors and the difficulties they face, and the horrors and successes of hospitals and health care programs. Through Bowden's own work in the ... read more
| Author: | Richard J Davidson, PH.D. (University of Wisconsin) with Sharon Begley |
This long-awaited book by a pioneer in brain research offers a new model of our emotions - their origins, their power and their malleability.
For more than thirty years, Richard Davidson has been at the forefront of brain research. Now he gives us an entirely new model for understanding our emotions, as well as practi... read more
| Author: | Gavin Menzies |
After a chance conversation in Egypt in 2008, bestselling historian Gavin Menzies launched himself on a quest that would reveal the truth behind the mystery of Atlantis and her destruction. Through an examination of documentary and academic research, metallurgy, ancient shipbuilding and navigation techniques, artefacts and DN... read more
| Author: | Paul G. Bahn |
Written in Bones brings together a team of international experts to show how the careful study of bones can reveal a compelling picture of the lives, cultures and beliefs of ancient societies.
| Author: | Ian Vince |
Like most of us, Ian Vince used to think of the British countryside as average, unexciting - as dramatic as a nice cup of tea. Then, over the course of a single car journey, the features of our green and pleasant land reawakened a fascination with geology that he had long forgotten, and he began to delve beneath the surface (... read more
| Author: | Jeremy Keeling |
Jeremy Keeling first met Amy, an orang-utan abandoned by his mother, when he was looking after the private menagerie of music impresario Gordon Mills. A friendship was forged that would become the defining relationship of both their lives. One day, when Jeremy was driving along with one-year-old Amy sitting beside him in ... read more
| Author: | Richard Precht |
The huge international bestseller that takes you on a journey through your mind and gives you the answers to the big philosophical questions. There are many books about philosophy, but Who Am I? And If So How Many? is different from the rest. Never before has anyone introduced readers so expertly and, at the same time, so li... read more
| Author: | Marilynne Robinson |
| Series: | Terry Lectures S. |
In this ambitious book, acclaimed writer Marilynne Robinson applies her astute intellect to some of the most vexing topics in the history of human thought - science, religion and consciousness. Crafted with the same care and insight as her award-winning novels, Absence of Mind challenges postmodern atheists who crusade aga... read more
| Author: | Alfred Korzybski |
Selections from Science and Sanity represents Alfred Korzybski's authorized abridgement of his magnum opus, Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics. This second edition, published in response to the recent Korzybski revival, adds new introductory material and a revised ind... read more
| Author: | Richard Hamblyn |
Science is about discovery, a journey towards knowledge. With authors as diverse as Galileo and Lewis Carroll, the extracts featured in this anthology span centuries and continents; they include startling revelations that changed the way we think and tackle more prosaic questions such as why the sea is salty; they consider th... read more
| Author: | Brian Clegg |
For centuries scientists believed that the universe was a vast machine - with enough detail, you could predict exactly what would happen. Admittedly real life wasn't like that. But only, they argued, because we didn't have enough data to be certain. Then the cracks began to appear. It proved impossible to predict exactly how ... read more
| Author: | Professor Steve Jones |
The Bible was the first scientific textbook of all; and it got some things right (and plenty more wrong). Steve Jones' new book rewrites it in the light of modern science. Are we all descended from a single couple, a real-life Adam and Eve? Was the Bible's great flood really a memory of the end of the Ice Age? Will we ever ge... read more
