A radical, optimistic exploration of how humans evolved to develop reason, consciousness, and free will.

Lately, the most passionate advocates of the theory of evolution seem to present it as bad news. Scientists such as Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, and Sam Harris tell us that our most intimate actions, thoughts, and values are mere byproducts of...

Universal change is often the ultimate result of one individual’s lightbulb moment—an invention that triggers a ripple effect across countries, continents, or even out into space. Know-It-All Great Inventions looks at fifty of these great ideas that really did change the world. It covers a wide range, from early days (the wheel) through materials (the...

The Know-It-All series takes a revolutionary approach to learning about those subjects you feel you should really understand. Each title selects a popular topic and dissects it into the 50 most significant ideas at its heart. Each idea, no matter how complex, is explained in 300 words and one picture, all digestible in under a minute. Know-It-All Biology...

For fans of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry: a richly conjured world, in map and metaphor, of particle physics

Atom Land...

Compelling evidence that life, intelligence, and evolution on Earth were seeded by comets and cosmic intelligence

• Explains how life first came from interstellar dust and comets and how later arrivals of cosmic dust and comets spurred evolution

• Explores the possibility that universal knowledge may be stored in human DNA and how ancient cultures may have...

An easy story, in English and Spanish, about a boy and his pet dragon that enjoy winter activities and prepare for a very merry Christmas. Beginning-to-Read™ books foster independent reading and comprehension. Using high frequency words and repetition, readers gain confidence while enjoying stories about everyday life and adventures. Full-color and updated...

Objects around us are made of various materials that come in different colors and shapes. Some colors reflect or absorb heat, some make it easy or hard to see an object. Objects can change shape based on whether it is made from soft or hard materials. This nonfiction Beginning-to-Read book contains high-frequency words and content vocabulary. Connecting...

Heating or cooling different materials may cause them to change. Heating some materials might cause them to change color or form. Cooling some materials might cause them to change color or form. Some of these changes are reversible, while others are irreversible. This nonfiction Beginning-to-Read book contains high-frequency words and content vocabulary...

An ecosystem is an area that has its own plants, animals and weather. Desert, forest, grassland, mountain, tundra and marine ecosystems are pictured and the animals and plant characteristics of each ecosystem are briefly discussed. This nonfiction Beginning-to-Read book contains high-frequency words and content vocabulary. Connecting Concepts pages include...

Could we create a real-life superhero by changing human biology itself?

The form and function of the human body, once entirely delimited by nature, are now fluid concepts thanks to recent advances in biomedical science and engineering. Professor, author, and comic book enthusiast E. Paul Zehr uses Marvel’s Captain America — an ordinary man turned into an...

It has often been said that we know more about the moon than we do about our own oceans. In fact, we know a great deal more about the oceans than many people realize. Scientists know that our actions today are shaping the oceans and climate of tomorrow—and that if we continue to act recklessly, the consequences will be dire. In this timely and accessible...

The YEARBOOK OF ASTRONOMY 2018 is a book no stargazer should be without.

Recognised by both amateurs and professionals alike as an indispensable guide to the night sky, the Yearbook of Astronomy is one of the only reference books to be fully revised each year.

The Yearbook of Astronomy is one of the longest-running series of books on astronomy and the night...

Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, and for decades conventional health authorities have pushed that the culprits are fat and cholesterol clogging up coronary arteries. Consequently, lowering cholesterol has become a hugely lucrative business, and cholesterol-lowering Statin drugs are now the most prescribed medication in the world, with...

This SAMPLER contains the first chapter of Soonish.

From a top scientist and the creator of the hugely popular web comic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, an illustrated investigation into future technologies What will the world of tomorrow be like?

How does progress happen? And why don't we have a lunar colony yet?

In this witty and entertaining...

How do our unique conscious minds reflect and amplify nature’s vast evolutionary process? This book provides a scientifically informed, psychologically holistic approach to understanding and enhancing our future consciousness, serving as a guide for creating a realistic, constructive, and ethical future. Thomas Lombardo reveals how we can flourish in...

In Thinking Like a Mountain, we have excerpted a clear and inviting introduction to the science of conservation biology from Ed Grumbine's previous book, Ghost Bears, augmented by a new introduction and photographs. Grumbine offers a succinct and evocative description of why we should all care about biodiversity, protected lands, connectivity, and...

"If you care about science-or a scientist- this will be the most important book you'll ever read," says Randy Olson of his Don't Be Such a Scientist. He's only half joking.

In the United States we have a clear communication gap between the world of science and the general public. For starters, the vast majority of scientists say evolution is a...

In The Kingdom of Rarities, scientist Eric Dinerstein poses an intriguing question: What if the way we categorized the living world was reshuffled for a moment, from a system designed to inform us about evolutionary relationships among species to one with two camps based on abundance: the Kingdom of Common species and the Kingdom of Rarities? What new...

The future of food depends on tiny seeds in orchards and fields the world over. In 1943, one of the first to recognize this fact, the great botanist Nikolay Vavilov, lay dying of starvation in a Soviet prison. In the years before Stalin jailed him as a scapegoat for the country's famines, Vavilov had traveled across five continents, collecting hundreds of...

Murder by poison alarmed, enthralled, and in many ways encapsulated the Victorian age. Linda Stratmann's dark and splendid social history reveals the nineteenth century as a gruesome battleground where poisoners went head-to-head with authorities who strove to detect poisons, control their availability, and bring the guilty to justice. She corrects many...

Every time we sneeze, there seems to be a new form of flu: bird flu, swine flu, Spanish flu, Hong Kong flu, H5N1, and most recently, H5N7. While these diseases appear to emerge from thin air, in fact, human activity is driving them. And the problem is not just flu, but a series of rapidly evolving and dangerous modern plagues.

According to veterinarian and...

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Most scientists and researchers aren’t prepared to talk to the press or to policymakers—or deal with backlash. Many have the horror stories to prove it. What’s clear, according to Nancy Baron, is that scientists, journalists and public policymakers come from different cultures. They follow different sets of rules, pursue different goals...

Every day, we are presented with a range of “sustainable” products and activities—from “green” cleaning supplies to carbon offsets—but with so much labeled as “sustainable,” the term has become essentially sustainababble, at best indicating a practice or product slightly less damaging than the conventional alternative. Is it time to abandon the concept...

The true story of a small town ravaged by industrial pollution, Toms River won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize and has been hailed by The New York Times as "a new classic of science reporting." Now available in paperback with a new afterword by acclaimed author Dan Fagin, the book masterfully blends hard-hitting investigative journalism, scientific discovery, and...

We all had teachers who scolded us over the use of um, uh-huh, oh, like, and mm-hmm. But as linguist N. J. Enfield reveals in How We Talk, these "bad words" are fundamental to language.

Whether we are speaking with the clerk at the store, our boss, or our spouse, language is dependent on things as commonplace as a rising tone of voice, an apparently...

Are plants intelligent? Can they solve problems, communicate, and navigate their surroundings? Or are they passive, incapable of independent action or social behavior? Philosophers and scientists have pondered these questions since ancient Greece, most often concluding that plants are unthinking and inert: they are too silent, too sedentary—just too...

Like bestsellers The Gene and Sapiens, a groundbreaking narrative about our identity; like nothing else, a retelling of all of human history through genetics

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In 1939, Richard Feynman, a brilliant graduate of MIT, arrived in John Wheeler's Princeton office to report for duty as his teaching assistant. A lifelong friendship and enormously productive collaboration was born, despite sharp differences in personality. The soft-spoken Wheeler, though conservative in appearance, was a raging nonconformist full of wild...

In a laboratory perched in the mountains, two neurologists are engaged in a bitter rivalry. Haunted by figures and events from their past, both men experiment on live songbirds in pursuit of divergent aims; one to locate the source of memory, the other to study speech patterns in humans by manipulating a bird’s ability to sing. When a young female...

Simple explanations of complex ideas for your future genius!

 Written by an expert, The ABCs of Physics is a colorfully simple introduction for babies (and grownups!) to a new physics concept for every letter of the alphabet—from atom all the way to zero-point energy. Each page in this physics primer features multiple levels of text so the book grows along...

Simple explanations of complex ideas for your future genius!

 Written by an expert, The ABCs of Mathematics is a colorfully simple introduction for babies (and grownups!) to a new math concept for every letter of the alphabet—from addition all the way to zero. Each page in this mathematical primer features multiple levels of text so the book grows along with...

A compelling exploration of how reputation affects every aspect of contemporary life

Reputation touches almost everything, guiding our behavior and choices in countless ways. But it is also shrouded in mystery. Why is it so powerful when the criteria by which people and things are defined as good or bad often appear to be arbitrary? Why do we care so much...

From one of the world's leading authorities on animal behavior, the astonishing story of how the female brain drives the evolution of beauty in animals and humans

Darwin developed the theory of sexual selection to explain why the animal world abounds in stunning beauty, from the brilliant colors of butterflies and fishes to the songs of birds and frogs. He...

Following the extraordinary success of The Meaning of Human Existence, Edward O. Wilson offers a philosophically probing work on the origins of human creativity. 

“Creativity is the unique and defining trait of our species; and its ultimate goal, self-understanding,” begins Edward O. Wilson’s sweeping examination of the humanities and its relationship to the...

From ski towns to national parks, fresh fruit to environmental lawsuits, the Sierra Nevada has changed the way Americans live. Where there was gold to be mined (and where there was not) redefined land, mineral, and water laws. Where rain falls (and where it doesn't) determines whose fruit grows in trees and whose appears on slot machines. All this emerges...

Family caregivers are oftentimes ruthlessly challenged by uninvolved family members who are quick to condemn, but reticent to offer assistance. Such is the case for Colleen Strand, a widow who recently found her own footing who takes on the task of caring for her father, Patrick Quinn, recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Her older brother, Jonathan...