Forming a twenty-first-century statement on Darwinian evolution, one shorn of “religious and political dogma,” Edward O. Wilson offers a bold work of scientific thought and synthesis.

Asserting that religious creeds and philosophical questions can be reduced to purely genetic and evolutionary components, and that the human body and mind have a physical base...

Few events have matched the landing of the first man on the Moon for drama and excitement. Watched live on television by 600 million people, Neil Armstrong floated down from the final step of the Eagle's ladder onto the powdery surface of the Moon, uttering the famous line, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

The Apollo Missions...

The Idea of the World offers a grounded alternative to the frenzy of unrestrained abstractions and unexamined assumptions in philosophy and science today. This book examines what can be learned about the nature of reality based on conceptual parsimony, straightforward logic and empirical evidence from fields as diverse as physics and neuroscience. It...

How much of what became the folk tales of our ancestors was rooted in scientifically verifiable fact, and what can they tell us about the future?

In The Edge of Memory, Patrick Nunn explores the science in folk history. He looks at ancient tales and traditions that may be rooted in scientifically verifiable fact, and can be explored via geological evidence...

In the popular imagination, retirement promises a well-deserved rest—idle days spent traveling, volunteering, pursuing hobbies, or just puttering around the house. But as the nature of work has changed, becoming not just a means of income but a major source of personal identity, many accomplished professionals struggle with discontentment in their...

Isaac Newton was accorded a semi-divine status in the 18th and 19th centuries, whereby his image linked together religion and science. The real human being behind the demi-god image has tended to be lost. He was a person who took credit from others, and crushed the reputations of those to whom he owed most. This most brilliant of mathematicians could alas...

This study of the problem of the equilibrium of a perfectly plastic body under specific conditions employs tools and methods that can be applied to other areas, including the mechanics of fracture and certain optimal control problems.
The three-part approach begins with an exploration of variational problems in plasticity theory, covering function spaces...

This authoritative test introduces the basic aspects of diffusion phenomena and their methods of solution through physical examples. It emphasizes modeling and methodology, bridging the gap between physico chemical statements of certain kinetic processes and their reduction to diffusion problems. Author Richard Ghez draws upon his experience in the areas of...

After 3.8 billion years humankind is about to start evolving by new rules...

From leading geopolitical expert and technology futurist Jamie Metzl comes a groundbreaking exploration of the many ways genetic-engineering is shaking the core foundations of our lives — sex, war, love, and death.

At the dawn of the genetics revolution, our DNA is becoming as...

Your alarm goes off, and you head to the kitchen to make yourself some toast and a cup of coffee. Little do you know, as you savor the aroma of the steam rising from your cup, that your ordinary morning routine depends on some of the weirdest phenomena ever discovered. 

The world of quantum physics is generally thought of as hopelessly esoteric. While...

Uncovering the science behind how and why we age.

The question of how and why organisms age has teased scientists for centuries. There are myriad competing theories, from the idea that aging is a simple wear and tear process, like the rusting of a car, to the belief that aging and death are genetically programmed and controlled. In fact, there is no clearly...

For Love Understood, Laura Mucha has interviewed hundreds of strangers, from the ages of 8 to 95 in more than 40 countries, asking them to share their most personal stories, feelings, and insights about love and relationships. These intimate and illuminating conversations raised important questions, such as:

- How does your upbringing influence your...

Everyone knows that butterflies and frogs go through metamorphosis. But a number of sea creatures do too! Experienced science writer Heather L. Montgomery explores wacky details in the life cycles of some of the world's most bizarre and fascinating ocean animals in this fresh spin on a highly curricular topic.

In the warped world of prescription drug pricing, generic drugs can cost more than branded ones, old drugs can be relaunched at astronomical prices, and low-cost options are shut out of the market.

In Drugs, Money and Secret Handshakes, Robin Feldman shines a light into the dark corners of the pharmaceutical industry to expose a web of shadowy deals in...

TRANSITION POINT: REVOLUTION, EVOLUTION OR ENDGAME?

We live in disruptive times. The world is changing faster than ever before, leaving people dazed, businesses struggling, economies floundering and societies fracturing. But why? Transition Point is the result of over five years of research to establish the answer; a breathtaking tale of freedom...

Feeding the world, climate change, biodiversity, antibiotics, plastics – the list of concerns seems endless.

But what is most pressing, what are the knock-on effects of our actions, and what should we do first? Do we all need to become vegetarian? How can we fly in a low-carbon world? Should we frack? How can we take control of technology? Does it all come...

On Earth, they scan your thoughts and program your brain.

You’re safe. On the Moon, there is one law: contract is king.

You’re free. When telepath terrorists hack Detroit’s Neuronet with a suicide-virus, thought-scanner Sky Marion’s mom is among the infected. With no known remedy on Earth, and less than a week before the virus destroys victims’...

IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD is the true story of what makes up your mind. It's the interactive, easy-to-read, stupendously sourced, user's guide to your brain. This immersive book tackles the questions that keep you up at night: Is your smartphone wrecking your memory? Are believers' and atheists' brains different? Who's smarter: your baby or your dog? Hwo is...

Dr Jeremy Brown, a veteran ER doctor, explores the troubling, terrifying, and complex history of the flu virus, from the surprising origins of the 1918 flu that killed millions, to vexing questions such as: are we prepared for the next epidemic, should you get a flu shot, and how close are we to finding a cure?

While influenza is now often thought of as a...

Uh-oh! Was that a rattle I heard? Maybe it was a rattlesnake just following the rules. Rules? Rattlesnakes have rules?! If these babies shake their rattles, you d better pay attention! Much maligned primarily because they are too often misunderstood, rattlesnakes have gotten a bad rap over the years. Conrad J. Storad, an award-winning author of more than...

Did you ever wonder why you like certain kinds of music more than others? Or why musical talent is rare when love of music Is nearly universal? Part neuroscience, part memoir, Theme and Variations makes the latest evidence about how we process music in our conscious and unconscious mind accessible to every reader. Through his own experiences, the author, a...

After nearly a decade overseas as a war reporter, the acclaimed journalist Dahr Jamail returned to America to renew his passion for...

Will humans ever be able to live on other planets? Former NASA astronaut Dr. Dave Williams is the person to ask. 

It turns out that Earth is a pretty good place to live. Finding other habitable environments in space is no easy task: temperatures on Mercury are ten times hotter than on Earth; winter on Neptune lasts about forty years, and Uranus is ten...

One Nurse. Trillions of microbes. A deadly WWI battle ...

France, 1916. While treating a patient with dysentery, Sister Annie Barnaby encounters a strain of lethal bacteria. As the invaders journey deep into her gut, the resident microbes must fight to survive. Annie’s life hangs in the balance.

Enter the phage, deadly predators, ready to wage war to protect...

**The New York Times Bestseller** 'Space elevators, gold asteroids, and fusion-powered toasters - who knew science could be so much fun? Soonish is hilarious, provocative, and shamelessly informative' Tim Harford, author of Messy and The Undercover Economist From a top scientist and the creator of the hugely popular web comic Saturday Morning Breakfast...

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...

"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...

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Conventional management approaches cannot meet the challenges faced by ocean and coastal ecosystems today. Consequently, national and international bodies have called for a shift toward more comprehensive ecosystem-based marine management. Synthesizing a vast amount of current knowledge, Ecosystem-Based Management for the Oceans is a...

“The Web’s most influential climate-change blogger” and “Hero of the Environment 2009” --Time Magazine

“I trust Joe Romm on climate.” -- Paul Krugman, New York Times

“America’s fiercest climate-change activist-blogger” and one of “The 100 People Who Are Changing America” -- Rolling Stone

“One of the most influential energy and environmental policy...

The central concept guiding the management of parks and wilderness has been "naturalness" - to a large extent the explicit purpose in establishing these special areas was to keep them in their "natural" state. But what does that mean, particularly as the effects of stressors such as habitat fragmentation, altered disturbance regimes, invasive species, and...

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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...

For more than three decades, David Orr has been one of the leading voices of the environmental movement, championing the cause of ecological literacy in higher education, helping to establish and shape the field of ecological design, and working tirelessly to raise awareness of the threats to future generations posed by humanity's current unsustainable...

First developed in the 1880s as a way to monitor glaciers in Europe, repeat photography -the practice of taking photographs at different points in times from the same physical vantage point-remains an essential and cost-effective technique for scientists and researchers working to track and study landscape change.

This volume explores the technical...

Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests brings together a range of experts in diverse fields including biology, ecology, biogeography, and biogeochemistry, to review, synthesize, and explain the current state of our collective knowledge on the ecology and conservation of this endangered ecosystem.

The book offers a synthetic and cross-disciplinary review of...

Robert J. Cabin uses the restoration of tropical dry forestland in Hawaii as an in-depth case study to investigate the scientific, practical, and philosophical issues associated with performing ecological restoration in the messy real world.
Interweaving entertaining narratives of his own on-the-ground experiences as a practicing restorationist with...

Restoration ecology is a young field that integrates theory and knowledge from a range of disciplines, including the biological, physical, and social sciences as well as the humanities. This new textbook, written for upper-division undergraduates and first-year graduate students, offers a real-life introduction to the field and an interdisciplinary...

It's a tough time to be a scientist: universities are shuttering science departments, federal funding agencies are facing flat budgets, and many newspapers have dropped their science sections altogether. But according to Marc Kuchner, this antiscience climate doesn't have to equal a career death knell-it just means scientists have to be savvier about...

Just as people schedule regular check-ups with physicians, our planet needs regular check-ups to catch issues as early as possible, before they become more serious and harder to heal. That is the much-needed service provided on a global scale by the Worldwatch Institute in this new book, Vital Signs 2012.
By taking stock of global consumption, Vital...

In 2006, Resilience Thinking addressed an essential question: As the natural systems that sustain us are subjected to shock after shock, how much can they take and still deliver the services we need from them? This idea caught the attention of both the scientific community and the general public.
In Resilience Practice, authors Brian Walker and David...