Eureka: Science's Greatest Thinkiers & their key Breakthroughs
Hazel Muir
Quercus, HB, 9781780873251
From Aristotle's pioneering research into animal biology to Harvey's theory of the circulation of the blood; from Copernicus' theory of the heliocentric universe to Carl Sagan's speculations on extraterrestrial life; and from Einstein's theory of Relativity to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, Eureka! condenses the essential biographies and principal discoveries of the world's most important scientists into 300 bite-sized entries. Spanning the full ... More/Buy
Fifty Minerals that Changed the Course of History
Eric Chaline
Allen & Unwin, HB, 9781742379500
Using the word 'minerals' in its broadest sense, Fifty Minerals that Changed the Course of History features the metals, alloys, rocks, organic minerals, and gemstones that humans have used as the building blocks of their material cultures. From flint and obsidian to bronze and iron, it explores the roots of industry and trade from the earliest recorded history, and marvels at ... More/Buy
The Great Partnership: God, Science and the Search for Meaning
Jonathan Sacks
H & S Non Fiction, PB, 9780340995259
Writing with his usual grace and fluency, Jonathan Sacks moves beyond the tired arguments of militant atheists such as Dawkins and Hitchens, to explore how religion has always played a valuable part in human culture and far from being dismissed as redundant, must be allowed to temper and develop scientific understanding in order for us to be fully human. Ranging around ... More/Buy
How to Build an Android: The True Story of Philip K. Dick’s Robotic Resurrection
David Dufty
Ecco, HB, 9780805095517
In late January 2006, a young robotocist on the way to Google headquarters lost an overnight bag on a flight somewhere between Dallas & Las Vegas. In it was a fully functional head of the android replica of Philip K. Dick, cult science-fiction writer and counterculture guru. It has never been recovered. In a story that echoes some of the most ... More/Buy
Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death
Bernd Heinrich
Houghton Mifflin, HB, 9780547752662
How exactly does the animal world deal with the flip side of the life cycle? And what are the lessons, ecological to spiritual, raised by a close look at how the animal world renews itself? Biologist, Bernd Heinrich focuses his wholly original gaze on the fascinating doings of creatures most of us would otherwise turn away from—field mouse burials conducted by ... More/Buy
The Magic of Reality: How we know what's really true
Richard Dawkins
Black Swan, PB, 9780552778053
What are things made of? What is the sun? Why is there night and day, winter and summer? Why do bad things happen? Are we alone? Throughout history people all over the world have invented stories to answer profound questions such as these.Have you heard the tale of how the sun hatched out of an emu's egg?Or what about the great ... More/Buy
The Moral Lives of Animals
Dale Peterson
Bloomsbury, PB, 9781608193462
Wild elephants walking along a trail stop and spontaneously try to protect and assist a weak and dying fellow elephant. Laboratory rats, finding other rats caged nearby in distressing circumstances, proceed to rescue them. A chimpanzee in a zoo loses his own life trying to save an unrelated infant who has fallen into a watery moat. The examples above and many ... More/Buy
The Most Human Human: What Artificial Intelligence Teaches Us About Being Alive
Brian Christian
Penguin, PB, 9780241956052
Telling the difference between humans and computers used to be easy. But artificial intelligence is now so advanced that it is capable of behaving, and even thinking, in ways that have long been considered exclusive to humankind. The time has come to rethink what being human actually means . . . In The Most Human Human Brian Christian goes to talk ... More/Buy
The Perfection Point: Predicting the Absolute LImits of Human Performance
John Brenkus
Pan, PB, 9781447208150
The Perfection Point is a pacy and fascinating look at the science behind the extremes of human performance, which identifies the absolute limits the human body can go to, whether it is running, lifting, throwing or even holding one's breath. It is incredible to think that it is only forty years since Jim Hines ran the 100 metres in under ten ... More/Buy
The Rough Guide to Surviving the End of the World
Paul Parsons
Rough Guides, PB, 9781405385961
he Rough Guide to Surviving the End of the World is a light-hearted yet well-informed look at threats to the very existence of life on Earth, how we might be able to deal with them and - if things go truly, horribly wrong - how we might just be able to survive. Written by scientist and sci fan Paul Parsons this ... More/Buy
The Secret Anarchy of Science
Michael Brooks
Profile Books, PB, 9781846684067
For more than a century, science has cultivated a sober public image for itself. But as bestselling author Michael Brooks explains, the truth is very different: many of our most successful scientists have more in common with libertines than librarians. This thrilling exploration of some of the greatest breakthroughs in science reveals the extreme lengths some scientists go to in order ... More/Buy
The Spark of Life: Electricity in the Human Body
Frances Ashcroft
Allen Lane, HB, 9781846143014
We are all familiar with the idea that machines are powered by electricity, but perhaps not so aware that this is also true for humans. The Spark of Life is a spectacular account of the body electric, showing how electricity is essential to everything we think and do, from consciousness to fighting infection, from sexual attraction to the beating of our ... More/Buy
Thinking in Numbers: How Maths Illuminates Our Lives
Daniel Tammet
H & S Non Fiction, PB, 9781444737417
This is the book that Daniel Tammet, bestselling author and mathematical savant, was born to write. In Tammet's world, numbers are beautiful and mathematics illuminates our lives and minds. Using anecdotes and everyday examples, Tammet allows us to share his unique insights and delight in the way numbers, fractions and equations underpin all our lives.Inspired by the complexity of snowflakes, Anne ... More/Buy
Tubes: Behind the Scenes at the Internet
Andrew Blum
Viking, PB, 9780670918980
You write an email. You hit send. It appears ten thousand miles away. How did that happen? In April 2011, a seventy-five year old woman deprived Armenia of its internet access when she sliced through a buried cable with her garden spade. That January, Egyptian authorities simply switched off 70% of the country's internet connections in an attempt to quell a ... More/Buy
Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story
Jim Holt
Profile Books, PB, 9781846682445
'Why is there a world rather than nothing at all?' remains the most curious and most enduring of all metaphysical mysteries. Moving away from the narrower paths of Christopher Hitchens, Roger Penrose and Stephen Hawking, the celebrated essayist Jim Holt now enters this fascinating debate with his broad, lively and deeply informed narrative that traces all our efforts to grasp the ... More/Buy
Zoobiquity: What Animals Can Teach Us About Being Human
Barbara Natterson Horowitz, Kathryn Bowers
Virgin Books, PB, 9780753539835
Concerns about the recent explosions of diseases like HIV, the West Nile Virus, and other avian and swine flus that originate in animals have encouraged new efforts on a global scale to bridge the gap between animal and human medicine for the benefit of both. Zoobiquity is the first book to explore many of the human and animal health issues that ... More/Buy