Alan Turing's Systems of Logic: The Princeton Thesis
Andrew W Appel
Princeton University Press, HB, 9780691155746
Between inventing the concept of a universal computer in 1936 and breaking the German Enigma code during World War II, Alan Turing (1912-1954), the British founder of computer science and artificial intelligence, came to Princeton University to study mathematical logic. Some of the greatest logicians in the world - including Alonzo Church, Kurt Gdel, John von Neumann, and Stephen Kleene - ... More/Buy
The Big Questions: Evolution
Francisco Ayala
Quercus, HB, 9781780870335
The Big Questions series is designed to let renowned experts address the 20 most fundamental and frequently asked questions of a major branch of science or philosophy. Each 3,000-word essay simply and concisely examines a question that has eternally perplexed enquiring minds, and provides answers based on the latest research. This ambitious project is a unique distillation of humanity's best ideas. ... More/Buy
Computing: A Concise History
Paul E Ceruzzi
MIT Press, PB, 9780262517676
Ceruzzi guides us through computing history, telling how a Bell Labs mathematician coined the word 'digital' in 1942 (to describe a high-speed method of calculating used in anti-aircraft devices), and recounting the development of the punch card (for use in the 1890 U.S. Census). He describes the ENIAC, built for scientific and military applications; the UNIVAC, the first general purpose computer; ... More/Buy
Darwin's Ghosts: In Search of the First Evolutionists
Rebecca Stott
Bloomsbury, HB, 9781408809082
Christmas, 1859. Just one month after the publication of On the Origin of Species, Darwin received a letter that deeply unsettled him. He had expected criticism. Letters were arriving every day like swarms, some expressing praise, most outrage and accusations of heresy. But the letter from the Reverend Powell was different. It accused Darwin of failing to acknowledge his predecessors, of ... More/Buy
Designing Human Practices: An Experiment with Synthetic Biology
Paul Rabinow and Gaymon Bennett
University of Chicago Press, PB, 9780226703145
In 2006 anthropologists Paul Rabinow and Gaymon Bennett set out to rethink the role that human sciences play in biological research, creating the Human Practices division of the Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Centre - a facility established to create design standards for the engineering of new enzymes, genetic circuits, cells, and other biological entities - to formulate a new approach to ... More/Buy
Erwin Schrodinger and the Quantum Revolution
John Gribbin
Bantam, PB, 9780593068656
Erwin Schrodinger was an Austrian physicist famous for his contribution to quantum physics. He won the Nobel Prize in 1933 and is best known for his thought experiment of a cat in a box, both alive and dead at the same time, which revealed the seemingly paradoxical nature of quantum mechanics. Schrodinger was working at one of the most fertile and ... More/Buy
Everything Under the Sun: Towards a Brighter Future on a Small Blue Planet
David Suzuki, Ian Hanington
Allen & Unwin, PB, 9781743311899
In this compilation of David Suzuki's latest thoughts and writings, the renowned scientist, author, and broadcaster explores the myriad environmental challenges the world faces and their interconnected causes. In doing so, Suzuki shows that understanding the causes - and recognizing that everything in nature, including us, is interconnected - is crucial to restoring hope for a better future. The solutions are ... More/Buy
Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle
Thor Hanson
Basic Books, PB, 9780465028788
They've inspired legends and literature, from Icarus to Shakespeare. They've decorated queens, jesters, plague doctors, Aztec priests, and the fabled birds of paradise. They are at the root of biology's most enduring debate. It goes without saying, the importance and intrigue of feathers is patent. In Feathers, biologist Thor Hanson tells a sweeping natural history of feathers, as they've been used ... More/Buy
Genes, Cells and Brains: Bioscience's Promethean Promises
Hilary Rose, Steven Rose
Verso, HB, 9781844678815
Our fates lie in our genes and not in the stars, said James Watson, codiscoverer of the structure of DNA. But Watson could not have predicted the scale of the industry now dedicated to this new frontier. Since the launch of the multibillion-dollar Human Genome Project, the biosciences have promised miracle cures and radical new ways of understanding who we are. ... More/Buy
Green Universe: A microscopic voyage into the plant cell
Stephen Blackmore
Papadakis, HB, 9781906506216
Earth is a green planet and its plants are the basis for all life. Yet few of us are conscious of the microscopic, universal building-blocks of this empire, the cells. In Green Universe, eminent botanist Stephen Blackmore deftly interweaves the story of life on earth with our quest to understand the cell through the invention and development of the microscope. He ... More/Buy
Hawking Incorporated: Stephen Hawking and the Anthropology of the Knowing Subject
Helene Mialet
University of Chicago Press, PB, 9780226522289
Drawing on an extensive and in-depth series of interviews with Hawking, his assistants and colleagues, physicists, engineers, writers, journalists, archivists, and artists, Mialet reconstructs the human, material, and machine-based networks that enable Hawking to live and work. She reveals how Hawking - who is often portrayed as the most singular, individual, rational, and bodiless of all - is in fact not ... More/Buy
Hyena
Mikita Brottman
Reaktion Books, PB, 9781861899217
In almost every culture, hyenas are regarded as nasty, scheming charlatans, skulking in the back alleyways of the animal kingdom. Scorned as little more than scavenging carrion-eaters, vandals and thieves, since the earliest times hyenas have been both mistreated and misunderstood. In her new account Mikita Brottman offers an alternative view, showing that the hyena is in fact a complex, intelligent ... More/Buy
Interop: The Promise and Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems
Urs Gasser, John Palfrey
Basic Books, HB, 9780465021970
In Interop, technology experts John Palfrey and Urs Gasser explore the immense importance of interoperability - the standardization and integration of technology - and show how this simple principle will hold the key to our success in the coming decades and beyond. The practice of standardization has been facilitating innovation and economic growth for centuries. The standardization of the railroad gauge ... More/Buy
Irrationals: A Story of the Numbers You Can't Count On
Julian Havil
Princeton University Press, PB, 9780691143422
The ancient Greeks discovered them, but it wasn't until the nineteenth century that irrational numbers were properly understood and rigorously defined, and even today not all their mysteries have been revealed. In The Irrationals, the first popular and comprehensive book on the subject, Julian Havil tells the story of irrational numbers and the mathematicians who have tackled their challenges, from antiquity ... More/Buy
Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Fi nding New Ways to Get Through the Summer)
Stan Cox
New Press, PB, 9781595587756
In Losing Our Cool, scientist and environmental journalist Stan Cox shows that indoor climate control is colliding with an out-of-control outdoor climate. In America, energy consumed by home air-conditioning and the resulting greenhouse emissions have doubled in just over a decade; energy used to cool retail stores has risen by two thirds. And six out of every seven gallons of diesel ... More/Buy
Mosquito
Richard Jones
Reaktion Books, PB, 9781861899231
In Mosquito, Richard Jones recounts the history of mosquitoes’ relationship with mankind, and their transformation from a trivial gnat into a serious disease-carrying menace. Drawing on scientific fact, historical evidence, and literary evocation, the book provides a colourful portrait of this tiny insect and the notorious diseases it carries. Mosquito offers a compelling warning against the contemporary complacency surrounding malaria and ... More/Buy
The New North: The World in 2050
Laurence C Smith
Profile Books, PB, 9781846688935
The New North is a book that turns the world literally upside down. Analysing four key 'megatrends' - population growth and migration, natural resource demand, climate change and globalisation - UCLA professor Larry Smith projects a world that by mid-century will have shifted its political and economic axes radically to the north. The beneficiaries of this new order, based on a ... More/Buy
Paradox: The Nine Greatest Enigmas in Physics
Jim Al-Khalili
Bantam, PB, 9780593069301
How can a cat be both dead and alive at the same time? Why will Achilles never beat a tortoise in a race, no matter how fast he runs? And how can a person be ten years older than their twin?Throughout history, scientists have been coming up with theories and ideas that just don't seem to make sense. Statements that on ... More/Buy
Physics of the Future: The Inventions That Will Transform Our Lives
Michio Kaku
Penguin, PB, 9780141044248
We all wish we could predict the future, but most of us don't know enough about the science that makes it possible. That's why Michio Kaku decided to talk to the people who really know - the visionaries who are already inventing the future in their labs. Based on interviews with over three hundred of the world's top scientists, Kaku gives ... More/Buy
Prize Fight: The Ruthless Rivalry to be the First in Science
Morton Meyers
Palgrave, HB, 9780230338906
We often think of scientists as dispassionate and detached, nobly laboring without any expectation of reward. But scientific research is much more complicated and messy than this ideal, and scientists can be torn by jealousy, impelled by a need for recognition, and subject to human vulnerability and fallibility. In Prize Fight , Emeritus Chair at SUNY School of Medicine Morton Meyers ... More/Buy
Universe Inside You: The Extreme Science of the Human Body from Quantum Theory to the Mysteries of the Brain
Brian Clegg
Icon Books, PB, 9781848313538
Built from the debris of exploding stars that floated through space for billions of years, home to a zoo of tiny aliens, and controlled by a brain with more possible connections than there are atoms in the universe, the human body is the most incredible thing in existence. In the sequel to his bestselling Inflight Science, Brian Clegg explores mitochondria, in-cell ... More/Buy
Volcano: Nature and Culture
James Hamilton
Reaktion Books, PB, 9781861899170
Though largely benign, volcanoes erupt continuously across the world. The eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 and Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 exemplify the dramatic physical violence of volcanoes, and their potential for local destruction and global disruption. In Volcano James Hamilton explores the cultural history generated by the power, beauty and threat of the ... More/Buy
Waterfall: Nature and Culture
Brian Hudson
Reaktion Books, PB, 9781861899187
With their fountains of glistening spray, overwhelming roar and terrifying might, waterfalls are extraordinary features of the natural world. While many flock to sites such as Niagara Falls and Victoria Falls, until now the rich cultural background of these natural wonders has been neglected. The Beautiful, the Sublime and the Picturesque are among the ideas considered in relation to waterfalls, and ... More/Buy
You're Looking Very Well: The Surprising Nature of Getting Old
Lewis Wolpert
Faber, PB, 9780571250653
We now live longer today than at any time in history. In the UK, more people are aged over sixty-five than under sixteen and by 2050, over a third of the developed world will be over sixty. How should we deal with this phenomenon? What are the scientific reasons for ageing? And can - or should - we prevent it? Lewis ... More/Buy