Book
"With jaw-dropping endemic species such as Kiwi, Kea and Takahe, New Zealand is a birdwatcher's paradise. For New Zealand birders and visitors to the country alike, this innovative and useful book is the perfect accompaniment to a good field guide such...
Since the Colonial Museum opened in 1865 and the first director, Sir James Hector, began collecting items of geological and natural history significance, the collections of New Zealand's national museum have become enormously significant - not to men...
"Migrating wildlife species across the globe face a dire predicament as their traditional migratory routes are cut off by human encroachment. Forced into smaller and smaller patches of habitat, they must compete more aggressively for dwindling food r...
"An easy-to-use quick reference to events occuring night-by-night for naked-eye and binocular observers in New Zealand and Australia. Incorporating a Moon map and 24 detailed custom-drawn charts covering the entire night sky visible month-by-month, the...
The world-famous cosmologist and #1 bestselling author of A Brief History of Time leaves us with his final thoughts on the biggest questions facing humankind. Stephen Hawking was the most renowned scientist since Einstein, known both for his groundbr...
"Atreasure trove of unique, bizarre and wonderful plants, The Meaning of Trees explores the myriad ways in which New Zealand's extraordinary flora has been used in cuisine, crafts, medicine and culture, providing everything from seafaring canoes and ...
A brilliant and controversial book which demonstrates that evolution by natural selection - the unconscious, automatic, blind yet essentially non-random process discovered by Darwin - is the only answer to the biggest question of all: why do we exist...
In this "phytobiography" a collection of stories written in partnership with a plant research scientist, Monica Gagliano, reveals the dynamic role plants play in genuine first-hand accounts from her research into plant communication and cognition. By...
The new book from the BBC Radio 4 hit series The Life Scientific. Inside the lives of the scientists who are exploring the world, our universe, the past and ourselves. Based on the interviews broadcast on BBC Radio 4's hugely popular series, The Life...
We would all be better off if everyone saw mathematics as a practical ally. Sadly, most of us fear maths and seek to avoid it. This is because mathematics doesn't have good 'people skills' - it never hesitates to bluntly point out when we are wrong. But...
In this extensively illustrated and illuminating volume, astronomer Rober Massey and art historian Alexandra Loske present a rich and curious history. From its violent birth through to the thrilling story of the Space Race and current exploration eff...
"The world-famous cosmologist and #1 bestselling author of A Brief History of Time leaves us with his final thoughts on the universe's biggest questions in this brilliant posthumous work. How did the universe begin? Will humanity survive on Earth? Is...
Weaving interviews with leading experts on animal behaviour with the groundbreaking discoveries of Nobel-Prize winning neuroscientists, Barrie shines a light on the astounding skills of animals of every stripe. Dung beetles that steer by the light of...
A firsthand chronicle of the catastrophic reality of our planet's changing ecosystems and the necessity of relishing this vulnerable, fragile Earth while we still can.
The Pond. Nothing in the countryside is more humble or more valuable. It's the moorhen's reedy home, the frog's ancient breeding place, the kill zone of the beautiful dragonfly. More than a hundred rare and threatened fauna and flora depend on it. Written...
The Seven Daughters of Eve presents the theory of human mitochondrial genetics to a general audience. Sykes explains the principles of genetics and human evolution, the particularities of mitochondrial DNA, and analyses of ancient DNA to genetically ...
Close Encounters with Marine Life details Nigel's underwater adventures with camera in hand, featuring some of his best images and many remarkable stories of his experiences with amazing marine life.
Astronomy is another form of cinema. Time is fragmented and extended. Matter becomes light in motion. The camera remains fixed, looking outwards into the darkness, while the earth moves beneath our feet. A carefully constructed text in sixty numbered...
The Africa-wide Great Elephant Census of 2016 produced shocking findings: a decimated elephant population whose numbers were continuing to plummet. Elephants are killed, on average, every 15–20 minutes – a situation that will see the final demise of ...
Moss is all around us. While it is most often associated with damp, shady spaces, it can be found in the most unexpected and far-flung places, from deserts to Antarctica. This book is a celebration of its quiet, unassuming beauty and a primer to unde...
With over 200 spectacular images, including astonishing satellite images and stills from the BBC Natural History Unit's footage, Earth from Space reveals our planet as you've never seen it before. For decades we competed to be the first to reach space,...
In the late 1940s, a handful of visionaries were working to steer Europe towards a more peaceful future through science, and CERN, the European particle physics laboratory, was duly born. James Gillies tells the gripping story of particle physics, from...
The gear and techniques necessary for finding, identifying, and photographing micrometeorites.
Let's face it, numbers underpin every aspect of our lives from the supermarket shop to social media metrics and even our notions of what is beautiful but more than that, being numerically literate can open doors to better life choices, greater financ...
As end-of-the-world scenarios go, an apocalyptic collision with an asteroid or comet is the new kid on the block, gaining respectability only in the last decade of the 20th century with the realisation that the dinosaurs had been wiped out by just such...
In 2012, a New York auction catalogue boasted an unusual offering 'a superb Tyrannosaurus skeleton? In fact, Lot 49135 consisted of a nearly complete T. bataar a close cousin to the more-famous T. rex that had been unearthed in Mongolia. At 2.4 metres...
Reprint of the classic work. Nearly everyone is familiar with hologramsâthree-dimensional images projected into space with the aid of a laser. Two of the world's most eminent thinkers believe that the universe itself may be a giant hologram, quite ...
In this spectacular volume, acclaimed landscape photographer Richard Woldendorp AM, best known for his book Down to Earth with Tim Winton, explores Australian trees of all shapes and sizes. From abstract close-ups to aerials, Woldendorp's images reveal...
In 1919, British scientists led extraordinary expeditions to Brazil and Africa to test Albert Einstein's revolutionary new theory of general relativity in what became the century's most celebrated scientific experiment. The result ushered in a new era...
Penguins. We love them. Seemingly upright caricatures of us, it is easy to bond with these black and white 'little people'. They have become perennial favourites of cartoonists, because they are fun. They make us laugh. Waddle is a compendium of deli...
Australia's funniest mathematician returns in 2018 with more rollicking romps through the world of science, technology, numbers and all things nerdy. Which number terrifies 0gdokontaheptaphobes? Why would you watch the same clock for 14 years? And have...
Fewer people have been to the deepest part of the ocean than have been to the moon. Even now, the vast majority of this wilderness - which covers over 70% of the planet and forms its largest ecosystem - has never been seen by human eyes, let alone explored...
Evolved over many centuries and often thought to belong to the rarefied world of scholars and scientists, this invented language is in fact a very useful tool for everyday gardening. It allows us to find our way around nurseries; it sorts out confusions...
"In his international bestseller, The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben opened readers' eyes to the wonders and amazing processes at work in the forest. Now this new, breathtakingly illustrated edition brings those wonders to life like never before....
In recent years, techno-scientific progress has started to utterly transform our world - changing it almost beyond recognition. In this extraordinary new book, renowned philosopher Slavoj Zizek turns to look at the brave new world of Big Tech, revealing...
The story of a British institution whose fellows, including Newton, Darwin and Hawking, have changed the way we look at the world. The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge has been at the forefront of scientific endeavour for more than...
A fascinating and long overdue examination of viruses from what they are and what they do, to the vital role they have played in human history. What are viruses? Do they rely on genes, like all other forms of life? Do they follow the same patterns of...
"This book take you on a journey full of colour and living imagery that showcases the beauty and variety of New Zealand’s birds. From the huge albatross of the southern ocean to the tiny rifleman of New Zealand's bush, 210 birds are illustrated...
Dragonflies are often called birdwatchers' insects. They are large, brightly coloured, active in the daytime, and with complex and interesting behavior. Like butterflies, they appeal even to people who don't think highly of insects in general. They have...
This book is the most up-to-date guide to Australian birds available. Written in everyday language, with crisp, brilliant digital images taken in the wild. The easily accessible information on each bird includes: common and scientific names, size, de...
Statistics has played a leading role in our scientific understanding of the world for centuries, yet we are all familiar with the way statistical claims can be sensationalised, particularly in the media. In the age of big data, as data science become...
Cambridge is now world-famous as a centre of science, but it wasn't always so. Before the nineteenth century, the sciences were of little importance in the University of Cambridge. But that began to change in 1819 when two young Cambridge fellows took...
A whirlwind tour of new ideas and findings about animal emotions, based on De Waal's renowned studies of the social and emotional lives of chimpanzees, bonobos, and other primates. De Waal discusses facial expressions, animal sentience and consciousn...
With a foreword by Sir David Attenborough, breathtakingly beautiful still photography, specially commissioned maps and graphics, and compelling text expanding on the remarkable TV stories and giving the reader a depth of information that is impossible...
From understanding the percentage probability that it will rain later today, to evaluating your risk of a health problem, or the fluctuations in the stock market, statistics impact our lives in a variety of ways, and are vital to a variety of careers...
Love your family, care for your those around you, never give up and always find time to have fun -- these are the golden rules of wolves. These remarkably intelligent animals take empathetic care of their old and injured, bring up their young lovingly...
"After decades of painstaking planning, NASA's first dedicated exoplanet detection mission, the Kepler space telescope, was launched in 2009 from Cape Canaveral. Kepler began a years-long mission of looking for Earth-like planets amongst the millions...
This is a lively, inspiring beginner's guide to how the universe works. This book contains bite-sized chapters present the discoveries of modern physics, astronomy, and cosmology. It also has background stories of the research and researchers bring the...
Our ancestors constructed vast monuments like Stonehenge and Pyramids of Egypt and Central America to keep track of the sun and celebrate the annual cycle of death and rebirth. The returning sun heralds new beginnings. Indeed, for most of mankind's h...
"How does life create order from chaos? And just what is life, anyway? Leading physicist Paul Davies argues that to find the answers, we must first answer a deeper question: 'What is information?' To understand the origins and nature of life, Davies proposes...
"For many years now, we have known the story of the Solar System, and the Earth's place in it. We have mapped out the stars in the night sky, and have known that we live in a disk of stars that makes up the Milky Way galaxy. But, in the past few decades,...
"Authoritative and engaging, Paul Parsons takes us on a rollercoaster ride through billions of light years to tell the story of the Big Bang, from birth to death. 13.8 billion years ago, something incredible happened. Matter, energy, space and time a...
For most of the twentieth century, maps were indispensable. They were how governments understood, managed, and defended their territory, and during the two world wars they were produced by the hundreds of millions. Cartographers and journalists predicted...
"We've all asked ourselves the question. It's impossible to look up at the stars and NOT think about it: Are we alone in the universe? Books, movies and television shows proliferate that attempt to answer this question and explore it. In OUT THERE Sp...
"Is it true that no two snowflakes are ever alike? How many Christmases have actually been white? Do the Inuit have dozens of words for snow? Can it ever be too cold to snow? Our memories and imagination are buried in snow. It's the weather of play, ...
"Have you ever wondered how trees got their names? What did our ancestors think about trees, and how were they used in the past? This fascinating book will answer many of your questions, but also reveal interesting stories that are not widely known. ...
"The Yellowstone grizzly population has grown from an estimated 136 bears when first granted federal protection as a threatened species to as many as 1,000 grizzlies in a tri-state region today. No longer limited to remote wilderness areas, grizzlies...
PRIMATE CHANGE is a wide-ranging, polemical look at how and why the human body has changed since humankind first got up on two feet. Spanning the entirety of human history - from primate to transhuman - Vybarr Cregan-Reid's book investigates where we...
Sensuous and fluid yet powerful, raging and unforgiving - from Styx to bottled water, from great lake to babbling brook, from poetic vessel to trade route, water exists in a myriad of states and is characterised by its many forms and expressions, its...
We're not just losing the wild world. We're forgetting it. We're no longer noticing it. We've lost the habit of looking and seeing and listening and hearing. But we can make hidden things visible, and this book features 23 spells that will bring the magic...
How many snowflakes does it take to build a snowman? Why does it feel so good to watch snow fall? Why is snow so quiet? Will it survive global warming and what was the greatest snowstorm in history? Snow has a lot in common with religion. It comes from...
"Rice, himself a scientist, posits that that science is essentially organized common sense. While the brain is hardwired for common sense, unfortunately it also relies on a number of misleading tendencies. Instead of reasoning objectively it tends to...
"30-Second Biology tackles the vital science of life, dissecting the 50 most thought-provoking theories of our ecosystem and ourselves. At a time when discoveries in DNA allow us to feel more connected than ever to the natural world, this is the fastest...
"Why do anthropologists study teeth? Teeth contain detailed records of growth, health, and diet, as well as our evolutionary history. So what are the tales teeth tell? The French naturalist George Cuvier famously remarked, "Show me your teeth and I will...
Eagles hold a unique allure among birds for their combination of power, grace, and predatory prowess. Captivating the human imagination, these raptors have symbolized pride, freedom, and independence of spirit since humankind's earliest times. This b...
"Does the void exist? Are space and time just an illusion? Are our minds capable of conceiving space at all? And why are we even on earth? 21st-century physics changes our perspective of the world and ourselves. Stefan Klein relates this in his gripping...
"Botanical encounters in the rainforest: trees that walk, a leaf as big as an awning, a plant that dances. This Atlas invites the reader to tour the farthest reaches of the rainforest in search of exotic―poetic―plant life. Guided in these botanical ...
"An ornithological quiz book packed with challenging questions for birders, based on the popular `Bird Brain of Britain' contest at the annual BirdFair. The British Birdwatching Fair, held every August at Rutland Water Nature Reserve, attracts over 3...
Noticing and appreciating the awesome nature of birdlife is a spiritually affirming activity-reconnecting us to the natural world each and every day. Mindful Thoughts for Birdwatchers presents a meaningful flock of enriching thoughts on the interconn...
"In the last 25 years, planetary science experienced a revolution, as vast oceans of liquid water have been discovered within the heart of the icy moons of our Solar System. These subsurface oceans lie hidden under thick layers of ice. We call them o...
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