Book
One of the our most celebrated thinkers and the bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, Carlo Rovelli has entranced millions of readers with his singular perspective on the cosmos. In Helgoland, he examines the enduring enigma of quantum...
This informative and easy-to-read book is the story of the people who battled over the meaning of the mysterious number - the scholars and mystics, the scientists and clergymen - who tried to understand zero.
One of our most beloved scientists, a fearless free spirit, Carlo Rovelli is also a masterful storyteller. In this collection of writings, the logbook of an intelligence always on the move, he follows his curiosity and invites us on a voyage through ...
Michael Fewer in A Natural Year observes the everyday nature of Irish gardens, parks and countryside over the course and development of the four seasons. Based on his personal nature diaries, kept at his homes in south Dublin and rural Waterford, he ...
"Originally Published in 1978, this special twenty-fifth-anniversary edition of the National Book Award finalist includes an entirely new afterword in which the author considers the current state of knowledge about wolves and recent efforts to rein-t...
The Weather Handbook is the essential guide to how the weather is formed, providing readers with the ability to look at the sky and interpret its signs. This handbook has been the standard reference for over 20 years for skippers and crews of cruising...
For at least half a million years, people have been doing some very strange things with fossils. Long before a few 17th-century minds started to decipher their true, organic nature, fossils had been eaten, dropped in goblets of wine, buried with the ...
First Light opens a window into a previously dark and secret time in our Universe's history -- the time when the first stars were born. Astronomers have successfully observed a great deal of the Universe's history, from recording the afterglow of the...
A collection of vibrant essays to inform, stimulate and inspire every nature lover. Through unparallelled expertise as a field naturalist, Roy Dennis is able to write about the natural world in a way that considers both the problems and the progress in...
Walking one day in the woods behind her cottage in Devon, nature illustrator and blogger Jo Brown became captivated by the sight of a Green Dock Beetle on a leaf and took a photograph of it in order to be able to draw it. That first tiny emerald bug ...
A bold new voice in nature writing, from the front lines of Britain's rewilding movement Bringing Back the Beaver is farmer-turned-ecologist Derek Gow's inspirational and often riotously funny firsthand account of how the movement to rewild the Briti...
In the endless light of summer days, and the magical gloaming of the wee small hours, nature in Jim's beloved Highlands, Perthshire and Trossachs heartlands is burgeoning freely, as though there is one long midsummer's eve, nothing reserved. For our flora...
A new collection from Sky and Telescope's popular columnist. Sue French's elegant, informative monthly columns in Sky and Telescope magazine have won this astronomy writer a passionate following among astronomy enthusiasts. In 2005, French published 60...
How can we be sure that Pythagoras's theorem is really true? Why is the 'angle in a semicircle' always 90 degrees? And how can tangents help determine the speed of a bullet? David Acheson takes the reader on a highly illustrated tour through the history...
Expedition Deep Ocean tells the inside story of this exploration of one of the most unforgiving and mysterious places on our planet, including the site of the Titanic wreck and the little-understood Hadal Zone. The expedition pushed technology to the...
This novel interpretation of the relationship between space, time, gravitation, and their cosmological implications is based on the author's discovery of a small but significant value in gravitation that was overlooked by both Newton and Einstein. Dubbed...
This collection of seasonal essays by nature write Ted Williams combines in-depth information with evocative descriptions of nature's marvels and mysteries.
There is only one bird species that hunts in summer and rears its young in winter: the Emperor Penguin. These extraordinary animals survive the relentless Antarctic climate, braving an average temperature of -49 degrees Celsius, thanks to their speci...
Like it or not, our lives are dominated by mathematics. Our daily diet of news regales us with statistical forecasts, opinion polls, risk assessments, inflation figures, weather and climate predictions and all sorts of political decisions and advice backed...
A handy reference to the awesome forces of nature we witness every day. For anyone who is dazzled by dramatic displays of wind, thunder, and lightning, Weather For Dummies is an indispensable guide to the basic science behind these daily phenomena. F...
There are some 10,000 bird species in existence today, occupying every continent and virtually every habitat on Earth. The variety of bird species is truly astounding, from the tiny bee hummingbird to the large flightless ostrich, making birds one of...
In the last fifty years our butterfly populations have declined by more than eighty per cent and butterflies are now facing the very real prospect of extinction. It is hard to remember the time when fields and meadows were full of these beautiful, de...
While cells are commonly considered the building block of living things, it is actually the communication between cells that brings us to life, controlling our bodies and brains, determining whether we are healthy or sick, and directly influencing how...
Hollywood and the popular press would have us believe that all dinosaurs are gigantic, hostile and untameable. In fact, there are many species that make charming and even useful companions: Velociraptor - a splendid, loyal, fierce, friend. Deinonychus...
Mars is a small world with a big reputation. This book follows our longstanding love affair with this bewildering world, from the first stargazers, to the imaginings of science-fiction writers and film-makers, to the latest images and discoveries from...
Before mammals, there were dinosaurs. And before dinosaurs, there were cephalopods—the ancestors of modern squid, octopuses, and more creatures—Earth’s first truly substantial animals. Essentially inventing the act of swimming, cephalopods presided over...
Brian Greene, one of the world's leading string theorists, peels away layers of mystery to reveal a universe that consists of eleven dimensions, where the fabric of space tears and repairs itself, and all matter--from the smallest quarks to the most ...
Alone on a remote mountaintop one dark night, a woman hears a mysterious voice. Propelled by the memory and after years of dreaming about it, Jini Reddy dares to delve into the 'wanderlands' of Britain, heading off in search of the magical in the landscape....
One of the least known and least inhabited parts of the world, Greenland is a singular place on Earth from which to look for the future of our planet and question its history. Glaciologist Marco Tedesco, a world-leading expert on ice and on climate c...
How will future climates be different from today's world-and what consequences will changes in climate have for societies and their development strategies? This book is a primer on the essential science for grasping the workings of climate change and...
"A a botanist, Robion Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. [Here], Kimmerer brings these lenses...
Humans are the most inquisitive, emotional, imaginative, aggressive and baffling animals on the planet. But how well do we really know ourselves? How to Be Animal writes a remarkable story of what it means to be human and argues that at the heart of ...
If you were given one trillion dollars, to be spent in a year, on science, what would you do? It's an unimaginably large sum, yet it's also the total of the money held by the Norwegian oil investment fund alone, or the current valuations of Apple Computer...
On May 18, 1980, people all over the world watched with awe and horror as Mount St. Helens erupted. Fifty-seven people were killed and hundreds of square miles of what had been lush forests and wild rivers were to all appearances destroyed. Ecologists...
Science is how we understand the world. Yet critical flaws in peer review, statistical methods, and publication procedures have rendered a shocking number of scientific studies useless-or worse, badly misleading. Drawing on surprising new data from.....
Thirty years ago, the only planets we knew were the ones orbiting our own sun; we now know of thousands of other worlds orbiting distant stars. In this book, astronomer Niall Deacon journeys to twenty of these globes: from giant, blisteringly hot pla...
In last summer's devastating fires, Kangaroo Island lost half of its koala population, with many more left injured and starving. This is the inspiring and sometimes confronting story of someone who went to help and ended up a koala dad. When Kailas Wild...
An enticing illustrated look at pollination, one of the most astonishing marvels of the natural world. Pollination is essential to the survival of most plants on Earth. Some plants rely on the wind to transport pollen from one flower to another. Others...
100 Australian Birds is a beginner's guide to the world of birdwatching. From the outside, this strange hobby of birdwatching appears to consist of sizeable camera lenses, khaki pants that are pulled up too high, and gruelling treks in pursuit of rare...
"Weka are widespread throughout parts of New Zealand. They are inquisitive by nature, even if furtively, including venturing into peoples' homes and sheds when the opportunity permits and can be considered a bit of a menace! So why should we care about...
The Purple Emperor is one of England's most elusive and least-known butterflies. Matthew Oates has spent fifty years trying to unravel the Emperor's secrets. Many mysteries remain unsolved, but enough are revealed in this book to enable experts and n...
The history of particle physics, the hunt for the most elusive particle, and the fundamental questions the search has inspired How did physicists combine talent and technology to discover the Higgs boson, the last piece in our inventory of the subatomic...
Dinosaurs of Darkness opens a doorway to a fascinating former world, between 100 million and 120 million years ago, when Australia was far south of its present location and joined to Antarctica. Dinosaurs lived in this polar region. How were the pola...
Oceans cover two thirds of the Earth's surface and are the driving force behind our weather systems, taking warm and cold water around the globe. Understanding solar radiation, currents, and rising sea levels are vital starting points to understanding...
From The War of the Worlds to The Martian and to the amazing photographs sent back by the robotic rovers Curiosity and Opportunity, Mars has excited our imaginations as the most likely other habitat for life in the solar system. Now the Red Planet is...
From the Common Swift, which can stay in the air continuously without landing for up to ten months at a time, even sleeping on the wing, to the tiny Goldcrest, Europe's smallest bird, which can lay one-and-one-half times its body weight in eggs every...
Proofs play a central role in advanced mathematics and theoretical computer science, yet many students struggle the first time they take a course in which proofs play a significant role. This bestselling text's third edition helps students transition...
Edward O. Wilson recalls his lifetime with ants-from his first boyhood encounters in the woods of Alabama to perilous journeys into the Brazilian rainforest. Ants are the most warlike of all animals, with colony pitted against colony. Their clashes d...
Fungi can appear anywhere, from desert dunes to frozen tundra, and create anew from rotting matter. They can invade bodies and thoughts; they can live between our toes or between our floorboards; they are unwelcome intruders or vastly expensive treats;...
A beautiful, illustrated modern guide to nature for a new generation (including city-dwellers) and how it can impact our mental and physical wellbeing. Reconnect with nature and learn everything about the wonderful wild. Curator of the Thorp Perrow a...
If an alien visitor were to collect ten souvenir life forms to represent life on earth, which would they be? This is the thought-provoking premise of Marianne Taylor's The Story of Life in 10 and a Half Species. Each life forms explains a key aspect about...
Daringly innovative when it opened in 1848, the Palm House in Kew Gardens remains one of the most beautiful glass buildings in the world today. Seemingly weightless, vast and yet light, the Palm House floats free from architectural convention, at onc...
This engaging book delves into the private lives of wild birds to reveal why they behave as they do. Birds are intelligent, sociable creatures that exhibit a wide array of behaviours, from mobbing and mimicking to mating and joint nesting. Why do they...
One thing has become clear this year - we need nature more than ever. And although the natural world has never been more under pressure, there are still reasons to be hopeful. Through personal stories, conservation breakthroughs and fascinating scien...
The clearest, most visual guide to space and the Universe for complete beginners to astronomy. Have you ever asked yourself how big the Universe is, how far it is to the nearest star, or what came before the Big Bang? Then this is the book for you. How...
Quantum mechanics is an extraordinarily successful scientific theory. It is also completely mad. Although the theory quite obviously works, it leaves us chasing ghosts and phantoms; particles that are waves and waves that are particles; cats that are...
The quest to find a theory of quantum gravity that could potentially explain everything. Nearly 60 years ago, Nobel Prize-winners Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson stumbled across a mysterious hiss of faint radio static that was interfering with their.....
Ever since Carl Linnaeus's binomial system of scientific names was adopted in the eighteenth century, scientists have been eponymously naming organisms in ways that both honor and vilify their namesakes. This charming, informative, and accessible his...
The clearest, simplest guide to quantum physics ever published. Discovering quantum physics has never been easier. Combining bold graphics with easy-to-understand text, Simply Quantum Physics is an essential introduction to the subject for those who are...
So you've fallen in love with space and now you want to see it for yourself, right? You want to witness the birth of a star, or visit the black hole at the center of our galaxy? You want to know if there are aliens out there, or how to travel though ...
The theory of evolution by natural selection did not spring fully formed and unprecedented from the brain of Charles Darwin. Rather it has been examined and debated by philosophers the world over for thousands of years. This lively history traces the...
If it seems like Australia has a lot of dangerous creatures, that's because we do! Featuring some of the best content from Australian Geographic's 'Most Dangerous' and 'Most Deadly' series, this handy reference will help you to understand, appreciate...
Biology is the natural science that studies life on our planet: from fungi to fossils and ecosystems to extremophiles, there is a whole world waiting to be discovered.'Mind Maps: Biology' helps you to understand the natural world and to learn its language...
The author shares her discoveries of seaweed's history, culture and science from the Neolithic people of the Orkney Islands to the sushi artisans in modern Japan.
Whether you paid much attention to the mathematics you were taught at school or not, the inescapable truth is that one day, an equation could just save your life. The real world is full of equations and a lot of our everyday decisions are calculated,...
What is time? Why is the past so different from the present and the future? This simple question is in fact one of the deepest, most long-standing problems in physics. None of the known laws of the universe can explain it. In The Janus Point, Julian ...
"It was Feynman's outrageous and scintillating method of teaching that earned him legendary status among students and professors of physics. From 1961 to 1963, Feynman delivered a series of lectures at the California Institute of Technology that revo...
Since the 1500s, scientists have documented the plants and fungi that grow around them organizing the specimens into collections. Know as herbaria, these archives helped give rise to botany as its own scientific endeavor. Thiers explores how herbaria...
From Stone Age to space age, people have looked up at the stars and been inspired by their beauty, their patterns, and their majesty. Beneath the Night is a history of humanity, told through our relationship with the night sky. From prehistoric cave art...
We are unprepared for the greatest discovery of modern science. Scientists are confident that there is alien life across the universe yet we have not moved beyond our perception of 'aliens' as Hollywood stereotypes. The time has come to abandon our fixation...
An entertaining mathematical exploration of the heat equation and its role in the triumphant development of the trans-Atlantic telegraph cable.
In the late 1940s, a small pack of wolves crossed the ice of Lake Superior to the island wilderness of Isle Royale, creating a perfect laboratory for a long-term study of predators and prey. Mech, a graduate student at the time, began research and wo...
From the acclaimed author of Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space--an authoritative, wholly accessible, fascinating guide to the most challenging phenomena of contemporary science, which is now the anchor of our understanding of the cosm...
Compact, easy to use and reliable, this popular guide by well-known astronomer and author Dr Nick Lomb has been providing stargazers with everything they need to know about the southern night sky for over 30 years. The 2021 guide contains the latest....
Discover Beautiful Nebulas, Constellations, Deep Sky Objects and More with Your Telescope David Dickinson, co-author of The Universe Today Ultimate Guide to Viewing the Cosmos, has created the ultimate field guide for backyard astronomers. Whether you...
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Creatures is an unmatched reference work distinguished by its erudition and beauty - an illustrated who's who of prehistoric life and a source book of more than 500 million years of evolution on...
In 2017, scientists at an observatory in Hawaii detected an interstellar object near Earth, which they named 'Oumuamua. The more scientists looked at it, the weirder it got - this cigar-shaped object didn't behave like any other asteroid or comet seen...
A reference and identification guide to 1300 of the world's most significant trees. This beautifully illustrated volume, substantially updated for this new large-format edition, is the ultimate reference guide to more than 1300 of the most spectacula...
How one scientist unlocked the secrets behind some of nature's most astounding animals. From star-nosed moles that have super-sensing snouts to electric eels that paralyze their prey, animals possess unique and extraordinary abilities. In Great Adapt...
Rivers, more than any road, technology, or political leader, have shaped the course of civilization. They have opened frontiers, founded cities, settled borders, and fed billions. They promote life, forge peace, grant power & capriciously destroy everything...
The conditions of Earth are not just good for life, they are perfect. Everything about our planet -- its size, its distance from the Sun, its spin and tilt, its moon -- is perfectly suited to our existence, and our planet's forces serve to nurture it...
Life is all around us, abundant and diverse. It is truly a marvel. But what does it actually mean to be alive, and how do we decide what is living and what is not? After a lifetime of studying life, Nobel Prize-winner Sir Paul Nurse, one of the world's...
Part H Is for Hawk, part The Soul of an Octopus, The Book of Eels is both a meditation on the world's most elusive fish-the eel-and a reflection on the human condition. Remarkably little is known about the European eel, Anguilla anguilla. So little, in...
A paradigm-shifting work that revolutionizes our understanding of the origins and structure of science. Captivatingly written, interwoven with tantalizing illustrations and historical vignettes ranging from Newton's alchemy to quantum mechanics to the...
A response to the devastating 2019-20 bushfires, Animals Make Us Human both celebrates Australia's unique wildlife and highlights its vulnerability. Through words and images, writers, photographers and researchers reflect on their connection with animals...
Documenting the species that have emerged, disappeared and been reborn over the millennia since the Cambrian Explosion, Lost Animals is the story of life on Earth. Over 520 million years ago, all the major animal groups, molluscs, worms, crustaceans,...
It's often said that the British are a nation of nature lovers; but what does that really mean? For some it's watching racer snakes chase iguanas on TV as David Attenborough narrates, a visit to the zoo to convene with the chimps; for others it's a.....
The Handbook of New Zealand Mammals is the only definitive reference on all the land-breeding mammals recorded in the New Zealand region (including the New Zealand sector of Antarctica). It lists 65 species, including native and exotic, wild and feral,...
The first modern anthology of Scottish nature writing which acknowledges the realities of our times, edited, curated and introduced by the award-winning author of Findings. The first ever modern collection of contemporary Scottish writing on nature a...
Expert science writer Giles Sparrow guides you through 21 stars you can see in the night sky and what they can teach us about our universe.On a clear evening, if you look up you can see thousands of stars shining in the dark sky, each with a story of...
Presents a collection of essays about humanity's relationship with nature, exploring subjects ranging from captivity and immigration to ostrich farming and the migrations of songbirds from the Empire State Building.
Inside the epic quest to find life on the water-rich moons at the outer reaches of the solar system. Where is the best place to find life beyond Earth? We often look to Mars as the most promising site in our solar system, but recent scientific missions...
Is there a secret formula for improving your life? For making something a viral hit? For deciding how long to stick with your current job, Netflix series, or even relationship? This book is all about the equations that make our world go round. Ten of...
Collection of essays on the natural world during a year spent in the Blue Ridge Mountains reflects the author's interactions with her wilderness surrounding.
This wide-ranging and lavish book, substantially updated and adapted for this new large-format edition, presents an expert survey of the incredible floral diversity of the different regions of the world. More than 1730 species are featured, arranged ...
It's the ultimate mystery: Where do we come from? In 1994, a team led by fossil-hunting legend Tim White uncovered a set of ancient bones in Ethiopia's Afar region. Radiometric dating of nearby rocks indicated the skeleton -- classified as Ardipithecus...
An evocative and richly illustrated exploration of flowers and how, over the centuries, they have given us so much sustenance, meaning, and pleasure.
Every rock has a story tell, and none more so than those which have fallen from the sky: meteorites. Originating in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, these rocky fragments offer clues not just to the earliest origins of the Solar System but...
An anthropologist visits the frontiers of genetics, medicine, and technology to ask: Whose values are guiding gene editing experiments? And what does this new era of scientific inquiry mean for the future of the human species? At a conference in Hong...
Essential Science aims to be the most detailed, accessible and authoritative book of its kind. Each of the 34 discoveries is broken down into seven essential elements to aid comprehension and inform the reader about what really matters. The consisten...
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