Book
The history of pi, says the author, though a small part of the history of mathematics, is nevertheless a mirror of the history of man. Petr Beckmann holds up this mirror, giving the background of the times when pi made progress and also when it did n...
From the Giant Golden Crowned Flying Fox, a megabat with a wingspan of over five feet, to the aptly named Bumblebee Bat, the world's smallest mammal, the number and diversity of bat species is proving to be very rich and vastly underestimated. Noctur...
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...
What's the difference between a swallow and a swift? How many species of ducks, penguins, owls or thrushes are there? Which is the rarest parrot or the most endangered hummingbird? What do toucans eat? Discover all the key facts about the world's orders...
"This is a natural history and field guide to New Zealand's 14 species of dragonflies and damselflies ... Key features include: Expert and up-to-date information on the 14 species breeding in New Zealand; natural history of the group including an int...
Few people have done as much to change how we view the world as Charles Darwin. Yet On the Origin of Species is more cited than read, and parts of it are even considered outdated. In some ways, it has been consigned to the nineteenth century. In The ...
The science taught in high schools-Newton's theory of universal gravitation, basic structure of the atom, cell division, DNA replication-is accepted as the way nature works. What is puzzling is how this precisely specified knowledge could come from a...
Looking at the night sky, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s all quiet up there in space. But you’d be wrong. Extreme events are forever unfolding: galaxies explode, cosmic debris hurtles through the heavens and our own Milky Way is on a collision course...
"The islands of Aotearoa New Zealand lie across one of the most active volcanic zones in the world. They contain wonders such as hot sprints and coloured terraces - but we also have to live with mountains that can spew ash and lava, and the ever-present...
A fascinating account of the life of the first hippopotamus to be exhibited in the Regents Park Zoo in London, and probably the first hippo to be exhibited live in Europe since the time of the Roman empire. Written in a lively and accessible style, the...
We have the impression that the solar system is perfectly regular like a clock, or a planetarium instrument. On a short timescale it is. But, seen in a longer perspective, the planets, and their satellites, have exciting lives, full of events - for e...
How the lives of wild honey bees offer vital lessons for saving the world's managed bee colonies. Humans have kept honey bees in hives for millennia, yet only in recent decades have biologists begun to investigate how these industrious insects live in...
Statistical Rethinking: A Bayesian Course with Examples in R and Stan builds readers’ knowledge of and confidence in statistical modeling. Reflecting the need for even minor programming in today’s model-based statistics, the book pushes readers to pe...
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,...
Most of us have heard of such popular butterflies as the Monarch or Painted Lady. But what about the Fender’s Blue? Or the St. Francis’ Satyr? Because of their extreme rarity, these butterflies are not well-known, yet they are remarkable species with...
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 ...
"New Zealand has an intriguing collection of native freshwater fish that tend to live out their lives largely unnoticed ... Native fish are easy to look after once their needs are understood, and are an interesting and unusual alternative to exotic a...
Nature's Palette is a highly illustrated, immensely entertaining exploration of the science of plant color. Beginning with potent reminders of how deeply interwoven plant colors are with human life and culture-from the shifting hues that told early humans...
Rainforests of Australia's East Coast is aimed primarily at the reader group of more than 500,000 active bushwalkers in Australia. A large percentage of bushwalkers visit all subforms of rainforests on a regular basis and identification of plant species...
66 million years ago the dinosaurs were wiped from the face of the earth. Today a new generation of dinosaur hunters, armed with cutting edge technology, is piecing together the complete story of how the dinosaurs created a hugely successful empire that...
Manta and devil rays are some of the most charismatic creatures in the ocean. Born into a life of perpetual motion, these rays must keep swimming to survive. Driven forward by powerful beats of their wing-like pectoral fins, these filter feeding rays...
Science: 50 in 500 Words discusses the most groundbreaking ideas of 50 of the most important scientists who have shaped the world as we know it. Not only are the key theories and discoveries of each scientist presented in a concise and compelling way,...
"The science is clear: Homo sapiens teeters on the brink of extinction. Industrial civilization is an omnicidal heat engine, yet terminating civilization heats the planet even faster in an outcome termed the McPherson Paradox. Only Love Remains: Dancing...
Stargazer takes you through constellations one-by-one, linking them together as you progress using easy-to-follow star routes that guide you across the celestial sphere. Adapted carefully for the southern hemisphere, this book is perfect for budding....
Many of our ancestors - the Angles, the Saxons, the Norse - came to the British Isles in longships made of oak. For centuries the oak touched every part of a Briton's life - from cradle to coffin It was oak that made the wooden walls of Nelson's navy,...
"The story of a grizzly bear named Millie: her life, death, and cubs, and what they reveal about the changing character of the American West. The grizzly is one of North America's few remaining large predators. Their range is diminished, but they're ...
Over the past twenty years, the study of dinosaurs has changed from natural history to a true scientific discipline. New technologies have revealed secrets locked in the prehistoric bones in ways that nobody predicted - we can now work out the colour...
Welcome to the biggest, fastest, deadliest science book you'll ever read. The world's largest land mammal could help us end cancer. The fastest bird is showing us how to solve a century-old engineering mystery. The oldest tree is giving us insights i...
Presents a history of the human understanding of heredity and how it has shaped society, chronicling the transitions brought about by genetic research and making predictions about how evolving understandings are likely to impact the future.
This book is the first to provide a comprehensive, readily understandable report on the European Space Agency's Gaia mission that will meet the needs of a general audience. It takes the reader on an exciting journey of discovery, explaining how such ...
An engaging critique of the science and metaphysics behind our understanding of the universe. The James Webb Space Telescope, when launched in 2021, will be the premier orbital observatory, capable of studying every phase of the history of the universe,...
How math helps us solve the universe's deepest mysteries One of the great insights of science is that the universe has an underlying order. The supreme goal of physicists is to understand this order through laws that describe the behavior of the most...
An enchanting biography of the most resonant – and most necessary – chemical element on Earth. Carbon. It is the building block of every cell that makes up every living thing. It is the essential component of the food we eat, the fuel we burn, the wood...
This is the captivating story of mathematics' greatest ever idea: calculus. Without it, there would be no computers, no microwave ovens, no GPS, and no space travel. But before it gave modern man almost infinite powers, calculus was behind centuries ...
Darwin's theory of evolution is still the greatest breakthrough in biological science. His explanation of the role of natural selection in driving the evolution of life on earth depended on steady variation of living things over time - but he was unable...
Today, any kid can rattle off the names of dozens of dinosaurs. But it took centuries of scientific effort—and a lot of luck—to discover and establish the diversity of dinosaur species we now know. How did we learn that Triceratops had three horns? Why...
Quantum physics is strange. It tells us that a particle can be in two places at once. Indeed, that particle is also a wave, and everything in the quantum world can be described entirely in terms of waves, or entirely in terms of particles, whichever ...
Greenland: remote, mysterious, ice-covered rock, population 56,000, in the middle of the North Atlantic. Why do we care so much about it? Because locked within the the vast and frozen "white desert"--the nickname early explorers gave it--that covers ...
Ever since Darwin, we have used the metaphor of the 'tree of life' to explain evolution, but this metaphor no longer holds up. Genes don't just move vertically, they can also pass laterally across species boundaries, known as 'horizontal gene transfer'...
Consider the possibility that the evolutionary scientific explanation for mankind has ignored critical facts that are buried deep within the fossils and mankind's DNA.
In early July 1899, an excavation team of paleontologists sponsored by Andrew Carnegie discovered the fossil remains in Wyoming of what was then the longest and largest dinosaur on record. Named after its benefactor, the Diplodocus carnegii—or Dippy,...
Finding our Place in the Solar System' gives a detailed account of how the Earth was displaced from its traditional position at the center of the universe to be recognized as one of several planets orbiting the Sun under the influence of a universal....
David Dickinson, earth science teacher and backyard astronomer, and Fraser Cain, publisher of Universe today, have teamed up to provide expert guidance on observing the night sky. "The universe today ultimate guide to viewing the cosmos" features the...
Math is universal, but it's also the least understood and most undervalued subject taught in school. Two Trains Leave Paris: Number Problems for Word People seeks to offer readers an opportunity to experience math like never before. You must use the....
Unravelling the double helix covers the most colourful period in the history of DNA, from the discovery of 'nuclein' in the late 1860s to the landmark publication of James Watson's The double helix in 1968. These hundred years included the advent of the...
The theory of plate tectonics transformed earth science. The hypothesis that the earth’s outermost layers consist of mostly rigid plates that move over an inner surface helped describe the growth of new seafloor, confirm continental drift, and explain...
In Underland, Macfarland delivers his masterpiece: an epic exploration of the Earth's underworlds as they exist in myth, literature, memory, and the land itself. He takes us on an extraordinary journey into our relationship with darkness, burial, and...
Contrary to popular belief, maths requires creative, as well as analytical thinking. Many people think there's only one way to solve a problem, when in fact there are often a number of methods - you just need the creativity to see them. Whether you are...
Get your pulse racing with Australia's most popular scientist, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki. Discover why people tell lies, why some planets are hotter than stars and how humans are terraforming the Earth. Is cockroach milk really the next Superfood? Why are...
Out of sight, underfoot, unseen beyond fleeting scuttles or darting flights, insects occupy a hidden world, yet are essential to sustaining life on earth. Insects influence our ecosystem like a ripple effect on water. They arrived when life first moved...
In 1859 Darwin described a deceptively simple mechanism that he called "natural selection," a combination of variation, inheritance, and reproductive success. He argued that this mechanism was the key to explaining the most puzzling features of the n...
The aim is to make manageable what would otherwise be regarded as hard; to make derivations as simple as possible and physical ideas as transparent as possible. Lorentz invariants and four-vectors are introduced early on, but tensor notation is postponed...
An archive of never-before-published illustrations of insects and plants painted by a pioneering naturalist. During his lifetime (1751-ca. 1840), English-born naturalist and artist John Abbot rendered more than 4,000 natural history illustrations and...
Galaxies - the Milky Way's siblings - offer a surprising variety of forms and colours. Displaying symmetrical spiral arms, glowing red nebulae or diffuse halos, even the image of a galaxy can reveal much about its construction. All galaxies consist of...
A beautifully illustrated exploration of the science behind the awe-inspiring giants of past and present The colossal plants and animals of our world-dinosaurs, whales, and even trees-are a source of unending fascination, and their sheer scale can be...
Ospreys are one of the few bird species that are found throughout the world. From forests in Hokkaido to rivers in Oregon and islands off Australia, Ospreys steal the show as nature lovers easily watch them build their massive nests and tend to their...
From the eastern rainforests to central deserts, Australia is home to some 900 species of birds. This book covers over 400 Australian bird watching sites conveniently grouped into the best birding areas, from one end of the country to the other. This...
Art Wolfe's immersive photos capture the wonder humans have felt about trees for millennia. From the biblical Tree of Life to the Native American Tree of Peace, trees have played an archetypal role in human culture and spirituality since time immemorial....
The birth of a world-changing idea, relativity, and how it was shaped by the social upheaval and bloody horror of the First World War.
Born into a life of perpetual motion, manta rays must keep swimming to survive. Driven forward by powerful beats of their wing-like pectoral fins, they search the ocean currents for concentrated patches of the tiny planktonic organisms on which they feed....
Listing more than 500 sky targets, both near and far, in 187 challenges, this observing guide will test novice astronomers and advanced veterans alike. Its unique mix of Solar System and deep-sky targets will have observers hunting for the Apollo lunar...
Since time immemorial, the nocturnal skies have mesmerized people, and heavenly bodies have inspired the imaginations of artists, poets, and scientists. This book showcases the superstars of the firmament and universe in sumptuous illustrations featu...
How do we take in the beauty of our planet while processing the losses? What trees can survive in the city? Which animals can survive in the wild? How do any of us—humans, animals, trees—find a forest we can call home? In these moving, thought-provoking...
Emotions are powerful. In newspaper headlines, on social media and in political debates, they have become the primary way of understanding the world around us. But emotions have a way of obscuring the truth, and of making it more difficult to see the...
Expertly guided by renowned cosmologist Dr. David Lyth, learn about the pioneering scientists whose work provided the foundation for Einstein's formulation of his theories of relativity, and about Einstein's groundbreaking life and work as well. This...
Your complete guide to acing Algebra II Do quadratic equations make you queasy? Does the mere thought of logarithms make you feel lethargic? You're not alone! Algebra can induce anxiety in the best of us, especially for the masses that have never counted...
Based on over one hundred interviews with leading scientists and conservation managers, Irus Braverman documents a community caught in an existential crisis and alternating between des-pair and hope. In this book, corals emerge as signs and measures,...
Blending history and fantasy, science and art, the story of how dinosaurs were discovered and reimagined comes to life through splendid illustrations in this handsome slipcased volume. Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, Tyrannosaurus?these exoti...
Mercury, a lifeless victim of the Sun’s expanding power. Venus, once thought to be lush and fertile, now known to be trapped within a toxic and boiling atmosphere. Mars, the red planet, doomed by the loss of its atmosphere. Jupiter, twice the size of...
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 obedience to the laws of physics and chemistry, "Genesis" demonstrates that...
Scores of students hate and fear math, so they end up leaving school without an understanding of basic mathematical concepts. How can we help all children know that they have vast mathematical potential? How can teachers instruct in a way that brings...
The book comprises 15 short chapters, each presenting an important equation of Physics, from the simplest and oldest, to more complex and recent ones. The target audience is the interested general public, hence no mathematics is involved (beyond the ...
Quantum physics has been, ever since its inception, the golden child of science. It is the basis of our understanding of everything from elemental particles to the behaviour of materials. Yet is has also been a troubled child, beset by controversy and...
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...
"Twenty years ago, the search for planets--and life--outside the solar system was a job restricted to science fiction writers. It is now one of the most rapidly growing fields in astronomy, with thousands of these "exoplanets" discovered so far. The ...
Have you ever wondered why ice floats and water is such a freaky liquid? Or why chillies and mustard are both hot but in different ways? Or why microwaves don't cook from the inside out? In this fascinating scientific tour of household objects, The One...
The science journalist draws on ancient food traditions and the latest research on healthy gut maintenance to explain the role of the microbiome and how to adapt a diet to promote optimal microbiome balance.
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.
This 10th-anniversary edition of Bruce Lipton's best-selling book The Biology of Belief will be updated to bolster the book's central premise with the latest scientific discoveries - and there have been a lot in the last decade. The Biology of Belief...
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