Science: general issues Books

Internationally known theoretical physicist and bestselling author Lawrence Krauss offers provocative, revelatory answers to the most basic philosophical questions: Where did our universe come from? Why is there something rather than nothing? And how is it all going to end? Why is there something ra...

This is a brilliant new book from the bestselling author of "The Tipping Point" and "Blink". Why are people successful? For centuries, humankind has grappled with this question, searching for the secret to accomplishing great things. In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell ta...

'Quiet is a startling, important and readable page-turner that will make quiet people see themselves in a whole new light.' Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth 'Once in a blue moon, a book comes along that gives us startling new insights. Quiet is that book: part page-turner, part cutting-edge...

“Answers around 100 questions we’ve all wondered about or asked…. A tremendous amount of potentially useful information in a well-written, entertaining, and easy-to-understand format.”—Library Journal Do gentlemen really prefer blondes? Marilyn Monroe, Scarlet Johansson and Gwyneth Paltrow would ...

"A Brief History of Time," published in 1988, was a landmark volume in science writing and in world-wide acclaim and popularity, with more than 9 million copies in print globally. The original edition was on the cutting edge of what was then known about the origins and nature of the univer...

Bill Bryson describes himself as a reluctant traveller: but even when he stays safely in his own study at home, he can't contain his curiosity about the world around him. A Short History of Nearly Everything is his quest to find out everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civil...

"A powerful argument for how to think about the place of religion in the modern world. It's going to be a classic." -- Seed Magazine "The God Delusion" caused a sensation when it was published in 2006. Within weeks it became the most hotly debated topic, with Dawkins himself b...

Our understanding of life on earth is always developing. In this age of genetics and microbiology, Andreas Suchantke brings a lifetime of holistic biological research to the question of the development and evolution of plants and animals. Following Goethe's participatory method, and drawing on his o...

Britain's greatest science writer comprehensively rebuts the creationists by pulling together the incontrovertible evidence for evolution. In 1859 Charles Darwin's masterpiece, On the Origin of Species, shook society to its core. Darwin was only too aware of the storm his theory of evolution woul...

The Fabric of the Cosmos is an astonishing grand tour of the universe and the best layman's guide to current thinking on 'how everything works'. This rollercoaster ride explores the mysteries of space and time; asks questions about the nature of reality, dark matter, space warps and wiggles; and wil...

Roundworld is in trouble again, and this time it looks fatal. Having created it in the first place, the wizards of Unseen University feel vaguely responsible for its safety. They know the creatures who lived there escaped the impending Big Freeze by inventing the space elevator - they even intervene...

Paul Davies' The Mind of God is a scientific search for the meaning of the universe. Ranging across the cosmos, Davies explores the origin of the universe, the laws of nature, mathematics, the beginning and end of everything. Ultimately, he seeks to provide a glimpse into the meaning of it all. This...

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 ...

No one has done more to shape our view of what makes us human than Charles Darwin, whose seismic theory of evolution turned the Victorian world upside down, utterly rewrote our notions of life on earth and is still attacked by religious creationists today.

Guardian columnist Dr Ben Goldacre takes us on a hilarious, invigorating and informative journey through the bad science we're fed by the worst of the hacks and the quacks! When Dr Ben Goldacre saw someone on daytime TV dipping her feet in an 'Aqua Detox' footbath, releasing her toxins into the wat...

Victoria University physicist Paul Callaghan has given a series of public lectures around New Zealand, sponsored by the David and Genevieve Becroft Foundation and the Royal Society of New Zealand, entitled 'Beyond the Farm and the Theme Park'. The lectures have been on the subject of sustainable wea...

Einstein is the great icon of our age: the kindly refugee from oppression whose wild halo of hair, twinkling eyes, engaging humanity and extraordinary brilliance made his face a symbol and his name a synonym for genius. He was a rebel and nonconformist from boyhood days. His character, creativity an...

How would the world change if human beings vanished from the earth right now, for good? What would the planet be like in a day, a week, a month...a millennium? Just how long will our greatest achievements and our biggest mistakes last after we are gone? To discover the answers, Alan Weisman looks to...

THE ANT AND THE FERRARI offers readers a clear, navigable path through the big questions that confront us all today. What is the meaning of life? Can we be ethical beings in today’s world? Can we know if there is life after death? Is there such a thing as Absolute Truth? What caused the Big B...

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer whose cancer cells - taken without her knowledge - became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first 'immortal' human tissue grown in culture, HeLa cells were vital for developing the po...

The Wonders of the Solar System as you have never seen them before. Prof Brian Cox introduces the planets and moons beyond our world, finding the biggest, most bizarre, most powerful natural phenomena. Using the latest scientific imagery along with cutting edge CGI and some of the most spectac...

Almost fifty years after he first crossed the small screen, Doctor Who remains a science fiction touchstone. His exploits are thrilling, his world is mind-boggling, and that time travel machine is almost certainly an old-fashioned blue police box once commonly found in London. Paul Parsons's plain-...

Most people would like to be more creative, more persuasive and more attractive. For years, gurus and 'life coaches' have urged people to improve their lives by changing the way they think and behave, but scientific research has revealed that many of their techniques, from group brainstorming to vis...

An astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries- old notion that the human brain is immutable. In this revolutionary look at the brain, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Norman Doidge, M.D., provides an introduction to both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplast...

Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books, Richard Holmes's dazzling portrait of the age of great scientific discovery is a groundbreaking achievement. The book opens with Joseph Banks, botanist on Captain Cook's first Endeavour voyage, who ste...

"A glorious book . . . A spirited defense of science . . . From the first page to the last, this book is a manifesto for clear thought." ; *Los Angeles Times "POWERFUL . . . A stirring defense of informed rationality. . . Rich in surprising information and beautiful writing." ...

The story of a man's obsession with whales, which takes him on a personal, historical and biographical journey -- from his childhood to his fascination with Moby-Dick and his excursions whale-watching. All his life, Philip Hoare has been obsessed by whales, from the gigantic skeletons in London's Na...

Gathered in this book is a collection of flawed plans, half baked ideas, and downright ridiculous machines that, with the best and most optimistic intentions, men have constructed throughout history. Included are such military, scientific, commercial, and infrustructure disasters as: • The...

The million copy international bestseller, critically acclaimed and translated into over 25 languages. This 30th anniversary edition includes a new introduction from the author as well as the original prefaces and foreword, and extracts from early reviews. As relevant and influential today as when i...

Science meets the visual arts in this exciting interpretation of the periodic table of the elements. Whilst the layout is conventional, the elements are illustrated in an innovative way that looks at the manner in which they affect our daily lives. The result is a collection of stunning visual image...

The acclaimed Science of Discworld centred around an original Pratchett story about the Wizards of Discworld. In it they accidentally witnessed the creation and evolution of our universe, a plot which was interleaved with a Cohen & Stewart non-fiction narrative about Big Science. In The Science ...

If you can transplant a face, then why not a penis? Why doesn't Viagra help women or, for that matter, pandas? Does an orgasm boost fertility? Cure hiccups? Do the earlobes swell during sex? Can a person think herself to orgasm? Can a dead man get an erection? Can Kegeling cure erectile dysfunction?...

How easy is it to fall off a log? Where is the middle of nowhere? Do we really have no bananas? The readers of OLD GIT magazine are a batty, befuddled, potty-mouthed bunch, who seem to spend a significant chunk of their spare time corresponding with the publication's popular letters page. DO ANTS HA...

Sex is a subject as fascinating to scientists as it is to the rest of us. From the contentious problem of why the wasteful reproductive process exists at all, to questions of how individuals choose their mates and what traits they find attractive and why, research into the nature of sex has given ri...

The river of Dawkins's title is a river of DNA, flowing through time from the beginning of life on earth to the present - and onwards. Dawkins explains that DNA must be thought of as the most sophisticated information system imaginable: 'Life is just bytes and bytes of information,' he writes. Using...

The science delusion is the belief that science already understands the nature of reality. The fundamental questions are answered, leaving only the details to be filled in. In this book, Dr Rupert Sheldrake, one of the world's most innovative scientists, shows that science is being constricted by as...

Do we have bigger brains than dolphins? Does your dog remember where it buried its bone? Why don't sheep laugh or gorillas lie? Why do we remember faces but not names? In 21 short walks around the human brain, acclaimed psychologist Michael Corballis answers these and other questions by introducing ...

Why did Gandhi hate iodine (I, 53)? How did radium (Ra, 88) nearly ruin Marie Curie's reputation? And why is gallium (Ga, 31) the go-to element for laboratory pranksters?* The Periodic Table is a crowning scientific achievement, but it's also a treasure trove of adventure, betrayal, and obsession. T...

This 'Classic New Scientist Q&As' - now fully illustrated. Illustrated for the first time, with eighty full-colour photographs showing the beauty, complexity and mystery of the world around us, here is the next eagerly awaited volume of science questions and answers from "New Scientist" magazine. Fr...

When and how did the universe begin? Why are we here? Is the apparent 'grand design' of our universe evidence for a benevolent creator who set things in motion? Or does science offer another explanation? In "The Grand Design", the most recent scientific thinking about the mysteries of the universe i...