Popular Science

Oliver Sacks was born in 1933 in London and was educated at Queen's College, Oxford. He completed his medical training at San Francisco's Mount Zion Hospital and at UCLA before moving to New York, where he soon encountered the patients whom he would write about in his book Awakenings.Dr Sacks spent almost fifty years working as a neurologist and wrote many books, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Musicophilia, and Hallucinations, about the strange neurological predicaments and conditions of his patients. The New York Times referred to him as 'the poet laureate of medicine', and over the years he received many awards, including honours from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Royal College of Physicians. In 2008, he was appointed Commander of the British Empire. His memoir, On the Move, was published shortly before his death in August 2015.

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Now in its fifth edition, Diffusion of Innovations is a classic work on the spread of new ideas. In this renowned book, Everett M. Rogers, professor and chair of the Department of Communication & Journalism at the University of New Mexico, explains how new ideas spread via communication channels over time. Such innovations are initially perceived as uncertain and even risky. To overcome this uncertainty, most people seek out others like themselves who have already adopted the new idea. Thus the diffusion process consists of a few individuals who first adopt an innovation, then spread the word among their circle of acquaintances—a process which typically takes months or years. But there are exceptions: use of the Internet in the 1990's, for example, may have spread more rapidly than any other innovation in the history of humankind. Furthermore, the Internet is changing the very nature of diffusion by decreasing the importance of physical distance between people. The fifth edition addresses the spread of the Internet, and how it has transformed the way human beings communicate and adopt new ideas.

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'Brilliantly clear and captivating prose' Stephen Fry A WATERSTONES BOOK OF YEAR 2023 An award-winning mathematician explores the maths behind the games we love and why we love to play them. Where should you move first in Connect 4? What is the best property in Monopoly? And how can pi help you win rock paper scissors? Spanning millennia, oceans and continents, countries and cultures, Around the World in 80 Games gleefully explores how mathematics and games have always been deeply intertwined. Marcus du Sautoy investigates how games provided the first opportunities for deep mathematical insight into the world, how understanding maths can help us play games better, and how both maths and games are integral to human psychology and culture. For as long as there have been people, there have been games, and for nearly as long, we have been exploring and discovering mathematics. A grand adventure, Around the World in 80 Games teaches us not just how games are won, but how they, and the maths behind them, shape who we are.

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From Indian vultures to Chinese bees, Nature provides the 'natural services' that keep the economy going. From the recycling miracles in the soil; an army of predators ridding us of unwanted pests; an abundance of life creating a genetic codebook that underpins our food, pharmaceutical industries and much more, it has been estimated that these and other services are each year worth about double global GDP. Yet we take most of Nature's services for granted, imagining them free and limitless ... until they suddenly switch off. This is a book full of immediate, impactful stories, containing both warnings (such as in the tale of India's vultures, killed off by drugs given to cattle, leading to an epidemic of rabies) but also the positive (how birds protect fruit harvests, coral reefs protect coasts from storms and how the rainforests absorb billions of tonnes of carbon released from cars and power stations). Tony Juniper's book will change whole way you think about life, the planet and the economy

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'A fantastic compendium of skeptical thinking and the perfect primer for anyone who wants to separate fact from fiction.' Richard Wiseman, author 59 Seconds'Thorough, informative, and enlightening... If this book does not become required reading for us all, we may well see modern civilization unravel before our eyes.' Neil deGrasse Tyson, author of Astrophysics for People in a HurryIn this tie-in to their popular 'The Skeptics Guide to the Universe' podcast, Steven Novella, along with 'Skeptical Rogues' Bob Novella, Cara Santa Maria, Jay Novella and Evan Bernstein explain the tenets of skeptical thinking and debunk some of the biggest scientific myths, fallacies and conspiracy theories (anti-vaccines, homeopathy, UFO sightings, and many more.) They'll help us try to make sense of what seems like an increasingly crazy world using powerful tools like science and philosophy. The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is your guide through this maze of modern life. It covers essential critical thinking skills, as well as giving insight into how your brain works and how to avoid common pitfalls in thinking. They discuss the difference between science and pseudoscience, how to recognize common science news tropes, how to discuss conspiracy theories with that crazy colleague of yours, and how to apply all of this to everyday life.As fascinating as it is entertaining, this page turner is your essential guide to seeing through the fake news and media manipulation in our increasingly confusing world.

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Fully updated throughout and with a new foreword for this edition.Why do most diets fail? Why does one person eat a certain meal and gain weight, while another eating the same meal loses pounds? Why, despite all the advice about what to eat, are we all still getting fatter?The answers are much more surprising - and fascinating - than we've been led to believe. The key to health and weight loss lies not in the latest fad diet, nor even in the simple mantra of 'eat less, exercise more', but in the microbes already inside us. Drawing on the latest science and his own pioneering research, Professor Tim Spector demystifies the common misconceptions about fat, calories, vitamins and nutrients. Only by understanding what makes our own personal microbes tick can we overcome the confusion of modern nutrition, and achieve a healthy gut and a healthy body.

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TheNew York Timesbestselling "manifesto for the future that is grounded in practical solutions addressing the world's most pressing concerns: overpopulation, food, water, energy, education, health care and freedom" (The Wall Street Journal). Since the dawn of humanity, a privileged few have lived in stark contrast to the hardscrabble majority. Conventional wisdom says this gap cannot be closed. But it is closing-fast. InAbundance, space entrepreneur turned innovation pioneer Peter H. Diamandis and award-winning science writer Steven Kotler document how progress in artificial intelligence, robotics, digital manufacturing synthetic biology, and other exponentially growing technologies will enable us to make greater gains in the next two decades than we have in the previous 200 years. We will soon have the ability to meet and exceed the basic needs of every person on the planet. Abundance for all is within our grasp. Breaking down human needs by category-water, food, energy, healthcare, education, freedom-Diamandis and Kotler introduce us to innovators and industry captains making tremendous strides in each area. "Not only isAbundancea riveting page-turner…but it's a book that gives us a future worth fighting for. And even more than that, it shows us our place in that fight" (The Christian Science Monitor).

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A lively argument from award-winning journalist proving the key to reversing health crisis lies in the overlooked link between nutrition and flavour: “The Dorito Effect is one of the most important health and food books I have read” (Dr. David B. Agus, New York Times bestselling author). We are in the grip of a food crisis. Obesity has become a leading cause of preventable death, after only smoking. For nearly half a century we’ve been trying to pin the blame somewhere, fat, carbs, sugar, wheat, high-fructose corn syrup. But that search has been in vain, because the food problem that’s killing us is not a nutrient problem. It’s a behavioural problem, and it’s caused by the changing flavour of the food we eat. Ever since the 1940s, with the rise of industrialized food production, we have been gradually leeching the taste out of what we grow. Simultaneously, we have taken great leaps forward in technology, creating a flavour industry, worth billions annually; in an attempt to put back the tastes we’ve engineered out of our food. The result is a cuisine that increasingly resembles the paragon of flavour manipulation: Doritos. As food becomes increasingly bland, we dress it up with calories and flavour chemicals to make it delicious again. We have rewired our palates and our brains, and the results are making us sick and killing us. With in-depth historical and scientific research, The Dorito Effect casts the food crisis in a fascinating new light, weaving an enthralling tale of how we got to this point and where we are headed.

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WINNER OF THE BRITISH PSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY AWARD 2022A SUNDAY TIMES BEST PAPERBACK OF 2023 A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEKA FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2022: HEALTH AND WELLBEINGA WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2022: POPULAR SCIENCE---People who believe ageing brings wisdom live longer.Lucky charms really do improve an athlete's performance.Taking a placebo, even when you know it is a placebo, can still improve your health.Welcome to The Expectation Effect.David Robson takes us on a tour of the cutting-edge research happening right now that suggests our expectations shape our experience. Of course, you can't just think yourself thinner, happier or fitter, but using this book you can reframe many different facets of your life. These easy-to-use skills will help you on your way to becoming the person you want to be, living the life you want to live.

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A highly contentious, very readable and totally up-to-the-minute investigation of women’s natural relationship with modern technology, an association which, Plant argues, will trigger a new sexual revolution. Zeros and Ones is an intelligent, provocative and accessible investigation of the intersection between women, feminism, machines and in particular, information technology. Arguing that the computer is rewriting the old conceptions of man and his world, it suggests that the telecoms revolution is also a sexual revolution which undermines the fundamental assumptions crucial to patriarchal culture. Historical, contemporary and future developments in telecommunications and in IT are interwoven with the past, present and future of feminism, women and sexual difference, and a wealth of connections, parallels and affinities between machines and women are uncovered as a result. Challenging the belief that man was ever in control of either his own agency, the planet, or his machines, this book argues it is seriously undermined by the new scientific paradigms emergent from theories of chaos, complexity and connectionism, all of which suggest that the old distinctions between man, woman, nature and technology need to be radically reassessed.

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AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4 'A GOOD READ' THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 'GAWANDE'S MOST POWERFUL, AND MOVING, BOOK' MALCOLM GLADWELL 'BEING MORTAL IS NOT ONLY WISE AND DEEPLY MOVING; IT IS AN ESSENTIAL AND INSIGHTFUL BOOK FOR OUR TIMES' OLIVER SACKS For most of human history, death was a common, ever-present possibility. It didn't matter whether you were five or fifty - every day was a roll of the dice. But now, as medical advances push the boundaries of survival further each year, we have become increasingly detached from the reality of being mortal. So here is a book about the modern experience of mortality - about what it's like to get old and die, how medicine has changed this and how it hasn't, where our ideas about death have gone wrong. With his trademark mix of perceptiveness and sensitivity, Atul Gawande outlines a story that crosses the globe, as he examines his experiences as a surgeon and those of his patients and family, and learns to accept the limits of what he can do. Never before has aging been such an important topic. The systems that we have put in place to manage our mortality are manifestly failing; but, as Gawande reveals, it doesn't have to be this way. The ultimate goal, after all, is not a good death, but a good life - all the way to the very end.

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Beloved MIT professor Walter Lewin, whose riveting physics lectures have made him a YouTube super-star, offers a mind-opening and delightful journey through the most intriguing discoveries in physics. A wonderful raconteur, Lewin takes readers on a marvellous journey with him in For the Love of Physics, opening our eyes as never before to the amazing beauty and power of all that physics can reveal to us. He describes the coolest, weirdest facets of the tiniest bits of matter, the wonders of our everyday lives-such as the mysteries of why lighting strikes and what makes musical harmony happen-and the most awesome features of the outer reaches of the universe. Whether explaining why the air smells so fresh after a lightning storm or showing us that a flea is strong enough to pull a heavy book across a table, Lewin always entertains as he edifies. For the Love of Physicsis a rare gem that will change the way readers see the world.

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The definitive guide to mathematical problem solving, from one of the great teachers of the twentieth centuryGeorge Pólya's perennial bestseller has inspired generations around the world to think more clearly. Brilliantly showing how 'there is a grain of discovery in the solution of any problem', his strategies for mathematical problem-solving - from finding weak points to squeezing the data - will help get to the bottom of any puzzle.'A superb book on how to think fresh thoughts ... A walk inside Pólya's mind as he builds up maxims on how to comprehend a problem, how to build up a strategy, and then how to test it' David Bodanis, Guardian'Everyone should know the work of George Polya on how to solve problems' Marvin Minsky'A classic ... It is the outcome of careful and informed deliberation by one of the great teachers among the ranks of research mathematicians' Ian Stewart, author of Does God Play Dice?'Every prospective teacher should read it' E. T. Bell

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Ten years ago, Darwin's Black Box launched the Intelligent Design movement: the argument that nature exhibits evidence of design, beyond Darwinian randomness. Today the movement is stronger than ever, and the book is a classic and an international bestseller. At last, Michael Behe has updated the book with a major new afterword on the state of the debate. The Intelligent Design movement was born when a handful of scientists realized that nature exhibits characteristics that could not have evolved by random mutation. Prominent among them was Michael Behe, a microbiologist working in a field that Darwin could not even have imagined existing. Microbiology has discovered staggering complexity at the cellular level of life and during his research Behe made a stunning discovery: Some parts of life are irreducibly complex. They cannot function without all of their parts. Yet step-by-step genetic mutations would never produce all of those parts together at once. Some parts of the biological world must have been designed. From one end of the spectrum to the other, DARWIN'S BLACK BOX has established itself as the key text in the intelligent design movement, the one argument that must be addressed in order to determine whether Darwinian evolution is sufficient to explain life as we know it, or not.

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Ben Goldacre’s wise and witty bestseller, shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, lifts the lid on quack doctors, flaky statistics, scaremongering journalists and evil pharmaceutical corporations. Since 2003 Dr Ben Goldacre has been exposing dodgy medical data in his popular Guardian column. In this eye-opening book he takes on the MMR hoax and misleading cosmetics ads, acupuncture and homeopathy, vitamins and mankind’s vexed relationship with all manner of ‘toxins’. Along the way, the self-confessed ‘Johnny Ball cum Witchfinder General’ performs a successful detox on a Barbie doll, sees his dead cat become a certified nutritionist and probes the supposed medical qualifications of ‘Dr’ Gillian McKeith. Full spleen and satire, Ben Goldacre takes us on a hilarious, invigorating and ultimately alarming journey through the bad science we are fed daily by hacks and quacks.

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The BMA Medical Book Award-shortlisted story of the search for p53 - the most important gene in medicine. All of us have lurking in our DNA a most remarkable gene, which has a crucial job – it protects us from cancer. Known simply as p53, this gene constantly scans our cells to ensure that they grow and divide without mishap. If a cell makes a mistake in copying its DNA during the process of division, p53 stops it in its tracks, summoning a repair team before allowing the cell to carry on dividing. If the mistake is irreparable and the rogue cell threatens to grow out of control, p53 commands the cell to commit suicide. Cancer cannot develop unless p53 itself is damaged or prevented from functioning normally. This book tells the story of medical science’s mission to unravel the mysteries of this crucial gene, and to get to the heart of what happens in our cells when they turn cancerous. Through the personal accounts of key researchers, p53: The Gene that Cracked the Cancer Code reveals the fascination of the quest for scientific understanding, as well as the excitement of the chase for new cures – the hype, the enthusiasm, the lost opportunities, the blind alleys, and the breakthroughs. And as the long-anticipated revolution in cancer treatment tailored to individual patient’s symptoms begins to take off at last, p53 remains at the cutting edge. This tale of scientific discovery highlights the tremendous recent advances made in our understanding of cancer, a disease that affects more than one in three of us at some point in our lives.

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Our phones, computers, and appliances are made of hundreds of internal components, each precisely engineered, but none intended to be seen. Through painstakingly executed, vividly detailed cross-section photography, Open Circuits reveals the surprising beauty hiding inside the electronic components that drive our everyday devices. From resistors to LEDs, USB cables to headphone jacks, the book's arresting imagery transforms more than 130 components into delightful works of art. As you visually dissect the components' insides, you'll learn about how they work and how they were made.

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There is not just one story of silk.In silk is science, history and mythology.In silk is the future. Aarathi Prasad’s Silk is a gorgeous new history weaving together the story of a unique material that has fascinated the world for millennia. Through the scientists who have studied silk, and the biology of the animals from which it has been drawn, Prasad explores the global history, natural history, and future of a unique material that has fascinated the world for millennia. For silk, prized for its lightness, luminosity, and beauty is also one of the strongest biological materials ever known. More than a century ago, it was used to make the first bulletproof vest, and yet science has barely even begun to tap its potential. As the technologies it has inspired – from sutures to pharmaceuticals, replacement body parts to holograms – continue to be developed in laboratories around the world, they are now also beginning to offer a desperately needed, sustainable alternative to the plastics choking our planet. Prasad's Silk is a cultural and biological history from the origins and ancient routes of silk to the biologists who learned the secrets of silk-producing animals, manipulating the habitats and physiologies of moths, spiders and molluscs. Because there is more than one silk, there is more than one story of silk. More than one road, more than one people who discovered it, and wove its threads. From the moths of China, Indonesia and India to the spiders of South America and Madagascar, to the silk-producing molluscs of the Mediterranean, Silk is a book rich in the passionate connections made by women and men of science to the diversity of the animal world. It is an intoxicating mix of biography, intellectual history and science writing that brings to life the human obsession with silk.

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The human brain is made up of 85 billion neurons, which are connected by over 100 trillion synapses. For more than a century, a diverse array of researchers searched for a language that could be used to capture the essence of what these neurons do and how they communicate – and how those communications create thoughts, perceptions and actions. The language they were looking for was mathematics, and we would not be able to understand the brain as we do today without it. In Models of the Mind, author and computational neuroscientist Grace Lindsay explains how mathematical models have allowed scientists to understand and describe many of the brain’s processes, including decision-making, sensory processing, quantifying memory, and more. She introduces readers to the most important concepts in modern neuroscience, and highlights the tensions that arise when the abstract world of mathematical modelling collides with the messy details of biology. Each chapter of Models of the Mind focuses on mathematical tools that have been applied in a particular area of neuroscience, progressing from the simplest building block of the brain – the individual neuron – through to circuits of interacting neurons, whole brain areas and even the behaviours that brains command. Lindsay examines the history of the field, starting with experiments done on frog legs in the late eighteenth century and building to the large models of artificial neural networks that form the basis of modern artificial intelligence. Throughout, she reveals the value of using the elegant language of mathematics to describe the machinery of neuroscience.

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'Nerd royalty' Ben Goldacre 'Laugh-out-loud funny' Bill Gates'Totally brilliant' Tim HarfordWHAT IF you still had so many more strange questions about the universe?And WHAT IF Randall Munroe, former NASA roboticist and xkcd creator, were prepared to move mountains, fill the solar system with soup and alter the space-time continuum to answer them?Whether it's how to make a lava lamp out of lava or feeding the inhabitants of New York to a T. Rex, welcome to the weird, wonderful (and sometimes terrifying) world of WHAT IF? 2

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Life is the most extraordinary phenomenon in the known universe; but how does it work? Even in this age of cloning and synthetic biology, the remarkable truth remains: nobody has ever made anything living entirely out of dead material. Life remains the only way to make life. Are we missing a vital ingredient in its creation? Like Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, which provided a new perspective on evolution, Life on the Edge alters our understanding of life's dynamics as Jim Al-Khalili and Johnjoe Macfadden reveal the hitherto missing ingredient to be quantum mechanics. Drawing on recent ground-breaking experiments around the world, they show how photosynthesis relies on subatomic particles existing in many places at once, while inside enzymes, those workhorses of life that make every molecule within our cells, particles vanish from one point in space and instantly materialize in another. Each chapter in Life on the Edge opens with an engaging example that illustrates one of life’s puzzles – How do migrating birds know where to go? How do we really smell the scent of a rose? How do our genes manage to copy themselves with such precision? – and then reveals how quantum mechanics delivers its answer. Guiding the reader through the maze of rapidly unfolding discovery, Al-Khalili and McFadden communicate vividly the excitement of this explosive new field of quantum biology, with its potentially revolutionary applications, and also offer insights into the biggest puzzle of all: what is life?

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 AAAS/SUBARU SB&F PRIZE FOR EXCELLENCE IN SCIENCE BOOKS How new elements are discovered, why they matter and where they will take us. Creating an element is no easy feat. It’s the equivalent of firing six trillion bullets a second at a needle in a haystack, hoping the bullet and needle somehow fuse together, then catching it in less than a thousandth of a second – after which it’s gone forever. Welcome to the world of the superheavy elements: a realm where scientists use giant machines and spend years trying to make a single atom of mysterious artefacts that have never existed on Earth. From the first elements past uranium, and their role in the atomic bomb, to the latest discoveries stretching the bounds of our chemical world, Superheavy reveals the hidden stories lurking at the edges of the periodic table. Why did US Air Force fly planes into mushroom clouds? Who won the transfermium wars? How did an earthquake help give Japan its first element? And what happened when Superman almost spilled nuclear secrets? In a globe-trotting adventure that stretches from the United States to Russia, Sweden to Australia, Superheavy is your guide to the amazing science filling in the missing pieces of the periodic table. You’ll not only marvel at how nuclear science has changed our lives – you’ll wonder where it’s going to take us in the future.

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Discover and understand the key ideas that underpin the core science of chemistry and learn about the great minds who uncovered them Written in plain English, The Chemistry Book is packed with short, pithy explanations of some of the most historic moments in science, from the birth of atomic theory to the discovery of polyethylene and the development of new vaccine technologies to combat COVID-19. Simple graphics, such as flowcharts and mind maps, support the text and make the explanation of key concepts easy to follow.Arranged in chronological order, the book covers key themes in the physical and natural sciences, such as geochemistry and the elements. Within each chapter, a series of articles traces the history of scientific thought and introduces the work of the scientists who have shaped the subject such as John Dalton, Marie Curie, Dmitri Mendeleev, Kathleen Lonsdale, and Stephanie Kwolek. Along the way, the book addresses some of the most fundamental questions in science, such as what is the universe made of, how is matter created, and what are the chemical bonds that make life possible?Whether you are new to chemistry, a student of the sciences, or just want to keep up with and understand the latest news and scientific debates, The Chemistry Book is for you.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ‘Sean Carroll has achieved something I thought impossible: a bridge between popular science and the mathematical universe of working physicists. Magnificent!’ Brian Clegg, author of Ten Days in Physics that Shook the World Immense, strange and infinite, the world of modern physics often feels impenetrable to the undiscerning eye – a jumble of muons, gluons and quarks, impossible to explain without several degrees and a research position at CERN. But it doesn’t have to be this way! Allow world-renowned theoretical physicist and bestselling author Sean Carroll to guide you through the biggest ideas in the universe. Elegant and simple, Carroll unravels this web of theories and formulae equation by equation, getting to the heart of the truths they represent. — In Space, Time and Motion, the first book of this landmark trilogy, Carroll delves into the core of classical physics. From Euclid to Einstein, Space, Time and Motion explores the ideas which revolutionised science and forever changed our understanding of our place in the cosmos.

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A BOOK OF THE YEARGUARDIAN, THE ECONOMIST, NEW STATESMAN, FINANCIAL TIMES, BLOOMBERGAnil Seth's radical new theory of consciousness challenges our understanding of perception and reality, doing for brain science what Dawkins did for evolutionary biology.'A brilliant beast of a book.' DAVID BYRNE'Hugely important.' JIM AL-KHALILI'Masterly . . . An exhilarating book: a vast-ranging, phenomenal achievement that will undoubtedly become a seminal text.'GAIA VINCE, GUARDIANBeing You is not as simple as it sounds. Somehow, within each of our brains, billions of neurons work to create our conscious experience. How does this happen? Why do we experience life in the first person? After over twenty years researching the brain, world-renowned neuroscientist Anil Seth puts forward a radical new theory of consciousness and self. His unique theory of what it means to 'be you' challenges our understanding of perception and reality and it turns what you thought you knew about yourself on its head.'Seth thinks clearly and sharply on one of the hardest problems of science and philosophy, cutting through weeds with a scientist's mind and a storyteller's skill.'ADAM RUTHERFORD'A page-turner and a mind-blower . . . Beautifully written, crystal clear, deeply insightful.' DAVID EAGLEMAN'If you read one book about conciousness, it must be Seth's.JULIAN BAGGINI, WALL STREET JOURNAL'I loved it.' MICHAEL POLLAN'Fascinating.' FINANCIAL TIMES'Awe-inspring.' NEW STATESMAN'Brilliant.' CLAIRE TOMALIN, NEW YORK TIMES

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Winner of British Psychological Society Best Book Prize (Popular Science) 2023 Nature’s Top 10 Books of 2023 A Financial Times Book of the Year 2023 A Waterstones Book of the Year for Politics 2023 One of the world’s top experts on fighting misinformation reveals the psychology behind its power – and how we can protect ourselves. From fake news to conspiracy theories, from pandemics to politics, misinformation may be the defining problem of our era. Like a virus, misinformation infects our minds – altering our beliefs and replicating at astonishing rates. Once the virus takes hold, our primary strategies of fact-checking and debunking are an insufficient cure. In Foolproof Sander van der Linden describes how to inoculate yourself and others against the spread of misinformation, discern fact from fiction and push back against methods of mass persuasion. Everyone is susceptible to fake news. There are polarising narratives in society, conspiracy theories are rife, fake experts dole out misleading advice and accuracy is often lost in favour of sensationalist headlines. So how and why does misinformation spread if we’re all aware of its existence? And, more importantly, what can we do about it? Sander van der Linden takes us through the psychology of conspiratorial thinking and equips us with the eleven antigens needed to help stop the spread of misinformation once and for all.

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For space enthusiasts, science lovers, and star gazers, the newly revised edition of National Geographic's enduring guide to space, with a new introduction by American hero Buzz Aldrin, combines thoroughly updated maps, lavish photographs, and elegant illustrations to chart the solar system, the universe, and beyond. A guided tour of the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy, the universe, and beyond, with detailed maps and fascinating imagery from recent space missions partnered with clear, authoritative scientific information. Starting with the sun and moving outward into space, acclaimed science writer and physicist James Trefil illuminates each planet, the most important moons, significant asteroids, and other objects in our solar system. Moving beyond, he explains what we know about the Milky Way and other galaxies beyond--and how we know it. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of his moonwalk, astronaut and American hero Buzz Aldrin offers a special section on Earth's moon and its essential role in space exploration past and future.

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What are numbers? Where do they come from? Are there different kings of number? Why was Pythagoras fascinated by triangular and square numbers? Is there a link between perfect numbers and primes? In this enlightening illustrated pocket book, mathemagician Oliver Linton reveals the wonderful world of numbers, visiting the questions and answers of great number theorists along the way, from Euclid to Euler, Fibonacci to Fermat, and Archimedes to Gauss. No calculator needed! WOODEN BOOKS are small but packed with information. "Fascinating" FINANCIAL TIMES. "Beautiful" LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS. "Rich and Artful" THE LANCET. "Genuinely mind-expanding" FORTEAN TIMES. "Excellent" NEW SCIENTIST. "Stunning" NEW YORK TIMES. Small books, big ideas.

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From the author of You Are Awesome: Find Your Confidence and Dare to be Brilliant at (Almost) Anything Essential reading for an astounding summer of sport; If you’ve ever wondered what makes a champion, Bounce has the answer. What are the real secrets of sporting success, and what lessons do they offer about life? Why doesn’t Tiger Woods “choke”? Why are the best figure skaters those that have fallen over the most and why has one small street in Reading produced more top table tennis players than the rest of the country put together. Two-time Olympian and sports writer and broadcaster Matthew Syed draws on the latest in neuroscience and psychology to uncover the secrets of our top athletes and introduces us to an extraordinary cast of characters, including the East German athlete who became a man, and her husband – and the three Hungarian sisters who are all chess grandmasters. Bounce is crammed with fascinating stories and statistics. Looking at controversial questions such as whether talent is more important than practice, drugs in sport (and life) and whether black people really are faster runners, the mind-bending Bounce is a must-read for the hardened sports nut or brand new convert.

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What happens to your body after you have died?Fertilizer? Crash Test Dummy? Human Dumpling? Ballistics Practise? Life after death is not as simple as it looks. Mary Roach's Stiff lifts the lid off what happens to our bodies once we have died. Bold, original and with a delightful eye for detail, Roach tells us everything we wanted to know about this new frontier in medical science. Interweaving present-day explorations with a history of past attempts to study what it means to be human Stiff is a deliciously dark investigations for readers of popular science as well as fans of the macabre.'Spry, common, sharp-witted survey brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "Life after death"' Sunday Times'One of the funniest and most unusual books of the year' Entertainment Weekly'Every chapter packed with more arresting details elegantly humourously expressed than one can hope for' Sunday Telegraph

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The international bestseller from the author of Breakfast with Einstein Emmy is no ordinary dog. When adopted from the shelter by physics professor Chad Orzel, she becomes immediately fascinated by his work. Could she use quantum tunnelling to get through the neighbour’s fence? How about diffracting round a tree to chase squirrels? Or using virtual particles to catch bunnies made of cheese? Taking Emmy’s anarchic behaviour as a starting point, Orzel explains the key theories of quantum physics. From quarks and gluons to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, this is a uniquely entertaining way to unlock the secrets of the universe.

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What is a mathematical function? Why are they so important? How does plotting the graph of a function help us understand it? And where do gradients, differentials and calculus fit in? In this unique little book, packed with equations and their graphs, mathematics teacher Oliver Linton reveals the secrets of polynomial functions, polar functions, inverse functions, complex functions, vector functions and many more. Lines will never look the same again!

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*FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF A BRIEF HISTORY OF EVERYONE WHO EVER LIVED and HOW TO ARGUE WITH A RACIST* WHAT MAKES US HUMAN?Waging war?Sex for pleasure?Creating art?Mastery of fire?In this thrilling tour of the animal kingdom, Adam Rutherford tells the story of how we became the unique creatures we are today. Illuminated by the latest scientific discoveries, THE BOOK OF HUMANS is a dazzling compendium of what unequivocally fixes us as animals, and reveals how we are extraordinary among them. ***'Adam Rutherford is a superb communicator, who eruditely explores the borderlands of history, archaeology, genetics and anthropology in this fascinating tour of our species' DAN SNOW'This superbly accessible discussion about who we humans really are is important and necessary' CHRIS PACKHAM'Charming, compelling and packed with information. I learned more about biology from this short book than I did from years of science lessons' PETER FRANKOPAN'An outstandingly clear and witty account that shows beyond doubt how much we are part of the animal world, and yet at the same time how different we have become' HENRY MARSH

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A companion to the bestselling book The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe, this beautiful photographic card deck features all 118 elements in the periodic table. One element per card appears as a full-size image on the front and fascinating information about the element on the back.The Photographic Card Deck of The Elements is the most detailed, lush, and beautiful set of cards ever produced on the subject of the periodic table. With 126, 5'X5' cards in all, it includes one card for every one of the 118 elements, plus additional cards that explain the arrangement of the periodic table, present the elements sorted by various properties, and suggest activities and uses for the cards. The front side of each card shows a full-size, photographic image of the element, while the back gives scientific information including atomic weight, density, melting and boiling point, valence, and the percent of the element found in the universe, in the Earth's crust, in oceans, and in humans. Graphics show melting/boiling points, density, electron configuration, and atomic radius. A fascinating fact about the element, as well as the date of its discovery, is also included.The cards are perfect for students but also make an excellent gift for a scientist or anyone who enjoys the beauty and diversity of the natural world.

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Shortlisted for the BMA Book Awards and Macavity Awards 2016 Fourteen novels. Fourteen poisons. Just because it's fiction doesn’t mean it's all made-up ... Agatha Christie revelled in the use of poison to kill off unfortunate victims in her books; indeed, she employed it more than any other murder method, with the poison itself often being a central part of the novel. Her choice of deadly substances was far from random – the characteristics of each often provide vital clues to the discovery of the murderer. With gunshots or stabbings the cause of death is obvious, but this is not the case with poisons. How is it that some compounds prove so deadly, and in such tiny amounts? Christie's extensive chemical knowledge provides the backdrop for A is for Arsenic, in which Kathryn Harkup investigates the poisons used by the murderer in fourteen classic Agatha Christie mysteries. It looks at why certain chemicals kill, how they interact with the body, the cases that may have inspired Christie, and the feasibility of obtaining, administering and detecting these poisons, both at the time the novel was written and today. A is for Arsenic is a celebration of the use of science by the undisputed Queen of Crime.

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The ultimate non-technical guide to the fast-developing world of quantum computing Computer technology has improved exponentially over the last 50 years. But the headroom for bigger and better electronic solutions is running out. Our best hope is to engage the power of quantum physics. 'Quantum algorithms' had already been written long before hardware was built. These would enable, for example, a quantum computer to exponentially speed up an information search, or to crack the mathematical trick behind internet security. However, making a quantum computer is incredibly difficult. Despite hundreds of laboratories around the world working on them, we are only just seeing them come close to 'supremacy' where they can outperform a traditional computer. In this approachable introduction, Brian Clegg explains algorithms and their quantum counterparts, explores the physical building blocks and quantum weirdness necessary to make a quantum computer, and uncovers the capabilities of the current generation of machines.

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A rich and surprising exploration of the intelligence of bees Most of us are aware of the hive mind—the power of bees as an amazing collective. But do we know how uniquely intelligent bees are as individuals? In The Mind of a Bee, Lars Chittka draws from decades of research, including his own pioneering work, to argue that bees have remarkable cognitive abilities. He shows that they are profoundly smart, have distinct personalities, can recognize flowers and human faces, exhibit basic emotions, count, use simple tools, solve problems, and learn by observing others. They may even possess consciousness.Taking readers deep into the sensory world of bees, Chittka illustrates how bee brains are unparalleled in the animal kingdom in terms of how much sophisticated material is packed into their tiny nervous systems. He looks at their innate behaviors and the ways their evolution as foragers may have contributed to their keen spatial memory. Chittka also examines the psychological differences between bees and the ethical dilemmas that arise in conservation and laboratory settings because bees feel and think. Throughout, he touches on the fascinating history behind the study of bee behavior.Exploring an insect whose sensory experiences rival those of humans, The Mind of a Bee reveals the singular abilities of some of the world’s most incredible creatures.

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A Waterstones Best Popular Science Book of 2023'Delightfully clear and vivid to read...A splendid book! Philip Pullman'Absolutely fascinating' James O'Brien'An exceptional book - readable, funny and more needed than ever' Dr Chris van Tulleken, bestselling author of Ultra-Processed PeopleAre you more likely to become a professional footballer if your surname is Ball?· How can you be one hundred per cent sure you will win a bet?· Why did so many Pompeiians stay put while Mount Vesuvius was erupting?· How do you prevent a nuclear war?Ever since the dawn of human civilisation, we have been trying to make predictions about what's in store for us. We do this on a personal level, so that we can get on with our lives efficiently (should I hang my laundry out to dry, or will it rain?). But we also have to predict on a much larger scale, often for the good of our broader society (how can we spot economic downturns or prevent terrorist attacks?). For just as long, we have been getting it wrong. From religious oracles to weather forecasters, and from politicians to economists, we are subjected to poor predictions all the time. Our job is to separate the good from the bad. Unfortunately, the foibles of our own biology - the biases that ultimately make us human - can let us down when it comes to making rational inferences about the world around us. And that can have disastrous consequences.How to Expect the Unexpected will teach you how and why predictions go wrong, help you to spot phony forecasts and give you a better chance of getting your own predictions correct.

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What would dogs ask for, if they knew how? In the Sunday Times bestseller In Defence of Dogs John Bradshaw, an anthropologist at Bristol University who has been at the centre of the latest research into what makes dogs tick, gives us the answers.Overturning the most common myths about dogs' emotions and behaviour, this book shows how we should really treat our pets, and stands up for dogdom: not the wolf in canine clothes, not the small furry child, not the trophy-winner, but the real dog, who wants to be part of the family and enjoy life - mankind's closest friend. This is the real science that every dog lover needs to know.

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Chemistry's most significant chart, the Periodic Table, and its 118 elements, is laid bare in this lively, accessible and compelling expose.The periodic table, created in the early 1860s by Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, marked one of the most extraordinary advances in modern chemistry. This basic visual aid helped scientists to gain a deeper understanding of what chemical elements really were and the role they played in everyday life. Here, in the authoritative Elementary, James Russell uses his engaging narrative to explain the elements we now know about. From learning about the creation of the first three elements, hydrogen, lithium and helium, in the big bang, through to oxygen and carbon, which sustain life on earth – along with the many weird and wonderful uses of elements as varied as fluorine, arsenic, krypton and einsteinium – even the most unscientifically minded will be enthralled by this fascinating subject. This is the story of the building blocks of the universe, and the people who identified, isolated and even created them.

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WHAT IF... one man decided to answer all the unanswerable questions, using science.The Sunday Times-bestselling author and xkcd creator, Randall Munroe is here to provide the best answers yet to the important questions you probably never thought to ask.The millions of people around the world who read and loved What If? still have questions, and those questions are getting stranger.Planning to ride a fire pole from the moon back to Earth? The hardest part is sticking the landing.Hoping to cool the atmosphere by opening everyone's freezer doors at the same time? Maybe it's time for a brief introduction to thermodynamics.Want to know what would happen if you rode a helicopter blade, built a billion-storey building, made a lava lamp out of lava, or jumped on a geyser as it erupted? Okay, if you insist.Welcome (back) to the mind-blowing world of What If?Unfazed by absurdity, Randall consults the latest research on everything from swing-set physics to airplane-catapult design to clearly and concisely answer his readers' questions. As he consistently demonstrates, you can learn a lot from examining how the world might work in very specific extreme circumstances.Filled with bonkers science, boundless curiosity, and Randall's signature stick-figure comics, What If? 2 is sure to be another instant classic adored by inquisitive readers of all ages.

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The most important investigation of genetic science since The Selfish Gene, from the author of the critically acclaimed and best-selling The Red Queen and The Origins of Virtue. The genome is our 100,000 or so genes. The genome is the collective recipe for the building and running of the human body. These 100,000 genes are sited across 23 pairs of chromosomes. Genome, a book of about 100,000 words, is divided into 23 chapters, a chapter for each chromosome. The first chromosome, for example, contains our oldest genes, genes which we have in common with plants. By looking at our genes we can see the story of our evolution, what makes us individual, how our sexuality is determined, how we acquire language, why we are vunerable to certain diseases, how mind has arisen. Genome also argues for the genetic foundations of free will. While many believe that genetics proves biological determinism, Ridley will show that in fact free will is itself in the genes. Everything that makes us human can be read in our genes. Early in the next century we will have determined the function of every one of these 100,000 genes.

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*SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2023*  ‘This book soars… Parikian is a nature writer at the top of his game.’ Steve Brusatte, author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs ___ This is the miracle of flight as you’ve never seen it before: the evolutionary story of life on the wing. A bird flits overhead. It’s an everyday occurrence, repeated hundreds, thousands, millions of times daily by creatures across the world. It’s something so normal, so entirely taken for granted, that sometimes we forget how extraordinary it is. But take that in for a moment. This animal flies. It. Flies. The miracle of flight has evolved in hugely diverse ways, with countless variations of flapping and gliding, hovering and diving, murmurating and migrating. Conjuring lost worlds, ancient species and ever-shifting ecologies, this exhilarating new book is a mesmerising encounter with fourteen flying species: from the first fluttering insect of 300 million years ago to the crested pterosaurs of the Mesozoic Era, from hummingbirds that co-evolved with rainforest flowers to the wonders of dragonfly, albatross, pipistrelle and monarch butterfly with which we share the planet today. Taking Flight is a mind-expanding feat of the imagination, a close encounter with flight in its myriad forms, urging us to look up and drink in the spectacle of these gravity-defying marvels that continue to shape life on Earth. ‘[Lev Parikian] brings a sense of infectious enthusiasm to his account of the evolution of flight in the natural world, from mayflies and bees to bats and hummingbirds by way of pterosaurs and archaeopteryx, combining a wealth of information with a sense of wonder.’ The Observer ‘This accessible account of the animal kingdom’s development of flight exhibits a layman’s enthusiasm for an everyday wonder.’ Rebecca Foster, TLS

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A clarion call to save humanity’s most essential fellow creatures – and our health Far beneath our skin exists an unfathomable, ancient universe – an internal ecosystem that is critical to our health. Dr Martin Blaser invites us into the wilds of the human ‘microbiome’, unfurling its inner workings and evolution. For thousands of years, bacteria and human cells have co-existed in a relationship that has ensured the health and equilibrium of our body. But now, much like the natural world outside of us, our internal environment is being irrevocably destroyed. The culprit: some of our most revered medical advances – antibiotics – which appear to be linked to the epidemics of asthma, eczema, obesity, certain forms of cancer, and other diseases plaguing modern society. In a book that stands as the Silent Spring of its day, Blaser sounds a provocative alarm that we ignore at our peril.

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'Football looked at in a very different way' Pat Nevin, former Chelsea and Everton star and football media analyst Football – the most mathematical of sports. From shot statistics and league tables to the geometry of passing and managerial strategy, the modern game is filled with numbers, patterns and shapes. How do we make sense of them? The answer lies in the mathematical models applied in biology, physics and economics. Soccermatics brings football and mathematics together in a mind-bending synthesis, using numbers to help reveal the inner workings of the beautiful game. This new and expanded edition analyses the current big-name players and teams using mathematics, and meets the professionals working inside football who use numbers and statistics to boost performance. Welcome to the world of mathematical modelling, expressed brilliantly by David Sumpter through the prism of football. No matter who you follow – from your local non-league side to the big boys of the Premiership, La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A or the MLS – you'll be amazed at what mathematics has to teach us about the world's favourite sport.

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