An insider’s account of the NASA mission that changed our understanding of planets, planetary systems, and the stars they orbitAre we alone in the universe? It’s a fundamental question for Earth-dwelling humankind. Are there other worlds like ours, out...

A biophysicist reveals the hidden unity behind nature’s breathtaking complexityThe form and function of a sprinting cheetah are quite unlike those of a rooted tree. A human being is very different from a bacterium or a zebra. The living world is a realm...

An immersive exploration of the nightly presence that has captured our imagination for the entirety of human history."When the Moon rises between buildings or over trees, it’s not just a beautiful light: It’s an archive of human longing, fear and...

Why software isn’t perfect, as seen through the stories of software developers at a run-of-the-mill tech companyContrary to much of the popular discourse, not all technology is seamless and awesome; some of it is simply “good enough.” In Middle Tech,...

An essential introduction to statistics for students of psychology and the social sciencesStatistical thinking is increasingly essential to understanding our complex world and making informed decisions based on uncertain data. This incisive undergraduate...

The extraordinary story of the Nazi-era scientific genius who discovered how cancer cells eat—and what it means for how we should.The Nobel laureate Otto Warburg—a cousin of the famous finance Warburgs—was widely regarded in his day as one of the most...

A fresh exploration into the 'human nature versus technology’ argument, revealing an unexpected advantage that humans have over our future robot masters: we’re actually good at mathematics. There’s so much discussion about the threat posed by intelligent...

From the Nobel Prize–winning physicist, a personal meditation on the quest for objective reality in natural scienceA century ago, thoughtful people questioned how reality could agree with physical theories that keep changing, from a mechanical model of...

The story of a neural impulse and what it reveals about how our brains workWe see the last cookie in the box and think, can I take that? We reach a hand out. In the 2.1 seconds that this impulse travels through our brain, billions of neurons communicate...

How a new mathematical field grew and matured in America Graph Theory in America focuses on the development of graph theory in North America from 1876 to 1976. At the beginning of this period, James Joseph Sylvester, perhaps the finest mathematician in...

From the Los Angeles Times Book Prize-winning historian, the colorful, dramatic story of Charles Darwin's journey on HMS Beagle that inspired the evolutionary theories in his path-breaking books On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man When...

A concise, beginner-friendly introduction to quantum field theoryQuantum field theory is a powerful framework that extends quantum mechanics in ways that are essential in many modern applications. While it is the fundamental formalism for the study of...

An engrossing look at the history and importance of a centuries-old but still unanswered math problemFor centuries, mathematicians the world over have tried, and failed, to solve the zeta-3 problem. Math genius Leonhard Euler attempted it in the 1700s...

"The irresistible enthusiasm of Great Adaptations couldn’t come at a better time."—David P. Barash, Wall Street Journal"Be very amazed."—Carl Safina, author of Beyond Words and Becoming WildHow one scientist unlocked the secrets behind some of nature’s...

A look at the extraordinary ways the brain turns thoughts into actions—and how this shapes our everyday livesWhy is it hard to text and drive at the same time? How do you resist eating that extra piece of cake? Why does staring at a tax form feel...

One of the major ambitions of medieval alchemists was to discover the elixir of life, a sovereign remedy capable not only of healing the body but of transforming it. Given the widespread belief that care for the body came at the cost of care for the...

A leading neuroscientist explains why your personal traits are more innate than you thinkWhat makes you the way you are―and what makes each of us different from everyone else? In Innate, leading neuroscientist and popular science blogger Kevin Mitchell...

The first book surveying the history and ideas behind reverse mathematicsReverse mathematics is a new field that seeks to find the axioms needed to prove given theorems. In Reverse Mathematics, John Stillwell offers a historical and representative view,...