In a world increasingly run by algorithms and artificial intelligence, Hatim Rahman traces how organizations are using algorithms to control workers in an “invisible cage.”Inside the Invisible Cage uses unique longitudinal data to investigate how digital...

Whenever a person engages with music--when a piano student practices a scale, a jazz saxophonist riffs on a melody, a teenager sobs to a sad song, or a wedding guest gets down on the dance floor--countless neurons are firing. Playing an instrument...

One of the twentieth century’s great paleontologists and science writers, Stephen Jay Gould was, for Bruce S. Lieberman and Niles Eldredge, also a close colleague and friend. In Macroevolutionaries, they take up the tradition of Gould’s acclaimed essays...

Why aren’t we more like other apes? How did we win the evolutionary race? Find out how “wise” Homo sapiens really are. Prehistory has never been more exciting: New discoveries are overturning long-held theories left and right. Stone tools in Australia...

A revelatory new theory of consciousness that returns emotions to the center of mental life.For Mark Solms, one of the boldest thinkers in contemporary neuroscience, discovering how consciousness comes about has been a lifetime’s quest. Scientists...

A philosophical task force explores how AI is revolutionizing our lives - and what moral problems it might bring, showing us what to be wary of, and what to be hopeful for.There is no more important issue at present than artificial intelligence. AI has...

A multifaceted biography of a brilliant mathematician and iconoclastA mathematician unlike any other, John Horton Conway (1937–2020) possessed a rock star’s charisma, a polymath’s promiscuous curiosity, and a sly sense of humor. Conway found fame as a...

The legendary Renaissance math duel that ushered in the modern age of algebraThe Secret Formula tells the story of two Renaissance mathematicians whose jealousies, intrigues, and contentious debates led to the discovery of a formula for the solution of...

An illuminating biography of one of the greatest geometers of the twentieth centuryDriven by a profound love of shapes and symmetries, Donald Coxeter (1907–2003) preserved the tradition of classical geometry when it was under attack by influential...

Nobel Prize–winning physicist Roger Penrose questions some of the most fashionable ideas in physics today, including string theoryWhat can fashionable ideas, blind faith, or pure fantasy possibly have to do with the scientific quest to understand the...

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

A marvelous compendium of mathematical symbols and their fascinating historiesGalileo famously wrote that the book of nature is written in mathematical language. The Language of Mathematics is a wide-ranging and beautifully illustrated collection of...

How the idea of deep time transformed how Americans see their country and themselvesDuring the nineteenth century, Americans were shocked to learn that the land beneath their feet had once been stalked by terrifying beasts. T. rex and Brontosaurus ruled...

A breathtakingly illustrated look at botanical spirals and the scientists who puzzled over themCharles Darwin was driven to distraction by plant spirals, growing so exasperated that he once begged a friend to explain the mystery “if you wish to save me...

The fascinating stories behind the essential seven units of measurement that allow us to understand the physical world "Entertaining popular science and a literate tale of why things are as they are."--Kirkus Reviews From the beginning of history,...

This book explores the many prospects, challenges and ethical questions that surround the engineering of our reproductive cells. It is an accessible, three-part examination, moving from focused, realistic assessments of the promise and problems for this...

Is inheritable genetic modification the new dividing line in gene therapy? The editors of this searching investigation, representing clinical medicine, public health and biomedical ethics, have established a distinguished team of scientists and scholars...

Astrobiology is the study of life in the universe from its origins to its evolution into intelligent sentient beings. All life as we know it is carbon-based, reliant on sources of liquid water and energy for its survival, and as far as we are aware,...

An Unforgettable Journey into the Dark Heart of the Information AgeIn Escape Velocity Mark Dery takes is on an electrifying tour of the high-tech subcultures that both celebrate and critique our wired world: would-be cyborgs who believe the body is...