The fascinating, untold story of how the Chinese language overcame unparalleled challenges and revolutionized the world of computing.A standard QWERTY keyboard has a few dozen keys. How can Chinese—a language with tens of thousands of characters and no...

If it can go wrong, it will--thus Murphy's Law. Science journalist Edward Tenner looks more closely at this eternal verity, named after a U.S. Air Force captain who, during a test of rocket-sled deceleration, noticed that critical gauges had been...

Learn about the most important mathematical ideas, theorems, and movements in The Math Book.Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Math in this overview...

A New York Times Notable BookAs late as 1999, women who succeeded in science were called “exceptional” as if it were unusual for them to be so bright. They were exceptional, not because they could succeed at science but because of all they accomplished...

A behind-the-scenes look at how digital surveillance is affecting the trucking way of lifeLong-haul truckers are the backbone of the American economy, transporting goods under grueling conditions and immense economic pressure. Truckers have long valued...

Why is the future so different from the past? Why does the past affect the future and not the other way around? What does quantum mechanics really tell us about the world? In this important and accessible book, Huw Price throws fascinating new light on...

How populism is fueled by the demise of the industrial order and the emergence of a new digital society ruled by algorithmsIn the revolutionary excitement of the 1960s, young people around the world called for a radical shift away from the old industrial...

An astonishing window into the inner world of plants, and the cutting-edge science in plant intelligence. Decades of research document plants' impressive abilities: they communicate with each other, manipulate other species, and move in sophisticated...

“Fascinating.” ―Jill Lepore, The New YorkerA sweeping history of data and its technical, political, and ethical impact on our world.From facial recognition―capable of checking people into flights or identifying undocumented residents―to automated...

A practical guide to "narrative thinking," and why it matters in a world defined by data.In The Sea We Swim In, Frank Rose leads us to a new understanding of stories and their role in our lives. For decades, experts from many fields―psychologists,...

A hack is any means of subverting a system's rules in unintended ways. The tax code isn't computer code, but a series of complex formulas. It has vulnerabilities; we call them "loopholes." We call exploits "tax avoidance strategies." And there is an...

From internationally-bestselling author and journalist Andrew Smith, an immersive, alarming, sharp-eyed journey into the bizarre world of computer code, told through his sometimes painful, often amusing attempt to become a coder himself Throughout...

In her career as a science reporter, Nell Greenfieldboyce has reported from inside a space shuttle, the bottom of a coal mine, and the control room of a particle collider; she's presented news on the color of dinosaur eggs, ice worms that live on...

An introduction to the intellectual foundations and practical utility of the recent work on fairness and machine learning.Fairness and Machine Learning introduces advanced undergraduate and graduate students to the intellectual foundations of this...