In this captivating double life, Adam Gopnik searches for the men behind the icons of emancipation and evolution. Born by cosmic coincidence on the same day in 1809 and separated by an ocean, Lincoln and Darwin coauthored our sense of history and our...

When physicist Alan Sokal recently submitted an article to the postmodernist journal Social Text, the periodical's editors were happy to publish it--for here was a respected scientist offering support for the journal's view that science is a subjective,...

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...

• Why is science so powerful? • Why did it take so long—two thousand years after the invention of philosophy and mathematics—for the human race to start using science to learn the secrets of the universe? In a groundbreaking work that blends science,...

Science/Engineering"Petroski has an inquisitive mind, and he is a fine writer. . . . [He] takes us on a lively tour of engineers, their creations and their necessary turns of mind."   --Los Angeles TimesFrom the Ferris wheel to the integrated circuit,...

A New York Times Critics' Top Book of 2021 • A Booklist Top Ten Biography of 2021 • A Kirkus Reviews Best Science Book of 2021 The first major biography written for a general audience of the logician and mathematician whose Incompleteness Theorems...

What is life? Is it just the biologically familiar--birds, trees, snails, people--or is it an infinitely complex set of patterns that a computer could simulate? What role does intelligence play in separating the organic from the inorganic, the living...

Lavishly illustrated volume revealing the intricacies of a 1742 map of the cosmos.The expansive and intricate Atlas Coelestis, created by Johann Doppelmayr in 1742, set out to record everything known about astronomy at the time, covering constellations,...

A vivid portrait of how Naval oversight shaped American oceanography, revealing what difference it makes who pays for science.What difference does it make who pays for science?Some might say none. If scientists seek to discover fundamental truths about...

Combining the latest scientific advances with storytelling skills unmatched in the cosmos, an award-winning astrophysicist and popular writer leads us on a tour of some of the greatest mysteries of our universe.In the constellation of Eridanus, there...

A must-read follow-up to The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, one of the most important books of the twentieth century.This book contains the text of Thomas S. Kuhn’s unfinished book, The Plurality of Worlds: An Evolutionary Theory of Scientific...

The Science and Practice of Welding, now in its tenth edition and published in two volumes, is an introduction to the theory and practice of welding processes and their applications. Volume 2, The Practice of Welding, is a comprehensive survey of the...

There is a wonderfully weird but real world out there, and we are a part of it. It is time for physics to take life seriously. Can we ever truly comprehend the universe before we fully understand consciousness and the wonders, and limits, of the mind?...

2020 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Winner - Science Category2018 Forward Indies Finalist - Psychology CategoryWhy are we obsessed with the things we want only to be bored when we get them?  Why is addiction perfectly logical to an addict?  Why does...

FINALIST for the Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books "This book shows that chemistry is not just relevant to life; it's really, really interesting."--Foreword Reviews, STARRED review A perfect book for readers of The Physics of Everyday...

Timothy Ferris begins The Whole Shebang with a succinct account of how we have come to know what we know about the universe. Then he explains the meaning behind the exciting new developments that have put cosmology in the headlines - including the...

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!An NPR Best Book of 2022"The questions throughout What If? 2 are equal parts brilliant, gross, and wonderfully absurd and the answers are thorough, deeply researched, and great fun. . . . Science isn’t easy, but in...

Everybody knows that mathematics is indispensable to physics--imagine where we'd be today if Einstein and Newton didn't have the math to back up their ideas. But how many people realize that physics can be used to produce many astonishing and strikingly...

The neuroscience of why bad habits are so hard to break—and how evidence-based strategies can help us change our behavior more effectivelyWe all have habits we’d like to break, but for many of us it can be nearly impossible to do so. There is a good...

A revealing look at how user behavior is powering deep social divisions online—and how we might yet defeat political tribalism on social mediaIn an era of increasing social isolation, platforms like Facebook and Twitter are among the most important tools...