A revealing look at the pleasure we get from hating figures like politicians, celebrities, and TV characters, showcased in approaches that explore snark, hate-watching, and trolling The work of a fan takes many forms: following a favorite celebrity on...

How do our brains store—and then conjure up—past experiences to make us who we are?A twinge of sadness, a rush of love, a knot of loss, a whiff of regret. Memories have the power to move us, often when we least expect it, a sign of the complex neural...

Whether we realize it or not, we think of our brains as computers. In neuroscience, the metaphor of the brain as a computer has defined the field for much of the modern era. But as neuroscientists increasingly reevaluate their assumptions about how...

Death, for bacteria, is not inevitable. Protect a bacterium from predators, and provide it with adequate food and space to grow, and it would continue living--and reproducing asexually--forever. But a paramecium (a slightly more advanced single-cell...

A concise introduction to the greatest questions of modern cosmology.What came before the big bang? How will the universe evolve into the future? Will there be a big crunch? Questions like these have no definitive answers, but there are many contending...

Between 1920 and 1960 astronomers began working with scientists in other fields in order to better understand the nature of the solar system. Researchers made wide-ranging attempts to solve such problems as the nature of lunar and terrestrial craters,...

The riveting quest to construct the machine that would take on the world’s greatest human chess player―told by the man who built itOn May 11, 1997, millions worldwide heard news of a stunning victory, as a machine defeated the defending world chess...

From Nobel Prize–winning physicist P. J. E. Peebles, the story of cosmology from Einstein to todayModern cosmology began a century ago with Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity and his notion of a homogenous, philosophically satisfying cosmos...

A fundamentally new approach to the history of science and technologyThis book presents a new way of thinking about the history of science and technology, one that offers a grand narrative of human history in which knowledge serves as a critical factor...

"In The Joy of Science, Jim Al-Khalili presents eight lessons that serve as a guide to thinking and living life a little more scientifically. It is a gentle entrâee to the conceptual core of what science is and the spirit of how it is practiced, which...

How magicians exploit the natural functioning of our brains to astonish and amaze usHow do magicians make us see the impossible? The Illusionist Brain takes you on an unforgettable journey through the inner workings of the human mind, revealing how...

An inspiring anthology of writings by trailblazing women astronomers from around the globeThe Sky Is for Everyone is an internationally diverse collection of autobiographical essays by women who broke down barriers and changed the face of modern...

A fascinating exploration of the pentagon and its role in various culturesThe pentagon and its close cousin, the pentagram, have inspired individuals for the last two and half millennia, from mathematicians and philosophers to artists and naturalists...

"If you go out and simply look up, everything - from the Moon to the planets to the stars to the band of the Milky Way - appears to be pasted on the two-dimensional surface of the dome of the sky. Yet, the story of astronomy as a science is how, over...

The hidden costs of artificial intelligence--from natural resources and labor to privacy, equality, and freedom "This study argues that [artificial intelligence] is neither artificial nor particularly intelligent. . . . A fascinating history of the...

Combining the literary sensibility of David Quammen with the scientific rigor of Stephen Jay Gould, Carl Zimmer reveals the power, danger, and beauty of the surprising creatures who dominate the earth: parasites.For centuries, parasites have lived in...

The information age owes its existence to a little-known but crucial development, the theoretical study of logic and the foundations of mathematics. The Great Formal Machinery Works draws on original sources and rare archival materials to trace the...

bVery Short Introductionsb: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring /b Fluid mechanics is an important branch of physics concerned with the way in which fluids, such as liquids and gases, behave when in motion and at rest. A quintessential interdisciplinary field...

Combining clear discussions of both quantum theory and general relativity, this book offers one of the first efforts to explain the new quantum theory of space and time. Today we are blessed with two extraordinarily successful theories of physics. The...