History

With clear explanations of some of the most complex scientific endeavors in history, Mahaffey's book looks back at the atom's wild, secretive past and then toward its potentially bright future....

A sweeping history of tragic genius, cutting-edge science, and the discovery that changed billions of lives - including your own....

From the New York Times-bestselling author comes a new volume on the history of human ingenuity—and its attendant breakthroughs and busts....

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out is a magnificent treasury of the best short works of Richard P. Feynman....

A journey through history's most famous limbs, organs, and appendages, from TikTok medical historian Dr Suzie Edge....

More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed radically different suites of plants and animals....

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is essential listening for understanding the history, philosophy, and evolution of science....

In the most authoritative book ever written about Apollo, David Whitehouse reveals the true drama behind the mission, telling the story in the words of those who took part - based around exclusive interviews with the key players....

Dr. Andrew Lam, an award-winning author and retinal surgeon, distills the long arc of medical progress down to the crucial moments that were responsible for the world's greatest medical miracles....

A literally world-changing book, Darwin put forward the anti-religious and scientific idea that humans in fact evolved over millions of generations from animals....

An oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem....

In this technology-driven age, it's tempting to believe that science can solve every mystery....

What sparks the flash of brilliance? One of our most innovative, popular thinkers takes on - in exhilarating style - one of our key questions....

Trois ans de travail avec plus de vingt scientifiques et de spécialistes de haut niveau : Voici révélées les preuves modernes de l'existence de Dieu...

Over the last 220 years, society has evolved a universal belief that electricity is "safe" for humanity and the planet. Scientist and journalist Arthur Firstenberg disrupts this conviction by telling the story of electricity in a way it has never been told before....

Science moves at a rate of inches per decade and we like it that way. But occasionally, just occasionally, a complete fluke happens and changes everything. This is a rip-roaring adventure through science gone wrong, accidentally changing humanity for the better....

The story of the discovery of “Lucy” - the oldest, best-preserved skeleton of any erect-walking human ancestor ever found....

How does the physics we know today link back to its origins as a liberal art in Ancient Greece? What is the path that leads from the old philosophy of nature and its concern with humankind's place in the universe to modern massive international projects? Listen to learn more....

The Blind Spot goes where no science book goes, urging us to create a new scientific culture that views ourselves both as an expression of nature and as a source of nature's self-understanding, so that humanity can flourish in the new millennium.

Nuclear science has had a rich history of innovative scientific exploration and discovery, coupled with mistakes, accidents, and downright disasters....

The tens of millions who perished in World War I understandably marred the conception of the first decades of the 20th century. However, during that time, unparalleled minds from all over the globe unsnarled age-old mysteries and perfected prevailing theories....

In a rarified world of scientific research, a revolution has been brewing. Its activists are not anarchists, but rather Nobel Laureates in physics and economics and pony-tailed graduates, mathematicians, and computer scientists from all over the world. They have formed an iconoclastic think-tank....

Beginning with opium, the “joy plant,” which has been used for 10,000 years, Thomas Hager tells a captivating story of medicine. His subjects include the largely forgotten female pioneer who introduced smallpox inoculation to Britain, the infamous knockout drops, and much more....

Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning author Richard Rhodes reveals the fascinating history behind energy transitions over time - wood to coal to oil to electricity and beyond....

Lost Enlightenment chronicles this forgotten age of achievement, seeks to explain its rise, and explores the competing theories about the cause of its eventual demise....

19 aprile 1943. Albert Hofmann, chimico in forze all'azienda farmaceutica Sandoz di Basilea, inforca la bicicletta e si avvia verso casa. Sembra un giorno come un altro, se non fosse che ha appena assunto 250 microgrammi di dietilammide-25 dell'acido lisergico, un composto da lui stesso sintetizzato nella ricerca di uno stimolante della circolazione sanguigna. Ciò che accade durante il tragitto sconvolge la sua nozione del reale: visioni coloratissime, meravigliose e mostruose, percezioni di realtà parallele, terrori, euforie. È nato l'Lsd.

Oggi sappiamo che l’universo ha avuto origine con un big bang e si è espanso sotto il controllo delle componenti oscure di materia ed energia; abbiamo imparato come si formano, evolvono e interagiscono le galassie, e come nascono, vivono e muoiono le stelle; abbiamo cercato i pianeti extrasolari e i segnali della vita, ascoltato l’urlo della fusione di due buchi neri e molto altro ancora. Un sapere frutto del balzo in avanti dell’astrofisica e della cosmologia nel Novecento, stimolato e secondato dai grandiosi progressi della fisica e dalla tecnologia.

An unbelievable series of events led to the establishment of the Northwest Electro-development Laboratory, later the U.S. Bureau of Mines Albany Research Center. Though the fledgling lab had difficulty securing staff due to World War II, world-renown metallurgist William J. Kroll was hired early on as a consultant after fleeing Nazi occupation. Kroll, who had pioneered a method for producing commercial titanium, worked with his core group of associates to develop malleable zirconium, just as a need arose for the little-known metal.

In the mid-1800s a dreaded illness swept through the tropical regions of the globe. Malaria was a prevalent and often deadly parasite. It caused fever, chills, headaches, even confusion, seizures, and sometimes death. A cure needed to be found but this quest would lead to an unexpected discovery.

Hoof Beats transforms our understanding of both horses and humanity's ancient past and asks us to consider what our relationship with horses means for the future of humanity and the world around us.