History

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

From a New York Times bestselling author comes the gripping, untold history of science's darkest secrets, "a fascinating book [that] deserves a wide audience" (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Science is a force for good in the world—at least usually. But sometimes, when obsession gets the...

This book conveys every aspect of the Apollo missions with breathtaking immediacy and stunning detail....

A captivating history of the universe - from before the dawn of time through the far reaches of the distant future....

In 20 captivating lectures, Professor Suzanne Pilaar Birch shares her expertise and passion for discovery as she peels back the years to expose the emergence and lives of early humans....

Michael Shermer’s most accomplished and ambitious book to date demonstrates how the scientific way of thinking has made people, and society as a whole, more moral....

From the best-selling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics comes a new audiobook about the mind-bending nature of the universe. Penguin presents the unabridged downloadable audiobook edition of Reality Is Not What It Seems by Carlo Rovelli, read by Roy McMillan. What are time and space made...

By calling everything into doubt, Descartes laid the foundations of modern philosophy....

General Leslie Groves and J. Robert Oppenheimer were the two men chiefly responsible for the building of the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos, code name The Manhattan Project. Edward Teller assesses General Groves' contributions—and Oppenheimer's—while reflecting on the awesome legacy of their work.

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

Read by the author. Will technology change what it means to be human? You don't have to be a computer scientist to have discerning conversations about artificial intelligence and technology. We all wonder where we're headed. Even now, technological innovations and machine learning have a daily...

"A thorough, illuminating exploration of the most consequential controversy raging in modern science." --New York Times Book Review An Editor's Choice, New York Times Book Review Longlisted for PEN/E.O. Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing Longlisted for Goodreads Choice Award Every...

In this remarkably clear and companionable audiobook, leading complex systems scientist Melanie Mitchell provides an intimate tour of the sciences of complexity.

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

Conquering the Electron offers listeners a true and engaging history of the world of electronics, beginning with the discoveries of static electricity and magnetism and ending with the creation of the smartphone and the iPad....

Learn how to separate internet fact from fiction. In Is This Wi-Fi Organic? Dave Farina, author and science expert from the YouTube channel Professor Dave Explains, is here to help you fight confirmation bias and logical fallacies....

Quantum theory is so shocking that Einstein could not bring himself to accept it. It is so important that it provides the fundamental underpinning of all modern sciences. Without it, we'd have no computers, no science of molecular biology, no understanding of DNA, no genetic engineering. In...

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

“Jim Marrs can’t be ignored. Few in this country shout about The Truth louder than he.” —Dallas Observer In The Trillion-Dollar Conspiracy, Jim Marrs, the New York Times bestselling author of Rule by Secrecy and The Rise of The Fourth Reich, offers a terrifying proposition: that the...

A provocative rethinking of how humans and fire have evolved together over time — and our responsibility to reorient this relationship before it’s too late.​...

In The International Space Station: 10 Amazing Facts, author Daran Volcroft takes you on a journey beyond our atmosphere to discover the secrets, science, and stories behind this incredible achievement.

"Allows readers to practically experience firsthand how humans have adapted to and dealt with disease throughout history...necessary and timely...engaging and entertaining. Highly recommended." ―Library Journal, starred "[A] splendid examination...Deeply insightful if unsettling." ―Kirkus...

What began as a utopian environment, where mice had sumptuous accommodations, had all the food and water they could want, and were free from disease and predators, turned into a mouse hell.

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....

In this extensive sequel to Science Education in the Early Roman Empire, Dr. Richard Carrier explores the social history of scientists in the Roman era. Was science in decline or experiencing a revival under the Romans? Find out....

Au fil de cette aventure qui se lit comme un roman, Christophe Galfard vous emporte à travers l'espace et le temps, à la recherche de réponses aux plus grandes questions qui soient. Depuis la naissance de la Terre jusqu'aux derniers jours des dinosaures, depuis l'histoire que racontent nos propres cellules jusqu'aux possibles signes d'une vie ailleurs dans l'espace, cette synthèse magistrale des connaissances actuelles, accessibles à toutes et à tous, transformera votre façon de voir le monde ainsi que notre place dans l'Univers.

From fire to fallout, potions to polymers — this is the story of how we figured out what everything is made of. Chemistry 101 isn’t your high school textbook. It’s a walkthrough of how humans turned mystery into mastery. You’ll meet alchemists chasing gold, scientists splitting atoms, and modern chemists designing synthetic realities out of carbon and code. Packed with stories, structure, and the messy human drive to mix, burn, and bottle the universe, this book walks you through the wild history of reactions — from ancient smelting pits to lab-grown meat and CRISPR edits.

Discover the impactful ways that climate and weather changed the very course of human history from the founder and chairman of AccuWeather! Join AccuWeather founder and chairman Dr. Joel N. Myers on a journey from the beginning of time to the modern day to see how weather and climate impacted world events throughout history, both the good and the bad.

Combining technical rigor and deep up-to-the-minute knowledge about AI development, the natural sciences (especially neuroscience), and philosophical literacy, "What Is Intelligence?" argues—quite against the grain—that certain modern AI systems do indeed have a claim to intelligence, consciousness, and free will.

What if reality doesn’t exist until you look at it? Quantum physics started as a fix for a math problem. Then it spiraled into the most accurate and most unsettling theory in science. This is the story of how we figured it out. From Planck’s desperate fudge to Feynman’s diagrams, from Schrödinger’s cat to the many-worlds interpretation, Quantum 101 walks you through every milestone of the quantum revolution. No mysticism. No equations without meaning. Just the actual story, told in a way that makes sense. Discover why particles tunnel through walls. Why entanglement breaks space.

The Fascinating History of GPS: How a Cold War Invention Changed the Way We Navigate the World by Revin Laxtor is a captivating exploration of one of humanity’s most transformative achievements—the Global Positioning System. In an age where a simple blue dot on a smartphone can guide us effortlessly across continents, it’s easy to forget how recently this technology was born and how profoundly it has reshaped our world. This book takes readers on a remarkable journey through time, science, and ingenuity, revealing how a Cold War innovation became the invisible force powering modern life.

Life didn’t begin with a roar. It began with goo. Before brains, bones, bugs, or breathing, Earth was just a soup of chemicals getting zapped by lightning until something clicked. This is the story of what happened next. From the first self-replicating molecule to the rise of humans with god complexes, From Goo to You is a ride through four billion years of biology. The true story of how atoms turned into cells, cells turned into creatures, and creatures started asking, "What even is life?"

Biology 101: A History of Life is the story of how humans discovered life from the outside in. Poking, slicing, sketching, sequencing, and arguing our way toward understanding what it means to be alive. From Aristotle’s animal lists to Darwin’s dangerous idea. From Mendel’s peas to the human genome. From hand-ground glass to CRISPR gene editing. This is not a textbook. It’s a history of discovery. The brilliant, chaotic, often accidental process that turned biology from folklore into code.

What is electricity? Not just in theory, but really. What is it? Where did it come from? Who figured it out? How does it move, store, think, and shape the entire world? This isn’t a textbook. It’s the real story of how humans stumbled into one of the most powerful forces in nature and slowly, painfully, turned it into the thing that runs civilization.

The Plague explores the profound changes and enduring continuities that shaped European society in the wake of the Black Death and other crises of the 1300s.