History

From the author of The Moth in the Iron Lung comes a riveting exploration of how science, technology, and fear transformed our relationship with one of humanity's most ancient foods.

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....

Drawing on his decades of field research and up-to-the-minute understanding of the latest science, renowned geologist Andrew H. Knoll delivers a rigorous yet accessible biography of Earth, charting our home planet's epic 4.6 billion-year story....

What has quantum physics taught us about consciousness and the nature of reality? Are we living in a simulation? In order for matter to exist, does it need to be observed?

Tucked away in Siberia, there are furry, four-legged creatures with wagging tails and floppy ears that are as docile and friendly as any lapdog....

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

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

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....

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

Science is a force for good in the world—at least usually. But sometimes, when obsession gets the better of scientists, they twist a noble pursuit into something sinister. Under this spell, knowledge isn’t everything, it’s the only thing—no matter the cost....

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

Science and religion have always been at each other’s throats, right? Most things you ‘know’ about science and religion are myths or half-truths that grew up in the last years of the nineteenth century and remain widespread today....

Tobias Hürter takes us back in time to present the epic gripping history of how a group of physicists toppled the Newtonian universe in the early decades of the twentieth century....

The authoritative story of the headline-making discovery of gravitational waves - by an eminent theoretical astrophysicist and award-winning writer....

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....

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....

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

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

Written in Dava Sobel's characteristically graceful prose, The Planets is a distinctive view of our place in the universe....

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....

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.

In 1610, Galileo published the Siderius nuncius, or Starry Messenger, a "hurried little masterpiece" in John Heilbron's words....

The acrid stench of asphalt and sulfur singes the hairs of people’s nostrils, and when the blustering winds subside, the potent miasma lingers in the air. To the untrained eye, the La Brea Tar Pits seem to be nothing more than simply pools of thick, viscous black sludge....

John Forbes Nash, Jr., a prodigy and legend by the age of 30, dazzled the mathematical world by solving a series of deep problems deemed "impossible" by other mathematicians....

From the masters of storytelling-meets-science, Patient Zero tells the long and fascinating history of disease outbreaks—how they start, how they spread, the science that lets us understand them, and how we race to destroy them before they destroy us....

Alcune storie sono troppo assurde per non essere raccontate, come l'epico scontro Alessandro Volta VS Luigi Galvani, tra rane morte ed energia elettrica che ha ispirato la nascita del mostro di Frankenstein. O ancora Stephen Hawking e quella sua fissa per i buchi neri, Margherita Hack che pedalava verso l'osservatorio tra le bombe della seconda guerra mondiale, Richard Feynman che scassinava casseforti durante il progetto Manhattan, Lord Kelvin il barone della morte termica dell'Universo, Enrico Fermi che ha scisso l'atomo e dato il via all'era nucleare.

Every physicist agrees quantum mechanics is among humanity's finest scientific achievements. But ask what it means, and the result will be a brawl. For a century, most physicists have followed Niels Bohr's solipsistic and poorly reasoned Copenhagen interpretation. Indeed, questioning it has long meant professional ruin, yet some daring physicists, such as John Bell, David Bohm, and Hugh Everett, persisted in seeking the true meaning of quantum mechanics. What Is Real? is the gripping story of this battle of ideas and the courageous scientists who dared to stand up for truth.

A mother kisses her child's scraped knee. A father embraces his long-lost son. A dog greets its owner with desperate joy. Every culture, every species, every corner of the living world engages in these intimate acts of connection. We've been told these are merely displays of affection. But what if there’s something more? WHAT IF A KISS IS MORE THAN JUST A KISS? For the first time in human history, we are starting to see the hidden force that builds life through connection—not because we discovered something new, but because we have broken something ancient.

What if the secrets of existence were hiding in plain sight—in shapes, spirals, and symmetry? 'Sacred Geometry: The Blueprint of Everything' is a journey through the invisible code behind the visible world. This book isn’t just about lines and patterns—it’s about unlocking the structures that build reality itself. From the infinite loop of the circle to the silent elegance of the Platonic Solids, JJ walks you through the visual grammar of creation.

When Neil Armstrong first set foot in the lunar dust, the Earth held its breath. That one small step forever changed our view of what was possible, sparking a dramatic expansion of humankind's cosmic awareness. When we gain a new perspective, a transformation begins, profoundly altering the understanding of the world our human experience had previously granted us.