Science Books
Page 1 of 27 - 647 results
100 Things to See in the Night Sky: From Planets and Satellites to Meteors and Constellations, Your Guide to Stargazing
Regas, Dean
(Paperback)
List Price: $15.99 Sale: $5.43
A handy field guide for the best stargazing experience whether in your own back yard, camping, or travelling—including information showing you which planets, constellations, stars, and manmade objects you can see with a telescope, or just your naked eye!The night sky is full of amazing things to see—from shooting stars and constellations to planets and satellites—but it can be hard to tell what you’re seeing, or where to look for the best view. 100 Things to See in the Night Sky gives you a clear picture of what you can see on any given night, either using a small telescope, or just your naked eye.Each object is presented as a separate entry, with background information on the makeup, appearance, and history of the object, along with easy-to-follow instructions on how to find it. For astronomy and space fans of all ages, this guide helps you explore the galaxy and see the stars—while keeping your feet on the ground.
300 Astronomical Objects
Wilkins, Jamie
(Softcover)
List Price: $29.95 Sale: $10.39
300 Astronomical Objects is a handy and comprehensive reference to the most interesting celestial objects. It takes readers on a photographic tour through the galaxy, from its solar core to its outer limits, stopping to view all the highlights and give the very latest data about the universe. Convenient sidebars with each entry provide up-to-date facts and figures on every object, including mass, magnitude, density, radius, rotation period, and surface and core temperatures. An annotated cross-section of the object enhances this information, and a full-color photograph brings the object to life. Additional spreads bring together and explain related objects and phenomena. For example, the corresponding pages for the sun include solar power, sunspots and solar flares. Others examples include: Mercury and its surface The asteroid belt and 433 Eros Jupiter and its moons, including Io, Europa and Callista Uranus and its rings and moons, including Ariel and Titania Outer belts and comets, such as Halley's comet, and the Deep Impact mission Space telescopes, including the International Space Station. 300 Astronomical Objects is a beautiful and handy reference for the amateur astronomer.
52 Random Weekend Projects: for Bidding Inventors and Backyard Builders
The King of Random
(Softcover)
List Price: $21.99 Sale: $8.63
Grant Thompson, "The King of Random," has created one of the most popular project channels on YouTube, featuring awesome videos such as How to Make a Laser Assisted Blowgun and Assassin’s Micro Crossbow. He currently has almost 10 million subscribers, posts 5 times a week, and averages over 40 million views a month.Partnering with Grant is Ted Slampyak, the artist behind the #1 New York Times bestseller 100 Deadly Skills.52 Random Weekend Projects: For Budding Inventors and Backyard Builders is a guide that enables ordinary folks to build an impressive arsenal of projects. These crafts combine some of Grant’s most popular projects - Matchbox Rockets, Pocket Slingshot Super Shooters, Proto-Putty, Ninja Balls, Mini Matchstick Guns, The Clothespin Pocket Pistol - with many new ones, providing clear instructions on how to build them step-by-step.Broken down into Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced sections, 52 Random Weekend Projects is loaded with truly amazing projects, including: - Mousetrap Handgun- Mini Solar Scorcher- Air Vortex Canon- Air Mounted Skewer Shooter- Paracord Bullwhip- Bottle Cap Party Whistle- Ninja Stress Balls- Tablecloth Parachute- Skyblaster SlingshotAnd many more!
Abundance
Diamandis, Peter H.
(Paperback)
List Price: $16.00 Sale: $6.07
Since the dawn of humanity, a privileged few have lived in stark contrast to the hardscrabble majority. Conventional wisdom says this gap cannot be closed. But it is closing - fast. In Abundance, space entrepreneur turned innovation pioneer Peter H. Diamandis and award-winning science writer Steven Kotler document how progress in artificial intelligence, robotics, digital manufacturing synthetic biology, and other exponentially growing technologies will enable us to make greater gains in the next two decades than we have in the previous 200 years. We will soon have the ability to meet and exceed the basic needs of every person on the planet. Abundance for all is within our grasp. Breaking down human needs by category - water, food, energy, healthcare, education, freedom - Diamandis and Kotler introduce us to innovators and industry captains making tremendous strides in each area. "Not only is Abundance a riveting page-turner...but it's a book that gives us a future worth fighting for. And even more than that, it shows us our place in that fight" (The Christian Science Monitor).
The Accidental Homo Sapiens: Genetics, Behavior, and Free Will
Desalle, Robert
(Hardcover)
List Price: $27.95 Sale: $8.63
What happens now that human population has outpaced biological natural selection? Two leading scientists reveal how we became who we are - and what we might become.When we think of evolution, the image that likely comes to mind is the iconic, straight-forward image of a primate morphing into a human being. Yet random events have played huge roles in determining the evolutionary histories of everything from lobsters to humans. However, random genetic novelties are most likely to "stick" in small populations. It is mathematically unlikely to happen in large ones.With our enormous and seemingly inexorably expanding population, humanity has fallen under the influence of the famous (or infamous) “bell curve.” This revelatory new book explores what the future of our species could hold, while simultaneously revealing what we didn’t become - and what we won’t become.A cognitively unique species, our actions fall on a bell curve as well. Individuals may be saintly or evil, narrow-minded or visionary. But it is possible not just for the species, but for a person to be all of these things - even in a single day. We all fall somewhere within the giant hyperspace of the human condition that these curves describe.The Accidental Homo Sapiens shows readers that though humanity now exists on this bell curve, we are far from a stagnant species. Tattersall and DeSalle reveal how biological evolution in modern humans has given way to a cultural dynamic that is unlike anything else the Earth has ever witnessed, and that will keep life interesting - perhaps sometimes too interesting - for as long as we exist on this planet.
The Age of Empathy
de Waal, Frans
(Softcover)
List Price: $17.00 Sale: $6.07
Are we our brothers' keepers? Do we have an instinct for compassion? Or are we, as is often assumed, only on earth to serve our own survival and interests? In this thought-provoking book, the acclaimed author of Our Inner Ape examines how empathy comes naturally to a great variety of animals, including humans. By studying social behaviors in animals, such as bonding, the herd instinct, the forming of trusting alliances, expressions of consolation, and conflict resolution, Frans de Waal demonstrates that animals - and humans - are "preprogrammed to reach out." He has found that chimpanzees care for mates that are wounded by leopards, elephants offer "reassuring rumbles" to youngsters in distress, and dolphins support sick companions near the water's surface to prevent them from drowning. From day one humans have innate sensitivities to faces, bodies, and voices; we've been designed to feel for one another. De Waal's theory runs counter to the assumption that humans are inherently selfish, which can be seen in the fields of politics, law, and finance, and which seems to be evidenced by the current greed-driven stock market collapse. But he cites the public's outrage at the U.S. government's lack of empathy in the wake of Hurricane Katrina as a significant shift in perspective - one that helped Barack Obama become elected and ushered in what may well become an Age of Empathy. Through a better understanding of empathy's survival value in evolution, de Waal suggests, we can work together toward a more just society based on a more generous and accurate view of human nature. Written in layman's prose with a wealth of anecdotes, wry humor, and incisive intelligence, The Age of Empathy is essential reading for our embattled times.
The Agile Gene: How Nature Turns On Nurture
Ridley, Matt
(Softcover)
List Price: $13.95 Sale: $4.79
Armed with extraordinary new discoveries about our genes, acclaimed science writer Matt Ridley turns his attention to the nature-versus-nurture debate in a thoughtful book about the roots of human behavior. Ridley recounts the hundred years' war between the partisans of nature and nurture to explain how this paradoxical creature, the human being, can be simultaneously free-willed and motivated by instinct and culture. With the decoding of the human genome, we now know that genes not only predetermine the broad structure of the brain, they also absorb formative experiences, react to social cues, and even run memory. They are consequences as well as causes of the will.
The Aliens Are Coming!: The Extraordinary Science Behind Our Search for Life in the Universe
Miller, Ben
(Paperback)
List Price: $15.95 Sale: $6.07
Actor and bestselling science writer Ben Miller takes readers to the cutting edge of one of the greatest questions of all: Is there life beyond Earth?For millennia, we have looked up at the stars and wondered whether we are alone in the universe, but in the last few years - as our probes begin to escape the solar system, and our telescopes reveal thousands of Earthlike planets - scientists have taken huge leaps toward an answer. “Forget science fiction,” author Ben Miller writes. “We are living through one of the most extraordinary revolutions in the history of science: the emergent belief of a generation of physicists, biologists, and chemists that we are not alone.”The Aliens Are Coming! is a refreshingly clear, hugely entertaining guide to the search for alien life. Miller looks everywhere for insight, from the Big Bang’s sea of energy that somehow became living matter, to the equations that tell us Earth is not so rare, to the clues bacteria hold to how life started. And he makes the case that our growing understanding of life itself will help us predict whether it exists elsewhere, what it might look like, and when we might find it.
The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics
Kakalios, James
(Paperback)
List Price: $19.00 Sale: $5.88
A highly entertaining exploration of the complicated science of quantum mechanics made easy to understand by way of pop culture. As a young science fiction fan, physicist James Kakalios marveled at the future predicted in the pulp magazines, comics, and films of the '50s and '60s. By 2010, he was sure we'd have flying cars and jetpacks. But what we ended up with-laptop computers, MRI machines, Blu-ray players, and dozens of other real-life marvels-are even more fantastic. In The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics, he explains why the development of quantum mechanics enabled our amazing present day. In his trademark style, Kakalios uses pop culture examples- everything from the graphic novel Watchmento schlock horror movies of the '50s-to elucidate some of the most complex science there is. And he brings to life the groundbreaking scientists whose discoveries made our present life possible. Along the way, he dispels the misconception that quantum mechanics is unknowable by mere mortals. It's not magic; it's science!
American Catch
Greenberg, Paul
(Paperback)
List Price: $17.00 Sale: $3.29
The James Beard Award-winning author of Four Fish examines major American seafood producers to determine why most Americans eat imported seafood and why most American seafood is exported.
Among Chimpanzees: Field Notes from the Race to Save Our Endangered Relatives
Merrick, Nancy J.
(Hardcover)
List Price: $27.95 Sale: $6.95
A former student and colleague of Jane Goodall shares stories of chimps and their heroes, and takes readers on a journey to save man’s closest relative.
An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System - A Tale in Four Lives
Richtel, Matt
(Hardcover)
List Price: $28.99 Sale: $8.87
A terminal cancer patient rises from the grave. A medical marvel defies HIV. Two women with autoimmunity discover their own bodies have turned against them. Matt Richtel's An Elegant Defense uniquely entwines these intimate stories with science’s centuries-long quest to unlock the mysteries of sickness and health, and illuminates the immune system as never before.The immune system is our body’s essential defense network, a guardian vigilantly fighting illness, healing wounds, maintaining order and balance, and keeping us alive. Its legion of microscopic foot soldiers—from T cells to “natural killers”—patrols our body, linked by a nearly instantaneous communications grid. It has been honed by evolution over millennia to face an almost infinite array of threats.For all its astonishing complexity, however, the immune system can be easily compromised by fatigue, stress, toxins, advanced age, and poor nutrition—hallmarks of modern life—and even by excessive hygiene. Paradoxically, it is a fragile wonder weapon that can turn on our own bodies with startling results, leading today to epidemic levels of autoimmune disorders.Richtel effortlessly guides readers on a scientific detective tale winding from the Black Plague to twentieth-century breakthroughs in vaccination and antibiotics, to the cutting-edge laboratories that are revolutionizing immunology—perhaps the most extraordinary and consequential medical story of our time. The foundation that Richtel builds makes accessible revelations about cancer immunotherapy, the microbiome, and autoimmune treatments that are changing millions of lives. An Elegant Defense also captures in vivid detail how these powerful therapies, along with our behavior and environment, interact with the immune system, often for the good but always on a razor’s edge that can throw this remarkable system out of balance.Drawing on his groundbreaking reporting for the New York Times and based on extensive new interviews with dozens of world-renowned scientists, Matt Richtel has produced a landmark book, equally an investigation into the deepest riddles of survival and a profoundly human tale that is movingly brought to life through the eyes of his four main characters, each of whom illuminates an essential facet of our “elegant defense.”
An Odysssey of Flavours and Fragrances: Givaudan
Abrams
(Hardcover)
List Price: $70.00 Sale: $20.87
For 250 years, Givaudan has created perfumes and flavors of the highest quality, innovating and inspiring trends in scent and taste. Dior, Saint Laurent, and Prada turned to Givaudan to create J’adore, Opium, Infusion d’iris, and more. Here, scientists, philosophers, and historians explore the history and science of perfumes and flavors. Stunning photo-essays reveal the beauty of harvests around the world—the sources of Givaudan’s creations. The book reveals the ways in which tastes and scents engage the senses and enhance life.
Anatomy 101: From Muscles and Bones to Organs and Systems, Your Guide to How the Human Body Works (Adams 101)
Langford, Kevin
(Hardcover)
List Price: $15.99 Sale: $5.43
An all-in-one guide to the human body!Anatomy 101 offers an exciting look into the inner workings of the human body. Too often, textbooks turn the fascinating systems, processes, and figures of anatomy into tedious discourse that even Leonardo Da Vinci would reject. This easy-to-read guide cuts out the boring details, and instead, provides you with a compelling lesson in anatomy. Covering every aspect of anatomical development and physiology, each chapter details the different parts of the human body, how systems are formed, and disorders that could disrupt bodily functions. You'll unravel the mysteries of anatomy with unique, accessible elements like:• Detailed charts of each system in the body• Illustrations of cross sections• Unique profiles of the most influential figures in medical historyFrom cell chemistry to the respiratory system, Anatomy 101 is packed with hundreds of entertaining facts that you can't get anywhere else!
Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior
Grandin, Temple
(Hardcover)
List Price: $30.00 Sale: $9.11
One of the world's most celebrated animal scientists merges a lifetime of study with her extraordinary perceptions as an autistic person in a groundbreaking book that will revolutionize our understanding of how animals think and feel.
The Apollo Missions: In the Astronauts' Own Words
Pyle, Rod
(Hardcover)
List Price: $24.95 Sale: $7.83
Apollo Missions tells the significant, spectacular and intriguing story of the Apollo space program through first-person accounts by the astronauts themselves, explained and put into context with expert commentary by Rod Pyle.Traveling to the most forbidding environment known to man, twelve courageous individuals stepped out of their tiny spaceships and onto another world. And with that, the history of humankind was irrevocably changed.But the adventures live on, and with the anniversary of the moon landings in 2019, the world is once more gazing. The Apollo over 100 images - many of which are rarely seen - drawn from original NASA film. Creating a remarkable book that transports readers to a world they have never seen like this before.
Apollo: A Graphic Guide to Mankind's Greatest Mission
Scott, Zack
(Hardcover)
List Price: $24.99 Sale: $7.27
July 20, 1969, marked one of the greatest achievements of mankind—the moon landing. In his infographic-packed book, Apollo: A Graphic Guide to Mankind’s Greatest Mission, Zack Scott recounts the entire journey of the Apollo space program. Unlike previous books on this topic, Scott illustrates the tiniest details of how man came to walk on the moon, paying particular attention to many of the lesser known facts about the mission. Artful infographics throughout focus on a wide range of details that space-lovers will obsess over—astronaut weights, mission insignia and spacecraft call signs, fuel consumption stats, splashdown sites around the world, and much, much more. A fresh, hip approach to the subject, Apollo is the perfect combination of science, design, math, and space.
Arrival of the Fittest: How Nature Innovates
Wagner, Andreas
(Paperback)
List Price: $16.00 Sale: $5.43
“Natural selection can preserve innovations, but it cannot create them. Nature’s many innovations—some uncannily perfect—call for natural principles that accelerate life’s ability to innovate.” Darwin’s theory of natural selection explains how useful adaptations are preserved over time. But the biggest mystery about evolution eluded him. As genetics pioneer Hugo de Vries put it, “natural selection may explain the survival of the fittest, but it cannot explain the arrival of the fittest.” Can random mutations over a mere 3.8 billion years really be responsible for wings, eyeballs, knees, camouflage, lactose digestion, photosynthesis, and the rest of nature’s creative marvels? And if the answer is no, what is the mechanism that explains evolution’s speed and efficiency? In Arrival of the Fittest, renowned evolutionary biologist Andreas Wagner draws on over fifteen years of research to present the missing piece in Darwin's theory. Using experimental and computational technologies that were heretofore unimagined, he has found that adaptations are not just driven by chance, but by a set of laws that allow nature to discover new molecules and mechanisms in a fraction of the time that random variation would take. Consider the Arctic cod, a fish that lives and thrives within six degrees of the North Pole, in waters that regularly fall below 0 degrees. At that temperature, the internal fluids of most organisms turn into ice crystals. And yet, the arctic cod survives by producing proteins that lower the freezing temperature of its body fluids, much like antifreeze does for a car’s engine coolant. The invention of those proteins is an archetypal example of nature’s enormous powers of creativity. Meticulously researched, carefully argued, evocatively written, and full of fascinating examples from the animal kingdom, Arrival of the Fittest offers up the final puzzle piece in the mystery of life’s rich diversity.
Asteroid Hunters (TED Books)
Nugent, Carrie
(Hardcover)
List Price: $16.99 Sale: $5.43
For the first time, scientists could have the knowledge to prevent a natural disaster epic in scale - an asteroid hitting the earth and in this exciting, adventuresome book, Carrie Nugent explains how.What are asteroids, and where do they come from? And, most urgently: Are they going to hit the Earth? What would happen if one was on its way? Carrie Nugent is an asteroid hunter - part of a group of scientists working to map our cosmic neighborhood. For the first time ever, we are reaching the point where we may be able to prevent the horrible natural disaster that would result from an asteroid collision.In Asteroid Hunters, Nugent reveals what known impact asteroids have had: the extinction of the dinosaurs, the earth-sized hole Shoemaker Levy 9 left in Jupiter just a few decades ago, how the meteorite that burst over Chelyabinsk in Russia could have started a war, and unlucky Ms. Anne Hodges - the only person (that we know of) in US history to be the victim of a direct hit. Nugent also introduces the telescope she uses to detect near-Earth asteroids. Ultimately, detection is the key to preventing asteroid impact, and these specialized scientists are working to prevent the unthinkable from happening.If successful, asteroid hunting will lead to the first natural disaster humans have the know-how and the technology to prevent. The successful hunt and mapping of asteroids could mean nothing less than saving life on earth.
Astrophotography: The Essential Guide to Photographing the Night Sky
Thompson, Mark
(Softcover)
List Price: $19.95 Sale: $7.27
Astrophotography: The Essential Guide to Photographing the Night Sky features practical guidance from an astrophotographer with years of experience explaining astronomy to hobbyists. Mark Thompson, known as "the people's astronomer" in the UK, guides readers through the entire process, beginning with buying equipment and ending with processing images on a home computer using free software. From the humble mobile phone to high-end specialist cameras, Thompson brings it all to life with his experiences, and many of his own astronomical images.
Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America
Childs, Craig
(Hardcover)
List Price: $28.95 Sale: $9.51
From the author of Apocalyptic Planet comes a vivid travelogue through prehistory, that traces the arrival of the first people in North America at least twenty thousand years ago and the artifacts that tell of their lives and fates.In Atlas of a Lost World, Craig Childs upends our notions of where these people came from and who they were. How they got here, persevered, and ultimately thrived is a story that resonates from the Pleistocene to our modern era. The lower sea levels of the Ice Age exposed a vast land bridge between Asia and North America, but the land bridge was not the only way across. Different people arrived from different directions, and not all at the same time.The first explorers of the New World were few, their encampments fleeting. The continent they reached had no people but was inhabited by megafauna - mastodons, giant bears, mammoths, saber-toothed cats, five-hundred-pound panthers, enormous bison, and sloths that stood one story tall. The first people were hunters - Paleolithic spear points are still encrusted with the proteins of their prey - but they were wildly outnumbered and many would themselves have been prey to the much larger animals.Atlas of a Lost World chronicles the last millennia of the Ice Age, the violent oscillations and retreat of glaciers, the clues and traces that document the first encounters of early humans, and the animals whose presence governed the humans’ chances for survival. A blend of science and personal narrative reveals how much has changed since the time of mammoth hunters, and how little. Across unexplored landscapes yet to be peopled, readers will see the Ice Age, and their own age, in a whole new light.
Atom Land: A Guided Tour Through the Strange (and Impossibly Small) World of Particle Physics
Butterworth, Jon
(Paperback)
List Price: $14.95 Sale: $4.79
Journey into an unseen world - and to the frontiers of human knowledge.Welcome to Atom Land, the impossibly small world of quantum physics. With award–winning physicist Jon Butterworth as your guide, you’ll set sail from Port Electron in search of strange new terrain. Each discovery will expand the horizons of your trusty map - from the Hadron Island to the Isle of Quarks and beyond. Just beware of Dark Energy and other sea monsters!A masterful work of metaphor, Atom Land also gives form to the forces that shape the universe: Electromagnetism is a highway system; the strong force, a railway; the weak force, an airline. But, like Butterworth, you may find that curiosity is the strongest force of all - one that pulls you across the subatomic seas, toward the unknown realm of Antimatter, and to the very outer reaches of the cosmos.
Atom Land: A Guided Tour Through the Strange (and Impossibly Small) World of Particle Physics
Butterworth, Jon
(Hardcover)
List Price: $19.95 Sale: $6.07
Journey into an unseen world - and to the frontiers of human knowledgeWelcome to Atom Land, the impossibly small world of quantum physics. With award–winning physics Jon Butterworth as your guide, you’ll set sail from Port Electron in search of strange new terrain. Each discovery will expand the horizons of your trusty map - from the Hadron Island to the Isle of Quarks and beyond. Just beware of Dark Energy and other sea monsters!A masterful work of metaphor, Atom Land also gives form to the forces that shape the universe: Electromagnetism is a highway system; the strong force, a railway; the weak force, an airline. But, like Butterworth, you may find that curiosity is the strongest force of all - one that pulls you across the subatomic seas, toward the unknown realm of Antimatter, and to the very outer reaches of the cosmos.
Atomic Adventures - Secret Islands, Forgotten N-Rays, and Isotopic Murder: A Journey into the Wild W orld of Nuclear Science
Mahaffey, James
(Paperback)
List Price: $17.95 Sale: $5.67
Whether you are a scientist or a poet, pro-nuclear energy or staunch opponent, conspiracy theorist or pragmatist, James Mahaffey's books have served to open up the world of nuclear science like never before. With clear explanations of some of the most complex scientific endeavors in history, Mahaffey's new book looks back at the atom's wild, secretive past and then toward its potentially bright future. Mahaffey unearths lost reactors on far flung Pacific islands and trees that were exposed to active fission that changed gender or bloomed in the dead of winter. He explains why we have nuclear submarines but not nuclear aircraft and why cold fusion doesn't exist. And who knew that radiation counting was once a fashionable trend? Though parts of the nuclear history might seem like a fiction mash-up, where cowboys somehow got a hold of a reactor, Mahaffey's vivid prose holds the reader in thrall of the infectious energy of scientific curiosity and ingenuity that may one day hold the key to solving our energy crisis or sending us to Mars.
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