by Bill Bryson

A Short History of Nearly Everything by American author Bill Bryson is a popular science book that explains some areas of science, using easily accessible language that appeals more so to the general public than many other books dedicated to the subject. It was one of the bestselling popular science books of 2005 in the United Kingdom, selling over 300,000 copies. A Short History deviates from Bryson's popular travel book genre, instead describing general sciences such as chemistry, paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics. In it, he explores time from the Big Bang to the discovery of quantum mechanics, via evolution and geology. Bill Bryson wrote this book because he was dissatisfied with his scientific knowledge—that was, not much at all. He writes that science was a distant, unexplained subject at school. Textbooks and teachers alike did not ignite the passion for knowledge in him, mainly because they never delved in the whys, hows, and whens. The ebook can be found elsewhere on the web at: http://www.huzheng.org/bookstore/AShortHistoryofNearlyEverything.pdf

by Brian Greene

A magnificent challenge to conventional ideas' Financial Times'I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It manages to be both challenging and entertaining: it is highly recommended' the Independent'(Greene) send(s) the reader's imagination hurtling through the universe on an astonishing ride. As a popularizer of exquisitely abstract science, he is both a skilled and kindly explicator' the New York Times'Greene is as elegant as ever, cutting through the fog of complexity with insight and clarity; space and time become putty in his hands' Los Angeles Times Book Review

by Neil deGrasse Tyson

A short book for almost all ages, it’s simply astrophysics for people in a hurry, taught by acclaimed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to know how the universe works!

by Carl Sagan

This book is about science in its broadest human context, how science and civilization grew up together. It is the story of our long journey of discovery and the forces and individuals who helped to shape modern science, including Democritus, Hypatia, Kepler, Newton, Huygens, Champollion, Lowell and Humason. The book also explores spacecraft missions of discovery of the nearby planets, the research in the Library of ancient Alexandria, the human brain, Egyptian hieroglyphics, the origin of life, the death of the Sun, the evolution of galaxies and the origins of matter, suns and worlds. The author retraces the fifteen billion years of cosmic evolution that have transformed matter into life and consciousness, enabling the cosmos to wonder about itself. He considers the latest findings on life elsewhere and how we might communicate with the beings of other worlds. ~ WorldCat.org

by Ben Goldacre

Full of spleen, this will be a hilarious, invigorating and informative journey through the world of Bad Science.When Dr Ben Goldacre saw someone on daytime TV dipping her feet in an 'Aqua Detox' footbath, releasing her toxins into the water, turning it brown, he thought he'd try the same at home. 'Like some kind of Johnny Ball cum Witchfinder General', using his girlfriend's Barbie doll, he gently passed an electrical current through the warm salt water. It turned brown. In his words: 'before my very eyes, the world's first Detox Barbie was sat, with her feet in a pool of brown sludge, purged of a weekend's immorality.'Dr Ben Goldacre is the author of the Bad Science column in the Guardian. This book will be about all the 'bad science' we are constantly bombarded with in the media and in advertising. At a time when science is used to prove everything and nothing, everyone has their own 'bad science' moments - from the useless pie-chart on the back of cereal packets to the use of the word 'visibly' in cosmetics ads. This book will help people to quantify their instincts - that a lot of the so-called 'science' which appears in the media and in advertising is just wrong or misleading. It will be satirical and amusing - exposing the ridiculous - but it will also provide the reader with the facts they need.Full of spleen, this will be a hilarious, invigorating and informative journey through the world of Bad Science.

by Thomas S. Kuhn

Thomas S. Kuhn's classic book is now available with a new index.

by Iain Pears

This book is set in the 1660's, and tells the story of Sarah Blundy who is accused of murder. The story is told from four different perspectives, and as you read each one you learn so much more about the events, and there is a huge plot twist at the end!

by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund

<p>INSTANT <i>NEW YORK TIMES</i> BESTSELLER<br><br><b>“One of the most important books I’ve ever read—an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world.” – Bill Gates<br><br>“Hans Rosling tells the story of ‘the secret silent miracle of human progress’ as only he can. But <i>Factfulness</i> does much more than that. It also explains why progress is so often secret and silent and teaches readers how to see it clearly.” <i>—</i>Melinda Gates<br><br></b><b>"<i>Factfulness</i> by Hans Rosling, an outstanding international public health expert, is a hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases." - Former U.S. President Barack Obama</b><b><i><br><br>Factfulnes</i>s: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts. </b><br><br>When asked simple questions about global trends—<i>what percentage of the world’s population live in poverty; why the world’s population is increasing; how many girls finish school</i>—we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers.<br><br>In <i>Factfulness</i>, Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers <b>a radical new explanation of why this happens</b>. They reveal <b>the ten instincts that distort our perspective</b>—from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of <i>us</i> and <i>them</i>) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse). <br><br>Our problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know, and even our guesses are informed by unconscious and predictable biases.<br><br><b>It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think.</b> That doesn’t mean there aren’t real concerns. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most. <br><br>Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, <b><i>Factfulness </i>is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world and empower you to respond to the crises and opportunities of the future. </b><br><br>---<br><br>“This book is my last battle in my life-long mission to fight devastating ignorance...Previously I armed myself with huge data sets, eye-opening software, an energetic learning style and a Swedish bayonet for sword-swallowing. It wasn’t enough. But I hope this book will be.” Hans Rosling, February 2017.</p>

by Ray Kurzweil

<b><b><b>“Startling in scope and bravado.” —Janet Maslin, <i>The New York Times</i><br><br>“Artfully envisions a breathtakingly better world.” —<i>Los Angeles Times</i><br><br><b><b><b>“Elaborate, smart and persuasive.” —<i>The Boston Globe</i></b></b></b><br><br>“A pleasure to read.” —<i>The Wall Street Journal</i><br><br></b>One of <i>CBS News</i>’s Best Fall Books of 2005 <b><b>• </b></b>Among <i>St Louis Post-Dispatch</i>’s Best Nonfiction Books of 2005 <b><b>• </b></b>One of Amazon.com’s Best Science Books of 2005<br><br>A radical and optimistic view of the future course of human development from t</b>he bestselling author of <i>How to Create a Mind </i>and <i>The Singularity is Nearer </i>who Bill Gates calls “the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence”</b><br><br>For over three decades, Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic <i>The Age of Spiritual Machines</i>, he argued that computers would soon rival the full range of human intelligence at its best. Now he examines the next step in this inexorable evolutionary process: the union of human and machine, in which the knowledge and skills embedded in our brains will be combined with the vastly greater capacity, speed, and knowledge-sharing ability of our creations.

by Steven Pinker

<b><b>INSTANT <i>NEW YORK TIMES</i> BESTSELLER <br>A <i>NEW YORK TIMES</i> NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018<br>ONE OF <i>THE ECONOMIST'S</i> BOOKS OF THE YEAR<br></b><br><b>"My new favorite book of all time." --Bill Gates </b><br><br>If you think the world is coming to an end, think again: people are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science. By the author of the new book, <i>Rationality</i>.</b> <br><br>Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force. It is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing.<br><br>Far from being a naïve hope, the Enlightenment, we now know, has worked. But more than ever, it needs a vigorous defense. The Enlightenment project swims against currents of human nature--tribalism, authoritarianism, demonization, magical thinking--which demagogues are all too willing to exploit. Many commentators, committed to political, religious, or romantic ideologies, fight a rearguard action against it. The result is a corrosive fatalism and a willingness to wreck the precious institutions of liberal democracy and global cooperation. <br><br>With intellectual depth and literary flair, <i>Enlightenment Now</i> makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress.

by Steven Pinker

"A brilliant, witty, and altogether satisfying book." — New York Times Book Review The classic work on the development of human language by the world’s leading expert on language and the mind In The Language Instinct, the world's expert on language and mind lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about language: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, and how it evolved. With deft use of examples of humor and wordplay, Steven Pinker weaves our vast knowledge of linguistics and cognitive science into a compelling story: language is a human instinct, wired into our brains by evolution.  The Language Instinct received the William James Book Prize from the American Psychological Association and the Public Interest Award from the Linguistics Society of America. This edition includes an update on advances in the science of language since The Language Instinct was first published. Pinker's revolutionary book challenges our most basic assumptions about what language is and where it comes from: Language Acquisition: Discover why every three-year-old is a grammatical genius who learns their native tongue not through teaching, but through a powerful instinct. The Rules of Language: An accessible explanation of how grammar works, revealing the elegant, tree-like structures that allow us to generate infinite sentences from a finite set of words. Language and the Brain: A tour of the cognitive science and neurolinguistics behind our abilities, exploring the brain regions that compute language and what happens when they go wrong. The Evolution of Language: A compelling argument for why language is not a cultural invention but a biological adaptation, a human instinct honed by natural selection over millennia.

by Rebecca Skloot

<b>#1 <i>NEW YORK TIMES </i>BESTSELLER • “The story of modern medicine and bioethics—and, indeed, race relations—is refracted beautifully, and movingly.”—<i>Entertainment Weekly</i></b><br><br><b>NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM HBO® STARRING OPRAH WINFREY AND ROSE BYRNE • ONE OF THE “MOST INFLUENTIAL” (CNN), “DEFINING” (<i>LITHUB</i>), AND “BEST” (<i>THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER</i>) BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF <i>ESSENCE</i>’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS • WINNER OF THE <i>CHICAGO TRIBUNE </i>HEARTLAND PRIZE FOR NONFICTION • A <i>KIRKUS REVIEWS </i>BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE CENTURY</b><br><br><b>A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: <i>The New York Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, O: The Oprah Magazine, </i>NPR, <i>Financial Times, New York, Independent </i>(U.K.), <i>Times </i>(U.K.), <i>Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Globe and Mail</i></b><br><br>Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. <br><br>Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.<br><br>Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of. <br><br>Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah. Deborah was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Had they killed her to harvest her cells? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance? <br><br>Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, <i>The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks</i> captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.

by Yuval Noah Harari

<p>Official U.S. edition with full color illustrations throughout.</p><p>#1 New York Times Bestseller </p><p>The Summer Reading Pick for President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg,  now available as a beautifully packaged paperback</p><p>From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”</p><p>One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?</p><p>Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas.</p><p>Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become?</p><p>Featuring 27 photographs, 6 maps, and 25 illustrations/diagrams, this provocative and insightful work is sure to spark debate and is essential reading for aficionados of Jared Diamond, James Gleick, Matt Ridley, Robert Wright, and Sharon Moalem.</p>

by Wayne C. Booth

"With more than three-quarters of a million copies sold since its first publication, The Craft of Research has helped generations of researchers at every level-from first-year undergraduates to advanced graduate students to research reporters in business and government-learn how to conduct effective and meaningful research. Conceived by seasoned researchers and educators Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams, this fundamental work explains how to find and evaluate sources, anticipate and respond to reader reservations, and integrate these pieces into an argument that stands up to reader critique. The fourth edition has been thoroughly but respectfully revised by Joseph Bizup and William T. FitzGerald. It retains the original five-part structure, as well as the sound advice of earlier editions, but reflects the way research and writing are taught and practiced today. Its chapters on finding and engaging sources now incorporate recent developments in library and Internet research, emphasizing new techniques made possible by online databases and search engines. Bizup and FitzGerald provide fresh examples and standardized terminology to clarify concepts like argument, warrant, and problem. Following the same guiding principle as earlier editions-that the skills of doing and reporting research are not just for elite students but for everyone-this new edition retains the accessible voice and direct approach that have made The Craft of Research a leader in the field of research reference. With updated examples and information on evaluation and using contemporary sources, this beloved classic is ready for the next generation of researchers"--The publisher.

by Sam Kean

<b>From <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author Sam Kean comes the gripping, untold story of a renegade group of scientists and spies determined to keep Adolf Hitler from obtaining the ultimate prize: a nuclear bomb</b><br><br>Scientists have always kept secrets. But rarely have the secrets been as vital as they were during World War II. In the middle of building an atomic bomb, the leaders of the Manhattan Project were alarmed to learn that Nazi Germany was far outpacing the Allies in nuclear weapons research. Hitler, with just a few pounds of uranium, would have the capability to reverse the entire D-Day operation and conquer Europe. So they assembled a rough and motley crew of geniuses - dubbed the Alsos Mission - and sent them careening into Axis territory to spy on, sabotage, and even assassinate members of Nazi Germany's feared Uranium Club. <br>The details of the mission rival the finest spy thriller, but what makes this story sing is the incredible cast of characters-both heroes and rogues alike-including: <br><b>Moe Berg</b> the major league catcher who abandoned the game for a career as a multilingual international spy; the strangest fellow to ever play professional baseball.<br><b>Werner Heisenberg</b> the Nobel Prize-winning physicist credited as the discoverer of quantum mechanics; a key contributor to the Nazi's atomic bomb project and the primary target of the Alsos mission. <br><b>Colonel Boris Pash </b>a high school science teacher and veteran of the Russian Revolution who fled the Sovit Union with a deep disdain for Communists and who later led the Alsos mission. <br><b>Joe Kennedy Jr.</b> the charismatic, thrill-seeking older brother of JFK whose need for adventure led him to volunteer for the most dangerous missions the Navy had to offer. <br><b>Samuel Goudsmit </b>a washed-up physics prodigy who spent his life huntinh Nazi scientist-and his parents, who had been swept into a concentration camp-across the globe. <br><b>Ir</b><b>è</b><b>ne and Frederic Joliot-Curie</b> a physics Nobel-Prize winning power couple who used their unassuming status as scientists to become active members of the resistance. <br>Thrust into the dark world of international espionage, these scientists and soldiers played a vital and largely untold role in turning back one of the darkest tides in human history.

by PHILIP PULLMAN

In a landmark epic of fantasy and storytelling, Philip Pullman invites readers into a world as convincing and thoroughly realized as Narnia, Earthsea, or Redwall. Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however, nothing is as it seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the compass of the title. All around her children are disappearing—victims of so-called "Gobblers"—and being used as subjects in terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons, creatures that reflect each person's inner being. And somehow, both Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are involved.

by Peter Wohlleben

Sunday Times Bestseller 'A paradigm-smashing chronicle of joyous entanglement' Charles Foster <p>Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the Month (September)</p> <p>Are trees social beings? How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings?</p> <p>In The Hidden Life of Trees Peter Wohlleben makes the case that the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers. Wohlleben also shares his deep love of woods and forests, explaining the amazing processes of life, death and regeneration he has observed in his woodland.</p> <p>A walk in the woods will never be the same again.</p>

by Robin Wall Kimmerer

<b>An Instant <i>New York Times</i> Bestseller</b><br> <br><b>From the #1 <i>New York Times </i>bestselling author of <i>Braiding Sweetgrass</i>, a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.</b><br><br>As Indigenous scientist and author of <i>Braiding Sweetgrass</i> Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealth—its abundance of sweet, juicy berries—to meet the needs of its natural community. And this distribution ensures its own survival. As Kimmerer explains, “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.”<br> <br> As Elizabeth Gilbert writes, Robin Wall Kimmerer is “a great teacher, and her words are a hymn of love to the world.” <i>The Serviceberry</i> is an antidote to the broken relationships and misguided goals of our times, and a reminder that “hoarding won’t save us, all flourishing is mutual.”<br> <br> <i>Robin Wall Kimmerer is donating her advance payments from this book as a reciprocal gift, back to the land, for land protection, restoration, and justice.</i>

by Colin Tucker

Have you ever wondered how a nuclear power station works? This lively book will answer that question. It’ll take you on a journey from the science behind nuclear reactors, through their start-up, operation and shutdown. Along the way it covers a bit of the engineering, reactor history, different kinds of reactors and what can go wrong with them. Much of this is seen from the viewpoint of a trainee operator on a Pressurised Water Reactor - the most common type of nuclear reactor in the world. Colin Tucker has spent the last thirty years keeping reactors safe. Join him on a tour that is the next best thing to driving a nuclear reactor yourself!

by Peter Wohlleben

<br> <b>A <i>NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST,</i> AND <i>WALL STREET JOURNAL</i> BESTSELLER * One of the most beloved books of our time: an illuminating account of the forest, and the science that shows us how trees communicate, feel, and live in social networks. After reading this book, a walk in the woods will never be the same again.</b><br> <br> <b>"Breaks entirely new ground ... [Peter Wohlleben] has listened to trees and decoded their language. Now he speaks for them."--<i>The New York Review of Books</i></b><br> <br> <b>NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BRAINPICKINGS * HONORABLE MENTION: SEJ Rachel Carson Environment Book Award * Shortlisted: Audible International Book of the Year Award * Books For a Better Life Award * Indie Choice Award--Nonfiction Book of the Year</b><br> <br> Are trees social beings? In <i>The Hidden Life of Trees</i> forester and author Peter Wohlleben convincingly makes the case that, yes, the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers. Wohlleben also shares his deep love of woods and forests, explaining the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration that he has observed in his woodland.<br> <br> "A declaration of love and an engrossing primer on trees, brimming with facts and an unashamed awe for nature."<b><i>--Washington Post</i></b><br> <br> "Heavily dusted with the glitter of wonderment."<b><i>--The New Yorker</i></b><br> <br> Includes a Note From a Forest Scientist by Dr.Suzanne Simard<br> <br> <b>Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute</b><br> <br>