Science
by Michael J. Stephen MD
From an expert in pulmonary medicine, the story of our extraordinary lungs, the organ that both explains our origins and holds the keys to our future as a species
We take an average of 7.5 million breaths a year and some 600 million in our lifetime, and what goes on in our body each time oxygen is taken in and carbon dioxide expelled is nothing short of miraculous. “Our lungs are the lynchpin between our bodies and the outside world,” writes Dr. Michael Stephen. And yet, we take our lungs for granted until we’re incapacitated and suddenly confronted with their vital importance.
by Steven Ujifusa
There was a time, back when the United States was young and the robber barons were just starting to come into their own, when fortunes were made and lost importing luxury goods from China. It was a secretive, glamorous, often brutal business—one where teas and silks and porcelain were purchased with profits from the opium trade.
by Alan Alda
Alan Alda has been on a decades-long journey to discover new ways to help people communicate and relate to one another more effectively. If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face? is the warm, witty, and informative chronicle of how Alda found inspiration in everything from cutting-edge science to classic acting methods.
by J. Patrick Black
We never saw them coming.
Entire cities disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving nothing but dust and rubble. When an alien race came to make Earth theirs, they brought with them a weapon we had no way to fight, a universe-altering force known as thelemity. It seemed nothing could stop it—until we discovered we could wield the power too.
by Jonathan White
In Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean, writer, sailor, and surfer Jonathan White takes readers across the globe to discover the science and spirit of ocean tides.
by Jeffrey Kluger
Complexity, as any scientist will tell you, is a slippery idea. Things that seem complicated can be astoundingly simple; things that seem simple can be dizzyingly complex. As simplexity moves from the research lab into popular consciousness it will challenge our models for modern living.
by Norman Doidge MD
The discovery that our thoughts can change the structure and function of our brains -- even into old age -- is the most important breakthrough in neuroscience in four centuries. In this revolutionary look at the brain, bestselling author, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst Norman Doidge, M.D., introduces both the brilliant scientists championing this new science of neuroplasticity and the astonishing progress of the people whose lives they've transformed.
by Sandra and Matthew Blakeslee
In this compelling, cutting-edge book, two generations of science writers explore the exciting science of "body maps" in the brain -- and how startling new discoveries about the mind-body connection can change and improve our lives.
by Gabrielle Walker
In 1960 Captain Joseph Kittinger fell to earth from the edge of space and lived. He jumped from the basket of a gigantic helium balloon into an appalling, hostile environment that, without the protection of a pressure suit, would have simultaneously frozen his body and boiled away his blood. But the air that Kittinger fell through is what makes our lives on earth possible.
by Jennifer Ouellette
Through examples from the hit TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel -- and the vampires, demons, witches and interdimensional portals therein -- acclaimed science writer Jennifer Ouellette explains complicated principles of biology, chemistry, and theoretical physics.
by Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner
The most successful theory in all of science -- and the basis of one-third of our economy -- says the strangest things about the world and about us. Can you believe that physical reality is created by our observation of it?
by Ray Kurzweil, Ph.D., and Terry Grossman, M.D.
One of the most respected scientists and futurists in America teams up with an expert on human longevity, to show how we can tap today's revolution in biotechnology and nanotechnology to virtually live forever.