Science and Technics / Science / Life Sciences

Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives

by Annie Murphy Paul

What makes us the way we are? Some say it’s the genes we inherit at conception. Others are sure it’s the environment we experience in childhood. But could it be that many of our individual characteristics—our...

Born to Believe: God, Science, and the Origin of Ordinary and Extraordinary Beliefs

by Andrew Newberg & Mark Robert Waldman

WHY DO YOU BELIEVE THE THINGS YOU BELIEVE? Do you remember events differently from how they really happened? Where do your superstitions come from? How do morals evolve? Why are some people religious and others...

Birdology: Adventures with a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds, and One Murderou

by Sy Montgomery

Meet the ladies: a flock of smart, affectionate, highly individualistic chickens who visit their favorite neighbors, devise different ways to hide from foxes, and mob the author like she’s a rock star. In...

The Other Brain: From Dementia to Schizophrenia, How New Discoveries about the Brain Are Revolutionizing Medicine and Science

by R. Douglas, Ph.D. Fields

Despite everything that has been written about the brain, a potentially critical part of this vital organ has been overlooked—until now. The Other Brain examines the growing importance of glia, which make...

Born to Believe: God, Science, and the Origin of Ordinary and Extraordinary Beliefs

by Andrew Newberg & Mark Robert Waldman

Born to Believe was previously published in hardcover as Why We Believe What We Believe.

Prayer...meditation...speaking in tongues. What do these spiritual activities share and how do they differ? Why do some...

Deadly Feasts: Tracking The Secrets Of A Terrifyin

by Richard Rhodes

In this brilliant and gripping medical detective story. Richard Rhodes follows virus hunters on three continents as they track the emergence of a deadly new brain disease that first kills cannibals in New Guinea,...

Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind

by Daniel Tammet

Owner of "the most remarkable mind on the planet," (according to Entertainment Weekly) Daniel Tammet captivated readers and won worldwide critical acclaim with the 2007 New York Times bestselling memoir, Born...

Why Evolution Is True

by Jerry A. Coyne

"Coyne's knowledge of evolutionary biology is prodigious, his deployment of it as masterful as his touch is light." -Richard Dawkins

In the current debate about creationism and intelligent design, there is...

The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain: The Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind

by Barbara Strauch

A leading science writer examines how our brains improve in middle age.

Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Barbara Strauch explores the latest findings that demonstrate how the middle-aged brain is more...

The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language

by Christine Kenneally

An accessible exploration of a burgeoning new field: the incredible evolution of language

The first popular book to recount the exciting, very recent developments in tracing the origins of language, The First...

Sex on the Brain: The Biological Differences Between Men and Women

by Deborah Blum

Go beyond the headlines and the hype to get the newest findings in the burgeoning field of gender studies. Drawing on disciplines that include evolutionary science, anthropology, animal behavior, neuroscience,...

Darwin Slept Here: Discovery, Adventure, and Swimming Iguanas in Charles Darwin's South America

by Eric Simons

One snowy day in Ushuaia, Argentina, the self-proclaimed "southernmost city in the world," writer Eric Simons picked up a copy of Charles Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle. He had just hiked the mountains overlooking...

Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World

by Paul Hawken

The New York Times bestselling examination of the worldwide movement for social and environmental change

Paul Hawken has spent more than a decade researching organizations dedicated to restoring the environment...

Adam's Navel: A Natural and Cultural History of the Human Form

by Michael Sims

In this amusing and brilliantly conceived book, Michael Sims introduces you to your body. Moving from head to toe, Sims blends cultural history with evolutionary theory to produce a wonderfully original narrative...

Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious

by Gerd Gigerenzer

Why is split second decision-making superior to deliberation? Gut Feelings delivers the science behind Malcolm Gladwell?s Blink

Reflection and reason are overrated, according to renowned psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer....

Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food

by Paul Greenberg

"A necessary book for anyone truly interested in what we take from the sea to eat, and how, and why." -Sam Sifton, The New York Times Book Review.

Writer and life-long fisherman Paul Greenberg takes us on...

Stem Cell Now

by Christopher Thomas Scott

While many believe stem cell research holds the key to curing a wide range of ailments, others see this research as opening a Pandora’s box that will devalue human life.

In Stem Cell Now, Christopher Scott—executive...

The Descent of Man: The Concise Edition

by Charles Darwin & Carl Zimmer

The most accessible edition ever published of Darwin?s incendiary classic, edited by ?as fine a science essayist as we have? (New York Times)

The Descent of Man, Darwin?s second landmark work on evolutionary...

Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Revised Edition

by Marc Reisner

Beautifully written and meticulously researched.—St. Louis Post-Dispatch. This updated study of the economics, politics, and ecology of water covers more than a century of public and private desert reclamation...

The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain Grows Older

by Elkhonon Goldberg

""Impressive...Wide-ranging...The Wisdom Paradox makes a compelling case for the possibility of maintaining a sharp mind far into old age.""-Kenneth Silber, Scientific American Mind The Wisdom Paradox explores...