History

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....

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....

With clear explanations of some of the most complex scientific endeavors in history, Mahaffey's book looks back at the atom's wild, secretive past and then toward its potentially bright future....

In this audiobook, you'll find the maddest, strangest and downright grossest stories from history and science that you don't want to know....

By identifying the structure of DNA, the molecule of life, Francis Crick and James Watson revolutionized biochemistry and won themselves a Nobel Prize....

Journey to the ancient past with cutting-edge science and new data to discover how horses forever altered the course of human history.

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....

From the acclaimed author of Death in the Air comes the riveting story of the birth of criminal investigation in the 20th century....

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

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....

The quest for gravitational waves involved years of risky research and many personal and professional struggles that threatened to derail one of the world's largest scientific endeavors....

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

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

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is essential listening for understanding the history, philosophy, and evolution of science....

What sparks the flash of brilliance? One of our most innovative, popular thinkers takes on - in exhilarating style - one of our key questions....

The definitive biography of the brilliant, charismatic, and very human physicist and innovator Enrico Fermi....

A gripping history of the polar continent, from the great discoveries of the 19th century to modern scientific breakthroughs....

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....

At a time when many people around the world are living into their 10th decade, the longest longitudinal study of human development ever undertaken offers some welcome news for the new old age....

From the New York Times-bestselling author comes a new volume on the history of human ingenuity—and its attendant breakthroughs and busts....

Were it not for the calculus, mathematicians would have no way to describe the acceleration of a motorcycle or the effect of gravity on thrown balls and distant planets....

The Blind Spot goes where no science book goes, urging us to create a new scientific culture that views ourselves both as an expression of nature and as a source of nature's self-understanding, so that humanity can flourish in the new millennium.

An engaging and far-reaching exploration of refrigeration, tracing its evolution from scientific mystery to globe-spanning infrastructure, and an essential investigation into how it has remade our entire relationship with food—for better and for worse....

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

Who are we, and how do we relate to each other? Luciano Floridi argues that the explosive developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is changing the answer to these fundamental human questions....

Il settore dei trasporti, in particolare quello su strada, è responsabile di un quarto delle emissioni di gas serra e i combustibili fossili che utilizza producono sostanze tossiche per l’uomo e per l’ambiente, oltre a essere soggetti a oscillazioni di prezzo per ragioni geopolitiche. La mobilità elettrica sta emergendo negli ultimi anni per dare una risposta efficace a questi e altri problemi, nella prospettiva di un pianeta sempre più decarbonizzato secondo gli obiettivi già stabiliti dai governi e dai trattati internazionali.

Los prestigiosos economistas Daron Acemoglu y Simon Johnson demuestran que el desarrollo técnico es indispensable para el avance de la democracia. El progreso no es un destino predeterminado, sino que depende de las elecciones que hagamos sobre la tecnología. Esta reflexión resulta muy pertinente en un mundo donde los avances digitales y la robótica amenazan a nuestros empleos y a nuestras democracias a través de la automatización excesiva, la recopilación masiva de datos y la vigilancia intrusiva.

Do autor de Como chegamos até aqui e De onde vêm as boas ideias, a surpreendente história de como nós humanos ganhamos 20 mil dias a mais em nossas vidas. Buscando respostas para os desafios atuais e do futuro, Longevidade é uma ode ao poder duradouro dos objetivos comuns. Todos os avanços do mundo moderno — o método científico, as descobertas médicas, as instituições de saúde pública — proporcionaram a cada um de nós cerca de cinco décadas a mais de existência. Steven Johnson, um dos mais influentes pensadores da tecnologia, traça aqui os meandros dessa evolução.

In Charged, James Morton Turner unpacks the history of batteries to explore why solving "the battery problem" is critical to a clean energy transition. As climate activists focus on what a clean energy future will create the history of batteries offers a sharp reminder of what building that future will consume. With new insight on the consequences for people and communities on the front lines, Turner draws on the past for crucial lessons that will help us build a just and clean energy future, from the ground up.

Hoof Beats transforms our understanding of both horses and humanity's ancient past and asks us to consider what our relationship with horses means for the future of humanity and the world around us.