Natural sciences

Randall Munroe is . . .'Nerd royalty' Ben Goldacre'Totally brilliant' Tim Harford'Laugh-out-loud funny' Bill Gates'Wonderful' Neil GaimanAN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERThe world's most entertaining and useless self-help guide, from the brilliant mind behind the wildly popular webcomic xkcd and the million-selling What If?

The world-famous cosmologist and #1 bestselling author of A Brief History of Time leaves us with his final thoughts on the universe's biggest questions in this brilliant posthumous work. Is there a God? How did it all begin? Can we predict the future? What is inside a black hole? Is there other intelligent life in the universe? Will artificial intelligence outsmart us? How do we shape the future?

Hope Jahren is an award-winning scientist, a brilliant writer, a passionate teacher, and one of the seven billion people with whom we share this earth. In The Story of More, she illuminates the link between human habits and our imperiled planet.

A gripping portrait of modern Tibet told through the lives of its people, from the bestselling author of Nothing to Envy.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration - NASA - was established on July 29, 1958. Ever since that day, NASA has been at the forefront of efforts to explore outerspace, resulting in the Apollo missions to the moon, the Skylab space-station and today's space shuttle. But behind the open face of NASA, there is a much more mysterious world.

A violinist sees a scarlet form when he plays a certain note; a rock star sees waves of blue and green as he composes a ballad; an actress tastes cake when she utters the word "table." Described by some as a superpower this mingling of the senses is called “synesthesia,” and the people who possess this amazing gift are called “synesthetes.

Can reading a book make you more rational? Can it help us understand why there is so much irrationality in the world? Steven Pinker, author of Enlightenment Now (Bill Gates's "new favorite book of all time") answers all the questions here Today humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding--and also appears to be losing its mind.

Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species' is a book that changed the way we think about the development of life on earth. The text used for this edition was the last to be published during Darwin's lifetime and is considered to be the definitive version.

The millions of people around the world who read and loved What If? still have questions, and those questions are getting stranger. Thank goodness xkcd creator Randall Munroe is here to help. Planning to ride a fire pole from the Moon back to Earth? The hardest part is sticking the landing. Hoping to cool the atmosphere by opening everyone's freezer door at the same time? Maybe it's time for a bri

The Light Eaters is a deep immersion into the drama of green life and the complexity of this wild and awe-inspiring world that challenges our very understanding of agency, consciousness, and intelligence.