• Agricultural Sciences
  
• Archaeology
  
• Astronomy
  
• Behavioral Sciences
  
• Biological Sciences
  
• Chemistry
  
• Earth Sciences
  
• Education
  
• Essays & Commentary
  
• Evolution
  
• Experiments, Instruments & Measurement
  
• General
  
• General AAS
  
• History & Philosophy
  
• Mathematics
  
• Medicine
  
• Nature & Ecology
  
• Physics
  
• Reference
  
• Technology
  

List Price: $14.00
Price: $10.78
You Save: $3.22 (23%)

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2008 (The Best American Series)

ASIN : 0618834478
Sales Rank : 5867
Studio : Houghton Mifflin
Binding : Paperback
EAN : 9780618834471
ISBN : 0618834478
Number Of Pages : 352
Publication Date : December 08, 2008
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin
Manufacturer : Houghton Mifflin
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Houghton Mifflin

Product Description

"The articles . . . draw the reader more tightly into the web of the world. They forge links in unexpected ways. They connect us to nature and to each other, and those connections nourish the intellect and uplift the spirit."—Jerome Groopman, M.D., editor

This year's Best American Science and Nature Writing offers another rich assortment of "fascinating science and impressive journalism" (New Scientist) culled from an array of periodicals, such as The New Yorker, Scientific American, and National Geographic. The twenty-four provocative and often visionary stories chosen by guest editor Jerome Groopman form an outstanding sampling of the very best in a field of writing that stays ahead of the curve, bringing important topics to the forefront of American discussion.

In "The Universe's Invisible Hand," Christopher Conselice takes us into the recent spectacular discovery of the crucial role of dark energy, which is making our universe expand faster and faster. Florence Williams tells the story of a more down-to-earth form of energy in "A Mighty Wind," which describes how a small Danish island community is making great leaps in energy conservation by using innovative wind farms. John Cohen explores the marvelous world of ligers, zorses, wholphins, and other hybridized creatures in "Zonkeys Are Pretty Much My Favorite Animal." And Robin Marantz Henig delves into the possibly hazardous ramifications of the rapidly expanding science of nanotechnology.

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2008 packs a wallop of intriguing, informative, and wondrous stories, each one bringing with it, as Jerome Groopman writes, "a sense of excitement [to be] shared with others."

List Price: $34.95
Price: $23.07
You Save: $11.88 (34%)

The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing

ASIN : 0199216800
Sales Rank : 16962
Studio : Oxford University Press, USA
Binding : Hardcover
EAN : 9780199216802
ISBN : 0199216800
Number Of Pages : 448
Publication Date : December 15, 2008
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer : Oxford University Press, USA
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Oxford University Press, USA

Product Description

Boasting almost one hundred pieces, The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing is a breathtaking celebration of the finest writing by scientists--the best such collection in print--packed with scintillating essays on everything from "the discovery of Lucy" to "the terror and vastness of the universe."
Edited by best-selling author and renowned scientist Richard Dawkins, this sterling collection brings together exhilarating pieces by a who's who of scientists and science writers, including Stephen Pinker, Stephen Jay Gould, Martin Gardner, Albert Einstein, Julian Huxley, and many dozens more. Readers will find excerpts from bestsellers such as Douglas R. Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach, Francis Crick's Life Itself, Loren Eiseley's The Immense Journey, Daniel Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea, and Rachel Carson's The Sea Around Us. There are classic essays ranging from J.B.S. Haldane's "On Being the Right Size" and Garrett Hardin's "The Tragedy of the Commons" to Alan Turing's "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" and Albert Einstein's famed New York Times article on "Relativity." And readers will also discover lesser-known but engaging pieces such as Lewis Thomas's "Seven Wonders of Science," J. Robert Oppenheimer on "War and Physicists," and Freeman Dyson's memoir of studying under Hans Bethe.
A must-read volume for all science buffs, The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing is a rich and vibrant anthology that captures the poetry and excitement of scientific thought and discovery.

List Price: $24.95
Price: $16.47
You Save: $8.48 (34%)

Falling for Science: Objects in Mind

ASIN : 0262201720
Sales Rank : 41934
Studio : The MIT Press
Binding : Hardcover
EAN : 9780262201728
ISBN : 0262201720
Number Of Pages : 232
Publication Date : December 30, 2008
Publisher : The MIT Press
Manufacturer : The MIT Press
Availability : Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks
Label : The MIT Press

Product Description

"This is a book about science, technology, and love," writes Sherry Turkle. In it, we learn how a love for science can start with a love for an object—a microscope, a modem, a mud pie, a pair of dice, a fishing rod. Objects fire imagination and set young people on a path to a career in science. In this collection, distinguished scientists, engineers, and designers as well as twenty-five years of MIT students describe how objects encountered in childhood became part of the fabric of their scientific selves. In two major essays that frame the collection, Turkle tells a story of inspiration and connection through objects that is often neglected in standard science education and in our preoccupation with the virtual.

The senior scientists' essays trace the arc of a life: the gears of a toy car introduce the chain of cause and effect to artificial intelligence pioneer Seymour Papert; microscopes disclose the mystery of how things work to MIT President and neuroanatomist Susan Hockfield; architect Moshe Safdie describes how his boyhood fascination with steps, terraces, and the wax hexagons of beehives lead him to a life immersed in the complexities of design. The student essays tell stories that echo these narratives: plastic eggs in an Easter basket reveal the power of centripetal force; experiments with baking illuminate the geology of planets; LEGO bricks model worlds, carefully engineered and colonized.

All of these voices—students and mentors—testify to the power of objects to awaken and inform young scientific minds. This is a truth that is simple, intuitive, and easily overlooked.

Introductory and concluding essays by: Sherry Turkle.

Mentor essays by: Susan Hockfield, Donald Ingber, Alan Kay, Sarah Kuhn, Donald Norman, Seymour Papert, Rosalind Picard, Moshe Safdie.

List Price: $14.95
Price: $10.17
You Save: $4.78 (32%)

The Best American Science Writing 2008

ASIN : 0061340413
Sales Rank : 36920
Studio : Harper Perennial
Binding : Paperback
EAN : 9780061340413
ISBN : 0061340413
Number Of Pages : 336
Publication Date : December 01, 2008
Release Date : December 09, 2008
Publisher : Harper Perennial
Manufacturer : Harper Perennial
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Harper Perennial
Authors: Sylvia Nasar, Jesse Cohen

Product Description

Edited by Sylvia Nasar, bestselling author of A Beautiful Mind and former economics correspondent for the New York Times, The Best American Science Writing 2008 brings together the premiere science writing of the year. Distinguished by the foremost voices and publications—among them Pulitzer Prize-winner Amy Harmon, Nobel Prize–winner Al Gore, and award-winning and bestselling author Oliver Sacks—this anthology is a comprehensive overview of our most advanced and most relevant scientific inquiries.

List Price: $15.95
Price: $10.85
You Save: $5.1 (32%)

Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries

ASIN : 0393330168
Sales Rank : 10299
Studio : W. W. Norton
Binding : Paperback
EAN : 9780393330168
ISBN : 0393330168
Number Of Pages : 384
Publication Date : December 05, 2007
Publisher : W. W. Norton
Manufacturer : W. W. Norton
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : W. W. Norton
Author: Neil deGrasse Tyson

Product Description

"One of today's best popularizers of science."—Kirkus Reviews

Loyal readers of the monthly "Universe" essays in Natural History magazine have long recognized Neil deGrasse Tyson's talent for guiding them through the mysteries of the cosmos with stunning clarity and childlike enthusiasm. Here Tyson compiles his favorite essays across a myriad of cosmic topics. The title essay introduces readers to the physics of black holes by explaining just what would happen to your body if you fell into one, while "Hollywood Nights" assails Hollywood's feeble efforts to get its night skies right. Tyson is the world's best-known astrophysicist, and he's at his best here, as a natural teacher who simplifies the complexities of astrophysics while sharing his infectious excitement for our universe.

List Price: $14.99
Price: $10.19
You Save: $4.8 (32%)

What Have You Changed Your Mind About?: Today's Leading Minds Rethink Everything

ASIN : 0061686549
Sales Rank : 3732
Studio : Harper Perennial
Binding : Paperback
EAN : 9780061686542
ISBN : 0061686549
Number Of Pages : 416
Publication Date : December 01, 2009
Release Date : December 06, 2009
Publisher : Harper Perennial
Manufacturer : Harper Perennial
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Harper Perennial
Author: John Brockman

Product Description

Even geniuses change their minds sometimes.

Edge (www.edge.org), the influential online intellectual salon, recently asked 150 high-powered thinkers to discuss their most telling missteps and reconsiderations: What have you changed your mind about? The answers were brilliant, eye-opening, fascinating, sometimes shocking, and certain to kick-start countless passionate debates.

Read Steven Pinker on the future of human evolution • Richard Dawkins on the mysteries of courtship • Sam Harris on the indifference of Mother Nature • Nassim Nicholas Taleb on the irrelevance of probability • Chris Anderson on the reality of global warming • Alan Alda on the existence of God • Lisa Randall on the secrets of the Sun • Ray Kurzweil on the possibility of extraterrestrial life • Brian Eno on what it means to be a "revolutionary" • Helen Fisher on love, fidelity, and the viability of marriage • Irene Pepperberg on learning from parrots. . . and many others.

List Price: $14.00
Price: $10.92
You Save: $3.08 (22%)

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2007 (The Best American Series (TM))

ASIN : 0618722319
Sales Rank : 19637
Studio : Houghton Mifflin
Binding : Paperback
EAN : 9780618722310
ISBN : 0618722319
Number Of Pages : 336
Publication Date : December 10, 2007
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin
Manufacturer : Houghton Mifflin
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Houghton Mifflin
Author: John Brockman

Product Description

"Science is about not knowing and wanting badly to know. Science is about flawed and complicated human beings trying to use whatever tools they've got, along with their minds, to see something strange and new. In that sense, writing about science is just another way of writing about the human condition." -- from the introduction by Richard Preston

The twenty-eight pieces in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2007 span a wide range of topics, from the farthest reaches of space to the everyday world around us to the secrets hiddin in our own bodies. Michael Lemonick travels to an extinct volcano in Hawaii, where telescopes at the summit are providing researchers with a glimpse of the most distant galaxy ever seen -- and profound new insights into the creation of the universe. Neil deGrasse Tyson takes a sharp, witty look at Americans' delirium over space travel. And with surgical precision Michael Perry describes how a medical autopsy is performed. Dead men can tell tales.

Here we also see examinations of the sometimes harmful impact of science on the natural world. Susan Casey gives an alarming portrait of plastic waste pollution in the world's oceans, including a dead zone in the mid-Pacific that's twice the size of Texas. Michael Shnayerson heads to West Virginia, where the Appalachians are being blasted at the rate of several ridgetops a week, all in the pursuit of ever-elusive coal. And Paul Bennett goes deep beneath Rome's streets, where cutting-edge excavation techniques are revealing newfound treasures in one of the world's oldest cities.

A profile of a late, distinguished British ornithologist by John Seabrook reveals that the man's personal collection of bird skins, now in the British Natural History Museum, was largely stolen or bought and intentionally mislabeled. Richard Conniff visits a former Brooklyn social worker turned primatologist who has become a fierce advocate of the lemur. And Patricia Gadsby takes us into the kitchens of Europe's finest chefs to explain how the new field of molecular gastronomy is revolutionizing fine cuisine.

List Price: $29.95
Price: $19.77
You Save: $10.18 (34%)

Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character

ASIN : 0393061329
Sales Rank : 41231
Studio : W. W. Norton
Binding : Hardcover
EAN : 9780393061321
ISBN : 0393061329
Number Of Pages : 608
Publication Date : December 07, 2005
Publisher : W. W. Norton
Manufacturer : W. W. Norton
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : W. W. Norton
Author: Richard P. Feynman

Product Description

An omnibus edition celebrating a great scientific mind and a legendary American original—including a live recording.

Richard Feynman (1918-1988) thrived on outrageous adventures. In the phenomenal national bestsellers "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" and "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" the Nobel Prize-winning physicist recounted in an inimitable voice his adventures trading ideas on atomic physics with Einstein and Bohr and ideas on gambling with Nick the Greek, painting a naked female toreador, accompanying a ballet on his bongo drums, solving the mystery of the Challenger disaster, and much else of an eyebrow-raising, hugely entertaining, and astounding nature. One of the most influential and creative minds of recent history, Feynman also possessed an unparalleled ability as a storyteller, a delightful coincidence celebrated in this special omnibus edition of his classic stories. Now packaged with an hour-long audio CD of the 1978 "Los Alamos from Below" lecture, Classic Feynman offers readers a chance to finally hear a great tale in the orator's own voice.

List Price: $14.95
Price: $10.17
You Save: $4.78 (32%)

A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love

ASIN : 0618485392
Sales Rank : 54790
Studio : Mariner Books
Binding : Paperback
EAN : 9780618485390
ISBN : 0618485392
UPC : 046442485395
Number Of Pages : 272
Publication Date : December 27, 2004
Publisher : Mariner Books
Manufacturer : Mariner Books
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Mariner Books
Author: Richard Dawkins

Product Description

The first collection of essays from renowned scientist and best-selling author Richard Dawkins is an enthusiastic declaration, a testament to the power of rigorous scientific examination to reveal the wonders of the world. In these essays Dawkins revisits the meme, the unit of cultural information that he named and wrote about in his groundbreaking work The Selfish Gene. Here also are moving tributes to friends and colleagues, including a eulogy for novelist Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; correspondence with the evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould; and visits with the famed paleoanthropologists Richard and Maeve Leakey at their African wildlife preserve. The collection ends with a vivid note to Dawkins's ten-year-old daughter, reminding her to remain curious, to ask questions, and to live the examined life.

Amazon.com Review

Richard Dawkins has an opinion on everything biological, it seems, and in A Devil's Chaplain, everything is biological. Dawkins weighs in on topics as diverse as ape rights, jury trials, religion, and education, all examined through the lens of natural selection and evolution. Although many of these essays have been published elsewhere, this book is something of a greatest-hits compilation, reprinting many of Dawkins' most famous recent compositions. They are well worth re-reading. His 1998 review of Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont's Fashionable Nonsense is as bracing an indictment of academic obscurantism as the book it covered, although the review reveals some of Dawkins' personal biases as well. Several essays are devoted to skillfully debunking religion and mysticism, and these are likely to raise the hackles of even casual believers. Science, and more specifically evolutionary science, underlies each essay, giving readers a glimpse into the last several years' debates about the minutiae of natural selection. In one moving piece, Dawkins reflects on his late rival Stephen Jay Gould's magnum opus, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, and clarifies what it was the two Darwinist heavyweights actually disagreed about. While the collection showcases Dawkins' brilliance and intellectual sparkle, it brings up as many questions as it answers. As an ever-ardent champion of science, honest discourse, and rational debate, Dawkins will obviously relish the challenge of answering them. --Therese Littleton

List Price: $14.00
Price: $11.20
You Save: $2.8 (20%)

Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher

ASIN : 0140047433
Sales Rank : 48475
Studio : Penguin (Non-Classics)
Binding : Paperback
EAN : 9780140047431
ISBN : 0140047433
Number Of Pages : 160
Publication Date : December 23, 1978
Publisher : Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer : Penguin (Non-Classics)
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Penguin (Non-Classics)
Author: Lewis Thomas