Secondhand Popular Science Books

The questions of our origin and cosmic abundance of life are among the most compelling facing humanity. We have determined much about the nature and origin of the Universe and...

Science is a serious business, right? Wrong. Scientists have been participants in the best reality show of all time, with all the highs, lows, bust-ups, and strange personalities of any...

Maps fascinate us. They chart our understanding of the world and they log our progress, but above all they tell our stories. From the early sketches of philosophers and explorers...

Mathematics has the power to open our eyes to new and unsuspected regularities in nature - the secret structure of a cloud or the hidden rhythms of the weather. This...

In 1963, a schoolboy browsing in his local library stumbled across a great mathematical problem: Fermat's Last Theorem, a puzzle that every child can now understand, but which has baffled...

We all know the world works in mysterious ways! But have you ever itched to know why? Why don't heavier things fall faster? Why do we have more energy when...

'... a chill-cabinet of curiosities: hot stuff, and deeply cool ...'Heat and fire have been at humanity's command for at least 100,000 years, but we've been in control of the...

From Stonehenge to beyond the Big Bang, an exhilarating scientific exploration of how we make time Time is the grandest conception of the universe that we humans have been able...

'A necessary book for our times. But also just great fun' Saul Perlmutter, Nobel LaureateThe world is awash in bullshit, and we're drowning in it. Politicians are unconstrained by facts....

An epic story of the emergence of the universe and of the community of life, with a new vision for how we might bring forth a vibrant Earth Community Today...

This best-selling dictionary contains over 9,000 entries on all aspects of science. It provides comprehensive coverage of biology (including human biology), chemistry, physics, the earth sciences, and astronomy. The entries...

In 2003, Russian physicists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov found a way to produce graphene - the thinnest substance in the world - by using sticky tape to separate an...

* The present work is designed to provide a practical introduction to aqueous equilibrium phenomena for both students and research workers in chemistry, biochemistry, geochemistry, and interdisciplin- ary environmental fields....

Colonel Chris Hadfield has spent decades training as an astronaut and has logged nearly 4,000 hours in space. During this time he has broken into a Space Station with a...

*Selected as a Book of the Year 2016 in the Sunday Times*The full inside story of the detection of gravitational waves at LIGO, one of the most ambitious feats in...

This edition covers the considerable developments which have taken place (in the 11 years since the first edition was published) in the measurement of water quality, with particular reference to...

Stuff Matters by Mark Miodownik is a fantastically entertaining introduction to the strange inner life of materials by one of the The Times 100 most influential scientists in the UK...

Though often invisible, cryptography plays a critical role in our everyday lives. Broadly defined as a set of tools for establishing security in cyberspace, cryptography enables us to protect our...

For those whose memories of learning science at school consist of burning magnesium and playing with iron filings and a magnet, and whose brains shut down as soon as things...

In 1859, the brilliant scientist Urbain LeVerrier discovered that the planet Mercury has a wobble, that its orbit shifts over time. His explanation was that there had to be an...

Now out in paperback - a fascinating exploration of the uncanny world of coincidence, it includes nearly 250 incredible stories, of which 40 are new to this edition.

This book provides a brief introduction to the chemistry of the elements, in particular the mainly inorganic compounds which are involved in natural "biogeochemical" cycles, and a discussion of the...

From the end of the nineteenth century until his death, one of history's greatest mathematicians languished in an asylum, driven mad by an almost Faustian thirst for universal knowledge. THE...

Some 66 million years ago, an asteroid some seven miles across slammed into the Earth, leaving a geologic wound over 50 miles in diameter. In the terrible mass extinction that...

First published in 1981, On Becoming Human presents a unique theory of human origins, an original explanation of how early hominids evolved from their ape-like primate ancestors. Professor Nancy M....

This work demystifies some of the most controversial issues in the life sciences today. It looks at topics ranging from Darwin to Dolly the sheep, including biological determinism, heredity and...

Numbers are all around us and we take them for granted. Who first invented them? How old are they, and how were they developed? How did they come to represent...

During the last decade the techniques of non-linear optim ization have emerged as an important subject for study and research. The increasingly widespread application of optim ization has been stimulated...

Every year, readers send in thousands of questions to New Scientist, the world's best-selling science weekly, in the hope that the answers to them will be given in the 'Last...

Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? is the latest compilation of readers' answers to the questions in the 'Last Word' column of New Scientist, the world's best-selling science weekly. Following the...

School maths is not the interesting part. The real fun is elsewhere. Like a magpie, Ian Stewart has collected the most enlightening, entertaining and vexing 'curiosities' of maths over the...

From ancient Babylon to the last great unsolved problems, Ian Stewart brings us his definitive history of mathematics. In his famous straightforward style, Professor Stewart explains each major development -...