As a child, Lawrence Newton wanted nothing more than to fly starships and explore the galaxy, like his fictional heroes. But on the colony world of Amethi in the twenty-fourth century, Lawrence is living in the wrong era: the age of human starflight is drawing to a close. So, like many another teenage hothead, he rebels and runs away. Twenty years later, he's the seargent of a washed-out platoon taking part in the bungled invasion ...

In this provocative and headline- making book, Michael Specter confronts the widespread fear of science and its terrible toll on individuals and the planet. In Denialism, New Yorker staff writer Michael Specter reveals that Americans have come to mistrust institutions and especially the institution of science more today than ever before. For centuries, the general view had been that science is neither good nor bad?that it merely supplies information and that new information is always ...

This is "the Word"--one man's word, certainly--about the art (and artifice) of the state of our computer-centric existence. And considering that the "one man" is Neal Stephenson, "the hacker Hemingway" (Newsweek)--acclaimed novelist, pragmatist, seer, nerd-friendly philosopher, and nationally bestselling author of groundbreaking literary works (Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, etc., etc.)--the word is well worth hearing. Mostly well-reasoned examination and partial rant, Stephenson's In the Beginning ... was the Command Line is a thoughtful, irreverent, hilarious treatise ...

The universe has many secrets. It may hide additional dimensions of space other than the familier three we recognize. There might even be another universe adjacent to ours, invisible and unattainable ... for now. Warped Passages is a brilliantly readable and altogether exhilarating journey that tracks the arc of discovery from early twentieth-century physics to the razor's edge of modern scientific theory. One of the world's leading theoretical physicists, Lisa Randall provides astonishing scientific possibilities ...

From the acclaimed author of Life and Trilobite!, a fascinating geological exploration of the earth's distant history as revealed by its natural wonders. The face of the earth, crisscrossed by chains of mountains like the scars of old wounds, has changed and changed again over billions of years, and the testament of the remote past is all around us. In this book Richard Fortey teaches us how to read its character, laying out the dominions ...

Have you ever found yourself looking up at the starry night, wondering and wanting to know more?Congratulations! You're a stargazer.Unlike its more scientific sister astronomy, stargazing requires no equipment?except perhaps something comfortable to sit on and a star map. The Stargazer's Guide provides these maps and shows you what there is to see in the sky, why it's interesting, and how previous generations viewed and interpreted it. Organized by month, The Stargazer's Guide takes you ...

Adventurer turned environmentalist Robert Swan illuminates the perils facing the planet come 2041--the year when the international treaty protecting Antarctica is up for review--and the many steps that can be taken to avoid environmental calamity. In 1985, when Robert Swan walked across Antarctica, the fragile polar environment was not high in his mind. But upon his return, the earth's perilous state became personal: Robert's ice-blue eyes were singed a pale gray, a result of being ...

A renowned cognitive neuroscientist's fascinating and highly informative account of how the brain acquires reading How can a few black marks on a white page evoke an entire universe of sounds and meanings? In this riveting investigation, Stanislas Dehaene provides an accessible account of the brain circuitry of reading and explores what he calls the ?reading paradox?: Our cortex is the product of millions of years of evolution in a world without writing, so how ...