"As part of the rising concern for global biodiversity, Christopher Kemp makes clear the value of preserved specimens in basic research." —Edward O. Wilson, Pulitzer Prize–winning biologist and authorThe tiny, lungless Thorius salamander from southern Mexico, thinner than a match and smaller than a quarter. The lushly white-coated Saki, an arboreal monkey from the Brazilian rainforests. The olinguito, a native of the Andes, which looks part mongoose, part teddy bear...

"Kemp's adventure-filled journey into the often-bizarre world of ambergris takes us from whale innards to remote islands. A compelling narrative." —Philip Hoare, author of The Whale"Preternaturally hardened whale dung" is not the first image that comes to mind when we think of perfume, otherwise a symbol of glamour and allure. But the key ingredient that makes the sophisticated scent linger on the skin is precisely this bizarre digestive by-product—ambergri...

**"[Kemp] is…a natural storyteller, a deft explainer, and a terrific and funny writer." —Mary Roach, author of FuzzHow the brain helps us to understand and navigate space—and why, sometimes, it doesn’t work the way it should.**Inside our heads we carry around an infinite and endlessly unfolding map of the world. Navigation is one of the most ancient neural abilities we have—older than language. In Dark and Magical Places, Christopher Kemp embarks on a jour...

Inside our heads we carry around an infinite and endlessly unfolding map of the world. Navigation is one of the most ancient neural abilities we have—older than language. In Dark and Magical Places, Christopher Kemp embarks on a journey to discover the remarkable extent of what our minds can do.Fueled by his own spatial shortcomings, Kemp describes the brain regions that orient us in space and the specialized neurons that do it. Place cells. Grid cells. He examines how the...

The global boom in skyscrapers—why it's happening now, how they're made, and what they do to cities and people.We are living in a new urban age and its most tangible expression is the "supertall": megastructures that are dramatically bigger, higher, and more ambitious than any in history. In Supertall, TED Resident Stefan Al—himself an experienced architect who has worked on some of the largest buildings in the world—reveals the advancements in engineering...

**Longlisted for the 2023 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing AwardA lively exploration of animal behavior in all its glorious complexity, whether in tiny wasps, lumbering elephants, or ourselves.**For centuries, people have been returning to the same tired nature-versus-nurture debate, trying to determine what we learn and what we inherit. In Dancing Cockatoos and the Dead Man Test, biologist Marlene Zuk goes beyond the binary and instead focuses on interacti...

You're standing in front of your refrigerator, a week after your last trip to the supermarket. You've got a bunch of random veggies, some wrinkly fruit, near-expired milk, and those pricey fresh herbs you bought for that one recipe. For a split second you picture yourself throwing everything away and ordering takeout.But instead . . . you pick up this cookbook. You're saving food, shrinking that grocery bill, and learning some key skills for making the most of what you have. It's e...

An exhilarating, time-traveling journey to the solar system's strangest and most awe-inspiring volcanoes.Volcanoes are capable of acts of pyrotechnical prowess verging on magic: they spout black magma more fluid than water, create shimmering cities of glass at the bottom of the ocean and frozen lakes of lava on the moon, and can even tip entire planets over. Despite their reputation for destruction, volcanoes are inseparable from the creation of our planet....

We don't think anymore, like the ancient Chinese did, that the world was hatched from an egg, or, like the Maori, that it came from the tearing apart of a love embrace. The Greeks told of a tempestuous Hera and a cunning Zeus, but we now use genes and natural selection to explain fear and desire, and physics to demystify the workings of the universe.Evolutions brings to life the latest scientific thinking on the birth of the universe and the solar system, the journey from ...

Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, acclaimed historian Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped We...

A chilling account of seventy years of nuclear catastrophes, by the author of the “definitive” (Economist) Cold War history, Nuclear Folly.Nuclear energy was embraced across the globe at the height of the nuclear industry in the 1960s and 1970s; today, there are 440 nuclear reactors operating throughout the world, with nuclear power providing ten percent of world electricity. Yet as the world seeks to reduce carbon emissions to combat climate chan...

A New York Times BestsellerFrom the bestselling author of White Too Long comes the story of white supremacy in America back to 1493 “full of urgency and insight” (The New York Times), examining contemporary communities in Mississippi, Minnesota, and Oklahoma for models of racial repair and charting a new course toward a genuinely pluralistic democracy.Beginning with contemporary effects to reckon with the legacy o...