Important and provocative, The Undead examines why even with the tools of advanced technology, what we think of as life and death, consciousness and nonconsciousness, is not exactly clear and how this problem has been further complicated by the business of organ harvesting.Dick Teresi, a science writer with a dark sense of humor, manages to make this story entertaining, informative, and accessible as he shows how death determination has become more complicated than ever. T...

A Nobel Prize–winning physicist's "funny, clever, entertaining" account of the history of particle physics and the hunt for a Higgs boson ( Library Journal).In this extraordinarily accessible and witty book, Leon Lederman—"the most engaging physicist since the late, much-missed Richard Feynman" ( San Francisco Examiner)—offers a fascinating tour that takes us from the Greeks' earliest scientific observations through Einstein and beyond in an inspi...

Lost Discoveries, Dick Teresi's innovative history of science, explores the unheralded scientific breakthroughs from peoples of the ancient world -- Babylonians, Egyptians, Indians, Africans, New World and Oceanic tribes, among others -- and the non-European medieval world. They left an enormous heritage in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, cosmology, physics, geology, chemistry, and technology.The mathematical foundation of Western science is a gift from the Indians, ...

This "excellent" popular science book explores just what we—and the things around us—are made of ( Aftenposten, Norway).Some elements get all the attention: glittering gold, radioactive uranium—materials we call "precious" because they are so rare. But what could be more precious than the building blocks of life—from the oxygen in our air to the carbon in all living things?In The Elements We Live By, physicist and award-winning author Anja R...

We all know the bad news. Our economies are stagnant. Wages are flat and income inequality keeps rising. The Middle East is burning and extremism is spreading. Frightened voters are embracing populist outsiders and angry nationalists. And no wonder: we are living in an age of unprecedented, irreversible decline—or so we’re constantly being told.Jonathan Tepperman’s The Fix presents a very different picture. It identifies ten pervasive and seemingly impossible challenges—inc...

A Princeton astrophysicist explores whether journeying to the past or future is scientifically possible in this "intriguing" volume (Neil deGrasse Tyson).It was H. G. Wells who coined the term "time machine"—but the concept of time travel, both forward and backward, has always provoked fascination and yearning. It has mostly been dismissed as an impossibility in the world of physics; yet theories posited by Einstein, and advanced by scientists including Stephen Haw...

"A compelling, enjoyable, and widely accessible exploration of one of the most fundamental scientific issues of our age" (Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe).In The Hole in the Universe, an award-winning science writer "provides an illuminating slant on physics and mathematics by exploring the concept of nothing" ( Scientific American).Welcome to the world of cutting-edge math, physics, and neuroscience, where the search...

A tour of the exotic and remote outposts where scientists seek answers to the great mysteries: "A thrilling ride around the globe and around the cosmos." —Sean Carroll, author of From Eternity to HereIn The Edge of Physics, a science writer journeys to the ends of the Earth—visiting remote and sometimes dangerous places—in search of the telescopes and detectors that promise to answer the biggest questions in modern cosmology.Anil Ananthaswa...

**"A world-class intellectual. . . . [Colin Woodard’s] research can help Americans rediscover their common identity in spite of all the attempts to divide them." —Garry Kasparov"A powerful paradigm for understanding the defining hot button issues of contemporary America and the action we can take to bridge our cultural divisions and save the republic." —The Next Big Idea Club“A lucid exercise in political geography with tremendous—and disturbing—explanatory power.” —Kir...

"[A] wonderful book." —Nature**"A mind-opening adventure." —**Natural HistoryAn awe-inspiring tour of bat world by the world’s leading expertWith nearly 1500 species, bats account for more than twenty percent of mammalian species. The most successful and most diverse group of mammals, bats come in different sizes, shapes, and colors, from the tiny bumblebee bat to the giant golden-crowned flying fo...

**A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice · A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2025 · A People Best Book of November 2025 · An NPR Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2025A revealing exploration of a quarter century of cultural stagnation, examining the commercial and technological forces that have come to dominate contemporary culture—from music and fashion to art, film, TV, and beyond**Over the past twenty-five years, pop culture has su...

NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD WINNERFINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARDA NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOKNamed one of the Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post, Guardian, Elle, and the Chicago Public Library.Acclaimed journalist Julia Ioffe tells the story of modern Russia through the history of its women, from revolution to utopia to autocracy.