A fact-filled, illustrated exhibit of four billion years of history in 133 objects—from Pangaea to ancient Rome to Dracula's home to the iPhone.This amazing book tells the story of our planet as you've never seen it before. The Mini Museum is a collection of treasures gathered from across space and time and shared by tens of thousands of people in more than 120 countries. Each item in the collection is inspired by a childhood dream of sharing all the wonders the uni...

"A pleasure. ... Suitable for beach reading or for mainlining before a dinner party." —Dan Piepenbring, New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)"Absorbing. ... As thoughtfully written as it is nuts." —Chicago TribuneA collection of the world’s most mind-boggling, thought-provoking, and downright hilarious theories by the co-host of the hit podcast No Such Thing as a Fish, Dan Schreiber.

The timeless stories of Greek mythology come to life in these reimagined tales written in the voices of Zeus, Oedipus, Odysseus, and many others.Though the gods are featured prominently in Greek mythology, there is nothing sacred about it. Anyone is free to bring their own interpretation to these stories, just as Homer, Sophocles, and Euripides did centuries ago. In this volume, classicist and author Robert Garland presents nearly forty Greek legends as told by the ...

Noam Chomsky and linguist Andrea Moro explore language, the history of science, Big Data and AI, and the mysteries of the human brain.Influential linguist Noam Chomsky and his longtime colleague Andrea Moro have a wide-ranging conversation, touching on such topics as language and linguistics, the history of science, and the relation between language and the brain. Chomsky discusses today’s misplaced euphoria about artificial intelligence (Chomsky sees “lots of hype...

"A hugely entertaining achievement." –Esquire“An engaging survey through a period of intellectual history that reveals as much about people who wear watches as the objects on their wrists." – Wall Street Journal"As impeccably crafted and precisely engineered as any of the watches on which the author has worked so lovingly over the years, this book is a joy to behold and a wonder to enjoy.” –Simon Winchester, author...

"An outstanding contribution. . . . The glossary and illustrations are excellent and most helpful. This book will be the standard for years to come." —Robert M. Timm, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, and past president, American Society of MammalogistsDouglas A. Kelt and James L. Patton provide a long-overdue update to Timothy E. Lawlor's Handbook to the Orders and Families of Living Mammals in their new, wholly original w...

Leah Elson draws upon her wildly popular web series, 60 Seconds of Science, in this highly entertaining and visually appealing giftable book of real-world scientific questions and answers.How does DNA work?Does chicken noodle soup actually help with being sick?When cats purr, what is actually making the noise?Does singing to plants really help them grow?Is it possible to clone a woolly mammoth?In the vein of Randall Munroe’s What If? and p...

"Consistently surprising… The Logic of Miracles breaks new ground in the relationship of probability, fate, and the ability of human beings to behold them."—Douglas Rushkoff, author of Team HumanWe live in a more turbulent world than we like to think. Yet the science we use to analyze economic, financial, and statistical events mostly disregards the world's essentially chaotic nature. We need to get used to the idea that wildly improbable events a...

Make your portraits and character drawings even more realistic with these step-by-step instructions and tips.Grab your sketchbook, pens, and pencils, and follow along as this instructional drawing guide teaches you everything you need to know about creating true-to-life human faces. With more than 150 easy-to-follow illustrations, Drawing Faces is the perfect guide for aspiring artists looking to develop their portrait skills. Start off simple with learning...

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY ESQUIRE, THE IRISH TIMES AND THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT**SHORTLISTED FOR THE PEN HESSELL-TILTMAN PRIZEA provocative history of men who were worshipped as gods that illuminates the connection between power and religion and the role of divinity in a secular age**Ever since 1492, when Christopher Columbus made landfall in the New World and was hailed as a heavenly being, the accidental god h...

A groundbreaking work of investigative journalism revealing the complicity of the Vatican and the Swiss government in aiding Nazi war criminals' escape from Europe to Argentina - reissued with a new preface by Philippe Sands and additional materialAs Russian forces closed in on Berlin, and Hitler's premiership drew to a close, many Nazi officials fled Germany. In this startling, meticulously researched account, acclaimed journalist Uki Goni unravels the complex net...

A noted linguist examines extinct languages, from Egyptian hieroglyphs to the mysteries of as-yet undeciphered writings, in this scholarly work.While certain ancient languages were passed down continuously through the ages, many others were ignored for centuries. When scholars began to decipher these extinct languages in the early nineteenth century, they uncovered previously inaccessible riches of knowledge and history. Yet much work remains to be done on undeciphe...