Exploring scientific naming as a joyful and creative act—from a lizard named after Jim Morrison to the Ampulex dementor wasps inspired by Harry Potter!Tyrannosaurus rex. Homo sapiens. Heteropoda davidbowie. There are about 1.8 million discovered and named plant and animal species, and millions more still to be discovered. Naming is the necessary next step after discovery; it is through the naming of species that we perceive and understand nature. ...

A groundbreaking popular psychology book that explores the deep connection between our body and our brain.Over decades of study, University of Virginia psychologist Dennis Proffitt has shown that we are each living our own personal version of Gulliver's Travels, where the size and shape of the things we see are scaled to the size of our bodies, and our ability to interact with them. Stairs look less steep as dieters lose weight, baseballs grow bigger the be...

INSIDE THE MYSTERIES OF THE HEART: See your heart in a whole new way as a leading cardiac scientist reveals astonishing insights on heart function, heart health, and heart disease.“Our blood-pumping organ and its impressive tricks deserve all our cartoon-heart emoji." —The Boston GlobeYour heart is a miracle in motion, a marvel of construction unsurpassed by any human-made creation. It beats 100,000 times every day. If you were to ...

Venture to one of Europe’s most ancient places to uncover Neandertal remains—and what it means to be human.“[Bahrami’s] wide interests in travel, memoir, food, wine . . . make this exceedingly engaging title more like a French version of Under the Tuscan Sun” (Booklist).The Dordogne region of southwestern France is one of Europe’s most concentrated regions for Neandertal occupations. In this delightful book, award-winning writer Be...

What can we learn about the evolution of jaws from a pair of scissors? How does the flight of a tennis ball help explain how fish overcome drag? What do a spacesuit and a chicken egg have in common? Highlighting the fascinating twists and turns of evolution across more than 540 million years, paleobiologist Matthew Bonnan uses everyday objects to explain the emergence and adaptation of the vertebrate skeleton. What can camera lenses tell us about the eyes of marine reptiles? How does under...

"A delightful exposition of commonly-encountered statistical fallacies and paradoxes and why they matter." —Samuel H. Preston, coauthor of Demography: Measuring and Modeling Population ProcessesAn essential guide to the ways data can improve decision making.Statistics are everywhere: in news reports, at the doctor's office, and in every sort of forecast, from the stock market to the weather. Allen B. Downey knows well that people have an innate abil...

National Book Award Finalist: The "impressive" conclusion to the "magisterial trilogy on the mythology of violence in American history" ( Film Quarterly)."The myth of the Western frontier—which assumes that whites' conquest of Native Americans and the taming of the wilderness were preordained means to a progressive, civilized society—is embedded in our national psyche. U.S. troops called Vietnam 'Indian country.' President John Kennedy invoked 'New Frontier...

"An absolute joy to read . . . it is Harman's skill in blending contemporary science and traditional storytelling that makes this book truly brilliant." —Randy Rosenthal, New York Journal of BooksWe no longer think, 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...

"A dazzling tour of a most promising area of neuroscience—the interface between the immune system and the nervous system." —Elliot S. Gershon, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, The University of ChicagoSince ancient times humans have felt intuitively that emotions and health are linked, and recently there has been much popular speculation about this notion. But until now, without compelling evidence, it has been impossible to say for sure that such a connection really ex...

"The ultimate literary bucket list. . . . 948 pages later, you still want more!" —The Washington PostCelebrate the thrill of discovering new titles in an extraordinary book that's as compulsively readable, entertaining, surprising, and enlightening as the one,zero-plus titles it recommends.Covering fiction, poetry, science and science fiction, memoir, travel writing, biography, children's books, history, and more, one,zero Books to Read Bef...

CASEY Award Finalist for Best Baseball Book of the YearThe untold story of the unique fifty-year friendship between two American icons: John Glenn, the unassailable pioneer of space exploration and Ted Williams, indisputably the greatest hitter in baseball history.It was 1953, the Korean War in full throttle, when two men—already experts in their fields—crossed the fabled 38th Parallel into Communist airspace aboard matching Panther jets. J...

An illuminating account of a lone wolf journeying across the Alps into Italy, and what the resurgence of wolves says about our connection to nature, immigration, and one another—from an award-winning journalist.“Lone Wolf is a deeply fascinating story, grippingly told.”—Robert Macfarlane, New York Times bestselling author of UnderlandFINALIST FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZEIn 2011, a lone wo...