"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...

Sometimes even ideas that are widely accepted can be worth thinking a step further: neither Aristotle, Newton or Einstein could have known anything about the Internet or about cloning. This said, great minds often err more intelligently than lesser mortals get it right.

Are people ever rational? Consider this: You auction off a one-dollar bill to the highest bidder, but you set the rules so that the second highest bidder also has to pay the amount of his last bid, even though he gets nothing. Would people ever enter such an auction? Not only do they, but according to Martin Shubik, the game's inventor, the average winning bid (for a dollar, remember) is $3.40. Many winners report that they bid so high only because their opponent "went completely crazy." T...

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 fascinating account of a scientific project that tracked 5 generations of children—the longest-ever-running study of human development.The lives of 70,000 people reveal the importance of our beginnings on the greater trajectory of our lives.In March 1946, scientists began to track thousands of children born in one cold week as part of a birth cohort study. No one imagined that this would become the longest-running study of human developme...

Turn the tables on cybercriminals. Keep your loved ones safe.We live much of our personal and professional lives online, but fraudsters and hackers have made the internet dangerous. Cyberattacks are the US’s fastest growing crime: consumers lost more than $6.9 billion to fraud in 2021, up more than 50% from 2020; financial losses from online theft surpassed losses from home theft; 1 in 10 people become identity theft victims annually, including more than 1 million ...

A social history that pulls back the covers on the most intimate piece of furniture in our lives: "Entertaining . . . will keep you awake long into the night." —Paul Chrystal, author of The History of SweetsLouis XIV ruled France from his bedchamber. Winston Churchill governed Britain from his during World War II. Travelers routinely used to bed down with complete strangers, and whole families shared beds in many preindustrial households. Beds were expensi...

Have you always wanted to write a novel?Emily Winslow will help you develop the mindset and skills to get you started, keep you going, and see you through. Time to Write is a creative writing guide aimed at anyone who wants to write a novel and could use some support.It contains 49 lessons, each easy to read and packed with insights based on experience. Emily has taken her own work to high levels with major publishers, and has learned from teaching...

A Simon & Schuster eBook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader.

"Eve’s brave and honest experiment reveals the shocking impact of the throwaway society we’ve become and at the same time showing small ways we can all do better.” —Rebecca Prince-Ruiz, founder of Plastic Free JulyYear of No Garbage is Super Size Me meets the environmental movement.In this book Eve O. Schaub, humorist and stunt memoirist extraordinaire, tackles her most difficult challenge to date: garbage. Convincing her husband a...

Are you prepared for the end of the world as you know it?It can be all too easy to think of disaster as something that happens to others. But the world is a volatile place, and despite our best efforts we can quickly find ourselves in dangerous or even deadly situations. Proper preparation can ensure that, when that does happen, we have the tools and knowledge necessary to survive. This guide is the ultimate reference on how to prepare for disaster and how to respo...

A Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist exposes the sixty-seven US nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands that decimated a people and their land.The most important place in American nuclear history are the Marshall Islands—an idyllic Pacific paradise that served as the staging ground for over sixty US nuclear tests. It was here, from 1946 to 1958, that America perfected the weapon that preserved the peace of the post-war years. It was here—with the 1954 Castle Bravo test...