Listen free for 30 days
-
Nature's Numbers
- Narrated by: Ian Stewart
- Length: 2 hrs and 52 mins
- Categories: Science & Engineering, Mathematics
People who bought this also bought...
-
It's Not Rocket Science
- By: Ben Miller
- Narrated by: Ben Miller
- Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Black holes. DNA. The Large Hadron Collider. Ever had that sneaking feeling that you are missing out on some truly spectacular science? You do? Well fear not, for help is at hand. Ben Miller was working on his Physics PhD at Cambridge when he accidentally became a comedian. But first love runs deep, and he has returned to his roots, to share with you all his favourite bits of science. This is the stuff that you really need to know, not only because it matters, but because it will quite simply amaze and delight you.
-
-
Simply excellent
- By Iain on 09-11-16
-
The Science of Everyday Life
- Why Teapots Dribble, Toast Burns and Light Bulbs Shine
- By: Marty Jopson
- Narrated by: Marty Jopson
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Have you ever wondered why ice floats and water is such a freaky liquid? Or why chilis and mustard are both hot but in different ways? Or why microwaves don't cook from the inside out? In this fascinating scientific tour of household objects, The One Show presenter and all-round science bloke Marty Jopson has the answer to all of these and many more baffling questions about the chemistry and physics of the everyday stuff we use every day.
-
-
Just superb.....all of science without any jargon
- By Ketan Dave on 23-09-16
-
Oxygen
- The Molecule That Made the World
- By: Nick Lane
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oxygen takes the listener on an enthralling journey, as gripping as a thriller, as it unravels the unexpected ways in which oxygen spurred the evolution of life and death.
-
-
great
- By Petr Palacky on 03-09-20
-
The Joy of x
- A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity
- By: Steven Strogatz
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many people take math in high school and promptly forget much of it. But math plays a part in all of our lives all of the time, whether we know it or not. In The Joy of x, Steven Strogatz expands on his hit New York Times series to explain the big ideas of math gently and clearly, with wit, and insight.
-
Infinite Powers
- How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe
- By: Steven Strogatz
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves. Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each age: how to determine the area of a circle with only sand and a stick; how to explain why Mars goes "backwards" sometimes; how to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS.
-
The Planets
- By: Professor Brian Cox, Andrew Cohen
- Narrated by: Samuel West
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mercury, a lifeless victim of the Sun’s expanding power. Venus, once thought to be lush and fertile, now known to be trapped within a toxic and boiling atmosphere. Mars, the red planet, doomed by the loss of its atmosphere. Jupiter, twice the size of all the other planets combined, but insubstantial. Saturn, a stunning celestial beauty, the jewel of our Solar System. Uranus, the sideways planet and the first ice giant. Neptune, dark, cold and whipped by supersonic winds. Pluto, the dwarf planet, a frozen rock.
-
-
Worthwhile Update
- By Majicat on 25-05-19
-
It's Not Rocket Science
- By: Ben Miller
- Narrated by: Ben Miller
- Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Black holes. DNA. The Large Hadron Collider. Ever had that sneaking feeling that you are missing out on some truly spectacular science? You do? Well fear not, for help is at hand. Ben Miller was working on his Physics PhD at Cambridge when he accidentally became a comedian. But first love runs deep, and he has returned to his roots, to share with you all his favourite bits of science. This is the stuff that you really need to know, not only because it matters, but because it will quite simply amaze and delight you.
-
-
Simply excellent
- By Iain on 09-11-16
-
The Science of Everyday Life
- Why Teapots Dribble, Toast Burns and Light Bulbs Shine
- By: Marty Jopson
- Narrated by: Marty Jopson
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Have you ever wondered why ice floats and water is such a freaky liquid? Or why chilis and mustard are both hot but in different ways? Or why microwaves don't cook from the inside out? In this fascinating scientific tour of household objects, The One Show presenter and all-round science bloke Marty Jopson has the answer to all of these and many more baffling questions about the chemistry and physics of the everyday stuff we use every day.
-
-
Just superb.....all of science without any jargon
- By Ketan Dave on 23-09-16
-
Oxygen
- The Molecule That Made the World
- By: Nick Lane
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oxygen takes the listener on an enthralling journey, as gripping as a thriller, as it unravels the unexpected ways in which oxygen spurred the evolution of life and death.
-
-
great
- By Petr Palacky on 03-09-20
-
The Joy of x
- A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity
- By: Steven Strogatz
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many people take math in high school and promptly forget much of it. But math plays a part in all of our lives all of the time, whether we know it or not. In The Joy of x, Steven Strogatz expands on his hit New York Times series to explain the big ideas of math gently and clearly, with wit, and insight.
-
Infinite Powers
- How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe
- By: Steven Strogatz
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves. Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each age: how to determine the area of a circle with only sand and a stick; how to explain why Mars goes "backwards" sometimes; how to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS.
-
The Planets
- By: Professor Brian Cox, Andrew Cohen
- Narrated by: Samuel West
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mercury, a lifeless victim of the Sun’s expanding power. Venus, once thought to be lush and fertile, now known to be trapped within a toxic and boiling atmosphere. Mars, the red planet, doomed by the loss of its atmosphere. Jupiter, twice the size of all the other planets combined, but insubstantial. Saturn, a stunning celestial beauty, the jewel of our Solar System. Uranus, the sideways planet and the first ice giant. Neptune, dark, cold and whipped by supersonic winds. Pluto, the dwarf planet, a frozen rock.
-
-
Worthwhile Update
- By Majicat on 25-05-19
-
A Most Elegant Equation
- Euler’s Formula and the Beauty of Mathematics
- By: David Stipp
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bertrand Russell wrote that mathematics can exalt "as surely as poetry". This is especially true of one equation: ei(pi) + 1 = 0, the brainchild of Leonhard Euler, the Mozart of mathematics. More than two centuries after Euler's death, it is still regarded as a conceptual diamond of unsurpassed beauty. Called Euler's identity, or God's equation, it includes just five numbers but represents an astonishing revelation of hidden connections.
-
-
Very good.
- By Dale Linney on 12-04-20
-
How Evolution Explains Everything About Life
- From Darwin's Brilliant Idea to Today's Epic Theory
- By: New Scientist
- Narrated by: Mark Elstob
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How did we get here? All cultures have a creation story, but a little over 150 years ago, Charles Darwin introduced a revolutionary new one. We, and all living things, exist because of the action of evolution on the first simple life form and its descendants. In How Evolution Explains Everything About Life, leading biologists and New Scientist take you on a journey of a lifetime, exploring the questions of whether life is inevitable or a one-off fluke and how it got kick-started.
-
Life Ascending
- The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution
- By: Nick Lane
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcom
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Where does DNA come from? What is consciousness? How did the eye evolve? Drawing on a treasure trove of new scientific knowledge, Nick Lane expertly reconstructs evolutions history by describing its 10 greatest inventionsfrom sex and warmth to deathresulting in a stunning account of natures ingenuity.
-
-
Terrible reader
- By ThatLibraryMiss on 27-01-11
-
It All Adds Up: The Story of People and Mathematics
- By: Mickael Launay
- Narrated by: Oliver J. Hembrough
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this international best seller, Mickaël Launay mixes history and anecdotes from around the world to reveal how mathematics became pivotal to the story of humankind. It is a journey into numbers, with Launay as a guide. In museums, monuments or train stations, he uses the objects around us to explain what art can reveal about geometry, how Babylonian scholars developed one of the first complex mathematical languages and how ‘Arabic’ numbers were adopted from India.
-
-
Marvellous on all levels
- By Steven Orpwood on 11-01-19
-
Darwin's Dangerous Idea
- Evolution and the Meanings of Life
- By: Daniel C. Dennett
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 27 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a book that is both groundbreaking and accessible, Daniel C. Dennett, whom Chet Raymo of The Boston Globe calls "one of the most provocative thinkers on the planet", focuses his unerringly logical mind on the theory of natural selection, showing how Darwin's great idea transforms and illuminates our traditional view of humanity's place in the universe. Dennett vividly describes the theory itself and then extends Darwin's vision with impeccable arguments to their often surprising conclusions, challenging the views of some of the most famous scientists of our day.
-
-
Not an easy book to remain engaged with
- By HKM on 30-07-19
-
The Hidden Factor: Why Thinking Differently Is Your Greatest Asset
- By: Scott E. Page, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Scott E. Page
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From technology to business, two (or more) heads often prove to be better than one - but only if those heads are cognitively diverse. Diverse perspectives are a powerful tool for maximizing productivity and enhancing collective performance. Now, in The Hidden Factor: Why Thinking Differently Is Your Greatest Asset, you can learn the strategies that make you a more diverse thinker and position you to break down institutional silos and build robust, effective teams.
-
-
Lovely
- By Anonymous User on 05-07-19
Summary
A bite-sized mathematical sightseeing tour of the natural world from the author of The Magical Maze. Why do many flowers have five or eight petals, but very few six or seven? Why do snowflakes have sixfold symmetry? Why do tigers have stripes but leopards have spots?
Mathematics is to nature as Sherlock Holmes is to evidence. Mathematics can look at a single snowflake and deduce the atomic geometry of its crystals; it can start with a violin string and uncover the existence of radio waves. And mathematics still has the power to open our eyes to new and unsuspected regularities - the secret structure of a cloud or the hidden rhythms of the weather.
There are patterns in the world we are now seeing for the first time - patterns at the frontier of science, yet patterns so simple that anybody can see them once they know where to look.
More from the same
Narrator
What listeners say about Nature's Numbers
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gavin
- 09-06-20
Nice listen
Read by the author which I liked, very interesting and thought provoking. The second from him I've read and I'll probably look for another.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Adisha
- 16-07-16
Wonderful educational audiobook!
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this audiobook. Prof. Stewart narrates and writes with wisdom and much experience and presents ideas and tricky concepts with ease.
In fact, this is also a really good primer to some of his other well-known books such as '17 Equations that Changed the World' and 'The Great Mathematical Problems'. Great value for money!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- T. Kirby-Green
- 15-01-19
Only wish there was more
This is a book that left me hungry for more. It bears listening too multiple times. Part celebration of mathematics, part ode to the algorithmic beauty of nature it’s more of a report from a moving frontier than ia definitive summary of all there is to know about nature’s numbers.