Showing titles in Biology

The author of the bestseller The Disappearing Spoon reveals the secret inner workings of the brain through strange but true stories. Early studies of the human brain used a simple method: wait for misfortune to strike -- strokes, seizures, infectious diseases, horrendous accidents -- and see how...

A microscopic worm has 959 cells. The Milky Way galaxy contains roughly the same number of stellar nursery cavities. The two are separated by twenty-four orders of magnitude in size—yet their proportions match almost exactly. This is not the only such pair. From protons to stars, from bacteria to galactic structures, from cities to the cosmic web, the same organizational pattern keeps repeating across forty-two orders of magnitude. A 200,000-trial statistical test of seven such pairings returned p = 0.000055—odds of about 1 in 18,000.

'Thrilling and delightful' - George Monbiot 'Vital, brilliant, wholly absorbing... A masterpiece of science writing' - Isabella tree To appreciate the wonders of the world around us, we're often told to look up. But what if we need to look down instead? Everything that happens below ground...

Sharks are ruthlessly efficient predators, the apex of 450 million years of evolution. They are older than trees, have survived five extinction events and are essential to maintaining balanced ocean ecosystems, but how much do we really know about their lives? The first book to reveal the hidden...

Brought to you by Penguin. The myth-busting science behind our modern attitudes to exercise: what our bodies really need, why it matters, and its effects on health and wellbeing. In industrialized nations, our sedentary lifestyles have contributed to skyrocketing rates of obesity and diseases...

Growth has been both an unspoken and an explicit aim of our individual and collective striving. It governs the lives of microorganisms and galaxies; it shapes the capabilities of our extraordinarily large brains and the fortunes of our economies. Growth is manifested in annual increments of continental crust, a rising gross domestic product, a child's growth chart, the spread of cancerous cells. In this magisterial book, Vaclav Smil offers systematic investigation of growth in nature and society, from tiny organisms to the trajectories of empires and civilizations.

Bloomsbury presents Bird Sense by Tim Birkhead, read by John Sackville What is it like to be a swift, flying at over one hundred kilometres an hour? Or a kiwi, plodding flightlessly among the humid undergrowth in the pitch dark of a New Zealand night? And what is going on inside the head of a...

International sex researcher, neuroscientist, and columnist Debra Soh debunks popular gender myths in this scientific examination of the many facets of gender identity that “is not onlyeminently reasonable and beautifully-written, it is brave and vital” (Ben Shapiro, #1 New York Times...

In LIFE AS NO ONE KNOWS IT, physicist and astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker argues that solving the origin of life requires radical new thinking and an experimentally testable theory for what life is. This is an urgent issue for efforts to make life from scratch in laboratories here on Earth and missions searching for life on other planets. Walker proposes a new paradigm for understanding what physics encompasses and what we recognize as life.

Brought to you by Penguin. **AS SEEN ON ITV THIS MORNING** From the world-leading gut scientist and no. 1 bestselling author of Food for Life, comes an introduction to the life-changing benefits of fermentation Of all the ways to prepare food, fermenting is surely the most mysterious, miraculous...

We are surrounded by bold claims and quick fixes for improving our immune systems. In this expert guide, leading immunologist Daniel M. Davis sorts the fact from fiction. Is it true that orange juice can help ward off colds? How does age affect our immune system? Is mental health really...

A lifetime of adventures with bats around the world reveals why these special and imperiled creatures should be protected rather than feared. 

"On the Origin of Species must be high on any serious list of the most important and influential books ever written. On its first publication in 1859, Thomas Henry Huxley exclaimed 'How extremely stupid of me not to have thought of that.' Charles Darwin's revolutionary idea is, indeed, an...

For six years Jim and Jamie Dutcher lived intimately with a pack of wolves, gaining their trust as no one has before. In this book the Dutchers reflect on the virtues they observed in wolf society and behavior. Each chapter exemplifies a principle, such as kindness, teamwork, playfulness, respect, curiosity, and compassion. Their heartfelt stories combine into a thought-provoking meditation on the values shared between the human and the animal world. 

When Charles Darwin finished The Origin of Species, he thought that he had explained every clue, but one. Though his theory could explain many facts, Darwin knew that there was a significant event in the history of life that his theory did not explain. During this event, the “Cambrian...

Right this minute, your body is carrying roughly 38 trillion microbial cells along with it—and in the vast majority of cases, you couldn’t live without them. On top of that, you harbor around 380 trillion viruses, most of which are either beneficial or benign. The Hidden Power of Microbes draws back the curtain on this vast microworld in 24 half-hour lectures delivered by acclaimed science communicator Dr. Melissa Booth, research scientist, professor, and Founder and Principal of The Science Communicator, devoted to training scientists to tell accurate, compelling stories about their fields.

A BEST BOOK OF 2023 FOR THE TELEGRAPH, FINANCIAL TIMES, NEW SCIENTIST AND STYLIST A NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB MUST READ 2023 You may be familiar with the idea of our body’s biome – the bacterial fauna that populates our gut and can so profoundly affect our health. In We Are Electric we cross the...

An exploration of two geniuses with limitless minds and the conflict that has lasted beyond their lifetimes. Every Living Thing centres on the rivalry pledged between two scientists, Linnaeus and Buffon, who, from 1743 to 1778 raced each other to complete an inventory of all life on Earth. Their...

An award-winning physician and scientist makes the game-changing case that genetic females are stronger than males at every stage of life 'A powerful antidote to the myth of a "weaker sex"' Gina Rippon, author of The Gendered Brain From birth, genetic females are better at fighting viruses...

The extraordinary story of the Nazi-era scientific genius who discovered how cancer cells eat—and what it means for how we should. The Nobel laureate Otto Warburg—a cousin of the famous finance Warburgs—was widely regarded in his day as one of the most important biochemists of the...