Showing results for "The English Year" in Science & Engineering

Brought to you by Penguin. Why do women live longer than men? Why do women have menopause? Why are women more likely to get Alzheimer's? Why do girls score better at every academic subject than boys until puberty, when suddenly their scores plummet? And does the female brain really exist? In Eve...

According to an old joke, everyone knows that men and women are different... except social scientists. In A Billion Years of Sex Differences, evolutionary psychologist Steve Stewart-Williams tackles some of science's most controversial questions: How do men and women differ? Where do the...

'Exhilaratingly whizzes through billions of years . . . Gee is a marvellously engaging writer, juggling humour, precision, polemic and poetry to enrich his impossibly telescoped account . . . [making] clear sense out of very complex narratives' - The Times 'Henry Gee makes the kaleidoscopically...

Brought to you by Penguin. Humans did not make history - we played host. This humbling and revelatory book shows how infectious disease has shaped humanity at every stage, from the first success of Homo sapiens over the equally intelligent Neanderthals to the fall of Rome and the rise of Islam...

'This book will change the way you see the world and could change the world itself', CHRIS VAN TULLEKEN, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ULTRA-PROCESSED PEOPLE 'Chaudhuri does a mighty job of showing how plastic came to take over our lives, and why we have repeatedly failed to curb it' , FINANCIAL TIMES...

“A profound, graceful, and literary work of philosophy and economics, well tempered for our times, and yet timeless. . . . It will change the way you look at the food you put into your body. Which is to say, it can change who you are.” — Boston Globe Barbara Kingsolver's New York Times...

Antoine Lavoisier reinvented chemistry, overthrowing the long-established principles of alchemy and inventing an entirely new terminology, one still in use by chemists. Madison Smartt Bell’s enthralling narrative comes across like a race to the finish line, as the very circumstances that enabled Lavoisier to secure his reputation as the father of modern chemistry—a considerable fortune and social connections with the likes of Benjamin Franklin—also caused his glory to be cut short by the French Revolution. 

With acuity, humor, and respect for human diversity, The Shortest History of Sex reveals where the many facets of our sexuality—chemical, anatomical, behavioral, social—come from. Chasing down our evolutionary family tree, from the first aquatic creatures to primate societies, David Baker sheds light on our baffling array of passions, impulses, and fetishes, and guides us toward a clear understanding of one of the deepest, most abiding forces of human nature.

This is the true story of a Harvard graduate who forsook his studies for two years of the grueling life of an ordinary seaman. This exciting tale was the first to realistically describe the lives of the roughly treated, poorly paid sailors of the merchant marine.

Brought to you by Penguin. As featured on The Today Programme 'Wondering and wonderful. The nature book of the year.' JOHN LEWIS-STEMPEL ______________________________ Come to the forest, sit by the fireside and listen to intoxicating song, as Sam Lee tells the story of the nightingale. Every...

It seems like every time a new mother turns on her computer, radio, or television she is greeted with news of yet another scientific study about infancy. Ignoring good information isn't the right course, but just how does one tell the difference between solid studies, preliminary results, and snake oil? In this friendly guide through the science of infancy, Science of Mom blogger and PhD scientist Alice Callahan explains how nonscientist mothers can learn the difference between hype and evidence.

Ruskin Bond is eighty-nine years old: long past sixty, the age at which one becomes a senior citizen; also the age around which it is said one should think of retiring from active life. As the years go by, his contentment with living the life he has chosen--keeping to himself, with his family...

In The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl presents a literary devotional: fifty-two chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year. As we move through the seasons—from a crow spied on New Year’s Day, its resourcefulness and sense of community setting a theme for the year, to the lingering bluebirds of December, revisiting the nest box they used in spring—what develops is a portrait of joy and grief: joy in the ongoing pleasures of the natural world, and grief over winters that end too soon and songbirds that grow fewer and fewer.

Make Hay While the Sun Shines takes us behind the farm gate and follows a year on the farm: from calving to maintaining machinery, from mucking out to planning and building a brand-new cow shed. Tom gives us a unique insight into everyday life on a busy dairy farm with all its highs, lows and hard graft. Full of heart, amusing anecdotes and unforgettable characters like Tom's dad, Andy—aka the Ginger Warrior—this is Tom's story of determination, adventure and how to keep a smile on your face even when you're knee-deep in cow poo.

Australopithecines, dinosaurs, trilobites - such fossils conjure up images of lost worlds filled with vanished organisms. But in the full history of life, ancient animals, even the trilobites, form only the half-billion-year tip of a nearly four-billion-year iceberg. Andrew Knoll explores the deep history of life from its origins on a young planet to the incredible Cambrian explosion, presenting a compelling new explanation for the emergence of biological novelty.

David Attenborough first appeared in front of a television camera in the 1950s when, together with London Zoo's Curator of Reptiles, Jack Lester, he persuaded the BBC to mount and film an animal-collecting expedition. The result was Zoo Quest. Specially recorded for audio, David Attenborough's early adventures are sometimes life-threatening, often hilarious and always totally absorbing. The warmth and enthusiasm that have made him a broadcasting legend are instantly apparent here as he recounts this magical journey.

Pre-order Ray Nayler's brand-new speculative historical thriller Palaces of the Crow, coming soon! 'I loved this novel's brain and heart' DAVID MITCHELL, AUTHOR OF CLOUD ATLAS 'A first-rate speculative thriller, by turns fascinating, brutal, powerful, and redemptive' JEFF VANDERMEER, AUTHOR OF...

Noted nature writer Ted Williams invites readers along on a year-long immersion in the wild and fleeting moments of the natural world, from winter candy and spring quackers to summer’s scarlet farewell and autumn reveilles. This beautifully crafted collection of short, seasonal essays combines...

A life-affirming nature diary - with something amazing to see and experience on every day of the year - from award-winning authors and Springwatch experts Brett Westwood and Stephen Moss. From blackbirds, beavers and beetles to tawny owls, natterjack toads and lemon slugs. Every day of the year, winter or summer, in every corner of the British Isles, there's plenty to see if you know where - and how - to look.

Bloomsbury presents The Great Auk: Its Extraordinary Life, Hideous Death and Mysterious Afterlife by Tim Birkhead, read by John Sackville The life, death and afterlife of one of the true icons of extinction, the Great Auk The great auk was a flightless, goose-sized bird superbly adapted for life...