On March 13, 1989, the entire Quebec power grid collapsed, automatic garage doors in California suburbs began to open and close without apparent reason, and microchip production came to a halt in the Northeast; in space, communications satellites had to be manually repointed after flipping upside down, and pressure readings on hydrogen tank supplies on board the Space Shuttle Discovery peaked, causing NASA to consider aborting the mission.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a heartbreaking mix of memoir and science, telling the story of how one woman's cells - taken without her knowledge - have saved countless lives.
Newton's explanation of the natural law of universal gravity shattered the way mankind perceived the universe, and hence it was not immediately embraced.
Among the current books that celebrate the discovery of the Higgs boson, Cracking the Particle Code of the Universe is a rare objective treatment of the subject.
In the latest addition to the New Naturalist series, Ian Newton explores bird populations and what causes their fluctuation - food supplies, competitors, predators, parasites, pathogens and human activity.
Join zoologist Mark Carwardine and Britain's best-loved wit and raconteur, Stephen Fry, as they follow in their great friend Douglas Adams' footsteps, in search of some of the rarest and most threatened animals on Earth.
The recent explosion of neuroscience techniques has proved to be game changing in terms of understanding the healthy brain, and in the development of neuropsychiatric treatments.
'This is the most important conversation of our time, and Tegmark's thought-provoking book will help you join it' Stephen HawkingTHE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER.
In The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage Sydney Padua transforms one of the most compelling scientific collaborations into a hilarious set of adventures The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage is a unique take on the unrealized invention of the computer in the 1830s by the eccentric polymath Charles Babbage and his accomplice, the daughter of Lord Byron, Ada, Countess of Lovelace.
Human beings, says Lee Smolin, author of The Trouble With Physics, have always had a problem with the boundary between reality and fantasy, confusing our representations of the world with the world itself.
A book which offers fresh perspectives on the scientific developments of the past hundred years through the complementary work of two of the century's greatest thinkers, Einstein and Freud.
Max Tegmark leads us on an astonishing journey through past, present, and future, and through the physics, astronomy, and mathematics that are the foundation of his work, most particularly his hypothesis that our physical reality is a mathematical structure and his theory of the ultimate multiverse.
The full story of man's attempt to discover the moment that time began, from James Ussher's confident assertion in 1650 that the world was 5,654 years old to the Hubble Space telescope's images of a world 13 billion years old, with a starry cast of eccentrics, mystics, scientists and visonaries.
'With a dazzling command of science and a relentless faith in people, George Monbiot writes about social change with his eyes wide open' Naomi Klein'A manifesto for change .
A major biography of Michael Faraday (1791-1867), one of the giants of 19th century science and discoverer of electricity who was at the centre of an extraordinary scientific renaissance in London.
LONGLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME TRUST BOOK PRIZE 2012While carrying out historical research at an Ontario asylum, psychiatrist Harry Karlinsky comes across a familiar surname in the register.
The Sunday Times BestsellerIn Wonders of the Solar System - the book of the acclaimed BBC TV series - Professor Brian Cox will take us on a journey of discovery where alien worlds from your imagination become places we can see, feel and visit.
'No need to count calories, go hungry or diet ever again' The TimesThis revolutionary book reveals:Ten reasons why eating a low-fat, calorie controlled diet makes sustained weight loss virtually impossible.
