Entangled Life - How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake

$40.00 NZD

Category: Science

'A dazzling, vibrant, vision-changing book. Sentence after sentence stopped me short. I ended it wonderstruck at the fungal world. A remarkable work by a remarkable writer' - ROBERT MACFARLANE, author of Underland. There is a lifeform so strange and wondrous that it forces us to rethink how life works. .. Neither plant nor animal, it is found throughout the earth, the air and our bodies. It can be microscopic, yet also accounts for the largest organisms ever recorded, living for millennia and weighing tens of thousands of tonnes. Its ability to digest rock enabled the first life on land, it can survive unprotected in space, and thrives amidst nuclear radiation. In this captivating adventure, Merlin Sheldrake explores the spectacular and neglected world of fungi: endlessly surprising organisms that sustain nearly all living systems. They can solve problems without a brain, stretching traditional definitions of 'intelligence', and can manipulate animal behaviour with devastating precision. In giving us bread, alcohol and life-saving medicines, fungi have shaped human history, and their psychedelic properties, which have influenced societies since antiquity, have recently been shown to alleviate a number of mental illnesses. The ability of fungi to digest plastic, explosives, pesticides and crude oil is being harnessed in break-through technologies, and the discovery that they connect plants in underground networks, the 'Wood Wide Web', is transforming the way we understand ecosystems. Yet they live their lives largely out of sight, and over ninety percent of their species remain undocumented. Entangled Life is a mind-altering journey into this hidden kingdom of life, and shows that fungi are key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel and behave. The more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them. ...Show more

The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis by Christiana Figueres

$32.99 NZD

Category: Science

The Paris Agreement was a landmark for humanity. In this timely and important book, two of the principle creators of that agreement show us why and how we can now realise its' promise. I hope it is widely read and acted on' Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger o f Peace The Future We Choose is a passionate call to arms, written by former UN Secretary for Climate Christiana Figures and Tom Rivett-Carnac, her UN political strategist. They outline two scenarios for our future: how life on Earth will be by 2050 if we fail to meet the Paris Agreement climate targets; or how it will look and feel to live in a carbon neutral, regenerative world. Each of us must confront the crisis head on, with determination and optimism. Practical and empowering, The Future We Choose features ten things we can do today to make a difference. The Future We Choose is for all of us, teenagers to adults, who feel powerless to stop the climate emergency. This is the final hour: it can be our finest hour. We can solve our climate emergency, but we must act now. ...Show more

Healthy Bee Sick Bee by Phil Lester

$30.00 NZD

Category: Science

Phil Lester's first book, The Vulgar Wasp, was about one of the world's most hated insects. His second is about just the opposite – the honey bee, arguably one of our best-loved six-legged creatures. People have revered honey bees for centuries. Today we celebrate them with toys, postage stamps and camp aigns to raise awareness; we dress up in large bee suits to protest the use of pesticides; we've even sent bees into space and watched as they adjusted to microgravity. Bees are one of the world's most efficient pollinators. Their work is vital to the success of many food crops, and hence to the world's economy. So we need to take seriously any threats to their health – including parasites, pathogens, predators and pesticides – and, guided by evidence at every turn, find a way to minimise harm and keep bees thriving. As Healthy Bee, Sick Bee shows, this is no small task. In this book, entomologist Phil Lester explores the wonderfully complex and sometimes brutally efficient life history of honey bees, and the problems they face in New Zealand and around the globe. What causes a beehive to collapse? Are pesticides as big a problem as they appear? What can we do to improve the health of our honey bees? With intelligence, insight and entomologist jokes, Healthy Bee, Sick Bee tells the story of this much-loved little insect and offers new ways of thinking about how to ensure they will stick around in the future. ...Show more

New Zealand Fungi

$45.00 NZD

Category: Science

Fungi have no chlorophyll and obtain their nutrients from living plants and animals, or dead trees, plants and animals. The parts of fungi that we see are called fruiting bodies which grow in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours, ranging from vibrant to neutral tones. They are composed of densely comp acted filaments and all produce spores that are spread by the wind or insects. New Zealand has thousands of fungi species. Many are undescribed with only approximately 6,500 having been reported. Some are exotics that have been brought to New Zealand by humans. Not all fungi grow in our native forests, some grow on sand near the beach, in pine forests and in our gardens. Rebecca Bowater grew up with a love of nature fostered by her parents – her father a botanist and her mother a horticulturist. Through her passion for New Zealand alpine flowers, fungi and birds, Rebecca has received many awards, book credits and achieved Fellowship with the Photographic Society of New Zealand, for whom she is an accredited nature judge. She has also gained her letters AFIAP – ‘The International Federation of Photographic Art’. Her great love for all nature has prompted travels to many of the world’s national parks. ...Show more

The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson

$26.00 NZD

Category: Science

'We spend our whole lives in one body and yet most of us have practically no idea how it works and what goes on inside it. The idea of the book is simply to try to understand the extraordinary contraption that is us.' Bill Bryson sets off to explore the human body, how it functions and its remarkable a bility to heal itself. Full of extraordinary facts and astonishing stories The Body: A Guide for Occupants is a brilliant, often very funny attempt to understand the miracle of our physical and neurological make up. A wonderful successor to A Short History of Nearly Everything, this new book is an instant classic. It will have you marvelling at the form you occupy, and celebrating the genius of your existence, time and time again. 'What I learned is that we are infinitely more complex and wondrous, and often more mysterious, than I had ever suspected. There really is no story more amazing than the story of us.' THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'A directory of wonders.' - The Guardian 'Jaw-dropping.' - The Times 'Classic, wry, gleeful Bryson...an entertaining and absolutely fact-rammed book.' - The Sunday Times ...Show more

DK Knowledge Encyclopedia: Science!

$24.99 NZD

$45.00 (44% off)

Category: Science

Blockchain Chicken Farm - And Other Stories of Tech in China's Countryside by Xiaowei Wang

$29.99 NZD

Category: Science | Series: FSG Originals X Logic Ser.

In Blockchain Chicken Farm, the technologist and writer Xiaowei Wang explores the political and social entanglements of technology in rural China. Their discoveries force them to challenge the standard idea that rural culture and people are backward, conservative, and intolerant. Instead, they find that rural China has not only adapted to rapid globalization but has actually innovated the technology we all use today. From pork farmers using AI to produce the perfect pig, to disruptive luxury counterfeits and the political intersections of e-commerce villages, Wang unravels the ties between globalization, technology, agriculture, and commerce in unprecedented fashion. Accompanied by humorous "Sinofuturist" recipes that frame meals as they transform under new technology, Blockchain Chicken Farm is an original and probing look into innovation, connectivity, and collaboration in the digitized rural world. FSG Originals × Logic dissects the way technology functions in everyday lives. The titans of Silicon Valley, for all their utopian imaginings, never really had our best interests at heart: recent threats to democracy, truth, privacy, and safety, as a result of tech's reckless pursuit of progress, have shown as much. We present an alternate story, one that delights in capturing technology in all its contradictions and innovation, across borders and socioeconomic divisions, from history through the future, beyond platitudes and PR hype, and past doom and gloom. Our collaboration features four brief but provocative forays into the tech industry's many worlds, and aspires to incite fresh conversations about technology focused on nuanced and accessible explorations of the emerging tools that reorganize and redefine life today. ...Show more

Kew - Rare Plants - Forty of the World's Rarest and Most Endangered Plants by Ed Ikin

$79.99 NZD

Category: Science

Rare Plants explores what makes the world's rarest plants so exceptional, and by what means they have become so scarce, telling the story of 40 rare and endangered species through exquisite botanical artworks sourced from the archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Accompanied by illuminating and au thoritative text, the book is presented alongside 40 frameable art prints and encased in a collector's box. Some of the most beautiful, useful and fascinating plants in the world are also the most uncommon, and have drawn the fascination of plant hunters, botanists, scientists and gardeners for centuries. This rarity, combined with pressures from humankind's impact on the planet, has brought many of these species to the point of crisis. In a race against time to conserve the world's plant biodiversity, organizations such as Kew are deploying incredible science to save our rare and threatened plants. Cutting-edge genomics reveals new species, distribution modelling directs us to outlying plant populations, while drone and satellite data highlight the speed at which species are declining. This vital information informs which habitats should be protected and prioritizes plant conservation programmes. Rare Plants finds hope among the challenges, and exhibits the role of botanic gardens in conservation across the globe. ...Show more

Reactions: An Illustrated Exploration of Elements, Molecules, and Change in the Universe by Theodore Gray

$34.99 NZD

Category: Science

The third book in Theodore Gray's bestselling Elements Trilogy, Reactions continues the journey through the world of chemistry that began with his two previous bestselling books The Elements and Molecules. With The Elements, Gray gave us a never-before-seen, mesmerizing photographic view of the 118 ele ments in the periodic table. In Molecules, he showed us how the elements combine to form the content that makes up our universe. With Reactions, Gray once again puts his photography and storytelling to work to demonstrate how molecules interact in ways that are essential to our very existence. The book begins with a brief recap of elements and molecules and then goes on to explain important concepts that characterize a chemical reaction, including Energy, Entropy, and Time. It is then organized by type of reaction including chapters such as "Fantastic Reactions and Where to Find Them," "On the Origin of Light and Color," "The Boring Chapter," in which we learn about reactions such as paint drying, grass growing, and water boiling, and "The Need for Speed," including topics such as weather, ignition, and fire. ...Show more

How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems (XKCD) by Randall Munroe

$24.99 NZD

Category: Science

Randall Munroe is . . .'Nerd royalty' Ben Goldacre 'Totally brilliant' Tim Harford 'Laugh-out-loud funny' Bill Gates 'Wonderful' Neil Gaiman AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER For any task you might want to do, there's a right way, a wrong way, and a way so monumentally bad that no one would ever t ry it. How To is a guide to the third kind of approach. It's full of highly impractical advice for everything from landing a plane to digging a hole. Bestselling author and cartoonist Randall Munroe explains how to predict the weather by analyzing the pixels of your Facebook photos. He teaches you how to tell if you're a baby boomer or a millennial by measuring the radioactivity of your teeth. He offers tips for taking a selfie with a telescope, crossing a river by boiling it, and getting to your appointments on time by destroying the moon. And if you want to get rid of this book once you're done with it, he walks you through your options for proper disposal, including dissolving it in the ocean, converting it to a vapour, using tectonic plates to subduct it into the Earth's mantle, or launching it into the sun. By exploring the most complicated ways to do simple tasks, Munroe doesn't just make things difficult for himself and his readers. As he did so brilliantly in What If?, he invites us to explore the most absurd reaches of the possible. Full of clever infographics and amusing illustrations, How To is a delightfully mind-bending way to better understand the science and technology underlying the things we do every day. ...Show more

The Genesis Quest - The Geniuses and Eccentrics on a Journey to Uncover the Origin of Life on Earth by Michael Marshall

$37.99 NZD

Category: Science

How did life begin? Why are we here? These are some of the most profound questions we can ask. For almost a century, a small band of eccentric scientists has struggled to answer these questions and explain one of the greatest mysteries of all: how and why life began on Earth. There are many different p roposals, and each idea has attracted passionate believers who promote it with an almost religious fervor, as well as detractors who reject it with equal passion. But the quest to unravel life's genesis is not just a story of big ideas. It is also a compelling human story, rich in personalities, conflicts, and surprising twists and turns. Along the way the journey takes in some of the greatest discoveries in modern biology, from evolution and cells to DNA and life's family tree. It is also a search whose end may finally be in sight. In The Genesis Quest, Michael Marshall shows how the quest to understand life's beginning is also a journey to discover the true nature of life, and by extension our place in the universe. ...Show more

Meteorite: How Stones from Outer Space Made Our World - How Stones from Outer Space Made Our World by Tim Gregory

$37.99 NZD

Category: Science

'Drawing on his deep technical education and boundless curiosity, Tim Gregory brings a childlike wonder of discovery to everything he sees. He shows an uncanny ability to swiftly understand, to clearly explain, and to be joyful in the process. His scientific delight is contagious' Chris Hadfield Every rock has a story tell, and none more so than those which have fallen from the sky: meteorites. Originating in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, these rocky fragments offer clues not just to the earliest origins of the Solar System but also to Earth's very survival into the future. Sky at Night presenter, Dr Tim Gregory takes us on a journey through the very earliest days of our Solar System to the spectacular meteorite falls that produced 'fiery rain' in 1792, to the pre-solar grains (literally stardust) that were blown in from other solar systems and are the oldest solid objects ever discovered on earth. Meteorites reveal a story much bigger than ourselves or our planet. As Tim says, 'it is an epic beyond compare'. ...Show more