Isaac Newton by Kathleen Krull

$25.00 NZD

Category: Science | Series: Giants of Science

Here is a man with an imagination so large that just "by thinking on it", a he invented calculus and figured out the scientific explanation of gravity. Yet Newton was so small-minded that he tried to destroy other scientists who dared question his findings and spent much time trying to predict the futur e and unlock the secret of turning base metals into gold in an alchemy lab. Kathleen Krull presents a compelling portrait of Isaac Newton that will challenge your beliefs about a genius whose amazing discoveries changed the world. ...Show more

Leonardo Da Vinci by Kathleen Krull

$25.00 NZD

Category: Science | Series: Giants of Science

Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks are mind-boggling evidence of a fifteenth-century scientific genius standing at the edge of the modern world, basing his ideas on observation and experimentation. We know him as an artist genius, but there was another side to Leonardo da Vinci. This book will change childre n's ideas of who Leonardo was and what it means to be a scientist. ...Show more

The Invention of Air : An experiment, a journey, a new country and the amazing force of scientific discovery by Stephen Johnson

$28.00 NZD

Category: Science

In 1794, Joseph Priestley - amateur scientist, ordained minister and radical thinker - set sail for America to escape persecution. Stephen Johnson tells his incredible story: the discovery of oxygen, the invention of a science, the founding of a church, and, with the great minds of his time, the develop ment of the United States itself. But Priestley's revolutionary ideas put him in terrible danger. Johnson uses the progress of Priestley and his colleagues not merely to describe the wonder of discovery, but to show us how we have come to understand the world, how far we have travelled with the power of human enquiry - and how one man's curiosity can help build an entire country. ...Show more

The Essential Einstein : His greatest works by Albert Einstein

$32.00 NZD

Category: Science

Albert Einstein changed the way physicists view the universe - and transformed the way we all see the world. Just over one hundred years ago, his Theory of Relativity stunned scientists, but today it is integral to modern thought as the most important scientific discovery of the twentieth century. In th is unique single volume, Stephen Hawking has assembled the highlights of Einstein's groundbreaking scientific work. Collected here are Einstein's own illuminating writings on the Theory of Relativity, which present a world of paradoxes in which space is bent and time is curved. Yet Einstein was known not only for his landmark ideas in physics. Here, too are his reflections on politics and religion, and his musings on the ultimate significance of his scientific findings. ...Show more

Climbing Mount Improbable by Richard Dawkins

$29.99 NZD

Category: Science | Reading Level: very good

In Climbing Mount Improbable, Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, builds a powerful and carefully reasoned argument for evolutionary adaptation as the force behind all life on earth. What drives species to evolve? How can intricate structures such as the human eye, the spider's web or the wings of birds develop, seemingly by chance? Regarding evolution's most complex achievements as peaks on a metaphorical mountain, Climbing Mount Improbable reveals the ways in which the theory of natural selection can precisely explain the beautiful, bizarre and seemingly 'designed' complexity of living things. And through it all runs the thread of DNA, the molecule of life, responsible for its own destiny on an unending pilgrimage through time. Accompanied by evocative illustrations, Dawkins's eloquent descriptions of the living world's astonishing adaptations throw back the curtain on the mysteries of 'Mount Improbable'. 'A beautiful, barnstorming thunderclap of a book'  Michael White, Mail on Sunday 'Exhilarating - a perfect, elegant riposte to a great deal of fuzzy thinking about natural selection and evolution'  Observer 'Dawkins has done more than anyone else now writing to make evolutionary biology comprehensible and acceptable'  Sunday Times 'Dazzling'  David Attenborough 'A cracking good book on evolution'  John Gribbin Richard Dawkins is a Fellow of both the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Literature, and Vice President of the British Humanist Association. He was first catapulted to fame with The Selfish Gene, which he followed with a string of bestselling books: The Extended Phenotype, The Blind Watchmaker, River Out of Eden, Unweaving the Rainbow, and an impassioned defence of atheism, The God Delusion. ...Show more

The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins

$29.99 NZD

$31.00 (3% off)

Category: Science

From the author of The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker has been acclaimed as the most influential work on evolution in the last hundred years. In 1802 the Rev. William Paley's argued in Natural Theology that just as finding a watch would lead you to conclude that a watchmaker must ex ist, the complexity of living organisms proves that a Creator exists. Not so, says Richard Dawkins, and in this brilliant and controversial book, the acclaimed evolutionary biologist sets out to demonstrate that the theory of evolution by natural selection - the unconscious, automatic, blind yet essentially non-random process discovered by Charles Darwin - is the only answer to the biggest question of all: why do we exist? 'I want to persuade the reader, not just that the Darwinian world-view happens to be true, but that it is the only known theory that could, in principle, solve the mystery of our existence' To Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker is nature itself, gradually forming order from the very building-blocks of life: DNA. 'This might just be the most important evolution book since Darwin'  John Gribbin 'Richard Dawkins has updated evolution ... his subject is nothing less than the meaning of life'  The Times 'Enchantingly witty and persusive ... pleasurably intelligible to the scientifically illiterate'  Observer Richard Dawkins is a Fellow of both the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Literature, and Vice President of the British Humanist Association. He was first catapulted to fame with The Selfish Gene, which he followed with a string of bestselling books: The Extended Phenotype, The Blind Watchmaker, River Out of Eden, Unweaving the Rainbow, and an impassioned defence of atheism, The God Delusion. ...Show more

A Teaspoon and an Open Mind by Michael White

$28.00 NZD

Category: Science

From the bestselling author of "The Science of the X-Files" (1996), "Life Out There" (1998) and "Super Science" (1999) comes a book for the fans and for the merely curious: a guide to the real science behind the fictional world of the Doctor, explaining in an accessible way some of the most fascinating areas of contemporary scientific enquiry. Topics covered include everything from cybernetics and regeneration to teleportation and time travel! ...Show more

Universe: A Biography by John Gribbin

$30.00 NZD

Category: Science

"The Universe: A Biography" makes cosmology accessible to everyone. John Gribbin navigates the latest frontiers of scientific discovery to tell us what we really know about the history of the universe. Along the way, he describes how the universe began; what the early universe looked like; how its struc ture developed; and what emerged to hold it all together. He describes where the elements came from; how stars and galaxies formed; and the story of how life emerged. He even looks to the future: is the history of the universe going to end with a Big Crunch or a Big Rip? ...Show more

God Created the Integers: The mathematical breakthroughs that changed history by Stephen Hawking

$50.00 NZD

Category: Science

God Created The Integers is Stephen Hawking's personal choice of the greatest mathematical works in history. He allows the reader to peer into the mind of genius by providing us with excerpts from original mathematical proofs and results. He also helps us understand the progression of mathematical thoug ht, and the very foundations of our present day technologies.The book includes landmark discoveries spanning 2500 years and representing the work of mathematicians such as Euclid, Georg Cantor, Kurt Godel, Augustin Cauchy, Bernard Riemann and Alan Turing. Each chapter begins with a biography of the featured mathematician, clearly explaining the significance of the result, followed by the full proof of the work, reproduced from the original publication, many in new translations. First published 2005. ...Show more

Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next by Lee Smolin

$30.00 NZD

Category: Science

The Trouble with Physics is a groundbreaking account of the state of modern physics: of how we got from Einstein and Relativity through quantum mechanics to the strange and bizarre predictions of string theory, full of unseen dimensions and multiple universes. Lee Smolin not only provides a brilliant la yman's overview of current research as we attempt to build a 'theory of everything', but also questions many of the assumptions that lie behind string theory. In doing so, he describes some of the daring, outlandish ideas that will propel research in years to come. ...Show more

The Stuff of Thought: : Language as a window into human nature by Steven Pinker

$30.00 NZD

$35.00 (14% off)

Category: Science

The Stuff of Thought is an exhilarating work of non-fiction. Surprising, thought-provoking and incredibly enjoyable, there is no other book like it - Steven Pinker will revolutionise the way you think about language. He analyses what words actually mean and how we use them, and he reveals what this can tell us about ourselves. He shows how we use space and motion as metaphors for more abstract ideas, and uncovers the deeper structures of human thought that have been shaped by evolutionary history. He also explores the emotional impact of language, from names to swear words, and shows us the full power that it can have over us. And, with this book, he also shows just how stimulating and entertaining language can be. ...Show more

The Red Queen by Matt Ridley

$28.00 NZD

$29.00 (3% off)

Category: Science | Series: Penguin Press Science Ser.

Sex is as fascinating to scientists as it is to the rest of us. A vast pool of knowledge, therefore, has been gleaned from research into the nature of sex, from the contentious problem of why the wasteful reproductive process exists at all, to how individuals choose their mates and what traits they find attractive. This fascinating book explores those findings, and their implications for the sexual behavior of our own species. It uses the Red Queen from 'Alice in Wonderland' - who has to run at full speed to stay where she is - as a metaphor for a whole range of sexual behaviors. The book was shortlisted for the 1994 Rhone-Poulenc Prize for Science Books. 'Animals and plants evolved sex to fend off parasitic infection. Now look where it has got us. Men want BMWs, power and money in order to pair-bond with women who are blonde, youthful and narrow-waisted...a brilliant examination of the scientific debates on the hows and whys of sex and evolution' - "Independent". ...Show more