God's Equation
Einstein, Relativity, and the Expanding Universe
Written by Amir D. Aczel

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Delta
On Sale: November 28, 2000
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-33485-3 (0-385-33485-0)

"[Einstein's] field equation remains the closest thing we have to a divine blueprint for the universe...Aczel gives a very readable account of the science and the scientists involved." --Kirkus Reviews

In a work that is at once lucid and profound, renowned mathematician Dr. Amir Aczel, critically acclaimed author of Fermat's Last... Read more >

1001 Inventions: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilization

Edited by Salim T. S. Al-Hassani

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: National Geographic
On Sale: February 28, 2012
Price: $28.00
ISBN: 978-1-4262-0934-5 (1-4262-0934-7)

1001 Inventions: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilization takes readers on a journey through years of forgotten Islamic history to discover one thousand fascinating scientific and technological inventions still being used throughout the world today. Take a look at all of the discoveries that led to the great technological advances of... Read more >

Mission to Mars
My Vision for Space Exploration
Written by Buzz Aldrin and Leonard David

Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Publisher: National Geographic
On Sale: May 7, 2013
Price: $26.00
ISBN: 978-1-4262-1017-4 (1-4262-1017-5)

Legendary “space statesman” Buzz Aldrin speaks out as a vital advocate for the continuing quest to push the boundaries of the universe as we know it. As a pioneering astronaut who first set foot on the moon during mankind’s first landing of Apollo 11--and as an aerospace engineer who designed an... Read more >

Red Sunshine
A Story of Strength and Inspiration from a Doctor Who Survived Stage 3 Breast Cancer
Written by Kimberly Allison, M.D.

Format: Trade Paperback, 192 pages
Publisher: Hatherleigh Press
On Sale: September 27, 2011
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-1-57826-407-0 (1-57826-407-3)

Dr. Kimberly Allison diagnoses breast cancer for a living. But as a 33-year-old healthy new mother, she never expected to find herself looking at her own malignant cells under the microscope. Like many others diagnosed with cancer, Dr. Allison was starving for stories of other survivors. She wanted to hear someone’s... Read more >

Understanding the Present
Science and the Soul of Modern Man
Written by Bryan Appleyard

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: February 1, 1994
Price: $19.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-42098-3 (0-385-42098-6)

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Math and the Mona Lisa
The Art and Science of Leonardo da Vinci
Written by Bulent Atalay

Format: Hardcover, 352 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: April 17, 2004
Price: $24.95
ISBN: 978-1-58834-171-6 (1-58834-171-2)

Leonardo da Vinci was one of history’s true geniuses, equally brilliant as an artist, scientist, and mathematician. Readers of The Da Vinci Code were given a glimpse of the mysterious connections between math, science, and Leonardo’s art. Math and the Mona Lisa picks up where The Da Vinci Code left off... Read more >

The Advancement of Learning

Written by Francis Bacon
Series edited by Stephen Jay Gould

Format: Trade Paperback, 254 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: October 2, 2001
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-75846-1 (0-375-75846-1)

Francis Bacon, lawyer, statesman, and philosopher, remains one of the most effectual thinkers in European intellectual history. We can trace his influence from Kant in the 1700s to Darwin a century later. The Advancement of Learning, first published in 1605, contains an unprecedented and thorough systematization of the whole range of... Read more >

Cancer in the Community
Class and Medical Authority
Written by Martha Balshem

Format: Trade Paperback, 192 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: August 17, 1993
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-1-56098-251-7 (1-56098-251-9)

Focusing on deep conflicts between the medical establishment and the working class, Martha Balshem chronicles a health education project in “Tannerstown,” a pseudonym for a blue-collar neighborhood in northeast Philadelphia.

“Balshem conducted anthropological research as a means of exploring the limitations and possibilities of community-based approaches to cancer prevention. . . ... Read more >

Arctic Voices
Resistance at the Tipping Point
Written by Subhankar Banerjee

Format: Hardcover, 560 pages
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
On Sale: July 3, 2012
Price: $35.95
ISBN: 978-1-60980-385-8 (1-60980-385-X)

A powerful collection of voices and images from the frontlines of the war against ecological devastation in the Arctic.

World-renowned photographer, writer, and activist Subhankar Banerjee brings together first-person narratives from nearly thirty of the world’s most recognized activists, writers, and researchers who address issues of climate change, resource war, and human... Read more >

Blue Revolution
Unmaking America's Water Crisis
Written by Cynthia Barnett

Format: Trade Paperback, 296 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: September 4, 2012
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-0328-2 (0-8070-0328-X)

Selected for Summit County (Colorado) Reads

Americans see water as abundant and cheap: we turn on the faucet and out it gushes, for less than a penny a gallon. We use more water than any other culture in the world, much to quench what’s now our largest crop–the lawn. Yet most Americans... Read more >

Archives of the Universe
100 Discoveries That Transformed Our Understanding of the Cosmos
Edited by Marcia Bartusiak

Format: Trade Paperback, 720 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: April 11, 2006
Price: $20.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-71368-2 (0-375-71368-9)

An unparalleled history of astronomy presented in the words of the scientists who made the discoveries. Here are the writings of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Halley, Hubble, and Einstein, as well as that of dozens of others who have significantly contributed to our picture of the universe.

From Aristotle’s proof that... Read more >

Mr. Hornaday's War
How a Peculiar Victorian Zookeeper Waged a Lonely Crusade for Wildlife That Changed the World
Written by Stefan Bechtel

Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: May 15, 2012
Price: $26.95
ISBN: 978-0-8070-0635-1 (0-8070-0635-1)

He was complex, quirky, pugnacious, and difficult. He seemed to create enemies wherever he went, even among his friends. A fireplug of a man who stood only five feet eight inches in his stocking feet, he began as a taxidermist and an adventurer who tracked tigers in Borneo with friendly headhunters... Read more >

The Autism Puzzle
Connecting the Dots Between Environmental Toxins and Rising Autism Rates
Written by Brita Belli
Foreword by Caroline Cox

Format: Trade Paperback, 208 pages
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
On Sale: April 30, 2013
Price: $13.95
ISBN: 978-1-60980-460-2 (1-60980-460-0)

With 1 in 88 American children now affected by autism, The Autism Puzzle is the first book to move beyond the distractions of the vaccine debate to address compelling new evidence that autism may be the result of the pairing of environmental exposures with genetic susceptibilities that together impact the brain... Read more >

A Tour of the Calculus

Written by David Berlinski

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: January 28, 1997
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-74788-8 (0-679-74788-5)

Were it not for the calculus, mathematicians would have no way to describe the acceleration of a motorcycle or the effect of gravity on thrown balls and distant planets, or to prove that a man could cross a room and eventually touch the opposite wall. Just how calculus makes these things... Read more >

Meteorites
A Journey through Space and Time
Written by Alex Bevan and John De Laeter

Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: April 17, 2002
Price: $35.95
ISBN: 978-1-58834-021-4 (1-58834-021-X)

The authors trace the formation and breakup of the planets, asteroids, and comets where meteorites originated, their long journey through space, their fall to Earth, their recovery, and what scientists are learning from them. The book contains a great deal of material about the “84001 Martian meteorite,” which has raised provocative... Read more >

Time Lord
Sir Sandford Fleming and the Creation of Standard Time
Written by Clark Blaise

Format: Trade Paperback, 272 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: April 23, 2002
Price: $13.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-72752-8 (0-375-72752-3)

It is difficult today to imagine life before standard time was established in 1884. In the middle of the nineteenth century, for example, there were 144 official time zones in North America alone. The confusion that ensued, especially among the burgeoning railroad companies, was an hourly comedy of errors that ultimately... Read more >

The Discoverers

Written by Daniel J. Boorstin

Format: Trade Paperback, 768 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: February 12, 1985
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 978-0-394-72625-0 (0-394-72625-1)

Winner of the History of Science Society Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize


Boorstin's companion volume to The Creators and The Seekers is a vivid, sweeping, and original history of human discovery.

“Compellingly readable . . . a remarkable narrative of the grand intellectual venture of humankind, rich in fascinating, often... Read more >

Curious Minds
How a Child Becomes a Scientist
Edited by John Brockman

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: September 13, 2005
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-7686-4 (1-4000-7686-2)

A fascinating collection of essays from twenty-seven of the world’s most interesting scientists about the moments and events in their childhoods that set them on the paths that would define their lives.

What makes a child decide to become a scientist?

• For Robert Sapolsky—Stanford professor of biology—it was an argument with a... Read more >

Intelligent Thought
Science versus the Intelligent Design Movement
Edited by John Brockman

Format: Trade Paperback, 272 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: May 9, 2006
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-27722-0 (0-307-27722-4)

The merits—or lack thereof—of “intelligent design” are today the grist of legislative debate, journalistic consideration, and family dinner conversation. But from the point of view of the scientific community, what truly warrants our attention is the science of evolution.

For the fifteen world-renowned practitioners represented in this volume, evolution is much... Read more >

My Einstein

Written by John Brockman

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: August 14, 2007
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-7950-6 (1-4000-7950-0)

In this fascinating volume, today’s foremost scientists discuss their own versions and visions of Einstein: how he has influenced their worldviews, their ideas, their science, and their professional and personal lives. These twenty-four essays are a testament to the power of scientific legacy and are essential reading for scientist and layperson... Read more >

The Next Fifty Years
Science in the First Half of the Twenty-first Century
Edited by John Brockman

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: May 14, 2002
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-71342-2 (0-375-71342-5)

Theoretical physicist and bestselling author Paul Davies examines the likelihood that by the year 2050 we will be able to establish a continuing human presence on Mars. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi investigates the ramifications of engineering high-IQ, geneticially happy babies. Psychiatrist Nancy Etcoff explains current research into the creation of emotion-sensing jewelry... Read more >

13 Things that Don't Make Sense
The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time
Written by Michael Brooks

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: August 11, 2009
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-27881-4 (0-307-27881-6)

Spanning disciplines from biology to cosmology, chemistry to psychology to physics, Michael Brooks thrillingly captures the excitement of scientific discovery.

Science’s best-kept secret is this: even today, thereare experimental results that the most brilliant scientists cannot explain. In the past, similar “anomalies” have revolutionized our world. If history is any precedent, we... Read more >

Composition of Scientific Words

Written by Roland Wilbur Brown

Format: Trade Paperback, 882 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: July 17, 2000
Price: $37.95
ISBN: 978-1-56098-848-9 (1-56098-848-7)

Born of the linguistic fascination of a noted paleontologist, Composition of Scientific Words includes a brief introduction to the history and elementary structure of English, Greek, and Latin, followed by a guide for the formulation of technical terms. The main selection, the lexicon, is an alphabetical list of key words. It... Read more >

Fasting Girls
The History of Anorexia Nervosa
Written by Joan Jacobs Brumberg

Format: Trade Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: October 10, 2000
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-72448-0 (0-375-72448-6)

Winner of The Berkshire Prize in History, The John Hope Franklin Prize for American Studies, The Basker Memorial Prize for Medical Anthropology and The Watson Davis Prize for History of Science


This updated edition of Joan Jacobs Brumberg's Fasting Girls, presents a history of women's food-refusal dating back as far as the... Read more >

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Written by Bill Bryson

Format: Trade Paperback, 560 pages
Publisher: Broadway
On Sale: September 14, 2004
Price: $16.99
ISBN: 978-0-7679-0818-4 (0-7679-0818-X)

Winner, 2004 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine

Winner, 2004 Aventis General Prize, which celebrates the very best in popular science writing for adult readers.

In A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson apprentices himself to a host of the world’s most profound scientific minds, living and dead. His challenge is to take... Read more >