The Alphabet That Changed the World
How Genesis Preserves a Science of Consciousness in Geometry and Gesture
Written by Stan Tenen
Edited by Charles Stein

Format: Trade Paperback, 392 pages
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
On Sale: July 5, 2011
Price: $44.00
ISBN: 978-1-55643-723-6 (1-55643-723-4)

Rabbinic tradition asserts that every letter of every word of the Torah is a word in itself. Author Stan Tenen demonstrates that each letter is also a hand gesture, and it is at this level that Hebrew forms a natural universal language. All people, including children before they speak and people... Read more >

Why Things Bite Back
Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences
Written by Edward Tenner

Format: Trade Paperback, 448 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: September 2, 1997
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 978-0-679-74756-7 (0-679-74756-7)

In this perceptive and provocative look at everything from computer software that requires faster processors and more support staff to antibiotics that breed resistant strains of bacteria, Edward Tenner offers a virtual encyclopedia of what he calls "revenge effects"--the unintended consequences of the mechanical, chemical, biological, and medical forms of ingenuity... Read more >

The Undead
Organ Harvesting, the Ice-Water Test, Beating-Heart Cadavers--How Medicine Is Blurring the Line Between Life and Death
Written by Dick Teresi

Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: December 11, 2012
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-9611-4 (1-4000-9611-1)

What is death, and how do people in the medical profession determine it? In this fascinating examination of the increasingly blurred line between life and death, consciousness and unconsciousness, science journalist Dick Teresi introduces us to the coma specialists, organ transplant surgeons, ICU doctors, and many others who are faced with... Read more >

The Undead
Organ Harvesting, the Ice-Water Test, Beating Heart Cadavers--How Medicine Is Blurring the Line Between Life and Death
Written by Dick Teresi

Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: March 13, 2012
Price: $26.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-42371-0 (0-375-42371-0)

Important and provocative, The Undead examines why even with the tools of advanced technology, what we think of as life and death, consciousness and nonconsciousness, is not exactly clear and how this problem has been further complicated by the business of organ harvesting.

Dick Teresi, a science writer with a dark sense... Read more >

The Ptarmigan's Dilemma
An Ecological Exploration into the Mysteries of Life
Written by John Theberge and Mary Theberge

Format: Trade Paperback, 416 pages
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
On Sale: April 5, 2011
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-0-7710-8518-5 (0-7710-8518-4)

Drawing on breakthrough research in evolution, genetics, and on their extensive work in the field and lab, wildlife biologists John and Mary Theberge explain for non-scientists the real facts of life.

Birds that suddenly grow gall bladders, when their species has none. Moose with antlers so big they encumber their movement through... Read more >

At the Edge of Space
The X-15 Flight Program
Written by Milton O. Thompson
Foreword by Neil A. Armstrong

Format: Trade Paperback, 392 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: February 17, 2003
Price: $24.95
ISBN: 978-1-58834-078-8 (1-58834-078-3)

In At the Edge of Space, Milton O. Thompson tells the dramatic story of one of the most successful research aircraft ever flown. The first full-length account of the X-15 program, the book profiles the twelve test pilots (Neil Armstrong, Joe Engle, Scott Crossfield, and the author among them) chosen for... Read more >

The Probability of God
A Simple Calculation That Proves the Ultimate Truth
Written by Dr. Stephen D. Unwin

Format: Trade Paperback, 272 pages
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
On Sale: October 26, 2004
Price: $12.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-5478-7 (1-4000-5478-8)

Does God exist?

This is probably the most debated question in the history of mankind. Scholars, scientists, and philosophers have spent their lifetimes trying to prove or disprove the existence of God, only to have their theories crucified by other scholars, scientists, and philosophers. Where the debate breaks down is in the... Read more >

The Nation's Hangar
Aircraft Treasures of the Smithsonian
Written by Robert F. Van Der Linden
Photographed by Dane Penland

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: November 1, 2011
Price: $29.95
ISBN: 978-1-58834-316-1 (1-58834-316-2)

The Nation’s Hangar: Aircraft Treasures of the Smithsonian offers a fascinating textual and visual history of civilian, military, and commercial aviation from the earliest balloon flights to today’s most advanced aircraft.

The Nation’s Hangar charts the history of flight around the world. F. Robert Van Der Linden, a Smithsonian curator and... Read more >

Warmth Disperses and Time Passes
The History of Heat
Written by Hans Christian Von Baeyer

Format: Trade Paperback, 240 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: June 15, 1999
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-75372-5 (0-375-75372-9)

If you want to know what's happening in the world, follow the heat.

Why can't your coffee "steal" heat from the air to stay piping hot? Why can't Detroit make a car that's 100 percent efficient? Why can't some genius make a perpetual motion machine? The answers lie in the field of... Read more >

Embracing Mind
The Common Ground of Science and Spirituality
Written by Alan B. Wallace and Brian Hodel

Format: Trade Paperback, 272 pages
Publisher: Shambhala
On Sale: December 23, 2008
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-1-59030-683-3 (1-59030-683-X)

The mind is the place where science and spirituality can meet. Here a renowned scientist who is also a teacher of Buddhist meditation explores the nature of mind from scientific and spiritual perspectives to present a new model that incorporates the truths of contemplative spirituality.

“This book shows clearly and compellingly... Read more >

Sealife

Written by Geoffrey Waller

Format: Hardcover, 504 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: September 17, 1996
Price: $55.00
ISBN: 978-1-56098-633-1 (1-56098-633-6)

Brimming with illustrations and descriptions of more than six hundred species, SeaLife is the most comprehensive reference available in a single volume to the vast panorama of vertebrate and invertebrate creatures inhabiting the world’s oceans and shores. Topics covered include oceanography and marine biology; biology of marine environments; marine invertebrates; marine... Read more >

Harvest the Wind
America's Journey to Jobs, Energy Independence, and Climate Stability
Written by Philip Warburg

Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: April 17, 2012
Price: $27.95
ISBN: 978-0-8070-0107-3 (0-8070-0107-4)

Winds sweeping across the Great Plains once robbed the Farm Belt of its future, stripping away overworked topsoil and creating the dreaded Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Today, those winds are bringing new hope to the declining rural communities of the central United States. Nowhere is wind’s promise more palpable than... Read more >

Meeting the Family
One Man's Journey Through His Human Ancestry
Written by Donovan Webster
Foreword by Spencer Wells

Format: Hardcover, 304 pages
Publisher: National Geographic
On Sale: April 20, 2010
Price: $26.00
ISBN: 978-1-4262-0573-6 (1-4262-0573-2)

Donovan Webster brings his vivid journalistic gifts to a new subject, tracing our deep genealogy using cutting-edge DNA research to map our eons-old journey from prehistoric Africa into the modern world. With the same genetic haplotype as many white American males, Webster makes an ideal subject–he is a genuine Everyman. While... Read more >

The Beak of the Finch
A Story of Evolution in Our Time
Written by Jonathan Weiner

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: May 30, 1995
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-73337-9 (0-679-73337-X)

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

The Beak of the Finch is a revolutionary work of scientific inquiry that tells the story of two evolutionary biologists engaged in an extraordinary investigation among the very species of Galapagos finches that inspired Darwin's early musings on the origin of species. For more than twenty years... Read more >

Time, Love, Memory
A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior
Written by Jonathan Weiner

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: April 4, 2000
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-76390-1 (0-679-76390-2)

From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Beak of the Finch, the riveting story of a biologist’s search for the foundations of behavior. Looking over the shoulder of some of the premier scientists in the filed, Jonathan Weiner takes us into their laboratories to show us how pieces of DNA... Read more >

The Science Delusion
Asking the Big Questions in a Culture of Easy Answers
Written by Curtis White

Format: Hardcover, 224 pages
Publisher: Melville House
On Sale: May 28, 2013
Price: $23.95
ISBN: 978-1-61219-200-0 (1-61219-200-9)

One of our most brilliant social critics–author of The Middle Mind–presents a scathing critique of the “delusions” of science alongside a rousing defense of the tradition of Romanticism and the “big” questions.

With the rise of religion critics such as Richard Dawkins, and of pseudo-science advocates such as Malcolm Gladwell and Jonah... Read more >

The Match
"Savior Siblings" and One Family's Battle to Heal Their Daughter
Written by Beth Whitehouse

Format: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: March 8, 2011
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-0121-9 (0-8070-0121-X)

Selected as a 2011 University Press Book for Public and Secondary School Libraries
•Rated O - Outstanding

Katie Trebing was diagnosed at three months old with Diamond Blackfan anemia, a rare form of anemia that prevents bone marrow from producing red blood cells. Even with a lifetime of monthly blood transfusions, she faced... Read more >

Scorched Earth
Legacies of Chemical Warfare in Vietnam
Written by Fred A. Wilcox
Introduction by Noam Chomsky

Format: Hardcover, 240 pages
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
On Sale: September 13, 2011
Price: $23.95
ISBN: 978-1-60980-138-0 (1-60980-138-5)

Scorched Earth is the first book to chronicle the effects of chemical warfare on the Vietnamese people and their environment, where, even today, more than 3 million people–including 500,000 children–are sick and dying from birth defects, cancer, and other illnesses that can be directly traced to Agent Orange/dioxin exposure. Weaving first-person... Read more >

Waiting for an Army to Die
The Tragedy of Agent Orange
Written by Fred A. Wilcox

Format: Trade Paperback, 240 pages
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
On Sale: September 13, 2011
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-1-60980-136-6 (1-60980-136-9)

“I died in Vietnam, but I didn’t even know it,” said a young Vietnam vet on the Today Show one morning in 1978, shocking viewers across the country. Waiting for an Army to Die: The Tragedy of Agent Orange–the first book ever written on the effects of Agent Orange–tells this young... Read more >

Measuring and Monitoring Biological Diversity
Standard Methods for Mammals
Edited by Don E. Wilson, James D. Nichols, Mercedes Foster, F. Russell Cole and Rasanayagam Rudran

Format: Trade Paperback, 440 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: August 17, 1996
Price: $36.95
ISBN: 978-1-56098-637-9 (1-56098-637-9)

Measuring and Monitoring Biological Diversity: Standard Methods for Mammals provides a comprehensive manual for designing and implementing inventories of mammalian biodiversity anywhere in the world and for any group, from rodents to open-country grazers. The book emphasizes formal estimation approaches, which supply data that can be compared across habitats and over... Read more >

Consilience
The Unity of Knowledge
Written by Edward O. Wilson

Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: March 30, 1999
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-679-76867-8 (0-679-76867-X)

In this groundbreaking book, American biologist Edward O. Wilson, argues for the fundamental unity of all knowledge and the need to search for consilience--the proof that everything in our world is organized in terms of a small number of fundamental natural laws that comprise the principles underlying every branch of learning... Read more >

Edison's Eve
A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life
Written by Gaby Wood

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: July 8, 2003
Price: $14.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-3158-0 (1-4000-3158-3)

National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction Finalist

During the eighteenth century, the inventor Jacques de Vaucanson created a mechanical duck that seemingly could digest and excrete its food. A few decades later, Europeans fell in love with “the Turk,” a celebrated chess-playing machine built in 1769. Thomas Edison was obsessed for... Read more >

Falling to Earth
An Apollo 15 Astronaut's Journey to the Moon
Written by Al Worden and Francis French
Epilogue by Tom Stafford
Foreword by Dick Gordon

Format: Hardcover, 312 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: July 26, 2011
Price: $29.95
ISBN: 978-1-58834-309-3 (1-58834-309-X)

As command module pilot for the Apollo 15 mission to the moon in 1971, Al Worden flew on what is widely regarded as the greatest exploration mission that humans have ever attempted. He spent six days orbiting the moon, including three days completely alone, the most isolated human in existence. During... Read more >

Nonzero
The Logic of Human Destiny
Written by Robert Wright

Format: Trade Paperback, 448 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: January 9, 2001
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-75894-5 (0-679-75894-1)

In his bestselling The Moral Animal, Robert Wright applied the principles of evolutionary biology to the study of the human mind. Now Wright attempts something even more ambitious: explaining the direction of evolution and human history, and discerning where history will lead us next.

In Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, Wright... Read more >

The Brother Gardeners
A Generation of Gentlemen Naturalists and the Birth of an Obsession
Written by Andrea Wulf

Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: March 9, 2010
Price: $17.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-45475-1 (0-307-45475-4)

Bringing to life the science and adventure of eighteenth-century plant collecting, The Brother Gardeners is the story of how six men created the modern garden and changed the horticultural world in the process. It is a story of a garden revolution that began in America.

In 1733, colonial farmer John Bartram shipped... Read more >