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Seeing Science
An Illustrated Guide to the Wonders of the Universe
Iris Gottlieb

£16.99

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£7.99
An Equation for Every Occasion
Simple Formulas for Surviving the Unexpected
Chris Waring
Framing his explanations in 17 scenarios, such as calculating how big a parachute you need to survive a plane crash, or the most efficient way to guard an art gallery, Chris Waring demonstrates the mathematical formulae underpinning the world. Also provided is a reminder about some basic principles, including BIDMAS, Pythagoras and solving equations.

£12.99

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Unravelling the Double Helix
The Lost Heroes of DNA
Gareth Williams
Slightly off-mint.

£14.99

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Cracking Anatomy
Ken Okona-Mensah
Focusing on the way the body’s systems can be observed working and how they affect each other, this pocket-sized guide invites readers to examine the workings of their own anatomy as a tool for understanding. With medical illustrations and simple graphs and diagrams, the processes of human biology are made comprehensible.

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Bring Back the King
The New Science of De-Extinction
Helen Pilcher
Scientist and comedian Helen Pitcher discusses the perfect candidate for de-extinction, the increasingly plausible science of resurrecting extinct animals. Looking past the popular candidates – mammoths, passenger pigeons and an unusual flatulent species of frog – Pitcher introduces her selection, as well as those of some of the world’s leading geneticists, in a lively exploration of a science easily mistaken for fiction.

£9.99

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Astronomical
From Quarks to Quasars: the Science of Space at It's Strangest
Tim James

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Heart
A History
Sandeep Jauhar

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How The Brain Lost Its Mind
Sex, Hysteria, and the Riddle of Mental Illness
Allan H Ropper;BD Burrell

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The Reassembler
James May
‘When I rebuild a bicycle, I re-order my head. So might you…’ writes The Grand Tour presenter James May in introducing this manual on the joys of reassembly. May discusses the history, nostalgia and meditative satisfaction involved in reassembling seven classic machines including a Bakelite rotary telephone, a Tokai electric guitar and a Honda Z50A Monkey Bike.

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The Abyss of Time
A Study in Geological Time and Earth History
Paul Lyle

£24.99

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Science!
Knowledge Encyclopedia
Abigail Beall;Jack Challoner;Adrian Dingle et al
This introduction to the world of science explains basic concepts such as gravity and atomic structure as well as describing planetary systems and the processes that allow plants and animals to function. Exploded colour diagrams include the structure of DNA, the materials and technologies contained in a smartphone and how photosynthesis works.

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How to Grow a Human
Adventures in Who We Are and How We Are Made
Philip Ball

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Here Comes the Sun
How it Feeds Us, Kills Us, Heals Us and Makes Us What We Are
Steve Jones

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Easy As Pi
Maths Made Simple
Liz Strachan
For anyone who slept through every maths lesson at school or intentionally forgot how the Fibonacci sequence works, this light-hearted guide makes catching up on maths a simple, enjoyable process. Liz Strachan takes readers from basic addition and subtraction to Pascal, Pythagoras and polygons, and teaches handy mathematical tricks such as the Rule of 72.

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Waters of the World
The Story of the Scientists Who Unravelled the Mysteries of Our Seas, Glaciers, and Atmosphere
Sarah Dry
Sarah Dry traces the pioneering work that has unravelled the mysteries of our seas, glaciers and atmosphere and shaped our understanding of our planet. She begins with John Tyndall (1820-1893), whose work on water, and particularly the absorption of heat by water vapour and carbon dioxide, is now regarded as a cornerstone of the new, multi-faceted discipline of climate science, before looking at the contributions of scientists including Charles Piazzi Smyth, Gilbert Walker and Willi Dansgaard.

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Seeing Further
The Story of Science and the Royal Society
Ed. Bill Bryson
‘The most venerable learned society in the world’, the Royal Society was founded in 1660 and has continued its work promoting and supporting education and research across the vast range of science. In this celebratory volume, Bill Bryson introduces 20 contributions from distinguished writers and Fellows of the Society illustrating the diversity of its work, including Richard Dawkins on Darwin and natural selection, Ian Stewart on ‘the hidden mathematics that rules the world’, and Henry Petroski on 19th-century engineers.

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How to Build a Universe
Part One
Brian Cox;Robin Ince;Alexandra Feachem
The numerous archival images, cartoons, quotes and programme excerpts in this companion book to the BBC Radio 4 series The Infinite Monkey Cage pay homage to the 1970s Look and Learn annuals, which thrilled children with their miscellany of science. Here, Cox and Ince inspire adult scientific wonder through jokes, jibes and nostalgic digressions, anchored by serious explorations of thermodynamics, particle physics, big bang theory, space travel, extra-terrestrial life and, of course, infinity.

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Statistical
Ten Easy Ways to Avoid Being Misled By Numbers
Anthony Reuben
Every day we are bombarded by numbers about politics, economics, health and the environment. This concise introduction by the BBC’s first head of statistics helps clarify the data and decide whether it presents a true picture. It explains the difference between a mean and a medium, correlation and causation, how to evaluate surveys and opinion polls, and the alarm-bell phrases to be wary of.

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Lying Numbers
How Maths and Statistics are Twisted and Abused
Hugh Barker
In this accessible text Hugh Barker demonstrates how statistics and numbers are used to influence people in matters ranging from shopping for groceries to choosing a political leader. With the aid of clear diagrams and examples he explores techniques including cognitive bias and the manipulation of graphs and charts, and highlights the elements to be wary of when presented with numerical information.

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The Runaway Species
How Human Creativity Remakes the World
Anthony Brandt;David Eagleman

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Adventures in Human Being
Gavin Francis
Blending anatomical description with stories from the author’s own experience as a doctor, this award-winning book takes the reader on a tour of the human body, from the brain to the ‘marvel of engineering’ that is the foot. As he unravels the mysteries of each structure and organ, Gavin Francis also explains how the body has been imagined, understood and given meaning since ancient times.

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Half Lives
The Unlikely History of Radium
Lucy Jane Santos
Before the harmful effects of radioactive substances were fully understood, radium was considered to be a wonder material and was incorporated into a range of commercial products. This study examines how the newly discovered element was used in the first half of the 20th century in luminescent paints, cosmetics, health treatments and even food and drink.

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30-Second Genetics
The 50 Most Fundamental Discoveries in Genetics, Each Explained in Half a Minute
Ed. Jonathan Weitzman;Matthew Weitzman;Illus. Steve Rawlings
The basics of genetics are explained in simple terms in this volume, before a closer look at how continued research in the field has increased scientific understanding of human health and led to benefits such as stem cell therapy and genome editing.

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Mismatch
How Our Stone Age Brain Deceives Us Every Day (And What We Can Do About It)
Ronald Giphart;Mark van Vugt
The development of agriculture 12,000 years ago was a turning point in human culture, but our biological evolution has failed to keep pace. This book explores the extensive impact of this mismatch – how it affects our nutrition and family life, shapes our work and political structure, and has led to war – before suggesting societal changes that could create a world more aligned with human nature.

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Talking to Robots
Tales from Our Human-Robot Futures
David Ewing Duncan

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So You Think You've Got Problems?
Surprising and Rewarding Puzzles to Sharpen Your Mind
Alex Bellos
The 150 varied brainteasers in this collection are presented narratively and divided into sections including probability, geometry and even survival. An introduction contemplates one of the hardest riddles in history – Archimedes’ yet-unsolved Cattle Problem – and many puzzles are narrated with the author’s reflections on how they work and the type of logical thinking they demand. Slightly off-mint.

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The Wolf Within
The Astonishing Evolution of Man's Best Friend
Bryan Sykes
The bond between humans and dogs is close, emotional, and ancient, yet despite its comforting familiarity, it is an unlikely partnership. Using archaeological, genetic and behavioural evidence, this book explains how the descendants of wolves became man’s trusted companions, from their initial domestication in the Romanian mountains some 50,000 years ago to the huge variety of breeds existing today.

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The Secret Life of Bones
Their Origins, Evolution and Fate
Brian Switek
A palaeontologist, usually dealing with dinosaurs, Brian Switek turns his attention to the human skeleton and bone, ‘one of the most fantastic building materials that evolution has accidentally spit out’. Starting in the distant prehistoric past and tracing the evolution of bone, he goes on to examine the biology of the human skeleton and tell the stories of our bones in their many cultural and religious roles, whether worshipped as relics or symbols of conquest.

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Every Breath You Take
A User's Guide to the Atmosphere
Mark Broomfield
Mark Broomfield, a chemist by training, explores what makes the earth’s atmosphere special and what its condition means for human life. After a broad look at how it compares to that of other planets, and explanations of issues such as holes in the ozone layer and disappearing gases, he discusses air quality and the measures needed to improve it.

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Sodding Sums
The 10% of Maths You Actually Need
Hywel Carver
This concise volume focuses on real-life scenarios in which a little mathematical knowledge can be beneficial. Written in simple terms and with numerous examples, its topics range from understanding whether a supermarket special offer is worth the bother to working out how much a loan will cost to repay, and what the statistics often heard in news bulletins really mean.

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Meet Your Hormones
Catherine Whitlock;Nicola Temple
This wide-ranging introduction to hormones focuses on the ten essential functions, including growth, reproduction, sleep and ageing, in which these complex chemical messengers are involved. The authors explain how recent scientific advances are impacting issues such as infertility, gender reassignment and performance-enhancing drugs and offer practical advice on boosting our hormonal health through diet and lifestyle.

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Cracking Neuroscience
Jon Turney

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18 Tiny Deaths
The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics
Bruce Goldfarb
Frances Glessner Lee, a leading pioneer of forensic science, established Harvard’s department of legal medicine in 1936. This biography explores her fascination with the intricate details of murder investigations, and how she crafted the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, a collection of dollhouse-sized murder scenes containing macabre clues to train scientists and detectives.

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The Quantum Age
How the Physics of the Very Small has Transformed Our Lives
Brian Clegg

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Nikola Tesla and the Electrical Future
Iwan Rhys Morus
Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) was both acclaimed as a scientist and denounced as a charlatan. This biography follows the Serbian-born inventor’s emigration to the USA, his work with Edison, and their subsequent rivalry. It assesses his achievements, including the development of the AC electrical system, and his visionary ideas such as wireless electricity that continue to inspire today’s Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

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Destination Mars
The Story of Our Quest to Conquer the Red Planet
Andrew May
From theories of red vegetation and canal systems to Elon Musk’s ambitions in the race to Mars, Andrew May looks at our fascination with the red planet and the practicalities of getting there, covering topics including the development of rocket science and 50 years of robots and rovers on Mars.

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Astroquizzical
A Curious Journey Through our Cosmic Family Tree
Jillian Scudder
With a talent for distilling complex facts into simple and easy-to-digest articles, astrophysicist Jillian Scudder authors the successful blog Astroquizzical, in which she answers readers’ questions about all things cosmological. This book collects the finest and most informative blog posts and offers a complete picture of the Earth, its cosmological family and its place in the universe.

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Apollo 11
The Inside Story
David Whitehouse
An astrophysicist, science journalist and former BBC Science editor, David Whitehouse tells the dramatic ‘inside story’ of the race to the Moon, drawing on his own archive of notes, tapes and extensive interviews with astronauts, as well as his familiarity with the science and, not least, a vivid memory of watching television, transfixed, as Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon on 20 July 1969.

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What It's Like to Be a Dog
And Other Adventures in Animal Neuroscience
Gregory Berns
Explaining that his aim is 'to raise awareness of the mental lives of the animals with whom we share the planet', Gregory Burns presents an accessible overview of modern neurology. He outlines how, having trained dogs to enter an MRI machine, he was able to compare their brain function to that of humans, revealing the secrets of their inner experience.

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Superhuman
Life at the Extremes of Mental and Physical Ability
Rowan Hooper
Rowan Hooper, managing editor at the New Scientist, explores the peaks of human attainment. As part of his investigation, he interviews high achievers from a diverse range of fields – from scientists, memory champions and opera stars to polyglots and ultrarunners, as well as the experts who study them. He goes on to assess the science of peak potential, reviewing the role of genetics alongside the often quoted 10,000 hours of practice.

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What's Next?
Even Scientists Can't Predict the Future – Or Can They?
Ed. Jim Al-Khalili
Medicine tailored to your individual DNA, teleportation, quantum computing and a space-based solar power station are just some of the technological possibilities discussed in this volume by 18 leading scientists and experts.

£8.99

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Escape from Earth
A Secret History of the Space Rocket
Fraser MacDonald
After happening upon an old – and still restricted – Cold War rocket testing site in the Outer Hebrides, Fraser MacDonald began to research the technology being tested, the ‘Corporal’ guided missile, and the mystery of the designer Frank J Malina. This book tells the long-buried story of this pioneering rocket scientist, his work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the birth of the space rocket – and how its inventor was written out of history during the McCarthy witch-hunts.

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Astrobiology
The Search for Life Elsewhere in the Universe
Andrew May
Venturing into the emerging field of astrobiology and the search for extraterrestrial life, Andrew May gives an expert overview of the current state of astrobiological knowledge, deals with the techno-signatures we might expect from advanced alien civilizations and the bio-signatures of simpler life forms; and also examines the wider, speculative aspects of the search for life beyond Earth.

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Hollywood Wants to Kill You
The Peculiar Science of Death in the Movies
Rick Edwards;Michael Brooks
Investigating the plausibility of movie disaster plots, this popular science book's opening chapter analyses the film Contagion and the possibility of a bat virus jumping species, causing a world pandemic. Other threats explored are nuclear war (Dr Strangelove), climate change (Geostorm) and infertility (Children of Men).

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The Equations of Life
The Hidden Rules Shaping Evolution
Charles Cockell
Professor Charles Cockell argues that evolution and natural selection have always been constrained by basic physical laws, from an atomic level to the animal realm. For instance, there are sound scientific reasons why creatures can’t evolve with wheels instead of legs, and why carbon-based cells are ideal for trapping energy, so life on Earth is far more understandable and predictable than we might imagine.

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Scientists Who Changed History
This visual guide to the life and work of more than 85 of the greatest scientists, such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Marie Curie and Stephen Hawking, takes the reader from Ancient Greece, Egypt and China through to the modern era. Alongside key moments, quotes and diagrams, it succinctly explains the breakthroughs and significance of figures from fields including mathematics, meteorology, geology and genetics.

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Reinventing the Wheel
Milk, Microbes and the Fight for Real Cheese
Bronwen Percival;Francis Percival
This insight into contemporary artisan cheese-making explains what has been lost through homogenized factory production and how small local producers are rediscovering the methods of their forbears. The importance of microbes for flavour and health benefit is investigated as well as the influence of cattle breeds and farming methods on the production of cheese.

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18 Miles
The Epic Drama of the Atmosphere and its Weather
Christopher Dewdney
A self-proclaimed ‘connoisseur of weather’, but also a poet, Christopher Dewdney describes our atmosphere and the weather that happens within it, from the turbulence that triggered life from ‘primordial soup’ to the sunshine and warmth that contributed to the Summer of Love in 1967. Along the way he discusses the science of the atmosphere, the history of weather forecasting, historic storms, seasons, the Ice Ages and climate change.

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18 Miles
The Epic Drama of the Atmosphere and its Weather
Christopher Dewdney
A self-proclaimed ‘connoisseur of weather’, but also a poet, Christopher Dewdney describes our atmosphere and the weather that happens within it, from the turbulence that triggered life from ‘primordial soup’ to the sunshine and warmth that contributed to the Summer of Love in 1967. Along the way he discusses the science of the atmosphere, the history of weather forecasting, historic storms, seasons, the Ice Ages and climate change.

£14.99

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How to Code a Human
Kat Arney
With easily accessible text and hundreds of photographs and diagrams, geneticist and journalist Kat Arney presents the story of our genes. Following an insight into how traces of Neanderthal DNA still exist in modern humans, she explains in simple terms how genetics determine our appearance, health and personality, and the benefits offered by scientific progress in the field.

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How Do You Get an Egg Into a Bottle
Scientific Puzzles to Baffle and Bemuse Your Brain
Erwin Brecher;Mike Gerrard
The egg problem is one of the 60 weird and wonderful science puzzles in this set of question and answer cards. You can challenge yourself or friends to work out why boomerangs come back or how to drive on ice: the solution of each problem is explained on the reverse of the card.

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Cutting-Edge Science
Up-to-the-Minute Discoveries, Facts and Inventions
Colin Barras
Exploring some of the most remarkable recent innovations in science and understanding of the natural world. Colin Barras explains them in simple terms and offers insights into the impact they could have. Covering fields including space, technology and human behaviour, he reaches some surprising conclusions, showing for example how farming may have been humankind’s biggest mistake, or how nasal cells can improve spinal injuries.

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This is Planet Earth
Your Ultimate Guide to the World We Call Home
New Scientist
This chronological account of the Earth begins with its formation from a swirling cloud of dust before explaining its structure, the changes brought about by plate tectonics, and the various layers of gases that have made it inhabitable. It explores the impact that humans have had on its geology, atmosphere and ecosystems, using black and white diagrams and the clear language that makes the New Scientist Instant Expert series accessible.

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Quantum Computing
The Transformative Technology of the Qubit Revolution
Brian Clegg
Replacing a single bit of a traditional computer, which has a binary capacity of one or zero, with the almost infinitely more versatile qubit of quantum computing opens up tremendous potential processing power but there are significant problems in the practical realization of such machines. This introduction explains how the strange properties of the quantum world can be harnessed and examines the latest prototypes at the cutting edge of this technology.

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What Do You Think You Are?
The Science of What Makes You You
Brian Clegg
Brian Clegg begins his investigation into the seemingly bottomless question – what makes you a unique individual – by taking the genealogical approach, hunting down common ancestors before going back to basic atoms. From these ‘building blocks of everything’, he traces the emergence of life, consciousness and personality, environment and culture, and ends with another question: ‘what’s missing?’

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Say Why to Drugs
Everything you Need to Know About the Drugs We Take and Why We Get High
Suzi Gage
Dr Suzi Gage investigates the science behind recreational drugs, from coffee and alcohol to cocaine and LSD. She debunks common urban myths and offers clear explanations of how each substance impacts the brain and body, both short and long term.

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How to Be Human
The Ultimate Guide to Your Amazing Existence
Graham Lawton;Jeremy Webb
The New Scientist team ask how homo sapiens became who we are, what sets us apart from other animals, and why we can be so similar yet different to one another. With numerous illustrations and diagrams, it also explores conundrums like the fact that half of our DNA isn’t human, and why we really blush, yawn, laugh or cry.

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The Periodic Table
A Visual Guide to the Elements
Tom Jackson
Tom Jackson describes the periodic table as ‘the ultimate infographic’ presenting the fabric of the Universe as 118 chemical elements, each one with a unique collection of subatomic particles whose arrangement dictates its characteristics. This book provides an overview of the structure of the periodic table and highly visual accounts of how atoms work and basic chemistry, followed by a detailed directory of the elements, arranged by atomic weight, from Hydrogen to Fermium. Age 12+

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Gravitational Waves
How Einstein's Spacetime Ripples Reveal the Secrets of the Universe
Brian Clegg
Although predicted by Einstein’s general relativity, it was not until 2015 that gravitational waves – ripples in space and time – were first detected. This accessible introduction to their discovery explains how the technology required to record movements 100 times smaller than the nucleus of an atom was developed, and how, with their ability to travel through barriers that stop light, the waves offer a new way to investigate the universe.

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Quantum Physics
Knowledge in a Nutshell
Sten Odenwald
Historically, dual interpretations of physical phenomena as waves or particles became unified in quantum theory, which revolutionized views of the universe. However, topics such as Schrödinger’s (imaginary) cat and the double-slit experiment are notorious for being misinterpreted or badly explained. This illustrated guide by a NASA scientist aims to dispel confusion, while introducing key players such as Planck, Bohr and Feynman.

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The Periodic Table
How the World Works
Anne Rooney
Identifying the fundamental chemical building blocks of nature, the periodic table of elements was first proposed by Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869. This introduction explores the history of scientific discovery that led to this codification and explains how it works and has been refined since.

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Physics
How the World Works
Anne Rooney
Acknowledging the roots of science in natural philosophy, this book follows the endeavours of physicists since the Renaissance in developing a rational understanding of the world and looks at topics including optics, energy, atoms and space-time.

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Mathematics
How the World Works
Anne Rooney
Providing an accessible explanation of the key mathematical discoveries that have shaped human progress and understanding, this volume ranges from the geometry of the Ancient Greeks to calculus, set theory and fuzzy logic.

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How the World Works: Chemistry
From the Periodic Table to Nanotechnology
Anne Rooney
Emerging from the experiments of alchemists, the discoveries of chemists have driven civilization forward through the manipulation of raw materials to create metals, explosives, medicines and more recently plastics.

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Champions of Illusion
The Science Behind Mind-Boggling Images and Mystifying Brain Puzzles
Susana Martinez-Conde;Stephen Macknik
The Best Illusion of the Year contest was started in 2005 by the authors, both professors of neuroscience, and here they present the top ten visual illusions from each of the first ten years of the contest. Introducing and explaining a ‘world of misconception, where neuroscience, art and magic converge’, the book comprises full- or half-page reproductions of the illusions, accompanied by a description and scientific explanation of how the mind is tricked.

$26.00

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Human Errors
A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes
Nathan Lents
This exploration of the human body explains how layer upon layer of adaptation has resulted in a host of oddities, redundancies and shortcomings that illuminate our evolutionary history. Examples include our backwards retinas (photoreceptors face away from the light) and the fact that we must find nutrients and vitamins in our diets that other animals make for themselves.

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Volcanoes
A Beginner's Guide
Rosaly Lopes
This review of the science of volcanoes uses famous case studies to explain their destructive power but also the role they have played in fertilizing the soil, in early toolmaking and in the shaping of the land. Off-mint.

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Reductionism
A Beginner's Guide
Alastair IM Rae
Understanding complex functions with reference to basic underlying principles is the essential idea of reductionism. How the theory works and the profound philosophical debates that spring from it are explored in this volume. Off-mint.

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Planet Earth
A Beginner's Guide
John Gribbin
Telling the story of the origins and evolution of our home planet, from the Big Bang, stardust and the formation of planets, Gribbin describes the geological forces that have shaped Earth and life on it, up to the present crisis as human activities presage a ‘sixth extinction’.

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Fluke
The Maths and Myths of Coincidences
Joseph Mazur

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The Angry Chef
Bad Science and the Truth About Healthy Eating
Anthony Warner
Popular blogger and professional chef Anthony Warner is angry about the increasing prevalence of unscientific food and health experts making misleading claims about superfoods and miracle health regimes. Investigating these claims with academic rigour as well as humour, this well-reviewed book is an exposé of the pseudoscience sometimes presented by food bloggers, self-styled nutritionalists and diet gurus.

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Symphony in C
Carbon and the Evolution of (Almost) Everything
Robert M Hazen
Carbon provides the most important chemical link across time and space, from the Big Bang to the evolution of life on earth. This celebration and exploration of the element for the general reader is divided into four sections, Earth, Air, Fire and Water. It explains the central role carbon played in the formation of the universe and its importance to the ecology of the planet today, and gives an overview of current research in carbon science.

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Rebel Star
Our Quest to Solve the Great Mysteries of the Sun
Colin Stuart
Although huge telescopes and space probes have helped us to understand our nearest star, we still know surprisingly little about it. Stuart explains how astronomers have investigated the Sun’s inner workings and asks why we remain unable to predict solar storms that could be large enough to cripple technology on Earth.

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No Need for Geniuses
Revolutionary Science in the Age of the Guillotine
Steve Jones
In revolutionary Paris, ‘In the heady days around the fall of the Bastille, the city was saturated in science’; and the overlap between revolutionaries and the scientists – politiques and philosophes – is a major theme in this study of the remarkable, yet often overlooked achievements of French science during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

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Remarkable Creatures
Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species
Carroll Sean B.
Slightly off-mint

£8.99

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The Magic of a Name: The Rolls-Royce Story
Part Three: A Family of Engines 1987–2002
Peter Pugh
This third part of Rolls-Royce’s company history picks up the story in 1987 when privatization began a new era for the firm. Both the aeronautical and car businesses struggled in the 1990s, after the recession, and the rights to make Rolls-Royce cars were subsequently sold, but the introduction of the Trent family of turbofan engines restored the company’s fortunes in the aero engine market. Off-mint.

£30.00

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£11.99
Your Daily Maths
366 Number Puzzles and Problems to Keep you Sharp
Laura Laing
With one exercise for each day of the year, this ‘cognitive workout’ poses mathematical problems that can be solved by creative thinking, even if you have not studied any maths since school. They fall into seven categories, including algebra, logic and number sense, and many relate to real-life scenarios. Laing explains the process for solving each problem, but emphasizes that ‘the goal is not to find the right answer. The goal is to think.’

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The Spinning Magnet
The Force That Created the Modern World – and Could Destroy It
Alanna Mitchell
The science journalist Alanna Mitchell explores an aspect of our planet that we take for granted as unchanging, yet Earth’s electromagnetic field is critical and the poles that seem so fixed can switch places; the last time they did so was 780,000 years ago. Beginning with the discoveries of the Victorian scientists who pioneered the modern understanding of magnetism, Mitchell investigates the science of this powerful phenomenon and what it could mean for the future of Earth.

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The Reality Frame
Relativity and Our Place in the Universe
Brian Clegg
By building and populating a virtual universe, Clegg demonstrates that reality is not a system of immovable absolutes; instead, the ever-shifting world of relativity is what provides the frame of reference that allows us to understand both the universe and humanity’s place within it.

£20.00

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Hormonal
How Hormones Drive Desire, Shape Relationships, and Make Us Wiser
Martie Haselton
Marie Haselton offers a detailed study of hormonal intelligence, exposing its powerful influence on every aspect of women's lives from puberty to menopause. She also explores topical issues such as giving birth in middle age and taking hormone supplements in later life.

£12.99

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Electrified Sheep
And Other Bizarre Experiments
Alex Boese
In this sequel to Elephants on Acid Alex Boese delves once more into the world of mad scientists and weird experimentation, whether a 1950s project to nuke the moon or self-experimenters getting stung by 78 species of Hymenoptera for the sake of science.

£8.99

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The Creeping Garden
Irrational Encounters with Plasmodial Slime Moulds
Jasper Sharp;Tim Grabham
Long overlooked by both natural historians and the public, slime moulds are among the strangest life-forms on the planet. Composed of single-celled organisms, they can move around forests and grasslands in a manner that some consider intelligent. This extensively illustrated companion to the documentary The Creeping Garden explains their structure and life cycle, the body of research into them, and the making of the film itself.

£16.99

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£6.99
Breakfast with Einstein
The Exotic Physics of Everyday Objects
Chad Orzel
Making complex theories intelligible for the general reader, this guide to quantum mechanics and the history of modern physics uses the everyday experiences of getting up, making breakfast and checking email to demonstrate how quantum effects govern the world around us.

£12.99

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Bodyology
The Curious Science of Our Bodies
Can the power of thought outwit ageing? What’s it like to be struck by lightning? Could 3D printers make body parts? These are among the intriguing questions discussed in stories that explore the stranger aspects of the human body. These 17 articles were originally published on mosaicscience.com, an online magazine created by Wellcome. Off-mint.

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Breakfast with the Centenarians
The Art of Ageing Well
Daniela Mari: Trans. Denise Muir
The renowned gerontologist Daniela Mari draws on her extensive experience of elderly care to reveal the art and science behind a healthy, happy old age, explains the concept of 'active ageing', and looks at how our sleeping habits and diet contribute to longevity.

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It All Adds Up
The Story of People and Mathematics
Mickael Launay
Mickaël Launay believes that, just as non-musicians can love music, anyone can understand and marvel at the numbers and geometry that surround us every day. In this book he guides the reader on a journey through the history of mathematics, revealing how curiosity and serendipity have led to new discoveries, from ancient Mesopotamian frieze designs and the earliest written number symbols to the Mandelbrot set, which can be drawn only with the aid of computers.

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The Breakthrough
Immunotherapy and the Race to Cure Cancer
Charles Graeber
Why doesn’t the immune system fight cancer the way it does other diseases? Told through the experiences of patients, doctors and immunotherapy researchers, this is the story of the game-changing scientific discoveries that unleash our natural ability to recognize and defeat cancer.

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Convergence
The Deepest Idea in the Universe
Peter Watson

£25.00

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£9.99
Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand
Fifty Wonders That Reveal an Extraordinary Universe
Marcus Chown
Basing each of his short chapters on one of the fifty ‘most mind-blowing scientific facts I have discovered over the years’, the former radio astronomer and award-winning science writer Marcus Chown explains the science behind statements such as ‘today’s sunlight is 30,000 years old’. Ranging from biological things (‘you are a third mushroom’) to cosmology, and written in layman’s language, the book makes light work of profound scientific ideas.

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The Deep
The Hidden Wonders of Our Oceans and How We Can Protect Them
Alex Rogers
Alex Rogers has spent the past 30 years studying marine life, and is a consultant on the BBC series Blue Planet. Here, he shares his discoveries – underwater mountains, coral reefs and strange creatures – and explains the workings of this complex ecosystem, which contains 90 percent of the Earth’s life-forms. He goes on to warn of the threat it faces from overfishing, pollution and climate change, and suggests ways in which we can protect it.

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A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived
The Stories in Our Genes
Adam Rutherford
Since the first complete human genome was sequenced in 2003, our understanding of who we are and where we come from has grown exponentially. In this introduction to human genetics, Adam Rutherford draws on recent discoveries – including the identification of Richard III’s remains – to show how the genomes of every one of us record the history of our species: war, famine, disease, migration and lineage.

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Science Hacks
100 Clever Ways to Help You Understand and Remember the Most Important Theories
Colin Barras
Each volume in this series uses a three-part approach to explain complex ideas. First the ‘helicopter overview’ introduces the concept, then the ‘shortcut’ gives more detail on core elements and the pithy ‘hack’ offers a memorable summary. In this guide to key scientific concepts theories in evolution, genetics and human origins are discussed, as are topics including thermodynamics and Newton’s laws, and hypotheses relating to space and astrophysics.

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Goldilocks and the Water Bears
The Search for Life in the Universe
Louisa Preston
Venus is too hot, Mars too cold, but Earth’s distance from the Sun makes it ‘just right’ for a thriving biosphere. As we search for other planets perfectly positioned to support living organisms, an astrobiologist explains what scientists can learn from research into the origins and evolution of life, as well as the study of ‘extremophile’ water bears, tiny aquatic creatures able to survive the harshest conditions on Earth.

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The Disordered Mind
What Unusual Brains Tell Us About Ourselves
Eric R Kandel
Eric R Kandel, recipient of a Nobel Prize for his pioneering research, demonstrates how studies of brain disorders, including autism, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease, have improved our understanding of the close connections between neurological and psychiatric illnesses. He discusses the ways in which these findings are not only contributing to the development of effective treatments but are also helping to explain the mysterious origins of consciousness and creativity in the intricate interactions of brain cells.

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Through Two Doors at Once
The Elegant Experiment that Captures the Enigma of Our Quantum Reality
Anil Ananthaswamy
A science writer with a gift for making the complicated comprehensible, Anil Ananthaswamy tells the story of quantum mechanics from the perspective of the seemingly simple, but utterly confounding double-slit experiment. He traces the various attempts to explain the enigma, from Thomas Young in 1793 to Richard Feynman, who described ‘the experiment with two holes’ as containing ‘all the mystery of quantum mechanics‘.

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What Colour is the Sun?
Mind-Bending Science Facts in the Solar System's Brightest Quiz
Brian Clegg
Brian Clegg’s quiz book-cum-science compendium explores surprising facts about physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics, technology and the history of science in over 100 questions ranging from ‘Why do hands and feet go wrinkly in the bath?’ to ‘What is Sagittarius A*?’ Related facts and anecdotes accompany each question and, on the following page, the answer is explained and discussed.

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