A historical and scientific guide to this diverse seashore.

Three mathematicians illustrate their theory for describing and classifying symmetries.

The next president of the United States won’t have a physics Ph.D.— but he will develop policy on physics-related matters. In this election year, Muller, a professor at UC Berkeley, has put together a guide for the country’s incoming leader. But the purpose of the book is primarily to inform voters. Muller shares statistics and corrects misunderstandings relating to terrorism, energy, nuclear weapons, space and global warming. Muller writes for the educated reader, not the physics expert. Readers, for example, might be surprised to learn that gasoline is one of the most use...

The first artist to depict a fossil didn’t even realize he was doing so: The “tongue stones,” actually fossilized shark teeth, were natural curiosities thought by many in the 15th century to offer protection against illness and snakebite. Although artists have been creating pictures of fossils for more than 500 years, Davidson’s book is the first to comprehensively tackle the topic of how those remains have been portrayed through the ages. This richly illustrated volume follows the development of paleontological art from ancient woodcuts, etchings and paintings to modern pho...

A portrait of lemurs, monkeys, apes and others, with color photographs and a foreword by Jane Goodall.

This prehistoric monument still holds undiscovered clues to the past.

A leader in obstetrics and gynecology explains how to prevent and deal with miscarriage.

An intimate look at the tradition and subculture of falconry.    

Health scares come and go, but they often have a tenuous scientific basis. Kabat, a cancer epidemiologist, systematically rips through cancer alerts that overrode scientific rigor in recent decades. In so doing, he dispels the dubious science underlying the scares and explains how public confusion can come about. A 1993 study, to take an example, linked breast cancer and environmental pollutants. The study connected DDT exposure to breast cancer at the very time women on New York’s Long Island had begun an activist campaign to “discover” the cause of wh...

Facts and legends about the 21 brightest stars in the night sky.

A Vanity Fair journalist exposes the ongoing 
battle between West Virginia activists and the company whose mountaintop mining threatens their homeland.

Marie Winn’s tale of adventures in Central Park begins with darkness. She explores the cultural and literary associations between night and death, and the backstory of why humans are afraid of the dark. But, for her, curiosity and logic override fear — these days more crime occurs in the park during the day. So Winn sets off and running on a nighttime safari through the 800-plus acres that make up one of the world’s most fabled green spaces. Screech owls, slugs, beetles and bats are among the wonders Winn and her compatriots stalk during 11 years of forays. Winn delves into ea...

The Gulf Stream, dramatized by painter Winslow Homer, has had many admirers ranging from Juan Ponce de Léon, who claims to have discovered it, to Ernest Hemingway, who fished its waters. Ulanski starts this book with a whirlwind tour. Warm waters dead-end in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, spill out around the Florida coast, barrel north toward Cape Hatteras and bounce eastward. But contrary to a widely held belief, the Gulf Stream warms Northern Europe only slightly. It has a greater impact on New England northeasters, which form when warm winds collide with polar air. Ulansk...

This book includes descriptions, medicinal uses and recipes for more than 150 aromatic plants, from lemongrass to dandelion