Dr. Ashely Alker is a self-described death escapologist—or, in more familiar terms, an emergency medicine doctor. She has seen it all, from flesh-eating bacteria to the work of a serial killer to the more mundane but no less deadly, and her work outwitting the end has uniquely prepared her to write this book.

Dr. Alker manages to shock readers while making them laugh, educating them on how to outsmart a wide range of deadly situations and conditions. Many of the chapters include stories from her experiences in life and medicine, at times heartwarming, others heartbreaking. Sections include explorations of sex, poison, drugs, biological warfare, disease, animals, crime, the elements, and much more.

Details

• Author: Ashely Alker M.D.
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Print Type: Hardcover
• Page Count: 384
• ISBN-13: 9781250359643

Fossils plants allow us to touch the lost worlds from billions of years of evolutionary backstory. Each petrified leaf and root shows us that dinosaurs, saber-toothed cats, and even humans would not exist without the evolutionary efforts of their leafy counterparts. It has been the constant growth of plants that have allowed so many of our favorite, fascinating prehistoric creatures to evolve, oxygenating the atmosphere, coaxing animals onto land, and forming the forests that shaped our ancestors' anatomy. It is impossible to understand our history without them. Or, our future. Using the same scientifically-informed narrative technique that readers loved in the award-winning The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, in When the Earth Was Green, Riley Black brings readers back in time to prehistoric seas, swamps, forests, and savannas where critical moments in plant evolution unfolded. Each chapter stars plants and animals alike, underscoring how the interactions between species have helped shape the world we call home. As the chapters move upwards in time, Black guides readers along the burgeoning trunk of the Tree of Life, stopping to appreciate branches of an evolutionary story that links the world we know with one we can only just perceive now through the silent stone, from ancient roots to the present.

Details

• Author: Riley Black
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Print Type: Paperback
• Page Count: 304
• ISBN-13: 9781250905574

Tens of billions of birds share the planet with us, an astonishingly diverse array of species that are present nearly everywhere humans call home—and many places we do not. With their flamboyant plumage, joyous dawn serenades, extraordinary aerial feats, they have captivated human imagination for millennia. Undeniably delicate creatures with hollow bones and thin skin protected by downy feathers, how did such a seemingly fragile species break the bounds of Earth and begin to fly, how have they survived millennia, and how does their legacy shape our world?

Hailed as “one of the stars of modern paleontology” (National Geographic), Steve Brusatte now tells the extraordinary story of the dinosaurs' living legacy: birds. He begins by exploring how dinosaurs gradually developed the trademark features of birds one-by-one—feathers, wings, beaks, big brains, keen senses, and warm-blooded metabolisms. He investigates why birds were the only dinosaurs to survive the cataclysmic asteroid impact 66 million years ago and chronicles how these survivors rapidly proliferated to produce the diversity of avian species we know today.

Details

• Author: Steve Brusatte
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Print Type: Hardcover
• Page Count: 448
• ISBN-13: 9780063349711

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States, HarperCollins is proud to present this library of American classics drawn from our storied catalog. Rarely does a single book alter the course of history, but Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring did exactly that by helping to launch the environmental movement.

The outcry that followed the publication of Silent Spring in 1962 forced the banning of DDT and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Carson’s passionate concern for the future of our environment reverberated powerfully throughout the world. Silent Spring not only addressed issues of the time, but began a critical discussion on humanity's responsibility for our planet that continues to this day. As Carson reminds us, "In nature, nothing exists alone.”

Details

• Author: Rachel Carson
• Publisher: Mariner Books Classics
• Print Type: Paperback
• Page Count: 400
• ISBN-13: 9780063481541

First published by Houghton Mifflin in 1962, Silent Spring alerted a large audience to the environmental and human dangers of indiscriminate use of pesticides, spurring revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. "Silent Spring became a runaway bestseller, with international reverberations . . . [It is] well crafted, fearless and succinct . . . Even if she had not inspired a generation of activists, Carson would prevail as one of the greatest nature writers in American letters" (Peter Matthiessen, for Time's 100 Most Influential People of the Century).

This edition celebrates Rachel Carson's watershed book with a new introduction by the author and activist Terry Tempest Williams and a new afterword by the acclaimed Rachel Carson biographer Linda Lear, who tells the story of Carson's courageous defense of her truths in the face of ruthless assault from the chemical industry in the year following the publication of Silent Spring and before her untimely death in 1964.

• ISBN-10: 0618249060
• ISBN-13: 9780618249060
• Release Year: 2002
• Publisher: Mariner Books

"Intelligent Design" is being taught in our schools; educators are being asked to "teach the controversy" behind evolutionary theory. There is no controversy. Dawkins sifts through rich layers of scientific evidence—from living examples of natural selection to clues in the fossil record; from natural clocks that mark the vast epochs wherein evolution ran its course to the intricacies of developing embryos; from plate tectonics to molecular genetics—to make the airtight case that "we find ourselves perched on one tiny twig in the midst of a blossoming and flourishing tree of life and it is no accident, but the direct consequence of evolution by non-random selection." His unjaded passion for the natural world turns what might have been a negative argument, exposing the absurdities of the creationist position, into a positive offering to the reader: nothing less than a master’s vision of life, in all its splendor.

Details

• Author: Richard Dawkins
• Publisher: Free Press
• Print Type: Paperback
• Page Count: 496 pages
• ISBN-13: 978-1416594796

Your personal astrophysicist takes you on a journey to the stars. Assuming only a very basic understanding of science and physics, Tyson presents topics such as the Big Bang, dark matter, electromagnetism and more. Want to learn more about the cosmos? You’ll find no better teacher.
--Levi S.

Try it if you like:
• Carl Sagan
• Seven Brief Lessons on Physics – Carlo Rovelli

It was Richard Feynman's outrageous and scintillating method of teaching that earned him legendary status among students and professors of physics.
From 1961 to 1963, Feynman delivered a series of lectures at the California Institute of Technology that revolutionized the teaching of physics around the world.
Six Easy Pieces, taken from these famous Lectures on Physics, represent the most accessible material from the series.

In these classic lessons, Feynman introduces the general reader to the following topics: atoms, basic physics, energy, gravitation, quantum mechanics, and the relationship of physics to other topics.
With his dazzling and inimitable wit, Feynman presents each discussion with a minimum of jargon.
Filled with wonderful examples and clever illustrations, Six Easy Pieces is the ideal introduction to the fundamentals of physics by one of the most admired and accessible physicists of modern times.

We are living through a period that is unique in human history. For the first time in more than ten thousand years, the rate of human population growth is slowing down. In the middle of this century population growth will stop, and the number of people on Earth will start to decline - fast. In this provocative book, award-winning science writer Henry Gee offers a concise, brilliantly-told history of our species--and argues that we are on a rapid, one-way trip to extinction. The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire narrates the dramatic rise of humanity. The human story is relatively brief—the oldest fossils of H. Sapiens date to approximately 300,000 years ago—yet the spread of our species has been unstoppable…until recently. As Gee demonstrates, our environment is becoming inimical to human life in many locations; our core resources of water, arable land, and air are diminishing; and new diseases, simmering conflicts, and ambiguous technologies threaten our collective health. Can we still change our course? Or is our own extinction inevitable? With assured narration, dramatic stories, and his signature sprightly humor, Henry Gee envisions new opportunities for the future of humanity—a future that will reward facing challenges with ingenuity, foresight, and cooperation.

Details

• Author: Henry Gee
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Print Type: Paperback
• Page Count: 288
• ISBN-13: 9781250325600

Instant #1 New York Times bestseller! • #1 Washington Post bestseller! • #1 Indie Bestseller! • USA Today Bestseller!

John Green, acclaimed author and passionate advocate for global healthcare reform, tells a deeply human story illuminating the fight against the world’s deadliest infectious disease. Signed edition

“The real magic of Green’s writing is the deeply considerate, human touch that goes into every word.” –The Associated Press

″Told with the intelligence, wit, and tragedy that have become hallmarks of the author’s work.... This is the story of us.” –Slate

“Earnest and empathetic.” –The New York Times

Tuberculosis has been entwined with humanity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is seen as a disease of poverty that walks the trails of injustice and inequity we blazed for it.

In 2019, author John Green met Henry Reider, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone. John became fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequities that allow this curable, preventable infectious disease to also be the deadliest, killing over a million people every year.

In Everything Is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world—and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.

Details:

• Author: John Green
• Publisher: Crash Course Books
• Publication date: March 18, 2025
• Print length: 208 pages
• Print type: Paperback
• ISBN: 978-0525556572

For two decades, Matt Kaplan has covered science for the Economist. He’s seen breakthroughs often occur in spite of, rather than because of, the behavior of the research community, and how support can be withheld for those who don’t conform or have the right connections. In this passionately argued and entertaining book, Kaplan narrates the history of the 19th century Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis, who realized that Childbed fever—a devastating infection that only struck women who had recently given birth—was spread by doctors not washing their hands. Semmelweis was met with overwhelming hostility by those offended at the notion that doctors were at fault, and is a prime example of how the scientific community often fights new ideas, even when the facts are staring them in the face.

In entertaining prose, Kaplan reveals scientific cases past and present to make his case. Some are familiar, like Galileo being threatened with torture and Nobel laureate Katalin Karikó being fired when on the brink of discovering how to wield mRNA–a finding that proved pivotal for the creation of the Covid-19 vaccine. Others less so, like researchers silenced for raising safety concerns about new drugs, and biologists ridiculed for revealing major flaws in the way rodent research is conducted. Kaplan shows how the scientific community can work faster and better by making reasonably small changes to the forces that shape it

Details

• Author: Matt Kaplan
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Print Type: Hardcover
• Page Count: 288
• ISBN-13: 9781250372277

An Instant New York Times Bestseller

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, comes a bold and inspiring vision for orienting our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, drawing wisdom from the natural world.

Join Indigenous scientist and author Robin Wall Kimmerer as she harvests serviceberries with the birds and contemplates the ethic of reciprocity inherent in the gift economy. She challenges us to consider how Indigenous wisdom and the plant world can reshape our understanding of value. Our current economy, built on scarcity, competition, and resource hoarding, has led us to prioritize a system that harms what we cherish. In contrast, the serviceberry's relationship with nature exemplifies reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree generously shares its sweet berries, meeting the needs of its ecosystem and ensuring its own survival. Kimmerer explains that "Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency."

Elizabeth Gilbert hails Robin Wall Kimmerer as “a great teacher, and her words are a hymn of love to the world.” The Serviceberry offers solace for our fractured relationships and misdirected ambitions, reminding us that “hoarding won’t save us, all flourishing is mutual.”

In a powerful act of reciprocity, Robin Wall Kimmerer is donating her advance payments from this book to support land protection, restoration, and justice.

Details

• Author: Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Publisher: Scribner; Illustrated edition (November 19, 2024)
• Page Count: 128 pages
• Print type: Hardcover
• ISBN: 978-1668072240

The Book of Birds is a field guide with a difference: It shows readers not just how to identify birds, but also how to identify with them. Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris conjure the unique spirit of nearly fifty once-common species: avocet to yellowhammer, kestrel to kingfisher, skylark to nightingale. In lyrical and incantatory essays, Macfarlane describes each bird's habits and habitats, their patterns of flight and patterns of song, how they hunt or fish or scavenge or gather, how they nest and raise their chicks, the myths that attend them, the threats that shadow them--and how their lives intersect with our own. On every page we encounter Morris's exhilarating artwork, painted from life in watercolor and gold leaf, and animated with an extraordinary attention to detail. The Book of Birds is a love letter to the thrilling variety and mysteries of birdlife, and a clarion call to halt the rapid depletion of our skies.

Details

• Author: Robert Macfarlane, Jackie Morris
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Print Type: Hardcover
• Page Count: 384
• ISBN-13: 9781324006848

Robert Macfarlane brings his glittering style to a profound work of travel writing, reportage, and natural history. Is a River Alive? is a joyful, mind-expanding exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagination and law.

Macfarlane takes readers on three unforgettable journeys teeming with extraordinary people, stories, and places: to the miraculous cloud-forests and mountain streams of Ecuador, to the wounded creeks and lagoons of India, and to the spectacular wild rivers of Canada--imperiled respectively by mining, pollution, and dams. Braiding these journeys is the life story of the fragile chalk stream a mile from Macfarlane's house, a stream who flows through his own years and days.

Powered by dazzling prose and lit throughout by other minds and voices, Is a River Alive? will open hearts, challenge perspectives, and remind us that our fate flows with that of rivers--and always has.

Details

• Author: Robert Macfarlane
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Print Type: Paperback
• Page Count: 384
• ISBN-13: 9781324130734

Our climate, and our democracy, are melting down. But Bill McKibben, one of the first to sound the alarm about the climate crisis, insists the moment is also full of possibility. Energy from the sun and wind is suddenly the cheapest power on the planet and growing faster than any energy source in history--if we can keep accelerating the pace, we have a chance.

Here Comes the Sun tells the story of the sudden spike in power from the sun and wind--and the desperate fight of the fossil fuel industry and their politicians to hold this new power at bay. From the everyday citizens who installed solar panels equal to a third of Pakistan's electric grid in a year to the world's sixth-largest economy--California--nearly halving its use of natural gas in the last two years, Bill McKibben traces the arrival of plentiful, inexpensive solar energy. And he shows how solar power is more than just a path out of the climate crisis: it is a chance to reorder the world on saner and more humane grounds. You can't hoard solar energy or hold it in reserves--it's available to all.

There's no guarantee we can make this change in time, but there is a hope--in McKibben's eyes, our best hope for a new civilization: one that looks up to the sun, every day, as the star that fuels our world.

Details

• Author: Bill McKibben
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Print Type: Paperback
• Page Count: 240 [pre-order; publisher-listed, verify upon publication]
• ISBN-13: 9781324130628

It is difficult to conceive of the vast scale of the history of life on Earth, from the very first living organisms sparking into life in hydrothermal deep-sea vents to the dizzying diversity of life today. The evolution of life is a sweeping epic of a tale, with twists and turns, surprising heroes and unlikely survivors.

The Earth beautifully distils this complex story into a meaningful scale. In taking a closer look at 47 carefully selected organisms over fifteen periods in our planetary history, this book tells the whole story of life on Earth, and the interconnectedness that unites us through our ecosystems and planetary history.

Details

• Author: Elsa Panciroli
• Publisher: Hachette Mobius
• Print Type: Paperback
• Page Count: 336
• ISBN-13: 9781529414011

How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don’t understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience, New Age thinking, and fundamentalist zealotry and the testable hypotheses of science?

Casting a wide net through history and culture, Pulitzer Prize–winning author and distinguished astronomer Carl Sagan argues that scientific thinking is critical not only to the pursuit of truth but to the very well-being of our democratic institutions.
He examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies as witchcraft, faith healings, demons, and UFOs.
And yet, disturbingly, in today’s so-called information age, pseudoscience is burgeoning, with stories of alien abduction, “channeling” past lives, and communal hallucinations commanding growing attention and respect.

As Sagan demonstrates with lucid eloquence, the siren song of unreason is not just a cultural wrong turn but a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens our most basic freedoms.

Take Me to Your Leader is the culmination of a lifetime of fascination, speculation, and the amassing of scientific data about the possibility of aliens visiting Earth. Drawing on a wealth of depictions from history, literature, pop culture, and film, Neil deGrasse Tyson applies the universal laws of physics to make the case for what aliens might look like, act like, how they might travel through the universe to reach us, and what they might think of us upon arrival. Should such an event occur, Tyson further offers useful etiquette tips for your first close encounter.

If you've ever wondered why there are so many UFO sightings, or whether aliens might already be among us, Tyson offers an informed perspective that is both factual and fun. A practical guide for dealing with alien visitors, an exploration of how first contact might happen, and a cultural history of our fascination with extraterrestrials—this is a tantalizing exploration of what would be the most mind-blowing experience of your life, for anyone who has ever wondered: Are we alone?

Details

• Author: Neil deGrasse Tyson
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Print Type: Hardcover
• Page Count: 240
• ISBN-13: 9781668249970

A luminous companion to the phenomenal bestseller Astrophysics for People in a Hurry.

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has attracted one of the world’s largest online followings with his fascinating, widely accessible insights into science and our universe. Now, Tyson invites us to go behind the scenes of his public fame by revealing his correspondence with people across the globe who have sought him out in search of answers. In this hand-picked collection of 101 letters, Tyson draws upon cosmic perspectives to address a vast array of questions about science, faith, philosophy, life, and of course, Pluto. His succinct, opinionated, passionate, and often funny responses reflect his popularity and standing as a leading educator.

Tyson’s 2017 bestseller Astrophysics for People in a Hurry offered more than one million readers an insightful and accessible understanding of the universe. Tyson’s most candid and heartfelt writing yet, Letters from an Astrophysicist introduces us to a newly personal dimension of Tyson’s quest to explore our place in the cosmos.

About The Author
Neil deGrasse Tyson was born in New York City the same week NASA was founded. His interest in the universe traces back to age 9, after a first visit to the Hayden Planetarium of the American Museum of Natural History. He was educated in the public schools of New York City through his graduation from the Bronx High School of Science. And after an BA in Physics from Harvard and a PhD in Astrophysics from Columbia and a Postdoctoral research fellowship at Princeton, Tyson became the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium, where he has served since 1996.

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Author: Neil deGrasse Tyson
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Publish Date: 2019
Page Count: 272
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 1324003316
ISBN-13: 978-1324003311

Why do similar beliefs in ghosts appear across cultures? How might our tendency to imitate one another contribute to the climate catastrophe? And could our deep evolutionary past explain the appeal of strongmen?

In 1987 Harvey Whitehouse went to live with an indigenous community deep in the Papua New Guinea rainforest. His experiences there convinced him that, far from being wildly different, humans are fundamentally alike: their beliefs and behaviors are rooted in a set of evolutionary biases that can be found in any society, anywhere.

In Inheritance, Whitehouse leads us across twelve millennia and five continents to uncover how these biases--conformism, religiosity, and tribalism--have both shaped and been reshaped by human history. Along the way, he shows that this ancient inheritance holds the key not just to explaining the modern world, but perhaps also to repairing it.

Details

• Author: Harvey Whitehouse
• Publisher: Belknap Press
• Print Type: Paperback
• Page Count: 368
• ISBN-13: 9780674304956