When the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957, thousands of ordinary people across the globe seized the opportunity to participate in the start of the Space Age. Known as the "Moonwatchers," these largely forgotten citizen-scientists helped professional astronomers by providing critical and otherwise unavailable information about the first satellites. In Keep Watching the Skies!, Patrick McCray tells the story of this network of pioneers who, fueled by civic pride and exhilarated by s...

The essential role that the oldest literary technology—books—played in making computers popular and pervasive.In README, historian Patrick McCray argues that in order for computers to become ubiquitous, people first had to become interested in them, learn about them, and take the machines seriously. A powerful catalyst for this transformation was, ironically, one of the oldest information technologies we have: books. The author uses a carefully chosen sele...

The creative collaborations of engineers, artists, scientists, and curators over the past fifty years.Artwork as opposed to experiment? Engineer versus artist? We often see two different cultural realms separated by impervious walls. But some fifty years ago, the borders between technology and art began to be breached. In this book, W. Patrick McCray shows how in this era, artists eagerly collaborated with engineers and scientists to explore new technologies and cr...

On the transformative role of greed in global science and technology during the 1980s.In the 1980s, a transformative era emerged where profit-driven motives and an entrepreneurial spirit dominated scientific research and technological innovation. This collection of essays, edited by Michael D. Gordin and W. Patrick McCray, examines how greed reshaped the global scientific community through the relentless pursuit of money, fame, and celebrity.Profiting off s...

Betty White: Golden Girl Goes Platinum traces the amazing life of the actor, writer, wit, and humanitarian who has also been Hollywood’s most enduring "it girl" for over sixty astounding years. From the earliest days of television to the cutting edge of Facebook and SNL, Betty always makes the scene!

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs arguably revolutionized how people work and communicate. Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey pioneered new ways to connect socially. Sergey Brin and Larry Page created a way to navigate the massive World Wide Web. Together, these men rise above the rest as icons in the world of technology, and their stories are as interesting as their work. Cover by famed artist George Amaru.

Jack Dorsey is the co-founder of Twitter, a social media platform like none other that allows users to have their voice broadcast to the masses, 140 characters at a time. With Twitter, Dorsey has managed bridge the social gaps that entrepreneurs have been trying to close for years; friends are connecting with far-away friends, companies are finally reaching their customers in a new and unique way, and celebrities are tweeting directly at their fans in every corner of the world. Learn about...

Did the Woodstock generation reject science—or re-create it? An "enthralling" study of a unique period in scientific history ( New Scientist).Our general image of the youth of the late 1960s and early 1970s is one of hostility to things like missiles and mainframes and plastics—and an enthusiasm for alternative spirituality and getting "back to nature." But this enlightening collection reveals that the stereotype is overly simplistic. In fact, there were d...

For the first time ever, one of Rock 'N' Roll Comics most acclaimed series is collected and back in print! The Elvis Presley Experience is both scholarly and dramatic in its graphic recreation of the King's remarkable life story. Though the series was among the best selling contemporary bio-graphic comics of the 1990s, the individual issues have been out of print for over ten years. This 200 page collection features art by future Marvel and DC star Aaron Sowd (Wolverine, Hawkman, Nightwing...

Freakonomics lived on the New York Times bestseller list for an astonishing two years. Now authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with more iconoclastic insights and observations in SuperFreakonomics—the long awaited follow-up to their New York Times Notable blockbuster. Based on revolutionary research and original studies, SuperFreakonomics promises to once again challenge our view of human behavior and the way the world real...

From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Inevitable— a sweeping vision oftechnology as a living force that can expand our individual potentialThis provocative book introduces a brand-new view of technology. It suggests that technology as a whole is not a jumble of wires and metal but a living, evolving organism that has its own unconscious needs and tendencies. Kevin Kelly looks out through the eyes of this global technological system ...

This insightful and brilliant analysis of ethics teaches readers valuable skills in evaluating tough choices and arriving at sound conclusions.“A thought-provoking guide to enlightened and progressive personal behavior.”—Jimmy CarterAn essential guide to ethical action updated for our challenging times, How Good People Make Tough Choices by Rushworth M. Kidder offers practical tools for ethical decision-making in the difficult moral dilemmas we face in our e...