For fans of accessible and fun popular science comes an exploration of evolution’s quirkiest puzzles and most enduring mysteries.Why do cats live longer than dogs? Why do bees have yellow stripes? Why can we smell a skunk from a mile away? Such questions can be seen as puzzles about creatures' evolved traits. Besides triggering our curiosity, they focus our attention on beguiling designs that have been millions of years in the making. Indeed, looking at the living ...

An award-winning science writer introduces us to mathematics using the extraordinary equation that unites five of mathematics' most important numbersBertrand Russell wrote that mathematics can exalt "as surely as poetry." This is especially true of one equation: ei(pi) + 1 = 0, the brainchild of Leonhard Euler, the Mozart of mathematics. More than two centuries after Euler's death, it is still regarded as a conceptual diamond of unsurpassed beauty. Called Euler's i...

In a world where the quest for eternal youth seems unattainable, David Stipp offers a captivating exploration into the scientific battle against aging.Even before the first person set off to find the Fountain of Youth, we were searching for a way to live longer. But promises of life extension have long reeked of snake oil, and despite our wishful thinking—not to mention the number of vitamins we pop—few of us believe we’ll live to see one hundred, much less set a l...

For fans of accessible and fun popular science comes an exploration of evolution’s quirkiest puzzles and most enduring mysteries.Why do cats live longer than dogs? Why do bees have yellow stripes? Why can we smell a skunk from a mile away? Such questions can be seen as puzzles about creatures' evolved traits. Besides triggering our curiosity, they focus our attention on beguiling designs that have been millions of years in the making. Indeed, looking at the living ...

Bertrand Russell wrote that mathematics can exalt "as surely as poetry." This is especially true of one equation: ei(pi) + 1 = 0, the brainchild of Leonhard Euler, the Mozart of mathematics. More than two centuries after Euler's death, it is still regarded as a conceptual diamond of unsurpassed beauty. Called Euler's identity or God's equation, it includes just five numbers but represents an astonishing revelation of hidden connections. It ties together everything from basic arithmetic to ...

Students and research workers in mathematics, physics, engineering and other sciences will find this compilation invaluable. All the information included is practical, rarely used results are excluded. Great care has been taken to present all results concisely and clearly. Excellent to keep as a handy reference! If you don't have a lot of time but want to excel in class, this book helps you: Brush up before tests Find answers fast Learn key formulas and tables Study quickly and more effect...

'Why is there a world rather than nothing at all?' remains the most curious and most enduring of all metaphysical mysteries. Moving away from the narrower paths of Christopher Hitchens, Roger Penrose and Stephen Hawking, the celebrated essayist Jim Holt now enters this fascinating debate with his broad, lively and deeply informed narrative that traces all our efforts to grasp the origins of the universe.With sly humour and a highly original personal approach Holt takes on the role ...

New York Times BestsellerNew York Times Notable Book of 2016 • NPR Great Read of 2016 • Named a Best Book of 2016 by The Economist, Smithsonian, NPR's Science Friday, MPR, Minnesota Star Tribune, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, The Guardian, Times (London)From Pulitzer Prize winner Ed Yong, a groundbreaking,...

The aim of this book is to explain, carefully but not technically, the differences between advanced, research-level mathematics, and the sort of mathematics we learn at school. The most fundamental differences are philosophical, and readers of this book will emerge with a clearer understanding of paradoxical-sounding concepts such as infinity, curved space, and imaginary numbers. The first few chapters are about general aspects of mathematical thought. These are followed by discussions of ...

This New York Times bestselling book—coauthored by a Nobel Prize Winner and a health psychologist—explores the aging process and how specific lifestyle changes related to telomeres can increase longevity.Have you wondered why some sixty-year-olds look and feel like forty-year-olds and why some forty-year-olds look and feel like sixty-year-olds? While many factors contribute to aging and illness, Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn discovered a biological indicator cal...

The authors of the New York Times bestseller Super Brain present a bold new understanding of our genes and how simple changes in lifestyle can boost genetic activity. The leap into "radical well-being" is a promise waiting to be fulfilled."You are not simply the sum total of the genes you were born with," writes Deepak Chopra and Rudy Tanzi. "You are the user and controller of you...

The updated new edition of the classic and comprehensive guide to the history of mathematicsFor more than forty years, A History of Mathematics has been the reference of choice for those looking to learn about the fascinating history of humankind’s relationship with numbers, shapes, and patterns. This revised edition features up-to-date coverage of topics such as Fermat’s Last Theorem and the Poincaré Conjecture*,* in addition to recent advances in areas s...