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Erik Larson is a regular contributor to national magazines including Time, The Atlantic, and Harper's. Filled with images as powerful as the hurricane it describes, Isaac's Storm immediately swept onto best-seller lists across the country. In 1900, Isaac Monroe Cline was in charge of the Galveston station of the U.S. Weather Bureau. He was a knowledgeable, seasoned weatherman who considered himself a scientist. When he heard the deep thudding of waves on Galveston's beach in the early morning of September 8th, however, Cline refused to be alarmed.

Simon Head argues that these systems have come to trump human expertise, dictating the goals and strategies of a wide array of businesses, and de-skilling the jobs of middle class workers in the process.

One of our most brilliant social critics-- author of the bestselling The Middle Mind-- presents a scathing critique of the " delusions" of science alongside a rousing defense of the tradition of Romanticism and the " big" questions.

Have you ever wondered what makes popcorn pop' One second a kernel is sitting there, tiny and hard as a rock. Next thing you know, it bursts into a fluffy and delicious snack. If you're curious about this or any of the other mysteries surrounding us every day, then What Makes Popcorn Pop' is the book for you.

Few activities grip our attention more than animal watching. Dolphins and seals bring us much joy, and sharks and alligators hold us in awe. But animals can also prompt a variety of fascinating questions.

What if Newton had never lived' A compelling dual biography argues that Robert Hooke and Edmond Halley easily could have filled the giant's shoes-and deserve credit for the birth of modern science. Robert Hooke and Edmond Halley, whose place in history has been overshadowed by the giant figure of Newton, were pioneering scientists within their own right, and instrumental in establishing the Royal Society.

An underwater exploration that overturns myths about fishes and reveals their complex lives, from tool use to social behavior There are more than thirty thousand species of fish--more than all mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians combined. But for all their breathtaking diversity and beauty, we rarely consider how fish think, feel, and behave. In What a Fish Knows, the ethologist Jonathan Balcombe takes us under the sea and to the other side of the aquarium glass to reveal what fishes can do, how they do it, and why.

Professor Stephen Hawking is one of the most famous and remarkable scientists of our age and the author of the scientific bestseller A Brief History of Time, which has sold more than 25 million copies. In this compelling memoir, his first wife, Jane Hawking, relates the inside story of their extraordinary marriage. As Stephen's academic renown soared, his body was collapsing under the assaults of a motor neuron disease.

Elementary school teacher and author Cathryn Sill accurately answers the first questions of young naturalists by explaining what mammals are, how they live, and what they do.