The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves
Shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction 2011.
Life is on the up.
History of science
The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
Winner of the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books 2012, the world’s leading prize for popular science writing.
Extinction: Evolution and the End of Man
How long do humans have left on Earth? Using cutting-edge science that revolutionises our understanding of evolution, Michael Boulter explains how we may be closer to our own extinction than we imagined.
Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer
A new biography of Isaac Newton that reveals the extraordinary influence that the study of alchemy had on the greatest Early Modern scientific discoveries. In this ‘ground breaking biography’ Michael White destroys the myths of the life of Isaac Newton and reveals a portrait of the scientist as the last sorcerer.
Galileo’s Daughter: A Drama of Science, Faith and Love
From the international best-selling author of Longitude, Galileo’s Daughter is the fascinating story of the relationship between the great Italian scientist Galileo and his daughter, Virginia.
This Little Britain: How One Small Country Changed the Modern World
Celebratory, witty and incredibly insightful, Harry Bingham explores the eccentricities and customs of the British nation in a bid to answer a question which has everyone debating – Who are we?
The Dinosaur Hunters: A True Story of Scientific Rivalry and the Discovery of the Prehistoric World: Abridged edition
The story of two nineteenth-century scientists who revealed one of the most significant events in the natural history of this planet: the existence of dinosaurs.
To Father: The Letters of Sister Maria Celeste to Galileo, 1623–1633
The story of Galileo’s daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, as told through her letters to her father. A companion to the bestselling Galileo’s Daughter, the letters are edited and introduced by Dava Sobel.
The View From the Centre of the Universe: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos
A new, scientifically supported understanding of the universe, one that will forever change our personal relationship with the cosmos.
Isaac Newton
From one of the best writers on science, a portrait of Isaac Newton – the man who changed our understanding of the universe, of science, and of faith.
Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination and the Birth of a World
A narrative history of the men and women who have explored Mars and mapped its surface from afar, and in so doing conditioned our understanding of our nearest planetary neighbour.
Of Moths and Men: Intrigue, Tragedy and the Peppered Moth
The tale of a flagrant scientific fraud and its cover-up, and scientific incompetence behind the most important paradigm in evolutionary biology: Charles Darwin’s ‘Theory of Evolution’.
A Computer Called LEO: Lyons Tea Shops and the world’s first office computer
The eccentric story of one of the most bizarre marriages in the history of British business: the invention of the world’s first office computer and the Lyons Teashop.
Fingerprints: Murder and the Race to Uncover the Science of Identity
A fascinating exploration into the history of science and crime. In the tradition of ‘Fermat’s Last Theorem’, FINGERPRINTS is the story of the race to discover the secrets trapped in the whorls and arches found on the palm of one’s hand.
The Code Book: The Secret History of Codes and Code-breaking
The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
From the best-selling author of Fermat’s Last Theorem, The Code Book is a history of man’s urge to uncover the secrets of codes, from Egyptian puzzles to modern day computer encryptions.
Fingerprints: Murder and the Race to Uncover the Science of Identity
The extraordinary true story of the development of the science of identity and the history of fingerprint detection.