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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorThe Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York
Deborah Blum · 327 pages
The untold story of how poison rocked Jazz Age New York City. A pair of forensic scientists began their trailblazing chemical detective work, fighting to end an era when untraceable poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime. Chief medical examiner Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler investigate a family mysteriously stricken bald, factory workers with crumbling bones, a diner
The 13th Element: The Sordid Tale of Murder, Fire and Phosphorus
John Emsley · 327 pages
It was discovered by alchemists, prescribed by apothecaries, exploited by the industrialists of the nineteenth century, and abused by the combatants of the twentieth century. It can be found in many things that have improved our everyday life, from toothpaste to detergents to food additives. For more than 300 years, phosphorus--one of nature's deadliest creations--has continued to fascinate us wit
Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
Amy Stewart · 235 pages
A tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war. In Wicked Plants, Stewart takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature's most appalling creations. It's an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend. You'll learn which plants to avoid (like exploding shrubs), wh
The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery
D.T. Max · 336 pages
The Science of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials
Mary Gribbin, John Gribbin · 224 pages
Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures
Virginia Morell · 291 pages
This book explores the frontiers of research on animal cognition and emotion, offering a surprising examination into the hearts and minds of wild and domesticated animals. Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a fish? Or a parrot, dolphin, or an elephant? Do they experience thoughts that are similar to ours, or have feelings of grief and love? These are tough questions, but scientists are
The Where, the Why, and the How: 75 Artists Illustrate Wondrous Mysteries of Science
Matt LaMothe, Julia Rothman, Jenny Volvovski · 160 pages
A science book like no other, The Where, the Why, and the How turns loose 75 of today's hottest artists onto life's vast questions, from how we got here to where we are going.
Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman
James Gleick · 532 pages
A gem of a book, about the life and mind of one of the most influential and iconoclastic characters in 20th century physics. Really a pleasure to read.
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge
Edward O. Wilson · 375 pages
"In this new book, the American biologist Edward O. Wilson argues for the fundamental unity of all knowledge and the need to search for consilience - the proof that everything in our world is organized in terms of a small number of fundamental natural laws that comprise the principles underlying every branch of learning." "Professor Wilson shows how and why our explosive rise in intellectual maste
Microbe Hunters
Paul de Kruif · 363 pages
Paul de Kruif’s classic account of the first scientists to see and learn about the microscopic world continues to fascinate new readers. This is a timeless dramatization of the scientists, bacteriologists, doctors, and medical technicians who discovered the microbes and invented the vaccines to counter them. De Kruif writes about how seemingly simple but really fundamental discovers of science—for
A Natural History of Love
Diane Ackerman · 358 pages
Following the triumphant success of her A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman has turned her formidable gifts to that greatest gift of all - the elusive, eternal, and endlessly interesting matter of love. The result is pure Ackerman: a splendid, serious, scientific, poetic, playful, and lyrical "tour d'horizon" of love's many forms and faces. Ackerman draws on a variety of sources, both
Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor
Herve This · 377 pages
**Publishers notes:** "An international sensation, Molecular Gastronomy debunks a variety of time-honoured rules and dictums about cooking, but also presents new knowledge from which readers can improve the preparation of a variety of dishes."
Smoking Ears and Screaming Teeth
Trevor Norton · 288 pages
Virus X: Tracking the New Killer Plagues
Frank Ryan · 448 pages
Dr. Frank Ryan takes us into the "hot zones" of today's most dangerous outbreaks, then into the research laboratories and hospitals, where he spotlights the scientists and doctors who are risking their lives to contain them. In telling this global story, he uncovers a frightening pattern - and concludes that new, deadlier diseases are even now waiting to emerge. Why do such plagues arise? Where do
Conversations with Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan, Tom Head · 167 pages
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded
Simon Winchester · 432 pages
The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist
Richard Feynman · 133 pages
In April 1963, Richard P. Feynman gave a series of remarkable lectures at the University of Washington in Seattle. These three consecutive talks were classic Feynman - full of wit and wisdom - but their subject matter was wholly unexpected: Feynman spoke not as a physicist but as a concerned fellow citizen, revealing his uncommon insights into the religious, political, and social issues of the day
Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
Charles Petzold · 393 pages
What do flashlights, the British invasion, black cats, and seesaws have to do with computers? In CODE, they show us the ingenious ways we manipulate language and invent new means of communicating with each other. And through CODE, we see how this ingenuity and our very human compulsion to communicate have driven the technological innovations of the past two centuries. Using everyday objects an
Woman: An Intimate Geography
Natalie Angier · 407 pages
Natalie Angier lifts the veil of secrecy from that most enigmatic of evolutionary masterpieces, the female body, exploring the essence of what it means to be a woman. Angier takes on everything from organs (breasts "are funny things, really, and we should learn to laugh at them") to orgasm (happily for women, the clitoris has 8,000 nerve fibers, twice the number in the penis). Also delving into t
My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs
Brian Switek · 264 pages
Dry Store Room No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum
Richard Fortey · 335 pages
A remarkable behind-the-scenes look at the extraordinary people, meticulous research, and driving passions that make London's Natural History Museum one of the world's greatest institutions.In an elegant and illuminating narrative, Richard Fortey takes his readers to a place where only a few privileged scientists, curators, and research specialists have been--the hallowed halls that hold the perma
The Next Fifty Years: Science in the First Half of the Twenty-First Century
John Brockman · 310 pages
The End of Science: Facing the Limits of Knowledge in the Twilight of the Scientific Age
John Horgan · 368 pages