In this pioneering book Rupert Sheldrake shows how science helps validate seven practices on which all religions are built, and which are part of our common human heritage: * Meditation * Gratitude * Connecting with nature * Relating to plants * Rituals * Singing and chanting * Pilgrimage and holy places. The effects of spiritual practices are now being investigated scientifically as never before, and many studies have shown that religious and spiritual practices generally make people happier and healthier. Rupert Sheldrake summarizes the latest scientific research on what happens when we take part in these practices, and suggests ways that readers can explore these fields for themselves. For those who are religious, Science and Spiritual Practices will illuminate the evolutionary origins of their own traditions and give a new appreciation of their power. For the non-religious, this book will show how the core practices of spirituality are accessible to all, even if they do not subscribe to a religious belief system. This is a book for anyone who suspects that in the drive towards radical secularism, something valuable has been left behind. Rupert Sheldrake believes that by opening ourselves to the spiritual dimension we may find the strength to live more wholesome and fulfilling lives.

Reproduction is among the most basic of human biological functions, both for our distant ancestors and for ourselves, whether we live on the plains of Africa or in North American suburbs. Our reproductive biology unites us as a species, but it has also been an important engine of our evolution. In the way our bodies function today we can see both the imprint of our formative past and implications for our future. It is the infinitely subtle and endlessly dramatic story of human reproduction and its evolutionary context that Peter T. Ellison tells in "On Fertile Ground,"

Ranging from the latest achievements of modern fertility clinics to the lives of subsistence farmers in the rain forests of Africa, this book offers both a remarkably broad and a minutely detailed exploration of human reproduction. Ellison, a leading pioneer in the field, combines the perspectives of anthropology, stressing the range and variation of human experience; ecology, sensitive to the two-way interactions between humans and their environments; and evolutionary biology, emphasizing a functional understanding of human reproductive biology and its role in our evolutionary history.

Whether contrasting female athletes missing their periods and male athletes using anabolic steroids with Polish farm women and hunter-gatherers in Paraguay, or exploring the intricate choreography of an implanting embryo or of a nursing mother and her child, "On Fertile Ground" advances a rich and deeply satisfying explanation of the mechanisms by which we reproduce and the evolutionary forces behind their design.

**The First Ever Maths Book to be a No.1 Bestseller** 'Wonderful ... superb' Daily Mail What makes a bridge wobble when it's not meant to? Billions of dollars mysteriously vanish into thin air? A building rock when its resonant frequency matches a gym class leaping to Snap's 1990 hit I've Got The Power? The answer is maths. Or, to be precise, what happens when maths goes wrong in the real world. As Matt Parker shows us, our modern lives are built on maths: computer programmes, finance, engineering. And most of the time this maths works quietly behind the scenes, until ... it doesn't. Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near-misses and mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman empire and a hapless Olympic shooting team, Matt Parker shows us the bizarre ways maths trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world. Mathematics doesn't have good 'people skills', but we would all be better off, he argues, if we saw it as a practical ally. This book shows how, by making maths our friend, we can learn from its pitfalls. It also contains puzzles, challenges, geometric socks, jokes about binary code and three deliberate mistakes. Getting it wrong has never been more fun.

'Thrilling, provocative and mind-expanding' Mail on Sunday 'Masterful and illuminating' DAVID EAGLEMAN Dr Joseph Jebelli takes us on a seven-million-year journey through our own heads, drawing on insights from neuroscience, evolutionary biology, psychology, and philosophyto reveal how our brain's evolution turned us into Homo sapiens and beyond. Discover how memory has almost nothing to do with the past; magic mushroom use might be responsible for our intelligence; and how autism teaches us hugely positive lessons about our past and future. A single mutation is all it takes. 'Written with aplomb and an eye for arresting asides . . . This is an accessible and thought-provoking book' The Times

The Untold Story of Everything Digital: Bright Boys, Revisited celebrates the 70th anniversary (1949-2019) of the world "going digital" for the very first time-real-time digital computing's genesis story. That genesis story is taken from the 2010 edition of Bright Boys: The Making of Information Technology, 1938-1958, and substantially expanded upon for this special, anniversary edition. Please join us for the incredible adventure that is The Untold Story of Everything Digital, when a band of misfit engineers, led by MIT's Jay Forrester and Bob Everett, birthed the digital revolution. The bright boys were the first to imagine an electronic landscape of computing machines and digital networks, and the first to blaze its high-tech trails.

'If you've ever wondered why we keep secrets and what motivates us to spill them, look no further' Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again An eye-opening look at why we keep the secrets we keep, how to better understand and cope with them, and when (and how) we should bring them to light. Think of a secret that you're keeping from others. It shouldn't take long. Psychologist Michael Slepian finds that, on average, we are keeping as many as thirteen secrets at any given time. His research, involving more than 50,000 participants from around the world, shows that we most frequently keep secrets about lies we've told, ambitions, addictions, mental health challenges, hidden relationships and financial struggles. Our secrets can weigh heavily upon us. Yet the burden of secrecy rarely stems from the work it takes to keep a secret hidden. Rather, the weight of our secrets comes from carrying them alone. Whether we are motivated to protect our reputation, a relationship, a loved one's feelings, or some personal or professional goal, one thing is clear: holding back some part of our inner world is often lonely and isolating. But it doesn't have to be. Filled with fresh insight into one of the most universal - yet least understood - aspects of human behaviour, The Secret Life of Secrets sheds fascinating new light on questions like: At what age do children develop the cognitive capacity for secrecy? Do all secrets come with the same mental load? How can we reconcile our secrets with our human desires to relate, connect and be known? When should we confess and to whom? And can keeping certain types of secrets actually enhance our well-being? Drawing on over a decade of original research, this book reveals the surprising ways in which secrets pervade our lives, and offers science-based strategies that make them easier to live with. The result is a rare window into the inner workings of our minds, our relationships and our sense of who we are.

'A lively study of the Big C, which makes the case that cancer is the price we pay for our marvellously complicated bodies.' The Times, best books of 2020 'This book is packed with big ideas about life. Every chapter has something in it which made me think wow. Having worked in a major cancer charity for many years, Arney writes with genuine in-depth understanding and is a perfect guide.' Daniel M. Davis, author of The Beautiful Cure 'Rebel Cell is a bright, engaging read, fizzing with energy and metaphor. Kat Arney is a science writer for all of us - a powerful and talented story teller.' Stephen McGann 'Kat's book is Dynamite. A crystal clear reappraisal of the story behind that word we fear to mention.' Dallas Campbell, author of Ad Astra: An Illustrated Guide to Leaving the Planet Cancer has always been with us. It killed our hominid ancestors, the mammals they evolved from and the dinosaurs that trampled the ground before that. Tumours grow in pets, livestock and wild animals. Even tiny jelly-like Hydra - creatures that are little more than a tube full of water - can get cancer. Paradoxically, many of us think of cancer as a contemporary killer, a disease of our own making caused by our modern lifestyles. But that's not true. Although it might be rare in many species, cancer is the enemy lurking within almost every living creature. Why? Because cancer is a bug in the system of life. We get cancer because we can't not get it. Cancer starts when cells revolt, throwing off their molecular shackles, and growing and dividing out of control in a shambolic mockery of normal life. This is why we can't avoid cancer: because the very genes that drive it are essential for life itself. The revolution has raged, on and off, for millions of years. But it was only in the twentieth century that doctors and scientists made any significant progress in understanding and treating cancer, and it's only in the past few decades that we've finally begun to kick the mob's malignant arse. Now the game is changing. Scientists have infiltrated cancer's cellular rebellion and are finally learning its secrets. Geneticist and science writer Kat Arney takes the reader back to the dawn of life on planet earth right up to the present day to get to the heart of what cancer really is and how by better understanding it we might one day overcome it.

In our daily lives, in our memories and fantasies, our mental worlds overflow with faces. But what do we really know about this most remarkable feature of the human body? Why do we have faces at all, and brains that are good at reading them? What do our looks say - and not say - about our personalities?
And perhaps the most compelling question of all: Why are we attracted to some faces more than others? 'In Your Face' is an engaging and authoritative tour of the science of facial beauty and face perception.
David Perrett, the pre-eminent scholar in the field, reveals and interprets the most remarkable findings and in the process demolishes many popular myths, setting the record straight on what neuroscience and evolutionary psychology are teaching us about beauty. The record is more surprising and often more unsettling than you might think.

The Cenozoic era began about 70 million years ago and still continues. In British Cenozoic Fossils 354 species from this period are classified and illustrated with accurate line drawings. This new edition has been fully revised and updated by John Todd, Curator of Molluscs in the Natural History Museum's Life Sciences Department, reflecting advances in our understanding of the fossil record over the past years. The book's 88-page identification section features those fossil animal and plant species that are most commonly found in Britain, from early plants, corals and fishes to gastropod and bivalve molluscs and the remains of mammals which lived in Britain during the Ice Ages. Each of the species is illustrated with at least one drawing, which is accompanied by details of where it can be found. There is a brief introduction to the subject, stratigraphical tables that show British Cenozoic rock formations, and a colour map of the distribution of Cenozoic strata.

The epic, page-turning history of how a group of physicists toppled the Newtonian universe in the early decades of the twentieth century. Marie Curie, Max Planck, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schroedinger, and Albert Einstein didn't only revolutionise physics; they redefined our world and the reality we live in. In The Age of Uncertainty, Tobias Hurter brings to life the golden age of physics and its dazzling, flawed, and unforgettable heroes and heroines. The work of the twentieth century's most important physicists produced scientific breakthroughs that led to an entirely new view of physics - and a view of the universe that is still not fully understood today, even as evidence for its accuracy is all around us. The men and women who made these discoveries were intellectual adventurers, renegades, dandies, and nerds, some bound together by deep friendship; others, by bitter enmity. But the age of relativity theory and quantum mechanics was also the age of wars and revolutions. The discovery of radioactivity transformed science, but also led to the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Throughout The Age of Uncertainty, Hurter reminds us about the entanglement of science and world events, for we cannot observe the world without changing it.

'What I like best about this fascinating book is the detail. Brian Butterworth doesn't just tell us stories of animals with numerical abilities: he tells us about the underlying science. Elegantly written and a joy to read' - Professor Ian Stewart, author of What's the Use? and Taming the Infinite 'Full of thought-provoking studies and animal observations' - Booklist 'Enlightening and entertaining' - Publishers Weekly The Hidden Genius of Animals: Every pet owner thinks their own dog, cat, fish or hamster is a genius. What makes CAN FISH COUNT? so exciting is the way it unveils just how widespread intelligence is in nature. Pioneering psychologist Brian Butterworth describes the extraordinary numerical feats of all manner of species ranging from primates and mammals to birds, reptiles, fish and insects. Whether it's lions deciding to fight or flee, frogs competing for mates, bees navigating their way to food sources, fish assessing which shoal to join, or jackdaws counting friends when joining a mob - every species shares an ability to count. Homo Sapiens may think maths is our exclusive domain, but this book shows that every creature shares a deep-seated Darwinian ability to understand the intrinsic language of our universe: mathematics CAN FISH COUNT? is that special sort of science book - a global authority in his field writing an anecdotally-rich and revelatory narrative which changes the way you perceive something we take for granted.

Vaccines are a debate, whether we want them to be or not. With a clear-eyed approach to their science and history, HOW VACCINES WORK demystifies the strange and intricate world of vaccines: it explains what a vaccine is, how they are developed and what happens when they meet our bodies. David Miles has worked in immunology - as a scientist, teacher and communicator - for two decades. Taking his expert understanding of the field and the questions he is asked by ordinary people, HOW VACCINES WORK combines a field guide to the vaccines we currently receive with the historical background to their development, along with thrilling storytelling and comprehensive, reassuring debunking of the most common vaccination myths.

Discover and understand the key ideas that underpin the core science of chemistry and learn about the great minds who uncovered them Written in plain English, The Chemistry Book is packed with short, pithy explanations of some of the most historic moments in science, from the birth of atomic theory to the discovery of polyethylene and the development of new vaccine technologies to combat COVID-19. Simple graphics, such as flowcharts and mind maps, support the text and make the explanation of key concepts easy to follow. Arranged in chronological order, the book covers key themes in the physical and natural sciences, such as geochemistry and the elements. Within each chapter, a series of articles traces the history of scientific thought and introduces the work of the scientists who have shaped the subject such as John Dalton, Marie Curie, Dmitri Mendeleev, Kathleen Lonsdale, and Stephanie Kwolek. Along the way, the book addresses some of the most fundamental questions in science, such as what is the universe made of, how is matter created, and what are the chemical bonds that make life possible? Whether you are new to chemistry, a student of the sciences, or just want to keep up with and understand the latest news and scientific debates, The Chemistry Book is for you.

AN INTRIGUING AND BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF YORICK WILKS' INSIDERS GUIDE TO AI The benefits and potential nightmares of artificial intelligence have long inspired science-fiction writers, but in a world where most of us carry a portable device that knows infinitely more than we do, these are increasingly real concerns. Artificial Intelligence is the essential companion to this unsettling science. It surveys the history, philosophies, and current state of AI, and asks key questions such as how should robots think, and can machines really learn? With subjects ranging from the World Wide Web to artificial companions, the book considers such ethical issues as automated warfare, internet surveillance, and fake news, speculating on just how far robots will infiltrate our future. This illustrated edition combines compelling photographs with 'circuit-board' infographics to lift the curtain on the hidden world of AI.

Die Vielfalt der VogelgesAnge ist erstaunlich und aus Asthetischer wie auch aus wissenschaftlicher Sicht ein groAes RAtsel. Noch immer verstehen Evolutionsbiologen nicht, warum der Vogelgesang derart einfallsreich ist und warum zahlreiche Vogelarten so viele Stunden mit Singen zubringen. Die gewAhnlich vorgebrachten ErklArungen a " Revierverteidigung und Anlockung von Geschlechtspartnern a " kAnnen die Vielfalt und Energie, die viele der uns vertrauten VAgel an den Tag legen, nicht im Ansatz erklAren. Singen VAgel mAglicherweise, weil es ihnen gefAllt? Diese scheinbar naive ErklArung kristallisiert sich immer mehr als die Wahrheit heraus. Warum VAgel singen geht dem Vogelgesang einfA1/4hlsam auf den Grund a " ganz in der Tradition der klassischen Werke etwa von Bernd Heinrich a " und vereint neueste wissenschaftliche Forschungsergebnisse mit einem profunden VerstAndnis von SchAnheit und Form in der Musik. GestA1/4tzt auf GesprAche mit Neurowissenschaftlern, A-kologen und Komponisten geht der Autor der schwer zu beantwortenden Frage nach, warum VAgel singen, in welcher Weise sie es tun und was ihre GesAnge fA1/4r Artgenossen und fA1/4r andere Arten a " insbesondere fA1/4r den Menschen a " bedeuten. David Rothenberg taucht stets vAllig in Herz und Seele des Vogelgesangs ein a " ob er nun in Pittsburgh mit seiner Klarinette den WeiAhauben-HAherling begleitet oder in den australischen Winterquartieren eine Jam-Session mit dem BraunrA1/4cken-Leierschwanz abhAlt. Er schreibt als Naturkundler, Philosoph, Musiker und Forscher und liefert mit seinen intimen Schilderungen des anrA1/4hrendsten aller Naturerlebnisse brillante Einblicke in ein PhAnomen, das uns zugleich vertraut und doch zutiefst fremd ist. "Info-Text zum englischen Original: " The astonishing variety and richness of bird song is both an aesthetic and a scientific mystery. Biologists have never been able to understand why bird song displays are often so inventive and why so many species devote so many hours to singing. The standard explanations, which generally have to do with territoriality and sexual display, dona (TM)t begin to account for the astonishing variety and energy that the commonest birds exhibit. Is it possible that birds sing because they like to? This seemingly naAve explanation is starting to look more and more like the truth. In the tradition of classic works by Bernd Heinrich, Edward Abbey, and Terry Tempest Williams, Why Birds Sing is a lyric exploration of bird song that blends the latest scientific research with a deep understanding of musical beauty and form. Based on conversations with neuroscientists, ecologists, and composers, it is the first book to investigate why birds sing and how, and what effect their music has on other animals - particularly humans. Whether playing the clarinet with the white-crested laughing thrush in Pittsburgh, or jamming in the Australian winter breeding grounds of the Albert's lyrebird, Rothenberg journeys to the heart and soul of bird song. Why Birds Sing offers an intimate look at the most lovely of natural phenomena - with surprising insights about the origin of music.

Few things are as fundamental to human happiness as sex, and few writers are as entertaining about the subject as Mary Roach. Can a woman think herself to orgasm? Is your penis three inches longer than you think? Why doesn't Viagra help women - or, for that matter, pandas? Does orgasm boost fertility? Or cure hiccups? The study of sexual physiology - what happens, and why, and how to make it happen better - has been taking place behind closed doors for hundreds of years. In this fascinating and funny book, Mary Roach steps inside laboratories, brothels, pig farms, sex-toy R&D labs - even Alfred Kinsey's attic - to tell us everything we wanted to know about sex, and more we'd never even thought to ask.

This is the second volume of a two-volume work that traces the development of series and products from 1380 to 2000 by presenting and explaining the interconnected concepts and results of hundreds of unsung as well as celebrated mathematicians. Some chapters deal with the work of primarily one mathematician on a pivotal topic, and other chapters chronicle the progress over time of a given topic. This updated second edition of Sources in the Development of Mathematics adds extensive context, detail, and primary source material, with many sections rewritten to more clearly reveal the significance of key developments and arguments. Volume 1, accessible even to advanced undergraduate students, discusses the development of the methods in series and products that do not employ complex analytic methods or sophisticated machinery. Volume 2 examines more recent results, including deBranges' resolution of Bieberbach's conjecture and Nevanlinna's theory of meromorphic functions.

This is the first volume of a two-volume work that traces the development of series and products from 1380 to 2000 by presenting and explaining the interconnected concepts and results of hundreds of unsung as well as celebrated mathematicians. Some chapters deal with the work of primarily one mathematician on a pivotal topic, and other chapters chronicle the progress over time of a given topic. This updated second edition of Sources in the Development of Mathematics adds extensive context, detail, and primary source material, with many sections rewritten to more clearly reveal the significance of key developments and arguments. Volume 1, accessible to even advanced undergraduate students, discusses the development of the methods in series and products that do not employ complex analytic methods or sophisticated machinery. Volume 2 treats more recent work, including deBranges' solution of Bieberbach's conjecture, and requires more advanced mathematical knowledge.

This is a physics book like you've never seen before: accessible and fun - perfect for anyone, young or old, who has a healthy dose of curiosity. How can you tell where a sound is coming from? What is the human energy equivalent of a vacuum cleaner? How does GPS work? Why do eggs explode in the microwave? Is there a vacuum inside double-glazed windows Can you get less wet by cycling faster? Hundreds of full-colour photos and diagrams make the explanations super easy to follow. There are lots of home experiments, too, most of which can be done using simple items from the kitchen. For example, by using a glass full of water, a few drops of milk and a torch, you can show why the sky is blue and why the setting sun is red. If you want to dig a bit deeper, there are extra resources in the shaded boxes throughout. You can read Everyday Physics in whatever order you want, dipping in and out of the different sections. Based on Herman's Everyday physics lecture series, it combines deep physical insights with back-of-the-envelope calculations, relating abstract physics concepts to the real world, often in a surprising way. It's perfect for all ages: parents, grandparents, college students and anyone with a healthy interest in the world around them. This book will bring the magic of physics to your everyday life. Once you discover the beauty of science, ordinary things will become extraordinary.

We live in the age of the individual. We are supposed to be slim, prosperous, happy, extroverted and popular. This is our culture’s image of the perfect self. We see this person everywhere: in advertising, in the press, all over social media. We’re told that to be this person you just have to follow your dreams, that our potential is limitless, that we are the source of our own success.

But this model of the perfect self can be extremely dangerous. People are suffering under the torture of this impossible fantasy. Unprecedented social pressure is leading to increases in depression and suicide. Where does this ideal come from? Why is it so powerful? Is there any way to break its spell?

To answer these questions, Selfie by Will Storr takes us from the shores of Ancient Greece, through the Christian Middle Ages, to the self-esteem evangelists of 1980s California, the rise of narcissism and the selfie generation, and right up to the era of hyper-individualistic neoliberalism in which we live now.

It tells the extraordinary story of the person we all know so intimately – our self.

As featured on Russell Brand's Under The Skin podcast.

From the world's foremost neuroscientist of romantic love comes a personal story of connection and heartbreak that brings new understanding to an old truth: it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. At thirty-seven, Dr. Stephanie Cacioppo was content to be single. She was fulfilled by her work on the neuroscience of romantic love; how finding and growing with a partner literally reshapes our brains. That was, until she met the foremost neuroscientist of loneliness. A whirlwind romance led to marriage, to sharing an office at the University of Chicago. After seven years of being inseparable at work and home, she lost her beloved husband following a devastating battle with cancer. In Wired for Love, Dr. Stephanie Cacioppo tells not just a science story, but also a love story. She shares revelatory insights into how we fall in love, and why; what makes love last; and how we process love lost - all grounded in cutting-edge findings in brain chemistry and behavioural science. Woven through it all is her moving personal story, from astonishment, to unbreakable bond, to grief and healing. Her experience and her work enrich each other, creating a singular blend of science and lyricism that's essential reading for anyone looking for connection.

Wir trAumen vom NA1/4rnberger Trichter, der uns Lernen ohne MA1/4he verheiAt, uns alles eintrichtert, was wir hAren. Aber es gibt diesen Trichter nicht. Wir brauchen ihn auch nicht, denn unser Gehirn lernt immer, ob wir wollen oder nicht. Es kann gar nicht anders! Das Gehirn des Menschen ist zum Lernen geschaffen. - Warum macht uns dann das Lernen manchmal so groAe Probleme? Kinder lernen alle 90 Minuten ein Wort; wir alle erinnern uns an den Nachmittag des 11. September. Vokabeln "pauken" oder Klavierspielen lernen ist dagegen mA1/4hsam. Manchmal lernen wir also sehr rasch und manchmal sehr langsam. Warum? Gibt es dann so etwas wie eine Gebrauchsanleitung zur Lernmaschine in unserem Kopf? Wir lernen nicht nur in der Schule, sondern vor allem im Leben. Es geht nicht um BA1/4ffeln und Tests, sondern um FAhigkeiten und Fertigkeiten, die wir zum Leben brauchen. Lernen ist die natA1/4rliche und nicht zu bremsende LieblingsbeschAftigung unseres Gehirns. Wie unsere "Lernmaschine im Kopf" arbeitet und wie wir sie mit Lernerfolg - und auch VergnA1/4gen - arbeiten lassen kAnnen, das vermittelt dieses spannende Buch des Psychologen, Philosophen und Medizinprofessors Manfred Spitzer.

This book provides the readers with a broad introduction to the field of particle physics through fictional discussions between three prominent physicists - Albert Einstein, Issac Newton, and Murray Gell-Mann - together with a modern physicist. Matter is composed of quarks and electrons. The forces between quarks are generated by exchanges of gluons and are so strong that they result in the confinement of quarks in atomic nuclei, whereas the forces between electrons and atomic nuclei are generated by exchanges of photons, and the forces between quarks and electrons (or any other leptons) are generated by exchanges of weak bosons. The book is suitable for non-experts in physics.

JAMES FELTON'S "ASSHOLES" IS OUT NOW The perfect Christmas gift! With his trademark brand of bulldozer-banter, Twitter legend James Felton guides you through the most morbidly fascinating facts you'll then wish you could forget. Ever wondered why the chainsaw was invented?* How authorities dealt with a beached whale back in ye olde days of 1970?** Or what being a human decanter entails?*** Then you've come to the right place! Within these pages you'll find the maddest, strangest and downright grossest stories from history, nature and science that you don't want to know. (Except secretly you really do you masochistic, beastly person you.) Illustrated, painfully funny and drop-your-jaw ridiculous, this is trivia from the cesspit of time that you won't be able to stop reading once you start. *To aid childbirth. **They exploded it with 100 times too much dynamite and rained blubber down on unsuspecting people and buildings. ***Decency prevents us from answering this one here. You'll have to buy the book to find out.