"More than anything else technology creates our world. It creates our wealth, our economy, our very way of being," says W. Brian Arthur. Yet despite technology's irrefutable importance in our daily lives, until now its major questions have gone unanswered. Where do new technologies come from? What constitutes innovation, and how is it achieved? Does technology, like biological life, evolve? In this groundbreaking work, pioneering technology thinker and economist W. Brian Arthur answers these questions and more, setting forth a boldly original way of thinking about technology.
"The Nature of Technology "is an elegant and powerful theory of technology's origins and evolution. Achieving for the development of technology what Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions "did for scientific progress, Arthur explains how transformative new technologies arise and how innovation really works. Drawing on a wealth of examples, from historical inventions to the high-tech wonders of today, Arthur takes us on a mind-opening journey that will change the way we think about technology and how it structures our lives. "The Nature of Technology "is a classic for our times.

THE PERFECT GIFT FOR ALL BIBLIOMANIACS A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, SPECTATOR AND DAILY MAIL A WATERSTONES BEST POPULAR SCIENCE BOOK 2022 Plunge into this rich and surprising A-Z compendium to discover how our fixations have taken shape, from the Middle Ages to the present day, as bestselling author Kate Summerscale deftly traces the threads between the past and present, the psychological and social, the personal and the political. 'Fascinating ... Phobias and manias create a magical space between us and the world' Malcolm Gaskill, author of the No. 1 bestseller The Ruin of All Witches 'Fascinating' Observer 'An endlessly intriguing book ... All the bibliomanes (book nutters) I know will love it' Daily Mail

'This book is not just about life, but about discovery itself. It is about error and hubris, but also about wonder and the reach of science. And it is bookended with the ultimate question: How do we define the thing that defines us?' - Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Gene We all assume we know what life is, but the more scientists learn about the living world - from protocells to brains, from zygotes to pandemic viruses - the harder they find it to locate the edges of life, where it begins and ends. What exactly does it mean to be alive? Is a virus alive? Is a foetus? Carl Zimmer investigates one of the biggest questions of all: What is life? The answer seems obvious until you try to seriously answer it. Is the apple sitting on your kitchen counter alive, or is only the apple tree it came from deserving of the word? If we can't answer that question here on earth, how will we know when and if we discover alien life on other worlds? The question hangs over some of society's most charged conflicts - whether a fertilized egg is a living person, for example, and when we ought to declare a person legally dead. Life's Edge is an utterly fascinating investigation by one of the most celebrated science writers of our time. Zimmer journeys through the strange experiments that have attempted to recreate life. Literally hundreds of definitions of what that should look like now exist, but none has yet emerged as an obvious winner. Lists of what living things have in common do not add up to a theory of life. It's never clear why some items on the list are essential and others not. Coronaviruses have altered the course of history, and yet many scientists maintain they are not alive. Chemists are creating droplets that can swarm, sense their environment, and multiply - have they made life in the lab? Whether he is handling pythons in Alabama or searching for hibernating bats in the Adirondacks, Zimmer revels in astounding examples of life at its most bizarre. He tries his own hand at evolving life in a test tube with unnerving results. Charting the obsession with Dr Frankenstein's monster and how Coleridge came to believe the whole universe was alive, Zimmer leads us all the way into the labs and minds of researchers working on engineering life from the ground up.

Uncle Tungsten radiates all the delight and wonder of a boy's adventures, and is an unforgettable portrait of an extraordinary young mind. Oliver Sacks evokes, with warmth and wit, his upbringing in wartime England. He tells of the large science-steeped family who fostered his early fascination with chemistry. There follow his years at boarding school where, though unhappy, he developed the intellectual curiosity that would shape his later life. And we hear of his return to London, an emotionally bereft ten-year-old who found solace in his passion for learning. 'If you did not think that gallium and iridium could move you, this superb book will change your mind' - The Times

Ben Goldacre's wise and witty bestseller, shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, lifts the lid on quack doctors, flaky statistics, scaremongering journalists and evil pharmaceutical corporations. Since 2003 Dr Ben Goldacre has been exposing dodgy medical data in his popular Guardian column. In this eye-opening book he takes on the MMR hoax and misleading cosmetics ads, acupuncture and homeopathy, vitamins and mankind's vexed relationship with all manner of 'toxins'. Along the way, the self-confessed 'Johnny Ball cum Witchfinder General' performs a successful detox on a Barbie doll, sees his dead cat become a certified nutritionist and probes the supposed medical qualifications of 'Dr' Gillian McKeith. Full spleen and satire, Ben Goldacre takes us on a hilarious, invigorating and ultimately alarming journey through the bad science we are fed daily by hacks and quacks.

In 1981 David Quammen began what might be every freelance writer's dream: a monthly column for Outside magazine in which he was given free rein to write about anything that interested him in the natural world. His column was called "Natural Acts," and for the next fifteen years he delighted Outside's readers with his fascinating ruminations on the world around us. The Boilerplate Rhino brings together twenty-six of Quammen's most thoughtful and engaging essays from that column, none previously printed in any of his earlier books.

In lucid, penetrating, and often quirkily idiosyncratic prose, David Quammen takes his readers with him as he explores the world. His travels lead him to rattlesnake handlers in Texas; a lizard specialist in Baja; the dinosaur museum in Jordan, Montana; and halfway across Indonesia in search of the perfect Durian fruit. He ponders the history of nutmeg in the southern Moluccas, meditates on bioluminescent beetles while soaking in the waters of the Amazon, and delivers "The Dope on Eggs" from a chicken ranch near his hometown in Montana.

Quammen's travels are always jumping-off points to explore the rich and sometimes horrifying tension between humankind and the natural world, in all its complexity and ambivalence. The result is another irrepressible assortment of ideas to explore, conundrums to contemplate, and wondrous creatures to behold.

From the author of The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell's international bestseller Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking is a revolution in the understanding of the mind.

An art expert sees a ten-million-dollar sculpture and instantly spots it's a fake. A marriage analyst knows within minutes whether a couple will stay together. A fire-fighter suddenly senses he has to get out of a blazing building. A speed dater clicks with the right person...

This book is all about those moments when we 'know' something without knowing why. Here Malcolm Gladwell explores the phenomenon of 'blink', showing how a snap judgement can be far more effective than a cautious decision. By trusting your instincts, he reveals, you'll never think about thinking in the same way again.

The design processes behind a giant leap for mankind. Neil Armstrong in a space suit on the moon remains an iconic representation of America's technological ingenuity. Few know that the Model A-7L pressure suit worn by the Apollo 11 astronauts, and the Model A-7LB that replaced it in 1971, originated at ILC Industries (now ILC Dover, LP), an obscure Delaware industrial firm.Longtime ILC space suit test engineer Bill Ayrey draws on original files and photographs to tell the dramatic story of the company's role in the Apollo Program. Though respected for its early designs, ILC failed to win NASA's faith. When the government called for new suit concepts in 1965, ILC had to plead for consideration before NASA gave it a mere six weeks to come up with a radically different design. ILC not only met the deadline but won the contract. That underdog success led to its greatest challenge: winning a race against time to create a suit that would determine the success or failure of the Apollo missions-and life or death for the astronauts. A fascinating behind-the-scenes history of a vital component of the space program, Lunar Outfitters goes inside the suit that made it possible for human beings to set foot on the Moon.

This visual guide is packed with amazing diagrams and infographics to answer all your burning scientific head-scratchers - from gravity and black holes to earthquakes and gene therapy. In How Science Works you will find the most fascinating phenomena in the Universe visually explained, from pulleys to string theory, light to lasers, and chemical reactions to artificial intelligence. If you have ever wondered why the sky is blue, how a black hole works, or what happens in a tsunami, this indispensable guide is for you. Rather than long columns of text, How Science Works is filled with diagrams and infographics, to make even the most difficult concept fun and easy to grasp. Turn the pages to understand dark matter, radioactivity and so much more, and find answers to the really big questions including how life began, will the Universe end, and are we really alone? With hours of enthralling reading, How Science Works is the book you wished you'd had at school and it's the one you'll want for your family.

In "Theatre of the Mind", Jay Ingram, whose past scientific investigations include the properties of honey on toast and the complexities of the barmaid's brain, tackles one of the most controversial of subjects: consciousness. Scientists have long tried to map our brains and understand how it is that we think and are self-aware, but what do we really know? Any discussion of the brain raises more questions than answers, and Ingram illuminates some of the most perplexing ones: what happens in our minds when we're driving and we suddenly realise that we don't remember the last few miles and how do we remember images, sounds, and aromas from our past so vividly, and why do we often recreate them so differently in our dreams. Ingram's latest book is a mind-bending experience, a cerebral, stylish ride through the history, philosophy, and science of the brain and the search for the discovery of the self.

Quadratic equations, Pythagoras' theorem, imaginary numbers, and pi - you may remember studying these at school, but did anyone ever explain why? Never fear - bestselling science writer, and your new favourite maths teacher, Michael Brooks, is here to help. In The Maths That Made Us, Brooks reminds us of the wonders of numbers: how they enabled explorers to travel far across the seas and astronomers to map the heavens; how they won wars and halted the HIV epidemic; how they are responsible for the design of your home and almost everything in it, down to the smartphone in your pocket. His clear explanations of the maths that built our world, along with stories about where it came from and how it shaped human history, will engage and delight. From ancient Egyptian priests to the Apollo astronauts, and Babylonian tax collectors to juggling robots, join Brooks and his extraordinarily eccentric cast of characters in discovering how maths made us who we are today.

What is time? The Janus Point offers a ground-breaking solution to one of the greatest mysteries in physics. For over a century, the greatest minds have sought to understand why time seems to flow in one direction, ever forward. In The Janus Point, Julian Barbour offers a radically new answer: it doesn't. At the heart of this book, Barbour provides a new vision of the Big Bang - the Janus Point - from which time flows in two directions, its currents driven by the expansion of the universe and the growth of order in the galaxies, planets and life itself. What emerges is not just a revolutionary new theory of time, but a hopeful argument about the destiny of our universe. 'Both a work of literature and a masterpiece of scientific thought' Lee Smolin, author of The Trouble with Physics 'Profound...original...accessible to anyone who has pondered the mysteries of space and time' Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal 'Takes on fundamental questions, offering a new perspective on how the Universe started and where it may be headed' Science Magazine

New York Times bestseller Journey into the universe through the most spectacular sights in astronomy in stereoscopic 3D Welcome to the Universe in 3D takes you on a grand tour of the observable universe, guiding you through the most spectacular sights in the cosmos-in breathtaking 3D. Presenting a rich array of stereoscopic color images, which can be viewed in 3D using a special stereo viewer that folds easily out of the cover of the book, this book reveals your cosmic environment as you have never seen it before. Astronomy is the story of how humankind's perception of the two-dimensional dome of the sky evolved into a far deeper comprehension of an expanding three-dimensional cosmos. This book invites you to take part in this story by exploring the universe in depth, as revealed by cutting-edge astronomical research and observations. You will journey from the Moon through the solar system, out to exoplanets, distant nebulas, and galaxy clusters, until you finally reach the cosmic microwave background radiation (or CMB), the most distant light we can observe. The distances to these celestial wonders range from 1.3 light-seconds to 13.8 billion light-years. Along the way, the authors explain the fascinating features of what you are seeing, including how the 3D images were made using the same technique that early astronomers devised to measure distances to objects in space. The dramatic 3D images in this one-of-a-kind book will astonish you, extending your vision out to the farthest reaches of the universe. You will never look up into the night sky the same way again.

The astonishing story of twentieth-century physics, told through the twelve experiments that changed our world A 2022 BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR: NEW SCIENTIST * WATERSTONES * SUNDAY TIMES 'A splendid idea, vividly carried out: I enjoyed this book enormously’ PHILIP PULLMAN 'A rich history of beautiful discoveries' ROBIN INCE 'An all-action thriller, laced with some of the most profound ideas humans have ever had’ BRIAN ENO ----------- How did a piece of gold foil completely change our understanding of atoms? What part did a hot air balloon play in the discovery of cosmic rays? How did the experiments in the run-up to the Large Hadron Collider lead to the invention of the World Wide Web? Asking questions has always been at the heart of physics, our unending quest to understand the Universe and how everything in it behaves. How do we know all that we know about the world today? It’s not simply because we have the maths – it’s because we have done the experiments. Accelerator physicist Suzie Sheehy introduces us to the creative and curious people who, through a combination of genius, persistence and luck, staged the ground-breaking experiments of the twentieth century. From the serendipitous discovery of X-rays in a German laboratory, to the scientists trying to prove Einstein wrong (and inadvertently proving him right), The Matter of Everything takes us on a journey through the history of experiments that transformed our world.

The Inside Out of Flies is a look under the bonnet at the astonishing mechanics of fly anatomy. Erica McAlister reveals the engineering miracles embodied in numerous species of fly and some of the fascinating implications they hold for human technology. Discover the physics of the mysterious 'scuba diving fly', marvel at the venomous horse fly larvae which prey on frogs, and glimpse the golden ratio in these creatures' spiral flight patterns. McAlister touches on the emerging field of biomimetics - the study of evolutionary adaptations to devise new technology - and anticipates everything from medical needles based on the mosquito's proboscis to hearing aids inspired by Ormia ochracea, a tiny fly with ears on its thorax. At every juncture she uncovers unique and surprising science lessons encapsulated in the form and function of the humble fly.

Understanding the human mind and how it relates to the world that we experience has challenged philosophers for centuries. How then do we even begin to think about 'minds' that are not human? Science now has plenty to say about the properties of mind. In recent decades, the mind - both human and otherwise - has been explored by scientists in fields ranging from zoology to astrobiology, computer science to neuroscience. Taking a uniquely broad view of minds and where they might be found - including in plants, aliens, and God - Philip Ball pulls these multidisciplinary pieces together to explore what sorts of minds we might expect to find in the universe. In so doing, he offers for the first time a unified way of thinking about what minds are and what they can do, arguing that in order to understand our own minds and imagine those of others, we need to move on from considering the human mind as a standard against which all others should be measured, and to think about the 'space of possible minds'. By identifying and mapping out properties of mind without prioritizing the human, Ball sheds new light on a host of fascinating questions. What moral rights should we afford animals, and can we understand their thoughts? Should we worry that AI is going to take over society? If there are intelligent aliens out there, how could we communicate with them? Should we? Understanding the space of possible minds also reveals ways of making advances in understanding some of the most challenging questions in contemporary science: What is thought? What is consciousness? And what (if anything) is free will? The more we learn about the minds of other creatures, from octopuses to chimpanzees, and to imagine the potential minds of computers and alien intelligences, the greater the perspective we have on if and how our own is different. Ball's thrillingly ambitious The Book of Minds about the nature and existence of minds is more mind-expanding than we could imagine. In this fascinating panorama of other minds, we come to better know our own.

Feeding the world, climate change, biodiversity, antibiotics, plastics, pandemics - the list of concerns seems endless. But what is most pressing, and what should we do first? Do we all need to become vegetarian? How can we fly in a low-carbon world? How can we take control of technology? And, given the global nature of the challenges we now face, what on Earth can any of us do, as individuals? Mike Berners-Lee has crunched the numbers and plotted a course of action that is full of hope, practical, and enjoyable. This is the big-picture perspective on the environmental and economic challenges of our day, laid out in one place, and traced through to the underlying roots - questions of how we live and think. This updated edition has new material on protests, pandemics, wildfires, investments, carbon targets and of course, on the key question: given all this, what can I do?

**A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022** 'Powerful... a clarion call for change', New Statesman 'Poetic and philosophical at times, intimate and expansive at others', Daily Telegraph How much light is too much light? The Darkness Manifesto urges us to cherish natural darkness for the sake of the environment, our own wellbeing, and all life on earth. The world's flora and fauna have evolved to operate in the natural cycle of day and night. But constant illumination has made light pollution a major issue. From space, our planet glows brightly, 24/7. By extending our day, we have forced out the inhabitants of the night and disrupted the circadian rhythms necessary to sustain all living things. Our cities' streetlamps and neon signs are altering entire ecosystems. Johan Ekloef encourages us to appreciate natural darkness and its unique benefits. He also writes passionately about the domino effect of damage we inflict by keeping the lights on: insects failing to reproduce; birds blinded and bewildered; bats starving as they wait in vain for insects that only come out in the dark. And humans can find that our hormones, weight and mental well-being are all impacted. Eye-opening and ultimately encouraging, The Darkness Manifesto offers simple steps that can benefit ourselves and the planet. The light bulb - long the symbol of progress - needs to be turned off. To ensure a bright future, we must embrace the darkness

No one knows how the universe will end - but we do have a pretty good idea how it started. Everyone is familiar with the 'Big Bang' theory, but most of us are a little vague as to the details. In a similar manner, we all know the name Albert Einstein; he's the one who invented Relativity, which we all know about, but are perhaps a little hard pressed to describe in any detail. This is a book for average people (that's you and me). We've all been led to believe that in order to understand science you need a high forehead and a shirt pocket full of writing implements. But, that's not really true. The book walks you through it, from atomic physics right through to astronomy, with colourful graphics and understandable text. The authors have shown us that the universe is indeed understandable (Einstein called it 'comprehensible', and we won't argue with him). Modern physics has undertaken a dedicated search for a theory that will knit relativity and quantum theory into one unified field theory. In other words, the search is on for a set of physical laws that will account for the behaviour of both atoms and whole galaxies.;This would be a 'Unified Field Theory', also called the 'Theory of Everything' (TOE). This book will show you, in everyday language, both the known factors and the unknowns waiting to be answered. The authors have also undertaken to enlighten us by providing the historical context of the quest to understand our universe. They have even addressed the issues of Creationism versus Science, showing us that there is really no conflict involved. This and much more are logically presented, even such startling concepts as multiple universes, all in a way that anyone can understand. If you have an interest in understanding the universe, this is a good place to start because it takes a complex subject and makes it completely understandable.

WINNER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2022 'Exhilaratingly whizzes through billions of years . . . Gee is a marvellously engaging writer, juggling humour, precision, polemic and poetry to enrich his impossibly telescoped account . . . [making] clear sense out of very complex narratives' - The Times 'Henry Gee makes the kaleidoscopically changing canvas of life understandable and exciting. Who will enjoy reading this book? - Everybody!' Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel For billions of years, Earth was an inhospitably alien place - covered with churning seas, slowly crafting its landscape by way of incessant volcanic eruptions, the atmosphere in a constant state of chemical flux. And yet, despite facing literally every conceivable setback that living organisms could encounter, life has been extinguished and picked itself up to evolve again. Life has learned and adapted and continued through the billions of years that followed. It has weathered fire and ice. Slimes begat sponges, who through billions of years of complex evolution and adaptation grew a backbone, braved the unknown of pitiless shores, and sought an existence beyond the sea. From that first foray to the spread of early hominids who later became Homo sapiens, life has persisted, undaunted. A (Very) Short History of Life is an enlightening story of survival, of persistence, illuminating the delicate balance within which life has always existed, and continues to exist today. It is our planet like you've never seen it before. Life teems through Henry Gee's words - colossal supercontinents drift, collide, and coalesce, fashioning the face of the planet as we know it today. Creatures are engagingly personified, from 'gregarious' bacteria populating the seas to duelling dinosaurs in the Triassic period to magnificent mammals with the future in their (newly evolved) grasp. Those long extinct, almost alien early life forms are resurrected in evocative detail. Life's evolutionary steps - from the development of a digestive system to the awe of creatures taking to the skies in flight - are conveyed with an alluring, up-close intimacy.

**AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4** **A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH AND FINANCIAL TIMES** As a neurosurgeon, I lived in a world filled with fear and suffering, death and cancer. But rarely, if ever, did I think about what it would be like if what I witnessed at work every day happened to me. This book is the story of how I became a patient myself. Retired brain surgeon Henry Marsh thought he understood illness, but he was unprepared for the impact of his diagnosis of advanced cancer. And Finally explores what happens when someone who has spent a lifetime on the frontline of life and death finds himself contemplating what might be his own death sentence. As Henry navigates the bewildering transition from doctor to patient, he is haunted by past failures and projects yet to be completed, and frustrated by the inconveniences of illness and old age. But he is also more entranced than ever by the mysteries of science and the brain, the beauty of the natural world and his love for his family. Elegiac, candid, luminous and poignant, And Finally is ultimately not so much a book about death, but a book about life and what matters in the end. 'Magnificent' Rachel Clarke, author of Breath-taking 'Given its subject - broadly, death and disease - the book is unexpectedly fun, and the author pretty much irresistibly likable' Guardian 'Facing his own mortality, Marsh has written a vividly wry and honest book' The Times 'Marsh shares his journey with a dark yet whimsical humour, and ponders too the eternal mysteries of time' Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year 2022

Curious about quarks, quasars and the fantastic universe around you? Ever wanted to explore a mathematical proof? Need some trigonometry fast? Want to swat up on physics, chemistry, or learn some new biology? Ever wondered why your scratches itch just before you go to sleep? Beautifully illustrated and packed with fascinating and useful information, SCIENCIA is the ultimate one-stop science reference book for inquisitive readers of all ages. Whether you just want to brush up on what you learnt at school, still are at school or never went to school, these pages will test you, stretch you, and make you brainier. Scientia brings together the six bestselling science books from the 'Wooden Books' series. Together they cover almost the whole of the A-level syllabus in mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology.

One of the most powerful questions we ask about the cosmos is: Are we alone? The Possibility of Life traces the history of our understanding of what and where life in the universe could be, from Galileo and Copernicus through to our current tracking of exoplanets in the Goldilocks zone, where life akin to ours on Earth might exist. Along the way, Jaime Green studies insights from a long tradition of science fiction that uses imagination to extrapolate and construct worlds, in turn inspiring scientists and their research. Bringing together expert interviews, cutting-edge astronomy, philosophical inquiry and pop culture touchstones ranging from A Wrinkle in Time to Star Trek, The Possibility of Life delves into our evolving conception of the cosmos to pose an even deeper question: what does it mean to be human?

'A fascinating, in-depth investigation into the complex landscape of misinformation from someone who has spent his career trying to combat fake news' Angela Saini One of the world's top experts on fighting misinformation reveals the psychology behind its power - and how we can protect ourselves. From fake news to conspiracy theories, from pandemics to politics, misinformation may be the defining problem of our era. Like a virus, misinformation infects our minds - altering our beliefs and replicating at astonishing rates. Once the virus takes hold, our primary strategies of fact-checking and debunking are an insufficient cure. In Foolproof Sander van der Linden describes how to inoculate yourself and others against the spread of misinformation, discern fact from fiction and push back against methods of mass persuasion. Everyone is susceptible to fake news. There are polarising narratives in society, conspiracy theories are rife, fake experts dole out misleading advice and accuracy is often lost in favour of sensationalist headlines. So how and why does misinformation spread if we're all aware of its existence? And, more importantly, what can we do about it? Sander van der Linden takes us through the psychology of conspiratorial thinking and equips us with the eleven antigens needed to help stop the spread of misinformation once and for all.