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Science
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The coming wave
We are about to cross a critical threshold in the history of our species. Everything is about to change. Soon we will live surrounded by AIs. They will carry out complex tasks - operating businesses, producing unlimited digital content, running core government services and maintaining infrastructure. This will be a world of DNA printers and quantum computers, engineered pathogens and autonomous weapons, robot assistants and abundant energy. It represents nothing less than a step change in human capability. We are not prepared. As cofounder of the pioneering AI company DeepMind, Mustafa Suleyman has been at the centre of this revolution, one poised to become the single greatest accelerant of progress in history. The coming decade, he argues, will be defined by this wave of powerful, fast-proliferating new technologies.
£10.99
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Around the world in 80 games
'BRILLIANTLY CLEAR AND CAPTIVATING PROSE' STEPHEN FRYA WATERSTONES BOOK OF YEAR 2023An award-winning mathematician explores the maths behind the games we love and why we love to play them.
£10.99
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Yawns freeze your brain
Ideal gift and stocking filler for boys and men from bestselling author.
£10.99
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A book of noises
Sound shapes our world in invisible but profound ways, and here Caspar Henderson brings his characteristic curiosity, knowledge and sense of wonder to the subject to take us on an exhilarating journey through the heard universe. 'A Book of Noises' gathers together sounds from the cosmos, the natural world, the human world, and the invented world, and contains quiet pockets of silence. From the vast sound of sand in the desert to the tuneful warble of a songbird, to the meditative resonance of a temple bell and the improvisational melodies of jazz, this is a celebration of all things auricular.
£10.99
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The Collins stargazer's bible
Combining practical stargazing information and advice, the insights of internationally renowned astronomers and the history, technological advances and art revering the night sky, Collins Stargazer's Bible is a stunning celebration of the remarkable sky above.
£30.00
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Becoming Earth
A revolutionary account of Earth as a living organism - a finely-tuned planetary network made up of all living and non-living things - which provides an unusual degree of hope for its future.
£22.00
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Dust
Four-and-a-half billion years ago, Planet Earth was formed from a vast spinning nebula of cosmic dust, the detritus left over from the birth of the sun. Within the next 100 years, human life on swathes of the Earth's surface will end in a haze of heat, drought, and, again, dust. Dust is a legacy of 20th-century progress and a profound threat to life in the 21st century. And yet dust is something we hardly ever consider - it is so small and so mundane as to be beyond the threshold of thought. This book sparks curiosity and corrects that oversight.
£12.99
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The secret lives of numbers
From building rockets to the handheld technology that governs our day-to-day lives, we are all in debt to the mathematical geniuses of the past. But the history of mathematics is warped; it looks like a sixteenth-century map that enlarges Europe at the expense of Africa, Asia and the Americas. This book introduces readers to a new group of mathematical boundary-smashers, those who have been erased by history because of their race, gender or nationality. Kitagawa and Revell bring to vivid life the stories and struggles of mathematicians from every continent: from the brilliant Arabic scholars of the ninth century 'House of Wisdom'; to the pioneering African-American mathematicians of the twentieth century; the first female mathematics professor (from Russia); and the 'lady computers' around the world who revolutionised our knowledge of the night sky.
£12.99
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Quantum leaps
How does Google know what you want to type? How did humans first reach the moon? Could we ever have a supercomputer the size of a pinhead? In this thrilling numerical journey, Hugh Barker explores how mathematics has helped to build the technology of today, and the fascinating ways it is shaping the future. From green energy to 3-D printing and from quantum cryptography to machine learning, 'Quantum Leaps' reveals the hidden mathematics in modern technology.
£18.99
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In a flight of starlings
Celebrated physicist Giorgio Parisi guides us through his unorthodox yet exhilarating work, starting with investigating the principles of physics by observing the flight of flocks of birds. Studying the movements of these communities, he has realized, proves an illuminating way into understanding complex systems of all kinds-collections of everything from atoms and planets to other animals, such as ourselves. Along the way, he reflects on the lessons he has taken from a life in pursuit of scientific truth: the importance of serendipity to the discovery of new ideas, the surprising kinship between physics and other disciplines, and the value of science to a thriving society. In so doing, he removes the practice of science from the confines of the laboratory and brings it into the real world.
£10.99
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White holes
Let us journey, with beloved physicist Carlo Rovelli, into the heart of a black hole. Let us slip beyond its boundary, the horizon, and tumble - on and on - down this crack in the universe. As we plunge, we'll see geometry fold, we'll feel the equations draw tight around us. Eventually, we'll pass it: the remains of a star, deep and dense and falling further far. And then - the bottom. Where time and space end, and the white hole is born. With lightness and magic, here Rovelli traces the ongoing adventure of his own cutting-edge research, of the uncertainty and joy of going where we've not yet been. Guiding us to the edge of theory and experiment, he invites us to go beyond, to experience the fever and the disquiet of science. Here is the extraordinary life of a white hole.
£9.99
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Dark matter
The microbiome is the missing link in modern medicine: a vast genetic universe of bacteria, yeasts, viruses and parasites that live inside us, influencing every aspect of our health, even the way we think and feel. In this mindblowing book, scientist and surgeon James Kinross explains how the organisms that live within us have helped us evolve, shaped our biology and defined the success of our species. But just as we have discovered this delicate and complex ecosystem within us, it is being irrevocably destroyed through the globalisation of our diets and lifestyles, our addiction to antibiotics, and the destruction of our environment.
£10.99
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Mapmatics
A gripping exploration of how cartography shapes our world and the impact of maps on our everyday lives.
£22.00
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Space
From author and astronaut Tim Peake, this is the captivating story of humans in space. Only 628 people in human history have left Earth. In this book, astronaut Tim Peake traces the lives of these remarkable men and women who have forged the way, from Yuri Gagarin to Neil Armstrong, from Valentina Tereshkova to Peggy Whitson. Full of exclusive new stories, and astonishing detail only an astronaut would know, the book conveys what space exploration is really like: the wondrous view of Earth, the surreal weightlessness, the extraordinary danger, the surprising humdrum, the unexpected humour, the newfound perspective, the years of training, the psychological pressures, the gruelling physical toll, the thrill of launch and the trepidation of re-entry.
£12.99
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Brave new words
Whether we like it or not, the AI revolution is coming to education. In 'Brave New Words', Salman Khan, the visionary behind Khan Academy, explores how artificial intelligence and GPT technology will transform learning, offering a roadmap for teachers, parents, and students to navigate this exciting (and sometimes intimidating) new world. An insider in the world of education technology, Khan explains the ins and outs of these cutting-edge tools and how they will forever change the way we learn and teach. Rather than approaching the ChatGPT revolution with white-knuckled fear, Khan wants parents and teachers to embrace AI and adapt to it (while acknowledging its imperfections and limitations), so that every student can complement the work they're already doing in profoundly new and creative ways, to personalize learning, adapt assessments, and support success in the classroom.
£25.00
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The experience machine
For as long as we've studied the mind, we've believed that information flowing from our senses determines what our mind perceives. But as our understanding of neuroscience and psychology has advanced in the last few decades, a provocative and hugely powerful new view has flipped this assumption on its head. The brain is not a passive receiver, but an ever-active predictor. At the forefront of this cognitive revolution is philosopher and cognitive scientist Andy Clark, who has synthesised his ground-breaking work on the predictive brain to explore its fascinating mechanics and implications. Among the most stunning of these is the realisation that experience itself, because it is guided by prior expectation, is a kind of controlled hallucination. This even applies to our bodies, as the way we experience pain and medical symptoms is shaped by our expectations.
£10.99
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Quantum supremacy
The runaway success of the microchip processor may be nearing its end, with profound implications for our economy, society and way of life, even leaving Silicon Valley as a new Rust Belt, its technology obsolete. Step forward the quantum computer, which harnesses the power and complexity of the atomic realm, and may be useful in solving humanity's greatest challenges from climate change, to global starvation, to incurable diseases. Told with Kaku's signature clarity and enthusiasm, 'Quantum Supremacy' is the story of this exciting frontier and the race to claim humanity's future.
£10.99
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Wasteland
A deep dive into the global waste industry by award-winning journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis.
£10.99
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Allergic
Hay fever. Peanut allergies. Eczema. Billions of people worldwide have some form of allergy; millions have one severe enough to seriously endanger their health. And over the past decade, the number of people diagnosed with allergy has been steadily increasing, an ever-growing medical burden on individuals, families, and our health care system. Medical anthropologist Theresa MacPhail, herself an allergy sufferer whose father died of a bee sting, set out to understand why.
£10.99
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The naked Neanderthal
What do we really know about our cousins, the Neanderthals? For over a century we saw Neanderthals as inferior to Homo Sapiens. More recently, the pendulum swung the other way and they are generally seen as our relatives - not quite human, but similar enough, and still not equal. Now, thanks to an ongoing revolution in palaeoanthropology in which he has played a key part, Ludovic Slimak shows us that they are something altogether different - and they should be understood on their own terms rather than by comparing them to ourselves. As he reveals in this book, the Neanderthals had their own history, their own rituals, their own customs. Their own intelligence, very different from ours. Slimak has travelled around the world for the past thirty years to uncover who the Neanderthals really were.
£10.99
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Space oddities
An eye-opening and accessible account of the latest as-yet-inexplicable phenomena of the universe - oddities that could transform our understanding of the fundamental nature of reality.
£18.99
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This is why you dream
With billions of neurons and trillions of connections between them, the brain is infinitely complex. But one feature of the mind captures our collection attention like no other: dreaming. Dreams are a source of mystery. They have changed the course of individual lives and the world, spurring business deals, inspiring art and scientific breakthroughs, triggering military invasions and mental breakdowns. Yet the source of dreams is not mysterious. They are the product of normal brain electrophysiology and they follow the circadian rhythms, the day-night cycles that govern all life. In this pioneering book, bestselling neurosurgeon Dr Rahul Jandial delves into decades of research into the dreaming brain and shares stories from his own practice to show the extraordinary impact that dreams have on our waking life.
£18.99
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Alien earths
For thousands of years, humans have wondered whether we're alone in the cosmos. Now, for the first time, we have the technology to investigate. The question should have an obvious answer: yes or no. But once you try to find life elsewhere, you realize it is not so simple. How do you find it over cosmic distances? What actually is life?
£25.00
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On the origin of time
Here is a new theory of the universe, twenty years in the making, by Stephen Hawking and his close collaborator Thomas Hertog. Perhaps the biggest question Stephen Hawking tried to answer in his extraordinary life was how the universe could have created conditions so perfectly hospitable to life. Pondering this mystery led Hawking to study the big bang origin of the universe, but his early work ran into a crisis when the maths predicted many big bangs producing a multiverse - countless different universes, most of which were far too bizarre to harbour life.
£10.99
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