Reader's Feast - Science

World Wide Mind
Price: AUD 35.00 Author: Michael Chorost

A deliberate play on the "www" of technology, Michael Chorost proposes that we will soon experience the melding of the best of our 'switched on' world (connection to the whole of human knowledge at the touch of a button) and of our innate sensory world (the so-called real world of touch, sound and smell). Scary or exciting, depending on your view of our technological environment.

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Periodic Tales
Price: AUD 32.95 Author: Hugh Aldersey-Williams

If I were to reassemble my periodic table now (from his student days) I would still want to include a specimen of each element, but I would also want to trace its cultural journey. I feel the elements leave great streaks of colour across the canvas of our civilization. This book is Hugh Aldersey-Williams' basis for that task. Informative and original in presentation.

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The Book of Universes
Price: AUD 59.95 Author: John Barrow

Imagine a universe that accommodates time travel or one that expands and contracts over time, or another that is perfectly smooth. If Albert Einstein didn't imagine these exact universes, he nonetheless conceived and promoted the ground-breaking thought that there was more than our universe. John D. Barrow explores Einstein's theory and covers the search by all those who came after him to understand his equations and discover for themselves these other universes.

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Number Mysteries
Price: AUD 24.99 Author: Marcus Du Sautoy

The author employs everyday examples and items of passing interest to help us understand complex mathematical theses. Limiting himself to five chapters, he educates us in the major mathematical themes and explains how we can then understand the way maths is at the heart of everything...from stacking boxes in a truck to winning Monopoly!

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The Reason Why
Price: AUD 45.00 Author: John Gribbin

Subtitled The Miracle of Life on Earth, John Gribbin wants us to accept we have a unique planet because of life as we know it, and that our survival or demise is critical to the whole universe. In other words, the defining aspect of our planet is our intelligent civilization as he calls it.

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The Playful Brain
Price: AUD 34.95 Author: Richard Restak & Scott Kim

A neuroscientist and puzzle developer have co-written this fascinating account of the benefits of puzzles to the human mind. They contend that puzzle solving improves brain function, staves off memory loss, and possibly arrests mental deterioration. As well, puzzles are simply good fun to do!

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The Information
Price: AUD 35.00 Author: James Gleick

Subtitled A History, a Theory, a Flood, journalist and author James Gleick makes sense of our so-called "information age". But first he takes us back through history to help us plot how humans learnt to capture and disseminate all the information surrounding them.

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The Hidden Reality
Price: AUD 49.95 Author: Brian Greene

"Think of the universe like a deck of cards. Now, if you shuffle that deck, there's just so many orderings that can happen.....Similarly, with an infinite universe and only a finite number of complexions of matter, the way in which matter arranges itself has to repeat." Physicist Brian Greene tries to help us understand this concept and, through it, our world.

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Quirk
Price: AUD 24.95 Author: Hannah Holmes

"What is wrong with these people?" Neuroticism, aggression, anxiety, impulsiveness, jealousy, creativity and ambition make up the diverse personalities of humans and other animals. This book explores the interesting and peculiar workings of the brain from a scientific perspective.

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Making Girls and Boys
Price: AUD 34.95 Author: Jane McCredie

Award-winning writer and journalist Jane McCredie has written a well-researched and accessible book on an intricate subject. As she states in the prologue, "...the plain fact is that not everybody fits neatly into one of the two categories of male and female." This study of sex and gender uses well publicised and private cases to highlight the relationship between biology and environment that helps construct who we are; in so doing it also helps us understand ourselves.

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Genetics of Original Sin
Price: AUD 36.95 Author: Christian de Duve

Humanity's immense biological success, argues Nobel prize-winner Christian de Duve, has in fact led mankind to becoming the biggest threat to the future of many living species including itself. De Duve suggests the destructive traits inherent in man due to natural selection may have inspired the idea of original sin, and considers if and how humanity can achieve 'redemption'.

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