Showing titles in Science & Technology

In 1961, Wally Funk was among the Mercury 13, the first group of American pilots to pass the ‘Women in Space’ programme. Wally sailed through a series of rigorous physical and mental tests, her scores beating many of the male candidates, including those of John Glenn, the first American in orbit. But just one week before she was due to enter the final phase of training, the programme was abruptly cancelled. A combination of politics and prejudice meant that none of the women ever flew into space.

Stephen Hawking has dazzled readers worldwide with a string of bestsellers exploring the mysteries of the universe. Now, for the first time, perhaps the most brilliant cosmologist of our age turns his gaze inward for a revealing look at his own life and intellectual evolution. My Brief...

Richard Browning’s story is one of groundbreaking innovation. Building an aviation business from his garage, he has invented a whole new form of personal flight - a fantasy previously reserved for the pages of science fiction. His iconic jet suit has captured the imaginations of millions around the world, triggered ongoing developments in technology and engineering, and inspired a new generation of creative minds to pursue their dreams.

This program is read by the author. In Don't Unplug, Chris Dancy, the world's most connected person, inspires listeners with practical advice to live a happier and healthier life using technology. In 2002, Chris Dancy was overweight, unemployed, and addicted to technology. He chain-smoked...

Brought to you by Penguin. The incredible book behind the primetime Channel 4 documentary, Peter: The Human Cyborg. Peter, a brilliant scientist, is told that he will lose everything he loves. His husband. His family. His friends. His ability to travel the world. All will be gone. But Peter will...

In the summer of 1921, Philo T. Farnsworth was not all that different from any other farmer's son in rural Idaho, until he came up with an idea that would change the world–and thrust him into a titanic struggle with one of the most monolithic monopolies in the world. Farnsworth's story of divine inspiration facing off against corporate avarice is a compelling–though seldom told–saga from the 20th century that is still relevant in the 21st.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK ONE OF GQ's TOP 50 BOOKS OF LITERARY JOURNALISM IN THE 21st CENTURY The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the...

A National Bestseller An “astounding and miraculous ” (Madeline Levine) medical memoir by one of our nation’s leading pediatric surgeons-- the visionary head of Children’s National Anyone who has seen a child recover from a wound or a broken bone knows that kids are made to heal. Their...

In The Last Stargazers, Emily Levesque reveals the hidden world of the professional astronomer. She celebrates an era of ingenuity and curiosity and asks us to think twice before we cast aside our sense of wonder at the universe. 

John Perry Barlow’s wild ride with the Grateful Dead was just part of a Zelig-like life that took him from a childhood as ranching royalty in Wyoming to membership in the Internet Hall of Fame as a digital free speech advocate. Mother American Night is the wild, funny, heartbreaking, and often...

“An engrossing microcosm of the internet’s Wild West years” (Kirkus Reviews), award-winning journalist David Kushner tells the incredible battle between the founder of Match.com and the con man who swindled him out of the website Sex.com, resulting in an all-out war for control for what...

Galileo Galilei è il simbolo della scienza moderna, ma quanto sappiamo davvero della sua vita? Matematico, inventore, imprenditore e persino autore di oroscopi: Galileo è stato molte cose, spesso tutte insieme. Siamo del resto in un'epoca in bilico: da una parte le superstizioni medievali; dall'altra la nascita faticosa del metodo scientifico. Con la sua voce inconfondibile, ironica, colta, teatrale, Roberto Mercadini ci regala un viaggio affascinante nella vita e nel tempo di Galileo.

Told by one of our greatest chroniclers of technology and society, the definitive biography of iconic serial visionary Stewart Brand, from the Merry Pranksters and the generation-defining Whole Earth Catalog to the marriage of environmental consciousness and hacker capitalism and the rise of a...

The dramatic, high-stakes account of Artemis II, the first human journey into deep space in fifty years, told from the perspective of Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen The historic Artemis II mission was celebrated around the world and broke the record for the farthest distance humans have ever...

In this one-of-a-kind memoir, Jack Clemons - a former lead engineer in support of NASA - takes listeners behind the scenes and into the inner workings of the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs during their most exciting years. Discover the people, the events, and the risks involved in one of the most important parts of space missions: bringing the astronauts back home to Earth.  Clemons joined Project Apollo in 1968, a young engineer inspired by science fiction and electrified by John F. Kennedy's challenge to the nation to put a man on the moon. 

In 1954, a group of boys attended a remote summer camp in Oklahoma. There they were split into two groups and encouraged to bully, harass and demonise each other. The results would make history as one of social psychology’s classic studies: the Robbers Cave experiment. Conducted at the height of the Cold War, the experiment officially had a happy ending: the boys reconciled, and psychologist Muzafer Sherif demonstrated that while hatred and violence are powerful forces, so, too, are cooperation and harmony.

“Gripping…an outstanding portrait” (The Wall Street Journal) of one of the most influential men of the greatest generation, James B. Conant—a savvy architect of the nuclear age and the Cold War—told by his granddaughter, New York Times bestselling author Jennet Conant. James Bryant...

A TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2021 ‘Thrillingly and wrenchingly funny … like Educated and Hillbilly Elegy’ DAVID LIPSKY ‘After reading The Good Hand you may reassess whether you have ever truly done a hard day’s work in your life … This lyrical and engrossing memoir is an...

Justin Yerbury made a promise to his mother while she was dying of motor neurone disease (MND) that he would do everything he could to find a cure. MND had already taken several members of Justin's family, and he learned that they carried a rare genetic form of the disease that gave them a fifty-fifty chance of inheritance. Desperate to help his loved ones, Justin went to university to study science, eventually becoming a professor of molecular biology at the University of Wollongong and one of the world's leading experts on MND. 

The uplifting, adventure-filled memoir of one groundbreaking scientist’s quest to develop new ways to fight illness and disease through the healing powers of plants. “A fascinating and deeply personal journey.” ­—Amy Stewart, author of Wicked Plants and The Drunken Botanist Traveling by...