The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America’s greatest achievements in space. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner.

Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space.

Among these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching math in the South’s segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America’s aeronautics industry was in dire need of anyone who had the right stuff. Suddenly, these overlooked math whizzes had a shot at jobs worthy of their skills, and they answered Uncle Sam’s call, moving to Hampton, Virginia and the fascinating, high-energy world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory.

Even as Virginia’s Jim Crow laws required them to be segregated from their white counterparts, the women of Langley’s all-black “West Computing” group helped America achieve one of the things it desired most: a decisive victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and complete domination of the heavens.

Starting in World War II and moving through to the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement and the Space Race, Hidden Figures follows the interwoven accounts of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Christine Darden, four African American women who participated in some of NASA’s greatest successes. It chronicles their careers over nearly three decades they faced challenges, forged alliances and used their intellect to change their own lives, and their country’s future.

New York Times Notable Book of 2016

NPR Great Read of 2016

Economist Best Books of 2016

Brain Pickings Best Science Books of 2016

Smithsonian Best Books about Science of 2016

Science Friday Best Science Book of 2016

A Mother Jones Notable Read of 2016

A Bill Gates “Gates Notes” Pick

MPR Best Books of 2016

Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books of 2016

Minnesota Star-Tribune Best of the Year

A Kirkus Best Book of the Year

A PW Best Book of the Year

Guardian Best of the Year

Times (London) Best of the Year

A groundbreaking, wondrously informative, and vastly entertaining examination of the most significant revolution in biology since Darwin—a “microbe’s-eye view” of the world that reveals a marvelous, radically reconceived picture of life on earth.

Every animal, whether human, squid, or wasp, is home to millions of bacteria and other microbes. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ed Yong, whose humor is as evident as his erudition, prompts us to look at ourselves and our animal companions in a new light—less as individuals and more as the interconnected, interdependent multitudes we assuredly are.

The microbes in our bodies are part of our immune systems and protect us from disease. In the deep oceans, mysterious creatures without mouths or guts depend on microbes for all their energy. Bacteria provide squid with invisibility cloaks, help beetles to bring down forests, and allow worms to cause diseases that afflict millions of people.

Many people think of microbes as germs to be eradicated, but those that live with us—the microbiome—build our bodies, protect our health, shape our identities, and grant us incredible abilities. In this astonishing book, Ed Yong takes us on a grand tour through our microbial partners, and introduces us to the scientists on the front lines of discovery. It will change both our view of nature and our sense of where we belong in it.

A Summer Reading Pick for President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg

From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”

One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?

Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas.

Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become?

Featuring 27 photographs, 6 maps, and 25 illustrations/diagrams, this provocative and insightful work is sure to spark debate and is essential reading for aficionados of Jared Diamond, James Gleick, Matt Ridley, Robert Wright, and Sharon Moalem.

For the chapters currently available on Google Play presentation slides (Powerpoint and Keynote format) and multiple choice test banks are available for Professors using my eBook in the classroom. Please contact me via email at [email protected] if you would like to have access to these resources.

The various chapters of the Google Play version of Understanding Physical Geography are FREE for individual use in a non-classroom environment. This has been done to support life long learning. However, the content of Understanding Physical Geography is NOT FREE for use in college and university courses in countries that have a per capita GDP over $25,000 (US dollars) per year where more than three chapters are being used in the teaching of a course. More specifically, for university and college instructors using this work in such wealthier countries, in a credit-based course where a tuition fee is accessed, students should be instructed to purchase the paid version of this content on Google Play which is organized as one of six Parts (organized chapters). One exception to this request is a situation where a student is experiencing financial hardship. In this case, the student should use the individual chapters which are available from Google Play for free. The cost of these Parts works out to only $0.99 per chapter in USA dollars, a very small fee for my work. When the entire textbook (30 chapters) is finished its cost will be only $29.70 in USA dollars. This is far less expensive than similar textbooks from major academic publishing companies whose eBook are around $50.00 to $90.00. Further, revenue generated from the sale of this academic textbook will provide “the carrot” to entice me to continue working hard creating new and updated content. Thanks in advance to instructors and students who abide by these conditions.

IMPORTANT - This Google Play version is best viewed with a computer using Google Chrome, Firefox or Apple Safari browsers.

For the chapters currently available on Google Play presentation slides (Powerpoint and Keynote format) and multiple choice test banks are available for Professors using my eBook in the classroom. Please contact me via email at [email protected] if you would like to have access to these resources.

The various chapters of the Google Play version of Understanding Physical Geography are FREE for individual use in a non-classroom environment. This has been done to support life long learning. However, the content of Understanding Physical Geography is NOT FREE for use in college and university courses in countries that have a per capita GDP over $25,000 (US dollars) per year where more than three chapters are being used in the teaching of a course. More specifically, for university and college instructors using this work in such wealthier countries, in a credit-based course where a tuition fee is accessed, students should be instructed to purchase the paid version of this content on Google Play which is organized as one of six Parts (organized chapters). One exception to this request is a situation where a student is experiencing financial hardship. In this case, the student should use the individual chapters which are available from Google Play for free. The cost of these Parts works out to only $0.99 per chapter in USA dollars, a very small fee for my work. When the entire textbook (30 chapters) is finished its cost will be only $29.70 in USA dollars. This is far less expensive than similar textbooks from major academic publishing companies whose eBook are around $50.00 to $90.00. Further, revenue generated from the sale of this academic textbook will provide “the carrot” to entice me to continue working hard creating new and updated content. Thanks in advance to instructors and students who abide by these conditions.

IMPORTANT - This Google Play version is best viewed with a computer using Google Chrome, Firefox or Apple Safari browsers.

Take a journey through time and space into the discovery of the most captivating, detailed, indisputably genuine photographs of extraterrestrial beings that exist to date. Written from an eyewitness perspective, this book has it all: space craft of all sizes, transdimensional aliens, out-of-this world technology, alien abstract art and more. All of the images in the book are screenshots of frames from a film I took on an Apple iPhone in 2012, of a group of UFOs (unidentified flying objects, aka UAPs Unidentified Aerial Phenomena). The images were enhanced for clarity, often multiple times, using basic controls within photo enhancement apps… the results will absolutely blow your mind! Full disclosure of extraterrestrial life is upon us, are you ready? *Book one in a series of currently undetermined size. Stay tuned!

In The Universe, today's most influential science writers explain the science behind our evolving understanding of the universe and everything in it, including the cutting edge research and discoveries that are shaping our knowledge.

Lee Smolin reveals how math and cosmology are helping us create a theory of the whole universe. Benoit Mandelbrot looks back on a career devoted to fractal geometry. Neil Turok analyzes the fundamental laws of nature, what came before the big bang, and the possibility of a unified theory.

Seth Lloyd investigates the impact of computational revolutions and the informational revolution. Lawrence Krauss provides fresh insight into gravity, dark matter, and the energy of empty space. Brian Greene and Walter Isaacson illuminate the genius who revolutionized modern science: Albert Einstein. And much more.

Explore the universe with some of today's greatest minds: what it is, how it came into being, and what may happen next.

Fifty years ago, a young astronomer named Frank Drake first pointed a radio telescope at nearby stars in the hope of picking up a signal from an alien civilization. Thus began one of the boldest scientific projects in history, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). After a half-century of scanning the skies, however, astronomers have little to report but an eerie silence—eerie because many scientists are convinced that the universe is teeming with life. Physicist and astrobiologist Paul Davies has been closely involved with SETI for three decades and chairs the SETI Post-Detection Taskgroup, charged with deciding what to do if we’re suddenly confronted with evidence of alien intelligence. He believes the search so far has fallen into an anthropocentric trap—assuming that an alien species will look, think, and behave much like us. In this provocative book Davies refocuses the search, challenging existing ideas of what form an alien intelligence might take, how it might try to communicate with us, and how we should respond if it does.

Daniel Kahneman, uno de los pensadores más importantes del mundo, recibió el premio Nobel de Economía por su trabajo pionero en psicología sobre el modelo racional de la toma de decisiones. Sus ideas han tenido un profundo impacto en campos tan diversos como la economía, la medicina o la política, pero hasta ahora no había reunido la obra de su vida en un libro.

En Pensar rápido, pensar despacio, un éxito internacional, Kahneman nos ofrece una revolucionaria perspectiva del cerebro y explica los dos sistemas que modelan cómo pensamos. El sistema 1 es rápido, intuitivo y emocional, mientras que el sistema 2 es más lento, deliberativo y lógico. Kahneman expone la extraordinaria capacidad (y también los errores y los sesgos) del pensamiento rápido, y revela la duradera influencia de las impresiones intuitivas sobre nuestro pensamiento y nuestra conducta. El impacto de la aversión a la pérdida y el exceso de confianza en las estrategias empresariales, la dificultad de predecir lo que nos hará felices en el futuro, el reto de enmarcar adecuadamente los riesgos en el trabajo y en el hogar, el profundo efecto de los sesgos cognitivos sobre todo lo que hacemos, desde jugar en la Bolsa hasta planificar las vacaciones; todo esto solo puede ser comprendido si entendemos el funcionamiento conjunto de los dos sistemas a la hora de formular nuestros juicios y decisiones.

Al implicar al lector en una animada reflexión sobre cómo pensamos, Kahneman consigue revelar cuándo podemos confiar en nuestras intuiciones y cuándo no, y de qué modo podemos aprovechar los beneficios del pensamiento lento. Además, ofrece enseñanzas prácticas e iluminadoras sobre cómo se adoptan decisiones en la vida profesional o personal, y sobre cómo podemos usardistintas técnicas para protegernos de los fallos mentales que nos crean problemas. Pensar rápido, pensar despacio cambiará para siempre nuestra manera de pensar sobre cómo pensamos.

Reseñas:
«Los más entusiastas lo comparan con Galileo y Darwin.»
El Mundo

«Considerado uno de los mejores libros de 2011 por The New York Times, The Economist o The Wall Street Journal, Kahneman revela cuándo debemos confiar en nuestras intuiciones para aprovechar los beneficios del pensamiento lento.»
El Economista

In this global collaboration of essays, chefs and scientists advance culinary knowledge by testing hypotheses rooted in the physical and chemical properties of food. Using traditional and cutting-edge tools, ingredients, and techniques, these pioneers create, and sometimes revamp, dishes that respond to specific desires and serve up an original encounter with gastronomic practice.

From the seemingly mundane to the food fantastic—from grilled cheese sandwiches, pizzas, and soft-boiled eggs to Turkish ice cream, sugar glasses, and jellified beads—the essays in The Kitchen as Laboratory cover a range of creations and their history and culture. This collection will delight experts and amateurs alike, especially as restaurants rely more on science-based cooking and recreational cooks increasingly explore the physics and chemistry behind their art. Contributors end each essay with their personal thoughts on food, cooking, and science, offering rare insight into a professional’s passion for playing with food.

“Where else can one have fun pondering the acoustics of crunchy foods or the texture of an ice cream that stretches like a rubber band?”—Robert Wolke, author of What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained

Women in Space profiles 23 pioneers, including Eileen Collins, the first woman to command the space shuttle; Peggy Whitson, who logged more than a year in orbit aboard the International Space Station; and Mae Jemison, the first African American woman in space; as well as astronauts from Japan, Canada, Italy, South Korea, France, and more. Readers will also learn about the Mercury 13, American women selected by NASA in the late 1950s to train for spaceflight. Though they matched and sometimes surpassed their male counterparts in performance, they were ultimately denied the opportunity to head out to the launching pad. Their story, and the stories of the pilots, physicists, and doctors who followed them, demonstrate the vital role women have played in the quest for scientific understanding.