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Natural & Physical Sciences Books in this online selection represent only a sliver of what we offer in the store. If you've got a particular book in mind and want to check on its availability, call us at 415-362-8193.

1 2 >>>     sort list by title | author Spillover Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic David Quammen A masterpiece of science reporting that tracks the animal origins of emerging human diseases. The emergence of strange new diseases is a frightening problem that seems to be getting worse. In this age of speedy travel, it threatens a worldwide pandemic. 101 Quantum Questions What You Need to Know About the World You Can't See Kenneth W. Ford Ken Ford's mission is to help us understand the "great ideas" of quantum physics—ideas such as wave-particle duality, the uncertainty principle, superposition, and conservation. These fundamental concepts provide the structure for 101 Quantum Questions... The Violinist's Thumb and Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code Sam Kean From New York Times bestselling author Sam Kean comes more incredible stories of science, history, language, and music, as told by our own DNA. In The Disappearing Spoon, bestselling author Sam Kean unlocked the mysteries of the periodic table... How the Hippies Saved Physics Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival David Kaiser A lively, entertaining story that illuminates the relationship between creativity and scientific progress, How the Hippies Saved Physics takes us to a time when only the unlikeliest heroes could break the science world out of its rut. Life Everlasting The Animal Way of Death Bernd Heinrich When a good friend with a severe illness wrote, asking if he might have his "green burial" at Bernd Heinrich's hunting camp in Maine, it inspired the acclaimed biologist/author to investigate a subject that had long fascinated him. How exactly does... Darwin's Ghosts The Secret History of Evolution Rebecca Stott Christmas, 1859. Just one month after the publication of On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin received an unsettling letter. He had expected criticism; in fact, letters were arriving daily, most expressing outrage and accusations of heresy. The Universe in Zero Words The Story of Mathematics as Told Through Equations Dana Mackenzie The Universe in Zero Words tells the history of twenty-four great and beautiful equations that have shaped mathematics, science, and society--from the elementary (1+1=2) to the sophisticated (the Black-Scholes formula for financial derivatives)... The Social Conquest of Earth Edward O. Wilson Refashioning the story of human evolution in a work that is certain to generate headlines, Wilson draws on his remarkable knowledge of biology and social behavior to show that group selection, not kin selection, is the primary driving force of human... In the Sierra Mountain Writings Kenneth Rexroth, Kim Stanley Robinson Nature writings by one of America's greatest poets, written out of a deep experience of the Sierras. Over the course of his life, Kenneth Rexroth wrote about the Sierra Nevada better than anyone. Progressive in terms of environmental ethics and... Turing's Cathedral The Origins of the Digital Universe George Dyson "It is possible to invent a single machine which can be used to compute any computable sequence," twenty-four-year-old Alan Turing announced in 1936. The Grand Design Stephen Hawking When and how did the universe begin? Why are we here? What is the nature of reality? Is the apparent "grand design" of our universe evidence of a benevolent creator who set things in motion—or does science offer another explanation? Complexity A Guided Tour Melanie Mitchell What enables individually simple insects like ants to act with such precision and purpose as a group? How do trillions of neurons produce something as extraordinarily complex as consciousness? In this remarkably clear and companionable book, leading... Sex at Dawn How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships Cacilda Jetha, Christopher Ryan In this controversial, thought-provoking, and brilliant book, renegade thinkers Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha debunk almost everything we "know" about sex, weaving together convergent, frequently overlooked evidence from anthropology... The Disappearing Spoon And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements Sam Kean Why did Gandhi hate iodine (I, 53)? How did radium (Ra, 88) nearly ruin Marie Curie's reputation? And why is gallium (Ga, 31) the go-to element for laboratory pranksters?* The Periodic Table is a crowning scientific achievement, but it's also a... 1 2 >>>