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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 Gulp Adventures on the Alimentary Canal Mary Roach The irresistible, ever-curious, and always best-selling Mary Roach returns with a new adventure to the invisible realm we carry around inside. 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... 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)... 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. 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 Poisoner's Handbook Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York Deborah Blum Fascinating and entertaining, tinged with both humor and horror, this account of the early years of forensic medicine in New York City is near unputdownable. We follow the city's Medical Examiner and head toxicologist as they develop the techniques for... Quadrivium The Four Classical Liberal Arts of Number, Geometry, Music, & Cosmology Anthony Ashton, Miranda Lundy, John Martineau,Dr. Jason Martineau, Daud Sutton The quadrivium—the classical curriculum—comprises the four liberal arts of number, geometry, music, and cosmology. It was studied from antiquity to the Renaissance as a way of glimpsing the nature of reality. Geometry is number in space; music is... I Am a Strange Loop Douglas R. Hofstadter Can thought arise out of matter? Can self, soul, consciousness, “I” arise out of mere matter? If it cannot, then how can you or I be here? I Am a Strange Loop argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the “strange loop”—a... The Selfish Gene 30th Anniversary Edition Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins' brilliant reformulation of the theory of natural selection has the rare distinction of having provoked as much excitement and interest outside the scientific community as within it. His theories have helped change the whole nature of... QED The Strange Theory of Light and Matter Richard P. Feynman Celebrated for his brilliantly quirky insights into the physical world, Nobel laureate Richard Feynman also possessed an extraordinary talent for explaining difficult concepts to the general public. Here Feynman provides a classic and definitive... The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill A Love Story . . . with Wings Mark Bittner Like a lot of young people in the 1970s, Mark Bittner took the path of the “dharma bum.” When the counterculture faded, Mark held on, seeking shelter in the nooks and crannies of San Francisco’s fabled bohemian neighborhood, North... Godel, Escher, Bach An Eternal Golden Braid Douglas R. Hofstadter This groundbreaking Pulitzer Prize-winning book sets the standard for interdisciplinary writing, exploring the patterns and symbols in the thinking of mathematician Kurt Godel, artist M.C. Escher, and composer Johann Sebastian Bach. A Brief History of Time Stephen Hawking A Brief History of Time, published in 1988, was a landmark volume in science writing and in world-wide acclaim and popularity, with more than 9 million copies in print globally. 1 2 >>>