"In The Disappearing Spoon, bestselling author Sam Kean unlocked the mysteries of the periodic table. In THE VIOLINIST'S THUMB, he explores the wonders of the magical building block of life: DNA. There are genes to explain crazy cat ladies, why other people have no fingerprints, and why some people survive nuclear bombs. Genes illuminate everything from JFK's bronze skin (it wasn't a tan) to Einstein's genius. They prove that Neanderthals and humans...

"Any reader of science fiction or viewer of Star Trek will be awake to the dream that there may be life elsewhere in our universe that isn't like life here on Earth. Maybe, like E.T., it has new letters in its genetic alphabet! Maybe it's made of silicon! Maybe it gets around on wheels! Or maybe it doesn't. In The Equations of Life, biologist Charles Cockell makes the surprising argument that the Universe constrains life, making its evolutionary outcomes...

Evolution was not discovered single-handedly, Rebecca Stott argues, contrary to what has become standard lore, but is an idea that emerged over many centuries, advanced by daring individuals across the globe who had the imagination to speculate on nature's extraordinary ways, and who had the courage to articulate such speculations at a time when to do so was often considered heresy.

"The Evolution of Birds explores what we know about bird evolution, from theories of the past to recent breakthroughs in research. This title also looks at the science behind the research, from studying fossils to analyzing DNA" -- www.abdobooks.com

"This humorous informational picture book about the history of the universe answers some of the biggest questions humans have ever asked - like how the universe began and where we came from. Young readers will learn all about the Big Bang theory, how our solar system and planet were formed, how life began in the oceans and moved to land, what happened to the dinosaurs and how humans evolved from apes to explore, build communities all over the world...and...

This is the story of all of us. The unauthorised biography of you (abridged). Charting your incredible journey from Big Bang to birth (in about the time it takes to eat your breakfast), this is a book created to raise more questions that it answers.

"What is life? How did it start? Long, long ago, no one knows exactly where or when, a tiny bubble formed that was a Little Bit Different. It was the first living cell. Everyone's ancestor. And so the story of life begins."--

"It has taken billions of years for Earth to become the planet it is today. When Planet Earth Was New looks back to the very beginning, using a poetic approach grounded in scientific fact to give an overview of how the planet has changed over time: from hot lava to the formation of oceans to the evolution of living things in water and on land. The book also includes the relatively recent evolution of humans - who are just a tiny speck in the sweep...

Follow Victorian naturalist and explorer Alfred Russel Wallace on his intrepid journeys across the globe and find out how he developed his own theory of evolution in this beautiful illustrated gift hardback. In 1858, Alfred Russel Wallace's travels in the Amazon Basin and Malay Archipelago led him to discover natural selection independently of Charles Darwin. Darwin's Rival traces Wallace's life from his childhood in the Welsh countryside to his rise...