A biography of the eighteenth-century printer, publisher, inventor, scientist, and statesman who played an influential role in the early history of the United States.

A memoir from a world-renowned planetary scientist explores her remarkable life story, the struggles she faced as a woman in the field, and her work as the leader of NASA's Psyche mission to explore the largest known metal-rich asteroid.

The first major biography of Benjamin Franklin in more than sixty years, The First American is history on a grand scale -- a work of meticulous scholarship and a thoroughly engaging portrait of the foremost American of his day. Diplomat, scientist, philosopher, businessman, inventor, wit, and bon vivant, Benjamin Franklin was in every respect America's first Renaissance man. The eighteenth-century genius comes to life in this masterwork by acclaimed...

Following their adventure with Benjamin Franklin, Jack and Annie want to learn more about the Founding Father and search out facts about his life and accomplishments, including his electricity kite-flying experiment and his most famous inventions.

During World War Il, when the brand-new minted Jet Propulsion Laboratory needed quick-thinking mathematicians to calculate jet velocities and plot missile trajectories, they recruited an elite group of young women--known as "computers"--who, with only pencil, paper, and mathematical prowess, transformed rocket design and helped bring about America's first ballistic missiles. But they were never interested in developing weapons--their hearts lay in...

Presents the story of Grandin's "squeeze machine," describing her childhood love of building and design, as well as her sensitivities. As a young girl, Temple Grandin loved folding paper kites, making obstacle courses, and building lean-tos. But she really didn't like hugs. Temple wanted to be held-but to her, hugs felt like being stuffed inside the scratchiest sock in the world; like a tidal wave of dentist drills, sandpaper, and awful cologne,...

"Joanne Simpson made groundbreaking--or should we say cloudbreaking--discoveries about weather and how it worked. Born in Massachusetts in 1923, she became interested in clouds while sailing in Cape Cod. As a young adult, she went to the University of Chicago and began studying and then teaching meteorology. After the war, women were expected to go back to being homemakers, but Joanne instead received her Masters Degree and began a PhD program. She...

"In this book, Kandel recounts his remarkable career since receiving the Nobel in 2000... He takes readers through his lab's scientific advances, including research into how long-term memory is stored in the brain and age-related memory loss as well as the neuroscience of drug addiction and schizophrenia. Kandel relates how the Nobel gave him the opportunity to reach a far larger audience, which in turn allowed him to discover and pursue new directions....

"When John Wesley Powell became the first person to navigate the entire Colorado River, through the Grand Canyon, he completed what Lewis and Clark had begun nearly 70 years earlier--the final exploration of continental America. The son of an abolitionist preacher, a Civil War hero (who lost an arm at Shiloh), and a passionate naturalist and geologist, in 1869 Powell tackled the vast and dangerous gorge carved by the Colorado River and known today...

"The rollicking memoir from the cardiologist turned legendary scientist and winner of the Nobel Prize that revels in the joy of science and discovery." -- Amazon.com.