Category Archives: W. W. Norton & Company

Black Holes & Time Warps – Kip Thorne

by Myrna Posted on September 9, 2017

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Black Holes & Time Warps

Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy (Commonwealth Fund Book Program)

Kip Thorne

Genre: Physics

Price: $1.99

Publish Date: January 17, 1995

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Seller: W. W. Norton


Ever since Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity burst upon the world in 1915 some of the most brilliant minds of our century have sought to decipher the mysteries bequeathed by that theory, a legacy so unthinkable in some respects that even Einstein himself rejected them. Which of these bizarre phenomena, if any, can really exist in our universe? Black holes, down which anything can fall but from which nothing can return; wormholes, short spacewarps connecting regions of the cosmos; singularities, where space and time are so violently warped that time ceases to exist and space becomes a kind of foam; gravitational waves, which carry symphonic accounts of collisions of black holes billions of years ago; and time machines, for traveling backward and forward in time. Kip Thorne, along with fellow theorists Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose, a cadre of Russians, and earlier scientists such as Oppenheimer, Wheeler and Chandrasekhar, has been in the thick of the quest to secure answers. In this masterfully written and brilliantly informed work of scientific history and explanation, Dr. Thorne, the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech, leads his readers through an elegant, always human, tapestry of interlocking themes, coming finally to a uniquely informed answer to the great question: what principles control our universe and why do physicists think they know the things they think they know? Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time has been one of the greatest best-sellers in publishing history. Anyone who struggled with that book will find here a more slowly paced but equally mind-stretching experience, with the added fascination of a rich historical and human component.

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Black Holes & Time Warps – Kip Thorne

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Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data – Charles Wheelan

by Myrna Posted on September 7, 2017

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Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data

Charles Wheelan

Genre: Mathematics

Price: $12.99

Publish Date: January 7, 2013

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Seller: W. W. Norton


“Brilliant, funny . . . the best math teacher you never had.”—San Francisco Chronicle Once considered tedious, the field of statistics is rapidly evolving into a discipline Hal Varian, chief economist at Google, has actually called “sexy.” From batting averages and political polls to game shows and medical research, the real-world application of statistics continues to grow by leaps and bounds. How can we catch schools that cheat on standardized tests? How does Netflix know which movies you’ll like? What is causing the rising incidence of autism? As best-selling author Charles Wheelan shows us in Naked Statistics, the right data and a few well-chosen statistical tools can help us answer these questions and more. For those who slept through Stats 101, this book is a lifesaver. Wheelan strips away the arcane and technical details and focuses on the underlying intuition that drives statistical analysis. He clarifies key concepts such as inference, correlation, and regression analysis, reveals how biased or careless parties can manipulate or misrepresent data, and shows us how brilliant and creative researchers are exploiting the valuable data from natural experiments to tackle thorny questions. And in Wheelan’s trademark style, there’s not a dull page in sight. You’ll encounter clever Schlitz Beer marketers leveraging basic probability, an International Sausage Festival illuminating the tenets of the central limit theorem, and a head-scratching choice from the famous game show Let’s Make a Deal—and you’ll come away with insights each time. With the wit, accessibility, and sheer fun that turned Naked Economics into a bestseller, Wheelan defies the odds yet again by bringing another essential, formerly unglamorous discipline to life.

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Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data – Charles Wheelan

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How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival – David Kaiser

by Myrna Posted on September 5, 2017

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How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival

David Kaiser

Genre: History

Price: $1.99

Publish Date: June 27, 2011

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Seller: W. W. Norton


"Meticulously researched and unapologetically romantic, How the Hippies Saved Physics makes the history of science fun again." —Science In the 1970s, an eccentric group of physicists in Berkeley, California, banded together to explore the wilder side of science. Dubbing themselves the "Fundamental Fysiks Group," they pursued an audacious, speculative approach to physics, studying quantum entanglement in terms of Eastern mysticism and psychic mind reading. As David Kaiser reveals, these unlikely heroes spun modern physics in a new direction, forcing mainstream physicists to pay attention to the strange but exciting underpinnings of quantum theory.

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How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival – David Kaiser

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That’s Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion – Rachel Herz PhD PhD

by Myrna Posted on September 2, 2017

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That’s Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion

Rachel Herz PhD PhD

Genre: Life Sciences

Price: $1.99

Publish Date: January 23, 2012

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Seller: W. W. Norton


"A lively look at all things revolting." —New York Times Book Review Why do we watch horror movies? What is the best way to persuade someone to quit smoking? And what on earth is the appeal of competitive eating? In this lively, colorful book, Rachel Herz answers these questions and more, shedding light on an incredible range of human traits—from food preferences and sexual attraction to moral codes and political ideology—by examining them through the lens of a fascinating subject: disgust. Combining lucid scientific explanations and fascinating research with a healthy dose of humor, That’s Disgusting illuminates issues that are central to our lives: love, hate, fear, empathy, prejudice, humor, and happiness.

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That’s Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion – Rachel Herz PhD PhD

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The Animal Connection: A New Perspective on What Makes Us Human – Pat Shipman

by Myrna Posted on August 25, 2017

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The Animal Connection: A New Perspective on What Makes Us Human

Pat Shipman

Genre: Life Sciences

Price: $1.99

Publish Date: June 13, 2011

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Seller: W. W. Norton


"Both animal lovers and readers who are interested in human psychology will not be able to put this fascinating book down." —Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation and Animals Make Us Human Why do humans all over the world take in and nurture other animals? This behavior might seem maladaptive—after all, every mouthful given to another species is one that you cannot eat—but in this heartening new study, acclaimed anthropologist Pat Shipman reveals that our propensity to domesticate and care for other animals is in fact among our species' greatest strengths. For the last 2.6 million years, Shipman explains, humans who coexisted with animals enjoyed definite adaptive and cultural advantages. To illustrate this point, Shipman gives us a tour of the milestones in human civilization-from agriculture to art and even language—and describes how we reached each stage through our unique relationship with other animals. The Animal Connection reaffirms our love of animals as something both innate and distinctly human, revealing that the process of domestication not only changed animals but had a resounding impact on us as well.

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The Animal Connection: A New Perspective on What Makes Us Human – Pat Shipman

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Darwin’s Armada: Four Voyages and the Battle for the Theory of Evolution – Iain Mccalman

by Myrna Posted on August 22, 2017

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Darwin’s Armada: Four Voyages and the Battle for the Theory of Evolution

Iain Mccalman

Genre: History

Price: $1.99

Publish Date: November 15, 2010

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Seller: W. W. Norton


"Sparkling…an extraordinary true-adventure story, complete with trials, tribulations and moments of exultation." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review Award-winning cultural historian Iain McCalman tells the stories of Charles Darwin and his staunchest supporters: Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley, and Alfred Wallace. Beginning with the somber morning of April 26, 1882—the day of Darwin's funeral—Darwin's Armada steps back and recounts the lives and scientific discoveries of each of these explorers, who campaigned passionately in the war of ideas over evolution and advanced the scope of Darwin's work.

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Darwin’s Armada: Four Voyages and the Battle for the Theory of Evolution – Iain Mccalman

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The Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth – Richard Conniff

by Myrna Posted on August 22, 2017

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The Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth
Richard Conniff

Genre: Science & Nature

Price: $1.99

Publish Date: November 1, 2010

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Seller: W. W. Norton


The story of bold adventurers who risked death to discover strange life forms in the farthest corners of planet Earth. Beginning with Linnaeus, a colorful band of explorers made it their mission to travel to the most perilous corners of the planet and bring back astonishing new life forms. They attracted followers ranging from Thomas Jefferson, who laid out mastodon bones on the White House floor, to twentieth-century doctors who used their knowledge of new species to conquer epidemic diseases. Acclaimed science writer Richard Conniff brings these daredevil “species seekers” to vivid life. Alongside their globe-spanning tales of adventure, he recounts some of the most dramatic shifts in the history of human thought. At the start, everyone accepted that the Earth had been created for our benefit. We weren’t sure where vegetable ended and animal began, we couldn’t classify species, and we didn’t understand the causes of disease. But all that changed as the species seekers introduced us to the pantheon of life on Earth—and our place within it.

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The Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth – Richard Conniff

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Dawn Light: Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways to Start the Day – Diane Ackerman

by Myrna Posted on August 9, 2017

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Dawn Light: Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways to Start the Day – Diane Ackerman

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Stormchasers: The Hurricane Hunters and Their Fateful Flight into Hurricane Janet – David Toomey

by Myrna Posted on July 18, 2017

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Stormchasers: The Hurricane Hunters and Their Fateful Flight into Hurricane Janet
David Toomey

Genre: Nature

Price: $1.99

Publish Date: June 17, 2003

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Seller: W. W. Norton


A riveting story of the first Hurricane Hunters, and the one crew who paid the ultimate price. “In a virtual age when tempests are monitored by global positioning and The Weather Channel, Stormchasers reminds us that our first understanding of hurricanes was directly built on the risks and sacrifices of living, breathing heroes,” writes Hampton Sides. In September 1955, Navy Lieutenant Commander Grover B. Windham and a crew of eight flew out of Guantánamo Bay into the eye of Hurricane Janet swirling in the Caribbean: a routine weather reconnaissance mission from which they never returned. In the wake of World War II, the Air Force and the Navy had discovered a new civilian arena where daring pilots could test their courage and skill. These Hurricane Hunters flew into raging storms to gauge their strength and predict their paths. Without computer, global positioning, or satellite support, they relied on rudimentary radar systems to locate the hurricane’s eye and estimated the drift of their aircraft by looking at windblown waves below. Drawing from Navy documents and interviews with members of the squadron and relatives of the crew, Stormchasers reconstructs the ill-fated mission of Windham’s crew from preflight checks to the chilling moment of their final transmission.

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Stormchasers: The Hurricane Hunters and Their Fateful Flight into Hurricane Janet – David Toomey

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Anatomies: A Cultural History of the Human Body – Hugh Aldersey-Williams

by Myrna Posted on July 18, 2017

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Anatomies: A Cultural History of the Human Body
Hugh Aldersey-Williams

Genre: Life Sciences

Price: $1.99

Publish Date: June 3, 2013

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Seller: W. W. Norton


“A marvelous, organ-by-organ journey through the body eclectic…Irresistible [and] impressive.” —John J. Ross, Wall Street Journal The human body is the most fraught and fascinating, talked-about and taboo, unique yet universal fact of our lives. It is the inspiration for art, the subject of science, and the source of some of the greatest stories ever told. In Anatomies, acclaimed author of Periodic Tales Hugh Aldersey-Williams brings his entertaining blend of science, history, and culture to bear on this richest of subjects. In an engaging narrative that ranges from ancient body art to plastic surgery today and from head to toe, Aldersey-Williams explores the corporeal mysteries that make us human: Why are some people left-handed and some blue-eyed? What is the funny bone, anyway? Why do some cultures think of the heart as the seat of our souls and passions, while others place it in the liver? A journalist with a knack for telling a story, Aldersey-Williams takes part in a drawing class, attends the dissection of a human body, and visits the doctor’s office and the morgue. But Anatomies draws not just on medical science and Aldersey-Williams’s reporting. It draws also on the works of philosophers, writers, and artists from throughout history. Aldersey-Williams delves into our shared cultural heritage—Shakespeare to Frankenstein, Rembrandt to 2001: A Space Odyssey—to reveal how attitudes toward the human body are as varied as human history, as he explains the origins and legacy of tattooing, shrunken heads, bloodletting, fingerprinting, X-rays, and more. From Adam’s rib to van Gogh’s ear to Einstein’s brain, Anatomies is a treasure trove of surprising facts and stories and a wonderful embodiment of what Aristotle wrote more than two millennia ago: “The human body is more than the sum of its parts.”

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Anatomies: A Cultural History of the Human Body – Hugh Aldersey-Williams

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