Light Years (eBook)

The Extraordinary Story of Mankind's Fascination with Light

Brian Clegg

This is the story of light and the people who were determined to unlock the secrets of one of the greatest puzzles of the Universe.

Acclaimed science writer Brian Clegg recounts how civilisations from the Ancient Egyptians to the Mayans understood light spiritually, and looks at the first scientific grapplings with light by the ancient Chinese sage Mo Ti, the Greek philosopher Empedocles, Arab genius Alhazen and others.

Clegg also explores the contribution of artists such as Brunellschi, Leonardo de Vinci and Durer to our understanding of light and examines the great revolutionaries of light theory including Galileo, Descartes, Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday and Albert Einstein.

In this new edition of one of his best-loved books, Clegg finally discusses the work of scientists such as Maxwell, Edison and Gould that led to light-driven inventions from the camera to the laser, CDs and optical computers and explains the mind-bending advances of quantum physics.

Science writer Brian Clegg studied physics at Cambridge University and specialises in making the strangest aspects of the universe, from infinity to time travel and quantum theory, accessible to the general reader. He is editor of www.popularscience.co.uk and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. His previous books include Inflight Science, The Universe Inside You, Dice World, The Quantum Age and Introducing Infinity: A Graphic Guide.

A Practical Guide to Well-being (eBook)

Live Well & Stress-Free

Patricia Furness-Smith

This book is full of expert, practical advice which teaches you to use the latest scientific knowledge to achieve a healthy state of mind and body.

BECOME MORE ENERGIZED by adopting quality sleep patterns.

OPTIMIZE MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH by harnessing your natural ability to heal.

ACHIEVE CALM by learning to manage your stress levels.

DISCOVER HAPPINESS AND FULFILLMENT by investing in yourself and others.

Patricia Furness-Smith is a psychologist and accredited practitioner with over 25 years of experience in clinical practice. Her other books include Overcoming Phobias: A Practical Guide and Overcoming Problem Eating: A Practical Guide, and she co-authored Flying with Confidence: The Proven Programme to Fix your Flying Fears, based on the work she does with British Airways and its 'Flying with Confidence' training.

It's Not About the Shark (eBook)

How to Solve Unsolvable Problems

David Niven

When we have a problem, most of us zero in, take it apart, and focus until we have it solved. Steven Spielberg tried that when the scenes with his expensive prosthetic shark just weren’t scary. Psychologist, social scientist and million-selling author David Niven shows us that focusing on the problem is exactly the wrong way to find an answer. And Jaws built its famous menace precisely because the shark hardly ever appears in shot.

Putting problems at the centre of our thoughts shuts down our creative abilities, depletes stamina, and feeds insecurities. Niven shows how working harder, and having absolute confidence in finding a solution, actually hides answers.

It’s Not About the Shark shows how to transform your daily life with a simple but rock-solid principle: If you start by thinking about your problems, you’ll never make it to a solution. If you start by thinking about a solution, you’ll never worry about your problems again.

DAVID NIVEN is known internationally for translating powerful research findings into practical advice anyone can apply to their daily lives. David’s The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People – and seven other titles in the series – have sold more than 1 million copies in the U.S., and has been translated in 30 languages around the globe. His work has been featured in USA TODAY, US Weekly, The Washington Post, Reader’s Digest, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Health.

I, Superorganism (eBook)

Learning to love your inner ecosystem

Jon Turney

Every human body carries a secret cargo: a huge population of microorganisms living in the mouth, on the skin, in the gut. They help digest our food. They make essential vitamins. They break down toxins and metabolise drugs. They exert an invisible influence on our hormones, our immune systems, perhaps even our brains.

This is the human microbiome – a living, shifting system of previously unimagined importance and complexity.

In this first book-length account of this new realm of human biology, award-winning science writer Jon Turney explores the microbiome in detail, charting its birth and development, investigating how it works, and assessing its many implications for our health, including its potential to shed new light on conditions such as bowel diseases, cancer, allergies and asthma. He considers the potential impacts of our modern disinfectant and antibiotic obsessions, and ponders a future of designer microbiomes and mood-altering probiotics.

This book will make you think again about your relationship with your body, your habits – even your sense of who and what you are – as it reveals what it means to be a 21st century superorganism.

Jon Turney is a science writer and former features editor of the Times Higher Education Supplement. He has taught at Imperial College and was head of the Department of Science and Technology Studies at UCL. He was popular science editor at Penguin Press and is the author, among much else, of The Rough Guide to the Future (Rough Guides, 2010) and Lovelock and Gaia (Icon, 2003), and editor of A Quark for Mister Mark: 101 Poems about Science (Faber, 2000).

I, Superorganism (Paperback)

Learning to love your inner ecosystem

Jon Turney

Every human body carries a secret cargo: a huge population of microorganisms living in the mouth, on the skin, in the gut. They help digest our food. They make essential vitamins. They break down toxins and metabolise drugs. They exert an invisible influence on our hormones, our immune systems, perhaps even our brains.

This is the human microbiome – a living, shifting system of previously unimagined importance and complexity.

In this first book-length account of this new realm of human biology, award-winning science writer Jon Turney explores the microbiome in detail, charting its birth and development, investigating how it works, and assessing its many implications for our health, including its potential to shed new light on conditions such as bowel diseases, cancer, allergies and asthma. He considers the potential impacts of our modern disinfectant and antibiotic obsessions, and ponders a future of designer microbiomes and mood-altering probiotics.

This book will make you think again about your relationship with your body, your habits – even your sense of who and what you are – as it reveals what it means to be a 21st century superorganism.

Jon Turney is a science writer and former features editor of the Times Higher Education Supplement. He has taught at Imperial College and was head of the Department of Science and Technology Studies at UCL. He was popular science editor at Penguin Press and is the author, among much else, of The Rough Guide to the Future (Rough Guides, 2010) and Lovelock and Gaia (Icon, 2003), and editor of A Quark for Mister Mark: 101 Poems about Science (Faber, 2000).

Things I Wish I'd Known (eBook)

Women tell the truth about motherhood

Victoria Young

THE PERFECT GIFT FOR MOTHER'S DAY!

Look at the front cover of any parenting book and what do you see? Glowing mothers-to-be, or pristine, beautifully-behaved children.

But the reality is, your pregnancy might be a sweaty, moody rollercoaster, and your children will almost certainly spend the first few years of their lives covered in food, tears and worse. And the experience is no less magical for it.

In this no-holds-barred collection of essays, prominent women authors, journalists and TV personalities explore the truth about becoming mothers. Covering topics from labour to the breastapo, twins to IVF, weaning to post-birth sex, and with writers including Cathy Kelly, Adele Parks, Kathy Lette and Lucy Porter (and many more), Things I Wish I’d Known is a reassuring, moving and often hilarious collection that will speak to mothers – and mothers-to-be – everywhere.

Victoria Young is a journalist and magazine editor. She started her career in New York where she worked at the New York Times for three years, then returned to London to work at YOU magazine, Red and the Evening Standard. She's written for the Guardian, the Independent, Grazia, Marie Claire and was also script advisor on BAFTA award-winning screenplay Kiss of Life directed by Emily Young. Most recently she was assistant editor of woman&home magazine. Tory lives with her husband and son in London.

Junk DNA (eBook)

A Journey Through the Dark Matter of the Genome

Nessa Carey

From the author of the acclaimed The Epigenetics Revolution (‘A book that would have had Darwin swooning’ – Guardian) comes another thrilling exploration of the cutting edge of human science.

For decades after the structure of DNA was identified, scientists focused purely on genes, the regions of the genome that contain codes for the production of proteins. Other regions – 98% of the human genome – were dismissed as ‘junk’. But in recent years researchers have discovered that variations in this ‘junk’ DNA underlie many previously intractable diseases, and they can now generate new approaches to tackling them.

Nessa Carey explores, for the first time for a general audience, the incredible story behind a controversy that has generated unusually vituperative public exchanges between scientists. She shows how junk DNA plays an important role in areas as diverse as genetic diseases, viral infections, sex determination in mammals, human biological complexity, disease treatments, even evolution itself – and reveals how we are only now truly unlocking its secrets, more than half a century after Crick and Watson won their Nobel prize for the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1962.

Nessa Carey has a PhD in virology from the University of Edinburgh and worked in the biotech and pharma industry for thirteen years. She is a Visiting Professor at Imperial College, London. Her previous book, The Epigenetics Revolution, was published by Icon Books in 2011. and described as a 'book that would have had Darwin swooning – anyone seriously interested in who we are and how we function should read this.'

How to be a Knowledge Ninja (eBook)

Study smarter. Focus better. Achieve more.

Graham Allcott

In the world of smartphones, instant internet access and on-demand documentaries, studying should be easier than ever. Yet all this background noise can make us unfocused and inefficient learners.

So how can you cut through the distractions and get back to productive, rewarding learning? Four little words: Think like a Ninja.

Paralysed by procrastination? Harness some Ninja Focus to get things started. Overwhelmed by exam nerves? You need some Zen-like Calm to turn those butterflies into steely focus. Surrounded by too many scrappy notes and unfinished to-do lists? Get Weapon-savvy with the latest organizational technology.

With nine Ninja techniques to learn, there is a solution here for everyone who wants to learn better – and they don’t involve giving up the rest of your life.

Written by one of the world’s foremost productivity experts, How to be a Knowledge Ninja is a fun, accessible and practical guide on how to get the most out of your studying and love the quest for knowledge again.

Graham Allcott is the author of How to be a Productivity Ninja and the founder of Think Productive, one of the world’s leading productivity training companies. Think Productive’s diverse list of clients includes eBay, the British Library and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Get the Truth (eBook)

Former CIA Officers Teach You How to Persuade Anyone to Tell All

Michael Floyd

Philip Houston Susan Carnicero

Former CIA agents and the bestselling authors of Spy the Lie, Philip Houston, Mike Floyd and Susan Carnicero are among the world’s best at recognising deceptive behaviour and drawing out the truth from even the most accomplished liars.

Using techniques developed in real-life counterterrorism and criminal investigations, in Get the Truth they present a step-by-step guide that empowers readers to elicit the truth from others – whether that’s in the boardroom, the classroom, or our own homes.

Using thrilling anecdotes from their careers in counterintelligence, and with easy-to-follow instructions, the authors provide a foolproof means of getting absolutely anybody to give an honest answer.

Get the Truth is the easy and effective way to learn how to get to the truth every time.

PHILIP HOUSTON's twenty-five-year career with the CIA included thousands of interviews and interrogations for the CIA and other federal agencies, both as an investigator and as a polygraph examiner. He, along with former CIA agents MIKE FLOYD and SUSAN CARNICERO, founded Qverity, a provider of behavioral analysis and screening services for private- and public-sector clients worldwide. Houston is also the author of Spy the Lie.

The New Wild (eBook)

Why invasive species will be nature's salvation

Fred Pearce

Veteran environmental journalist Fred Pearce used to think of invasive species as evil interlopers spoiling pristine ‘natural’ ecosystems. Most conservationists would agree. But what if traditional ecology is wrong, and true environmentalists should be applauding the invaders?

In The New Wild, Pearce goes on a journey to rediscover what conservation should really be about. He explores ecosystems from Pacific islands to the Australian outback to the Thames estuary, digs into the questionable costs of invader species, and reveals the outdated intellectual sources of our ideas about the balance of nature.

Keeping out alien species looks increasingly flawed. The new ecologists looking afresh at how species interact in the wild believe we should celebrate the dynamism of alien species and the novel ecosystems they create.

In an era of climate change and widespread ecological damage, we must find ways to help nature regenerate. Embracing the ‘new wild’ is our best chance.

Fred Pearce has been environment and development consultant at New Scientist magazine since 1992, reporting from 85 countries. He has written fourteen previous books, including When the Rivers Run Dry and The Land Grabbers, which have been translated into 23 languages. He also writes for the Guardian and is a regular broadcaster on radio and TV. He won a lifetime achievement award for his journalism from the Association of British Science Writers in 2011, and was voted UK Environment Journalist of the Year in 2001.

Get Your Inbox Down to Zero (eBook)

from How to be a Productivity Ninja

Graham Allcott

Is your inbox overloaded? Feel like your email is controlling your life?

You need the ninja way of email management!

In this short ebook, an edited extract from Graham Allcott’s acclaimed How to be a Productivity Ninja, you’ll learn the simple skills to get your inbox down to zero – and keep it there, day after day.

Following Allcott’s straightforward advice, anyone – from a student to a Chief Executive – can keep on top of their messages and feel in command, calm and up to date. You’ll learn to be ruthless, to separate thinking from doing, and how to make your email inbox work for you – and not the other way around!

Graham Allcott is the author of How to be a Productivity Ninja, How to be a Knowledge Ninja and Introducing Productivity. He is the founder of Think Productive, one of the world’s leading productivity training companies, whose diverse list of clients include eBay, the British Library and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

How Thinking About Sex Helps You Write Essays (eBook)

From How to be a Knowledge Ninja

Graham Allcott

Essay writing is a drag, right? Not if it’s done the ninja way!

In this short ebook, an edited extract from Graham Allcott’s brilliant How to be a Knowledge Ninja, you’ll learn how to write an essay – whether it’s for an article, a dissertation or an assignment.

Allcott shows how the best way to start an essay is by not writing anything at all, and how Ninja Preparedness can save countless headaches further down the track. He reminds us that the best essays are those where our personalities shine through, and also shares his Ninja cheats – expert tips for last-minute essay crise

Graham Allcott is the author of How to be a Productivity Ninja, How to be a Knowledge Ninja and Introducing Productivity. He is the founder of Think Productive, one of the world’s leading productivity training companies, whose diverse list of clients include eBay, the British Library and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Einstein's Masterwork (eBook)

1915 and the General Theory of Relativity

John Gribbin

In 1915, Albert Einstein unveiled his masterwork – a theory, in his words, ‘of incomparable beauty’: the General Theory of Relativity. It is sometimes overshadowed – wrongly, argues John Gribbin – by his work of 1905, the Special Theory of Relativity and E = mc≤.

Just over 100 years later, the first direct detection of gravitational radiation is seen as the ultimate proof of the General Theory’s accuracy.

The General Theory describes the evolution of the Universe, black holes, the behaviour of orbiting neutron stars, and why clocks run slower on Earth than in space. It even suggests the possibility of time travel.

In this ‘beautifully written and highly accessible account of the genesis of a great theory’ (Physics World), Gribbin vividly illustrates what an incomparable scientist Albert Einstein really was.

JOHN GRIBBIN is one of the world’s best-known and bestselling popular science authors, described as ‘one of the finest and most prolific writers of popular science around’ by the Spectator. His numerous books include In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat (Bantam, 1984), Science: A History (Penguin, 2010), Erwin Schrödinger and the Quantum Revolution (Black Swan, 2013) and many more. He lives with his wife Mary in Sussex.

30-Second Twentieth Century (eBook)

The 50 most significant ideas and events, each explained in half a minute

Jonathan T. Reynolds

You probably know, or think you know, quite a bit about what happened in the 20th century – chances are, if you’re reading this, you lived through at least some of it – and you may have referenced the Cuban Missile Crisis, the double helix, or the Wall Street Crash in conversation. But even for people who were there, it was the fastest-moving hundred years in history, so refresh your memory with these pacey profiles on everything from Sputnik to Stonewall.

Twentieth Century presents a unique approach to modern history, condensing 100 years of innovation and art, politics and conflict, triumph and disaster, into 50 graphic snapshots that offer an instant appreciation of the way the world revolves and evolves. Consider which events define a period of history and why. From the Red Army to Black Monday, from Woodstock to the World Wide Web, this is the fastest way to travel in time.

Editor Jonathan T. Reynolds is Professor of History at Northern Kentucky University, USA. He is a Fulbright Scholar, and has received the Aggrey Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Milburn Outstanding Professor Award. He is the author of several books, including Africa in World History (with Erik Gilbert) and Sovereignty and Struggle: Africa and Africans in the Era of the Cold War. He teaches courses in African History, History of Imperialism, World History, the History of Food and Historical Methodology.

30-Second Evolution (eBook)

The 50 most significant ideas and events, each explained in half a minute

Mark Fellowes

Nicholas Battey

Adapt or die: it’s nature’s most famous imperative. But how does evolution actually happen? It’s too slow to see, but it’s going on all around you, all the time. Even if you’re on top of the key terms – variation? Natural selection? Parent-offspring conflict? – you still need some context to put them in. From populations to speciation and polymorphism to evolutionary psychology, here’s the one-stop source for all you need to know.

Evolution unlocks the laboratory of life, dissecting it into the 50 most significant topics that provide the missing links to understand the natural world’s four-billion-year ancestry and the process of natural selection in which species either adapt in myriad ways – mutation, ingenuity, and intelligence – to meet the challenges of a changing environment, or die. Unravel the development of living organisms, at micro and macro level – from genes to geniuses.

Mark Fellowes is Head of the School of Biological Sciences and Nicholas Battey is Head of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Reading, England. Together, their expertise spans the diversity of their subject: Professor Battey’s background is in cells, genes, and plants; Professor Fellowes’s is in ecology, evolution, animals, and the interactions between species.

Finding Home (eBook)

The Real Stories of Migrant Britain

Emily Dugan

Award-winning reporter Emily Dugan’s Finding Home follows the tumultuous lives of a group of immigrants, all facing intense challenges in their quest to live in the UK.

Syrian refugee Emad set up the Free Syrian League and worked illegally in the UK to pay for his mother to be smuggled across the Mediterranean on a perilous trip from Turkey. Even if she survives the journey, Emad knows it will be an uphill struggle to get her into Britain.

Australian therapist Harley risks deportation despite serving the NHS for ten years and being told by the Home Office she could stay. Teaching assistant Klaudia is one of thousands of Polish people now living in Boston, Lincolnshire – a microcosm of poorly managed migration. Aderonke, a leading Manchester LGBT activist, lives in a tiny B&B room in Salford with her girlfriend, Happiness, and faces deportation and persecution.

Dugan’s timely and acutely observed book reveals the intense personal dramas of ordinary men and women as they struggle to find somewhere to call home. It shows that migration is not about numbers, votes or opinions: it is about people.

Emily Dugan is Social Affairs Editor at the Independent, i and the Independent on Sunday. Her investigations into human trafficking have twice been awarded Best Investigative Article at the Anti-Slavery Day Media Awards and her human rights journalism was shortlisted for the Gaby Rado Memorial prize at the 2012 Amnesty Media Awards. This is her first book.

The Collector's Cabinet (eBook)

Tales, Facts and Fictions from the World of Antiques

Marc Allum

Explore the wonderful world of antiques and collectables with Antiques Roadshow regular, Marc Allum.

Go in search of stolen masterpieces, learn the secrets of the forgers, track down Napoleon’s toothbrush and meet the garden gnome insured for £1 million.

Eclectic, eccentric and brimming with remarkable tales from history, The Collector’s Cabinet is for all those who are fascinated by the relics of the past.

Marc Allum is a freelance art and antiques writer, broadcaster, consultant and lecturer based in Wiltshire. He has been a miscellaneous specialist on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow since 1998. He writes regularly for magazines, has contributed to numerous books and is the author of Allum's Antiques Almanac (Icon, 2014).

Atomic (eBook)

The First War of Physics and the Secret History of the Atom Bomb 1939-49

Jim Baggott

Spanning ten historic years, from the discovery of nuclear fission in 1939 to ‘Joe-1’, the first Soviet atomic bomb test in August 1949, Atomic is the first fully realised popular account of the race between Nazi Germany, Britain, America and the Soviet Union to build atomic weapons.

Rich in personality, action, confrontation and deception, Jim Baggott’s book tells an epic story of science and technology at the very limits of human understanding.

Jim Baggott is an award-winning science writer. A former academic chemist,he runs an independent management consultancy practice but maintains a broad interest in science, philosophy and history and continues to write on these subjects in his spare time, for, amongother publications, New Scientist magazine. His previous bookshave been widely acclaimed and include A Beginner's Guide to Reality (Penguin, 2005) and Beyond Measure: Modern Physics,Philosophy and the Meaning of Quantum Theory (OUP, 2004).

Platform Souls (eBook)

The Trainspotter as 20th-Century Hero

Nicholas Whittaker

Nicholas Whittaker’s much-loved classic recollects the long sunny days of his childhood when, notepad in hand, jam sandwiches in the duffel bag, he happily spent his time jotting down train numbers during the Indian summer of steam and the heyday of diesel.

Whittaker returns to his roots in this updated edition, casting a sceptical eye over recent developments, catching up with old acquaintances and considering the toll that half a century of ridicule and a couple of decades of privatisation have wrought upon his beloved pastime.

As Andrew Martin notes in his Foreword, this is ‘one of the best books ever written about rail enthusiasm’. Equally it is a poetically written memoir of growing up in a more innocent age, a hymn to British eccentricity and to the virtues of observing the world around you: ‘Spotters – of trains, planes, buses or birds – are a last redoubt for something rapidly vanishing from our lives: looking outward, seeing, observing. People notice things less and less these days, while watching things more and more.’

Praise for the first edition:

‘An elegy: for the steam trains already vanishing when Whittaker’s hobby began in 1964; for the short-lived diesel age which followed; for an era of near innocence.’ Times Literary Supplement

‘Whittaker writes with humour and considerable evocative power … For anyone who will admit to having a childhood brush with this now derided hobby, Platform Souls brings it all rushing back.’ Independent

‘Destined to become the Fever Pitch of the sidings and embankments’ Publishing News

Nicholas Whittaker is the author of well-received histories of confectionery (Sweet Talk) and toys (Toys Were Us), as well as an account of life in the offices of Fiesta and Razzle magazines in the 1980s (Blue Period). He has written for the Telegraph, Guardian, Daily Mail and the Sunday Times. He lives in London.