Gondwana Burning by Anastasia Guise

$20.00 AUD

Category: Environment & Sustainability

A collection of articles on Australian ecology. The title essay "Gondwana Burning" focuses on the burning of much of the Gondwana rainforests in the 2019-2020 bushfires.

Rapture by Anastasia Guise

$20.00 AUD

Category: Environment & Sustainability

A collection of environmental essays, short nature writing and unsung folk songs.

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need by Bill Gates

$37.99 AUD

$39.99 (5% off)

Category: Environment & Sustainability

Bill Gates shares what he's learned in more than a decade of studying climate change and investing in innovations to address the problems, and sets out a vision for how the world can build the tools it needs to get to zero greenhouse gas emissions.   Bill Gates explains why he cares so deeply about cli mate change and what makes him optimistic that the world can prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Gates says, "we can work on a local, national, and global level to build the technologies, businesses, and industries to avoid the worst impacts of climate change." His interest in climate change is a natural outgrowth of the efforts by his foundation to reduce poverty and disease. Climate change, according to Gates, will have the biggest impact on the people who have done the least to cause it. As a technologist, he has seen first-hand how innovation can change the world. By investing in research, inventing new technologies, and by deploying them quickly at large scale, Gates believes climate change can be addressed in meaningful ways. According to Gates, "to prevent the worst effects of climate change, we have to get to net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases. This problem is urgent, and the debate is complex, but I believe we can come together to invent new carbon-zero technologies, deploy the ones we have, and ultimately avoid a climate catastrophe." ...Show more

Books Do Furnish a Life Reading and Writing Science by Richard Dawkins

$32.99 AUD

$35.00 (5% off)

Category: Popular Science

At a time when science can seem complex and remote, it has a greater impact on our lives, and to the future of our planet, than ever before. It really matters that its discoveries and truths should be clearly and widely communicated. That its enemies, from the malicious to the muddled, the self-deluding to the self-interested, be challenged and exposed. That science should be brought out of the laboratory, taken into the corridors of power and defended in the maelstrom of popular culture. No one does this better than Richard Dawkins. In bringing together his forewords, afterwords and introductions to works by some of the leading thinkers of our age - Carl Sagan, Lawrence Krauss, Jacob Bronowski, Lewis Wolpert - and a selection of his reviews, both admiring and critical, of a wide range of scientific and other works, Books do Furnish a Life celebrates the writers who communicate the ideas of science and the natural world in both fiction and non-fiction. It celebrates the courage of those who write about their experiences of escaping religion and embracing rationality, of protecting the truths of science and analytical rigour against charlatanry and obfuscation. ...Show more

Exploring the Elements: A Complete Guide to the Periodic Table by Isabel Thomas

$32.95 AUD

$34.95 (5% off)

Category: Popular Science

Science meets design in this comprehensive introduction to the chemical elements that make up our universe This artful and accessible guide to the periodic table -- the ultimate reference tool for scientists worldwide -- names all 118 chemical elements and helps young readers understand the remarkable w ays we have learned to use them. Graphically stunning layouts feature each element's letter symbol and atomic number, exploring its attributes, characteristics, uses, and interesting stories behind its discovery. Complete with a comprehensive introduction, conclusion, and glossary, this is the perfect introduction to chemistry for inquisitive minds. Ages 8-14 ...Show more

Artificial Intimacy: Virtual friends, Digital Lovers and Algorithmic Matchmakers by Rob Brooks

$31.50 AUD

$32.99 (4% off)

Category: Popular Science

People have long told machines what to do by pushing buttons. Now, with advances in technology, machines are pushing our buttons.In Artificial Intimacy, evolutionary biologist Rob Brooks takes us from the origins of human behaviour to the latest in artificially intelligent technologies, providing a fres h and original view of the very near future of human relationships.Sex dollbots, digital lovers, virtual friends and algorithmic matchmakers help us manage our feelings in a world of cognitive overload. Apps can sense when a user is falling in love, when they are fighting, and when they are likely to break up. These machines, the ‘artificial intimacies’, already learn and exploit human social needs. They are getting better and faster at what they do.How will humanity’s future unfold when our ancient, evolved minds and old-fashioned cultures collide with twenty-first-century technology? People have long told machines what to do by pushing buttons. Now, with advances in technology, machines are pushing our buttons.In Artificial Intimacy, evolutionary biologist Rob Brooks takes us from the origins of human behaviour to the latest in artificially intelligent technologies, providing a fresh and original view of the very near future of human relationships.Sex dollbots, digital lovers, virtual friends and algorithmic matchmakers help us manage our feelings in a world of cognitive overload. Apps can sense when a user is falling in love, when they are fighting, and when they are likely to break up. These machines, the ‘artificial intimacies’, already learn and exploit human social needs. They are getting better and faster at what they do.How will humanity’s future unfold when our ancient, evolved minds and old-fashioned cultures collide with twenty-first-century technology? ...Show more

The Sleeping Beauties - And Other Stories of the Social Life of Illness by Suzanne O'Sullivan

$32.99 AUD

$34.99 (5% off)

Category: Popular Science

'In my view the best science writer around - a true descendant of Oliver Sacks.' Sathnam Sanghera, author of The Boy with the Topknot In Sweden, refugee children fall asleep for months and years at a time. In upstate New York, high school students develop contagious seizures. In the US Embassy in Cuba, employees complain of headaches and memory loss after hearing strange noises in the night. These disparate cases are some of the most remarkable diagnostic mysteries of the twenty-first century, as both doctors and scientists have struggled to explain them within the boundaries of medical science and - more crucially - to treat them. What unites them is that they are all examples of a particular type of psychosomatic illness: medical disorders that are influenced as much by the idiosyncratic aspects of individual cultures as they are by human biology. Inspired by a poignant encounter with the sleeping refugee children of Sweden, Wellcome Prize-winning neurologist Suzanne O'Sullivan travels the world to visit other communities who have also been subject to outbreaks of so-called 'mystery' illnesses. From a derelict post-Soviet mining town in Kazakhstan, to the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua via an oil town in Texas, to the heart of the Maria Mountains in Colombia, O'Sullivan hears remarkable stories from a fascinating array of people, and attempts to unravel their complex meaning while asking the question: who gets to define what is and what isn't an illness? Reminiscent of the work of Oliver Sacks, Stephen Grosz and Henry Marsh, The Sleeping Beauties is a moving and unforgettable scientific investigation with a very human face. ...Show more

Flesh Made New: The Unnatural History and Broken Promises of Stem Cell Research by Carl Power; John Rasko

$32.99 AUD

$34.99 (5% off)

Category: Popular Science

The dazzling promise of stem-cell treatment: does it work and will it save us? Two experts look at the hype For decades, we've been anticipating the dawn of regenerative medicine. Again and again, we've been promised that stem cells will soon cure just about every ill imaginable. If not tomorrow, then t he next day, or the day after that, and so on. We're still waiting.This book is an antidote to hype and a salve to sooth the itch for stem-cell salvation. In it, Professor John Rasko, a leading physician-scientist, and writer-historian Carl Power take us on a wild historical tour of this scandal-prone field. They expose all the dirty little secrets that the hype merchants prefer to ignore - the blunders and setbacks, confusions and delusions, tricks and lies. It's a history rife with colourful characters. You'll meet Alexis Carroll, who discovered how to cultivate cells in a test tube: celebrity surgeon, scientific genius and Nazi sympathiser, he opened the field of modern cell science with an experiment so bogus it blocked the way forward for the next 50 years. You'll meet Don Thomas, who developed bone marrow transplantation - the first successful stem-cell therapy - but only after a miserable decade in which all of his patients died. Alongside true stem-cell pioneers, you'll meet charlatans who cooked their data and claimed fake cures - sometimes with fatal consequences.Is there any good news? Which of the many promises of stem-cell research have been kept? And what of the future? Rasko and Power insist that we can only know where we're going if we have a sense of where we've been. Their study tears down the hype surrounding stem cells in order to reveal what's still worth hoping for. ...Show more

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

$21.99 AUD

$22.99 (4% off)

Category: Popular Science | Reading Level: good

Sapiens showed us where we came from. Homo Deus looked to the future. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century explores the present. How can we protect ourselves from nuclear war, ecological cataclysms and technological disruptions? What can we do about the epidemic of fake news or the threat of terrorism? What should we teach our children? Yuval Noah Harari takes us on a thrilling journey through today's most urgent issues. The golden thread running through his exhilarating new book is the challenge of maintaining our collective and individual focus in the face of constant and disorienting change. Are we still capable of understanding the world we have created? ...Show more

Dr Karl's Little Book of Climate Change Science by Karl Kruszelnicki

$14.25 AUD

$14.99 (4% off)

Category: Popular Science

Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben

$28.50 AUD

$29.99 (4% off)

Category: Environment & Sustainability

Are trees social beings? In this international bestseller, forester and author Peter Wohlleben convincingly makes the case that, yes, the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their chi ldren, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers. Wohlleben also shares his deep love of woods and forests, explaining the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in his woodland.   After learning about the complex life of trees, a walk in the woods will never be the same again.   Includes a Note From a Forest Scientist, by Dr.Suzanne Simard ...Show more

Sapiens: A Graphic History: The Birth of Humankind - Volume 1 by Yuval Noah Harari; David Vandermeulen, Daniel Casanave

$37.99 AUD

$39.99 (5% off)

Category: Popular Science

The first volume of the graphic adaptation of Yuval Noah Harari's global phenomenon and smash Sunday Times #1 bestseller, with gorgeous full-colour illustrations and a beautiful package - the perfect gift for the curious beings in your life.One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one-homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?In this first volume of the full-colour illustrated adaptation of his groundbreaking book, renowned historian Yuval Harari tells the story of humankind's creation and evolution, exploring the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be "human". From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens challenges us to reconsider accepted beliefs, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and view specific events within the context of larger ideas. Featuring 256 pages of full-colour illustrations and easy-to-understand text covering the first part of the full-length original edition, this adaptation of the mind-expanding book furthers the ongoing conversation as it introduces Harari's ideas to a wider new readership. ...Show more