Books in the Popular Science series

Describing the anatomy and physiology of the steam train, this work covers engine design, converting fuel into mechanical traction, and the function and design of the various components of the engine.

The book goes on to describe the various stages the body passes through as it decomposes following death. Inevitably, your body will support the continuation of life on our beautiful planet - this book describes how all this happens.

This book reveals the multi-generational process involved in humanity's first major scientific achievement, namely the discovery of modern physics, and examines the personal lives of six of the intellectual giants involved.

"Contradictions" is a general interest book that exposes the incompatibility between popular religious beliefs and the scientific view of human nature.

This collection of stories shows the human face of science. 'Eurekas and Euphorias' contains around 200 anecdotes illustrating scientists in all their shapes: the obsessive and the dilettantish, the genial, the envious, the preternaturally brilliant and the slow-witted who sometimes see further in the end, the open-minded and more.

This volume comprises the 1998 Oxford Amnesty Lectures. Topics discussed include: are eugenics practices morally defensible?; who should have access to genetic information about particular individuals?; and what dangers for cultural and racial diversity do developments in genetics pose?

In this book, Dr. Andras Sobester reviews the science behind high altitude flight. Flying high makes very high speeds possible -- what are the practical limits?The key advantage of stratospheric flight is that the aircraft will be 'above the weather' - but is this always the case?

The Franklin/Wilkins story has often been told as an example of the unjustness of male scientists towards their women colleagues, and questions have been raised over whether credit was distributed fairly when the Nobel Prize was awarded. In this autobiography Wilkins attempts to tell his side of the story.

Carl Djerassi was responsible for the chemical synthesis of the first steroid oral contraceptive: he is widely referred to as the 'father of the Pill'. In This Man's Pill, Djerassi reflects on the impact the invention of the oral contraceptive pill has had on the world, and on Djerassi himself.

Along the way it covers a bit of the engineering, reactor history, different kinds of reactors and what can go wrong with them. Much of this is seen from the viewpoint of a trainee operator on a Pressurised Water Reactor - the most common type of nuclear reactor in the world.

This book tells the story of the catastrophic impact of the giant 10 Km asteroid Chicxulub into the ancient Gulf of Mexico 65.5 million years ago. The aftermath of the Chicxulub's event initiated decades and more of major global climate changes including a "Nuclear Winter" of freezing darkness and blistering greenhouse warming.

Humans have the ability to imitate and copy behaviours, or memes, from one another. This is an investigation of whether genes and memes can lead to discoveries about the nature of the inner self and whether the inner self is only an illusion created by the memes for the sake of replication.

From Aspirin to Viagra, insulin to penicillin, and vaccines to vitamin supplements, drugs have become part of our everyday lives.

In 2016, scientist Rosaly Lopes and artist Michael Carroll teamed up as fellows of the National Science Foundation to travel to Mount Erebus, the worldΓÇÖs southernmost active volcano in Antarctica. The logistics of getting there and complex operations of Antarctica''s McMurdo Station echo the kinds of strategies that future explorers will undertake as they set up settlements on Mars and beyond. This exciting popular-level book explores the arduous environment of Antarctica and how it is similar to other icy worlds in the Solar System.The bulk of this story delves into AntarcticaΓÇÖs infrastructure, exploration, and remote camps, culminating on the summit of Erebus. There, the authors explored the caves and ice towers on the volcanoΓÇÖs flanks, taking photographs and generating original art depicting scenes in Antarctica and terrestrial analogs on other planets and moons. Readers will see an intimate side of Mount Erebus and Antarctica while surveying the regionΓÇÖs history, exploration, geology, and volcanology, which includes research funded by the National Science FoundationΓÇÖs United States Antarctic Programs. Richly illustrated with photographs and stunning paintings showcasing the beauty of the harsh continent, the book captures the spirit and splendor of the authorsΓÇÖ journey to Erebus.

The Electric Century examines how we got from then to now. The nineteenth is often described as the century of steam from the impact it had on employment and transport, and The Electric Century makes a similar claim as the description of the twentieth.