Books published by Scribe Publications

New Yorker magazine staff writer Paige Williams delves into the surprisingly perilous world of fossil collectors in this riveting true tale. In 2012, a New York auction catalogue boasted an unusual offering: 'a superb Tyrannosaurus skeleton'. In fact, Lot 49135 consisted of a nearly complete T. bataar - a close cousin to the more-famous T. rex - that had been unearthed in Mongolia. At 2.4 metres high and 7.3 metres long, the specimen was spectacular, and the winning bid was over $1 million. Eric Prokopi, a 38-year-old Floridian, had brought this extraordinary skeleton to market. A one-time swimmer who'd spent his teenage years diving for shark teeth, Prokopi's singular obsession with fossils fuelled a thriving business, hunting for, preparing, and selling specimens to clients ranging from natural-history museums to avid private collectors like Leonardo DiCaprio. But had Prokopi gone too far this time? As the T. bataar went to auction, a network of paleontologists alerted the government of Mongolia to the eye-catching lot. An international custody battle ensued, with Prokopi watching as his own world unravelled. The Dinosaur Artist is a stunning work of narrative journalism about humans' relationship with natural history, and about a seemingly intractable conflict between science and commerce. A story that stretches from Florida's Land O' Lakes to the Gobi Desert, The Dinosaur Artist illuminates the history of fossil collecting - a murky, sometimes risky business, populated by eccentrics and obsessives, where the lines between poacher and hunter, collector and smuggler, and enthusiast and opportunist can easily blur.

What is energy healing? And why does it work?For thousands of years, practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine have used the body¿s own energy ¿ which they call `qi¿ ¿ to promote healing. Here, one of the world¿s most sought-after acupuncturists sets out to understand the science behind this ancient practice.Blakeway takes the reader on a journey from the Stanford and Princeton professors researching the physics of energy medicine, to a Qi Gong master from China who manifests healing herbs directly from her palm; and from the Harvard team studying the placebo effect, to a group of sceptical scientists who use hands-on healing to cure mammary cancer in mice. She also tells the story of how she discovered energy medicine and overcame her initial disbelief to become one of its leading practitioners.From hard science to the spiritual and back again, Energy Medicine is a quest to find out why these alternative methods of healing are proving successful for thousands worldwide.

Pre-eminent surgeon Nashef tells stories of heart surgery across the globe, relating these to the wider discussion of the public bid for health and the issues overcome heroically but precariously by the NHS.

Leading brain researcher Niels Birbaumer investigates the pleasure in emptiness and how we can take advantage of it. He explains how to overcome the evolutionary attentiveness of your brain and take a break from thinking - a skill that's more important than ever in an increasingly frantic world.

The position of political correctness in the struggle of progressive politics against right wing populism is evaluated by "Guardian" journalist and Paul Robeson biographer Sparrow.

Why do diets fail? Is it because of genetic disposition? A sluggish metabolism? An underactive thyroid?After years of failed diets, Dr Nadja Hermann, a nutritionist and behavioural psychologist, weighed 150 kg at the age of 30. Over the years, she had heard and read hundreds of reasons why diets wouldn't work for her. But when her weight started to affect her health, she took a hard look at the science and realised that most of what she believed about diets was a myth. What was more, those very myths were preventing her from losing weight.Conquering these pieces of 'Fat Logic' was what finally led to Hermann achieving a healthy weight. One and a half years later, she weighed 65 kg, and has maintained that weight to this day. Now, using humour, the insight she's acquired, and a dose of science, Hermann debunks widespread lies about weight loss, and shows how it is possible to attain a healthy weight.

An acerbic graphic takedown of capitalism. In Hyper-Capitalism, cartoonist Larry Gonick and psychologist Tim Kasser offer a vivid and an accessible new way to understand how global, privatising, market-worshipping hyper-capitalism is threatening human wellbeing, social justice, and the planet. Drawing from contemporary research, they describe and illustrate concepts (such as corporate power, free trade, privatisation, and deregulation) that are critical for understanding the world we live in, and movements (such as voluntary simplicity, sharing, alternatives to GDP, and protests) that have developed in response to the system. Gonick and Kasser's pointed and profound cartoon narratives provide a deep exploration of the global economy and the movements seeking to change it, all rendered in clear, graphic - and sometimes hilarious - terms. In the process, they point the way to a healthier future for all of us.

The emergence of cyber warfare as a decisive force in political skulduggery, as apparent in the 2016 US election and the Sony hack, gets explored here with attention to recent Russian forays into it and the secret cyber-dens of the American and Chinese militaries.