Natural Science

It may be a wonderful world, but as Dan Riskin explains, it's also a dangerous, disturbing, and disgusting one. At every turn, it seems, living things are trying to eat us, poison us, use our bodies as their homes, or have us spread their eggs. In Mother Nature Is Trying to Kill You, Riskin is our guide through the natural world at its most gloriously ruthless. Using the seven deadly sins as a road map, Riskin offers dozens of jaw-dropping examples that illuminate how brutal nature can truly be.

When John Hunter finds out he can get paid $5,000 for trapping a rogue chimera, it's game on. Now, he'll have a crash course on the goings-on of the secret underworld and more than a few bruises to prove his mettle. But not all is as straightforward as it may seem. There are those closest to Jonny who are more than they're letting on. And the humans in his life turn out to be the worst kind of monsters. Jonny may be able to save himself, if he wants to save the city from an unspeakable, ancient evil lurking in the shadows, he'll have to catch up fast.

David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion had not yet been published when he died in 1776. Even though the manuscript was mostly written during the 1750s, it did not appear until 1779. The subject itself was too delicate and controversial, and Hume's dialectical examination of religious knowledge was especially provocative. What should we teach young people about religion? The characters Demea, Cleanthes, and Philo passionately present and defend three sharply different answers to that question.

Rivers, on a long view, are alive. They are born; they change; they shift their channels; they forge new routes to the sea; they move both gradually and violently; they can teem (usually) with life; they may die a quasi-natural death; they are frequently maimed and even murdered. It is the annual flood pulse—the brief time when the river occupies the floodplain—that gives a river its vitality, but it is human engineering that kills it, suppressing the flood pulse with dams, irrigation, siltation, dikes, and levees.

Shortlisted for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year award A renowned climate scientist shows how fossil fuel companies have waged a thirty-year campaign to deflect blame and responsibility and delay action on climate change, and offers a battle plan for how we can save the planet. Recycle...

More than any other writer, Gilbert White (1720-1793) has shaped the relationship between man and nature. A hundred years before Darwin, White realised the crucial role of worms in the formation of soil and understood the significance of territory and song in birds. His precise, scrupulously honest, and unaffectedly witty observations led him to interpret animals’ behaviour in a unique manner. Here, a collection of his letters to Daines Barrington and Thomas Pennant.

Maddison has been fighting the gods from the first moment she found out they existed. Those arrogant and power hungry deities have a plan...a plan that includes destroying everything she holds dear, and she fears that one day soon, they're going to succeed. When new information is dropped in her lap, a way to end the gods once and for all, Maddison jumps at the chance. That's until she finds out that the path to her prize is through a maze of challenges that have stumped all who've attempted them before.

Explorer, diving pioneer, filmmaker, inventor, and activist, Jacques Cousteau was blessed from his childhood with boundless curiosity about the natural world. As the leader of fascinating, often dangerous expeditions all over the planet, he discovered firsthand the complexity and beauty of life on earth and undersea - and watched the toll taken by human activity in the 20th century.

I never thought I'd find myself back here. At least, I hoped I'd never have to leave the mortal realm ever again. But Romeo is missing, and I have to find him. I know who took him, and I know why. And I know how hard this fight is going to be. I survived this wild-magic place once before, and I'll do it again. But this time, I'm not a scared little girl. This time, I know exactly what I'm doing. Let the games begin.

For once, Mo Meng isn’t the one behind the counter. After years of serving dishes at the Nameless Restaurant, he’s taking a rare day off. His destination? The soft launch of a new restaurant, where he’s been invited to sample their debut menu. At least, that was the plan. But while he might have left his restaurant behind, its patrons and their problems are a little harder to lose.

Figures Giselle would turn out to be the child of literal Chaos. As a budding immortal who could mold into anything, staying in Cursed Academy doesn't bode well. She'll probably end up a goddess of disaster or tripping, according to her new boyfriend, Ronin. But transferring to Olympian with Ronin means breaking an oath made by the gods on the River Styx--and the gods won't he happy. So long as Giselle bears Prometheus's mark, she stays at his school. Worse, her arch nemesis, Wendy, is forming her own secret society to banish her to the Underworld.

Illuminates the far-reaching harms of believing that natural means “good,” from misinformation about health choices to justifications for sexism, racism, and flawed economic policies. People love what’s natural: it’s the best way to eat, the best way to parent, even the best way to...

Before becoming America's first-ever female network chief meteorologist or appearing on Dancing with the Stars, ABC News's Ginger Zee checked herself into a mental health hospital.

Natural Disaster: I Cover Them. I Am One. is Ginger's heartbreaking, hilarious, and harshly honest life story - from Dickhead's (you won't soon forget that name) deck on Lake Michigan to her storm-chasing dream at ABC News.

When the formidable power of Jessa Lebron's mark was unleashed during her impulsive foray into Vanguard, the American supernatural prison, she learned the truth. She's a dual shifter: wolf and, as an added bonus, dragon - of the fluffy persuasion. Yep, she's one special cupcake. Now, pursued by the Four, powerful hunters of the dragon marked, she has no choice but to run.

One second, Gem Hawkins is on her way to being the number one drag racer in the state, and the next, she's burying her father, a badass demon hunter. The agency calls it a fluke. The official report claims some low level demon caught him off guard while out on patrol. But Gem knows that's a lie. When the dirty Nephilim running the investigation refuses to help, Gem takes matters into her own hands.

This audiobook narrated by Katherine Fenton gives a sweeping account of male nurturing, explaining how and why men are biologically transformed when they care for babies.

The Galapagos were once known to the sailors and pirates who encountered them as Las Encantadas: the enchanted islands, home to exotic creatures and dramatic volcanic scenery. In The Galapagos, science writer Henry Nicholls offers a lively natural and human history of the archipelago, charting its evolution from deserted wilderness to scientific resource (made famous by Charles Darwin) and global ecotourism hot spot.

After the discovery that the encampment outside of his Safe Zone is full of friendlies, Marc and his group finally have a chance to try to grow stronger again. The addition of an administrator for the Safe Zone as well as someone to coordinate its defenses finally allows Marc to feel like he can go out and do other things.

University life can be a real grind, and for twenty-two-year-old Dane Staley that means long hours in the library and not a lot of time for a social life. Not that he’s complaining. As a self-confessed bookworm, the library is a place of comfort for him. That is until he goes in search of research materials in a little used section of the lower level and his life changes forever.

My mother isn’t my mother. A werewolf wants me for his one-and-only baby mama. Oh! And I’m the new leader of a tribe I joined weeks ago. Messed up doesn’t begin to explain it. I’m more desperate than ever to uncover an explanation for Mum’s mounting betrayals. Because this time, I’m not sure forgiveness is possible.