Natural Science

Ten thousand years after humans figured out how to stop wandering and plant crops, veteran investigative journalist Mark Schapiro plunges into the struggle already underway for control of seeds, the ground-zero ingredient for our food. Three-quarters of the seed varieties on Earth in 1900 had become extinct by 2015. In Seeds of Resistance, Schapiro takes us onto the frontlines of a struggle over the seeds that remain, one that will determine the long-term security of our food supply in the face of unprecedented climate volatility. More than half of all commercially-traded seeds have fallen under the control of just three multinational agri-chemical companies....

When Bernd Heinrich decided to write a memoir of his ultramarathon running experience, he realized that the preparation for the race was as important, if not more so, than the race itself. In Why We Run, Heinrich considers the flight endurance of birds, the antelope's running prowess and limitations, and the ultra-endurance of camels to understand how human physiology can or cannot replicate these adaptations. Heinrich offers an original and provocative work combining the rigors of science with the passion of running.

Maddison James is about to discover some truths about the world. Firstly...supernaturals exist. WTF? Secondly...she is one, even though no one seems to know exactly what kind. Double WTF. Thirdly...she’s about to go back to school. Well, things just got a little more interesting. The Supernatural Academy is where shifters, vampires, magic users, and fey are educated. Where they are taught about their abilities, and how to function in the human world. Maddison already has the human part down, but this supernatural thing is an entirely new dangerous game.

Three years after her fateful journeys through the forbidding mountains of Vystrana, Mrs. Camherst defies family and convention to embark on an expedition to the war-torn continent of Eriga, home of such exotic draconian species as the grass-dwelling snakes of the savannah, arboreal tree snakes, and, most elusive of all, the legendary swamp-wyrms of the tropics. The expedition is not an easy one.

I can turn into a housecat. It’s a fun magic, except in a world filled with vampires and werewolves, it doesn’t exactly make me a powerhouse. Instead, the supernatural community has classified me as an outcast, which means one thing: picking on me is open season all day, every day. The local fae are the worst of all, and it’s during one of their regular “capture the cat-girl” sessions that I shift into my cat form and meet HIM for the first time.

Maddison James learned a lot about life last year. Only important stuff, of course. Like how to breathe under water, how to turn an arrow into a weapon, and how to fall in love. Asher Locke. The one who stole her heart. The one who showed her the truth of her past and...hopefully her future. Now, it's just time for them to live happily ever after. Only the gods have different plans. And with Atlantis rising, Maddi isn't sure she'll survive long enough to even finish her second year, let alone have any sort of future.

I just spent the last month pretending to be the pet cat of an elf king. Today, I discovered we’re enemies. In a supernatural society filled with vampires, werewolves, and wizards, I’ve always been an outcast with my ability to turn into a housecat. No one knew what I was. Turns out, I’m a shadow—a race of supernaturals that were wiped out by the elves centuries ago. Who explains this to me? Noctus, the elf king I’ve been staying with while pretending to be his pet “cat,” not knowing I’m the archenemy of his people. Talk about the most awkward ancestry results ever.

In Eager, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb reveals that our modern idea of what a healthy landscape looks like and how it functions is wrong, distorted by the fur trade that once trapped out millions of beavers from North America's lakes and rivers. The consequences of losing beavers were profound: streams eroded, wetlands dried up, and species from salmon to swans lost vital habitat. Today, a growing coalition of "Beaver Believers" recognizes that ecosystems with beavers are far healthier, for humans and non-humans alike, than those without them.

I’m a worrier on my best days, but with a psycho tracking my every move because he’s obsessed with killing me, I’ve graduated to the level of paranoid lunatic. Even if I could forget about the tracker—not happening since he’s figured out the fastest way to get to me is to attack my adopted family—my regular life is also anxiety-inducing as the city of Magiford is brewing with trouble.

Practically Perfect. That’s the name of the magic shop my witch twin and I own in Chicago’s supernatural marketplace. In reality, things are not so perfect. Tessa's the face of our shop. She draws in the customers to buy our potions, brews, spells, and enchantments. I’m the sensible sister moving boxes in the back. It works, sort of, and we have a pretty good life...until Tessa disappears. My instincts tell me my sister didn’t leave by choice. But here’s the problem—this isn’t the first time she’s flitted off, forcing me to bail her out of trouble.

In this extraordinarily rare memoir by an active-duty jumper, Jason Ramos takes listeners into his exhilarating and dangerous world, explores smokejumping's remarkable history, and explains why their services are more essential than ever before.

For all the thousands of books that have been written about religion, few until this one have attempted to examine it scientifically: to ask why - and how - it has shaped so many lives so strongly. Is religion a product of blind evolutionary instinct or rational choice? Is it truly the best way to live a moral life? Ranging through biology, history, and psychology, Daniel C. Dennett charts religion’s evolution from “wild” folk belief to “domesticated” dogma.

From bestselling author, long-time former National Geographic Explorer, and anthropologist Wade Davis comes the story of America's Nile: how it once flowed freely and how human intervention has left it near exhaustion, altering the water temperature, volume, local species, and shoreline of the river Theodore Roosevelt once urged us to "leave it as it is."

Marc and his party have finished their zeppelin and taken it out to try to discover other Safe Zones. Their intent is to set up trade routes between all the different Safe Zones in order to give them a better chance to survive. The second Safe Zone they discover with the zeppelin is nearly as large as Any Port. It even has its own ring of outlier Safe Zones, or a partial ring at least. It appears that several of the smaller Safe Zones have been taken and converted into dungeons. With the safety of the larger Safe Zone at stake, they bring the zeppelin down to help the larger Safe Zone.

By night, they fight in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse. By day, they are friendly next-door neighbors. Neither of them know that their alter egos are archenemies. I’ve spent my life training in the family business of slaying vampires, but I’m tired of all the death. I want to prove we slayers can help society, not just break it. I start my new life by joining the Magiford supernatural task force, which exists to protect humans and supernaturals from harmful magic.

Birds are highly intelligent animals, yet their intelligence is dramatically different from our own and has been little understood. As we learn more about the secrets of bird life, we are unlocking fascinating insights into memory, relationships, game theory, and the nature of intelligence itself. The Thing with Feathers explores the astonishing homing abilities of pigeons, the good deeds of fairy-wrens, the influential flocking abilities of starlings, the deft artistry of bowerbirds, the extraordinary memories of nutcrackers, and other mysteries.

Eating one's own kind is a completely natural behavior in thousands of species, including humans. Throughout history we have engaged in cannibalism for reasons related to famine, burial rites, and medicine. Cannibalism has also been used as a form of terrorism and as the ultimate expression of filial piety. With unexpected wit and a wealth of knowledge, Bill Schutt takes us on a tour of the field, exploring exciting new avenues of research and investigating questions like why so many fish eat their offspring and some amphibians consume their mothers' skin.

After losing her partner in the line of duty, Agent Sidney Shaw is forced to team up with a renegade bounty hunter. And she doesn’t like it. John Smoke—an incarcerated wild card—is released into her custody, only to push her vaunted training to the limits and toss the FBI playbook out. But a vast hidden network of criminals with the terrifying ability to shape-shift into monsters is spreading its supernatural sickness in the very fabric of human society. Innocents end up dead or missing.

When Mum died, I inherited a lot more than a pack of lies. I landed a $410,000 debt. Discovered her previous surname. And her real place of birth. Desperate to uncover the truth, I drive to a tiny dot on the map called Deception Valley. Coincidental name? Nope. There, I find her secret family - because she had one of those too.

Drawn back to her hometown by her mother's death, Everly hopes it's her chance to reconnect with her childhood sweetheart. Instead, on her first night back, she sees him die. Killed by something she can't explain. Now his body is missing, and his soul is trapped in her dreams. As Everly hunts for answers to the mystery, supernatural creatures lurk around every corner. But they aren't the vampires and werewolves of legend Everly expects.