Technology Biography

Learn about George Eastman and the invention of the Kodak camera.

The discovery of DNA’s structure is the story of five towering minds in pursuit of the advancement of science, and for almost all of them, the prospect of fame and immortality: Watson, Crick, Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins, and Linus Pauling. Howard Markel skillfully recreates the intense intellectual journey, and fraught personal relationships, that ultimately led to a spectacular breakthrough. But it is Rosalind Franklin - fiercely determined, relentless, and an outsider at Cambridge and the University of London in the 1950s - who becomes a focal point for Markel.

The name of Charles Darwin is known to nearly all who have had the benefit of a Western-style education. It is synonymous with the theory of evolution and due to his perspective of man as an animal, his worked ushered in a new paradigm of understanding of the physical and mental behavior of man. However, because of the immense impact of his best known theory, most know only of his work through reviews and historical reports.

Ben Barres was known for his groundbreaking scientific work and for his groundbreaking advocacy for gender equality in science. In this book, completed shortly before his death, Barres (born Barbara Barres in 1954) describes a life full of remarkable accomplishments. Barres recounts his early life and felt even as a very young child that he was assigned the wrong gender. After years of being acutely uncomfortable in his own skin, Barres transitioned from female to male. It was after transitioning that he realized how differently male and female scientists are treated.

On February 20, 1962, John Glenn became a national star. That morning at Cape Canaveral, the small-town boy from Ohio took his place atop a rocket and soared into space. The Last American Hero is a stunning examination of the layers that formed the man: a hero of the Cold War, a two-time astronaut, a veteran senator, a devoted husband and father, and much more.

Mary Golda Ross designed classified airplanes and spacecraft as Lockheed Aircraft Corporation's first female engineer. This story traces her journey from being the only girl in a high school math class to becoming a teacher to pursuing an engineering degree, joining the top-secret Skunk Works division of Lockheed, and being a mentor for Native Americans and young women interested in engineering. In addition, this story highlights Cherokee values such as working cooperatively, remaining humble, and helping ensure equal opportunity and education for all.

The author of the Mutts comic strip and several best-selling children’s books, Patrick McDonnell has been hailed as the next Charles Schulz. In his characteristic heartwarming style, McDonnell tells the story of the young Jane Goodall and her special childhood toy chimpanzee, Jubilee. With anecdotes from Goodall’s autobiography, McDonnell makes this true story accessible for the very young - and young at heart.

Everyone's a New Yorker on Thanksgiving Day, when young and old rise early to see what giant new balloons will fill the skies for Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Who first invented these "upside-down puppets"? Meet Tony Sarg, puppeteer extraordinaire!

In 1952, April is seven years old and adores her big sister, Annabel. But Annabel is failing her math class and desperately needs help with a tough math problem. April decides to write to Albert Einstein, asking him to give a hand.

A successful journalist, Victoria Griffith, makes her first foray into children's fiction with the story of Alberto Santos-Dumont, the larger-than- life Brazilian who many argue flew before the Wright brothers. It was 1906 in Paris when Alberto, challenged by a fellow inventor, turned his dirigible into a flying machine and cemented his place in the history of flight.

Inspired by The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Michael J. Rosen's wry tale captures Ben's spirit in evocative yet playful language. A love story to the value of variety, A Ben of All Trades sheds light on an unconventional path to greatness and humanizes a towering figure in American history.

It may seem paradoxical that the man behind the world’s most famous peace prizes was the same one who invented dynamite, yet this is exactly the case. Alfred Nobel: The Life and Legacy of the Famous Scientist and the Nobel Prizes examines the life and work that made Nobel one of history’s most important scientists. You will learn about Nobel like never before.

As command module pilot of Apollo 17, the last crewed flight to the moon, Ron Evans combined precision flying and painstaking geological observation with moments of delight and enthusiasm. As a patriotic American in charge of command module America, Evans was nicknamed “Captain America” by his fellow crew members.

In the course of our enduring quest for knowledge about ourselves and our universe, we haven't found answers to one of our most fundamental questions: Does life exist anywhere else in the universe? Ten years and billions of dollars in the making, the Mars rover Curiosity is poised toanswer this all-important question.

It was a time of bold new technology, historic moments, and international jousting on the final frontier. But it was also a time of human drama, of moments less public but no less dramatic in the lives of those who made the golden age of space flight happen. These are the moments and the lives that Into That Silent Sea captures, a book that tells the intimate stories of the men and women, American and Russian, who made the space race their own and gave the era its compelling character.

The ice sheets and glaciers that cover one-tenth of Earth's land surface are today in grave peril. High in the Alps, Andes, and Himalaya, once-indomitable glaciers are retreating, even dying. Meanwhile, in Antarctica, thinning glaciers may be unlocking vast quantities of methane stored for millions of years beneath the ice. In Ice Rivers, renowned glaciologist Jemma Wadham offers a searing personal account of glaciers and the rapidly unfolding crisis that they - and we - face.

Against the backdrop of the late Cold War, a tiny American start-up company forged a secret deal to place American scientific payloads aboard the Soviet space station MIR. Born out of sheer desperation after the Challenger explosion and grounding of the United States space shuttle program, the agreement was negotiated and approved behind the backs of NASA and Congress, with the help of United States government officials inside the Commerce and Defense departments.

In Unemployable, Alysia Silberg, a start-up investor, AI expert, entrepreneur, and executive coach, shares her powerful story of survival and success, aided by the great equalizer–technology. Growing up in poverty in South Africa, Alysia experienced violence, abuse, and even a gunshot wound. Through determination and an unwavering commitment to learning, she made her way to America and Silicon Valley, becoming a lover and funder of start-ups, with a passion for AI.

Best-selling author Claire A. Nivola has won multiple awards for her captivating books introducing historical figures to young audiences. In this critically acclaimed profile of noted oceanographer Sylvia Earle, listeners follow Sylvia as her childhood adventures in the Gulf of Mexico help inspire her life’s work: discovering the secrets of “the blue heart of the planet”.

Freeman Dyson is a world-renowned astrophysicist who dreams of exploring the heavens and has designed a spaceship to take him there. His son, George, a brilliant high-school dropout, lives in a tree house and is designing a giant kayak to explore the icy coastal wilderness of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.