Showing results by narrator "Neil Scott-Barbour" in All Categories

The most profound characteristic of Western Europe in the Middle Ages was its cultural and religious unity, a unity secured by a common alignment with the Pope in Rome and a common language - Latin - for worship and scholarship. The Reformation shattered that unity, and the consequences are still with us today.

In this brilliantly clear, often surprising work, two leading experts explain what big data is, how it will change our lives, and what we can do to protect ourselves from its hazards. Big Data is the first big book about the next big thing. 

From two of the world's top scientists and one of the world's top science writers (all parents), Dirt Is Good is a Q&A-based guide to everything you need to know about kids and germs. "Is it OK for my child to eat dirt?" Jack Gilbert and Rob Knight are bombarded with questions like this every week from parents all over the world. Google a question like this, and you'll be overwhelmed with answers. The Internet is rife with speculation and misinformation about the risks and benefits of what most parents think of as simply germs, but which scientists now call the microbiome.

What is the nature of the material world? How does it work? What is the universe and how was it formed? What is life? Where do we come from and how did we evolve? How and why do we think? What does it mean to be human? How do we know? There are many different versions of our creation story. This book tells the version according to modern science. It is a unique account, starting at the Big Bang and travelling right up to the emergence of humans as conscious intelligent beings, 13.8 billion years later.

This Fleeting World tells the story of the universe and history of humanity. Prize-winning historian David Christian covers it all in this compact, accessible, and inspiring guide to the history of everything from stars and empires to cities to the World Wide Web, capitalism, and globalization. David Christian's approach to human history and big history is a call to action based on a profound and fresh understanding of our place in the universe. 

Peppard and Jarman have a new grift that seems simple enough: Go to the airport. Imitate a hired driver by copying a name that they see in the crowd. Collect the passenger before the real driver does, take him to a secluded area, and rob him. It seems to be a simple enough plan to make some quick dishonest cash for these two amateurs - that is, until they finally meet someone who may be a pro.

When alchemist Lud gets locked up in jail for counterfeit coins, it's up to his mouse familiar, Barnabus, to save the day.

When an eccentric pop star who has been missing for twenty years is spotted alive and well in Thailand, East London–based private eye Alex Blizard is dispatched halfway around the world to investigate. From Bethnal Green to Bangkok to Bali, this is a case which will draw the dapper detective further and further outside his comfort zone – and ever deeper into danger.