Science: General Issues

In 1733, colonial farmer John Bartram shipped two boxes of precious American plants and seeds to Peter Collinson in London. Around these men formed the nucleus of a botany movement, which included famous Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus; Philip Miller, bestselling author of The Gardeners Dictionary;...

Global knowledge, personal stories, and natural science for repairing environmental harm, restoring biodiversity, and rekindling cultural-ecological bonds—for readers of The Serviceberry and Fresh Banana Leaves. Healing the Land Teaches Us Who We Are helps us reconnect to the innate, embodied...

The New York Times bestselling author of Stuff Matters presents a rollicking guided tour through the history of technology and the secret lives of gases: the magnificent, strange, and fascinating substances that shape our world. Gases are all around us—they fill our lungs, power our movement,...

A brilliant ensemble of the world’s most visionary scientists provides twenty-five original never-before-published essays about the advances in science and technology that we may see within our lifetimes. This fascinating and unprecedented book explores not only the practical possibilities of the...

As founder, editor, and publisher of the intellectual forum www.edge.org, John Brockman is well-positioned to initiate and cultivate an ongoing dialogue with today’s leading cutting-edge thinkers. The website is a virtual salon for every type of intellectual and scientific pursuit, from evolutionary...

Simple and accessible, Science in Seconds is a comprehensive, entertaining introduction to 200 key scientific ideas. Each concept is clearly realized with a helpful visual and a concise explanation. The concepts included span all of the key scientific disciplines, including Physics, Chemistry,...

An eye-opening reconsideration of the Cold War arms control movement, showing how scientists who presented themselves as independent-minded opponents of the arms race in fact functioned as agents of the military-industrial complex that profited from it. Do scientists speak truth to power? During...

What scientific term or concept ought to be more widely known? That is the question John Brockman, publisher of the acclaimed science salon Edge.org (“The world’s smartest website”—The Guardian), presented to 205 of the world’s most influential thinkers from across the intellectual...

Even geniuses change their minds sometimes. Edge (www.edge.org), the influential online intellectual salon, recently asked 150 high-powered thinkers to discuss their most telling missteps and reconsiderations: What have you changed your mind about? The answers were brilliant, eye-opening,...

Every one of us contains a billion times more atoms than all the grains of sand in the earth’s deserts. If you weigh 150 pounds, you’ve got enough carbon to make 25 pounds of charcoal, enough salt to fill a saltshaker, enough chlorine to disinfect several backyard swimming pools, and enough iron to...