Polymath Books

The story of Marie and Pierre Curie is one of love, scientific partnership and one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century. Ar...

In his new book, vaccine researcher Paul Offit contends that some parents' decisions not to vaccinate their kids are harming others. Off...

The Boston Globe recently wrote about the book: “Virtual Words,” by Jonathon Keats, who writes the Jargon Watch column in WIRED magazine. We...

In his 1984 book, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, author Steven Levy profiled some of the personalities whose work brought PCs t...

Ads urge men of a certain age to get screened for prostate cancer. But is "test early, test often" the best approach? Otis Brawley...

In Kingdom Under Glass, author Jay Kirk tells the life story of Carl Akeley, the pioneering taxidermist and adventurer who once killed a leo...

Normally the eyes and brain work together in a seamless, intricate system. But what happens when the brain can no longer make sense of visua...

Yeast, hops, grain and water all need to combine with biology, chemistry and physics to make a great glass of beer. Charlie Bamforth, Univer...

Normally the eyes and brain work together in a seamless, intricate system. But what happens when the brain can no longer make sense of visua...

In her book Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed, former Los Angeles Times reporter Judy Pasternak docume...

Why does a saxophone sound different from an oboe? How do tiny flutes produce such loud sounds? Dr. John Powell, author of How Music Works: ...

Next month, voters in four states will consider whether to change laws regulating marijuana use. But how much is known about marijuana's...

At the same time Greg Graffin was starting the legendary punk rock band Bad Religion, he was becoming fascinated by evolutionary biology. Bo...

The television series Cosmos, which first aired 30 years ago this week, made a celebrity of science communicator Carl Sagan. In this archiva...

In her new book The Calculus Diaries, writer Jennifer Ouellette describes the development of calculus, from Archimedes to Newton, and shows ...

What grows best in Martian soil? How do you get oxygen out of thin air? Pat Duggins, author of Trailblazing Mars: NASA’s Next Giant Leap, ta...

Did you know Mark Twain tried his hand at science fiction? In the book The Disappearing Spoon, author Sam Kean writes about Twain's pres...

The television series Cosmos, which first aired 30 years ago this week, made a celebrity of science communicator Carl Sagan. In this archiva...

If doctors listen more carefully to patients' conversations about work and family life, they can pick up clues that lead to better treat...

In his book The Perfect Swarm, Len Fisher talks about swarm intelligence -- where the collective ideas of a group add up to better solutions...