Science

In 2008, Professor Lee Berger--with the help of his curious 9-year-old son--discovered two remarkably well preserved, two-million-year-old fossils of an adult female and young male, known as Australopithecus sediba; a previously unknown species of ape-like creatures that may have been a direct ancestor of modern humans. This discovery of has been hailed as one of the most important archaeological discoveries in history. The fossils reveal what may be one of humankind's oldest ancestors.

After more than a century of peaceful dormancy, the volcano Nevado del Ruiz in Columbia, South America, erupted. Blistering clouds of searing volcanic gases and ash flash-melted huge amounts of snow, launching a towering wall of hot mud toward the village of Armero. People ran - but they couldn't outrun the onslaught, and 23,000 perished.

They have a touch so feather-light, it can barely be felt on human skin. The vividly gold and black colored golden orb weaver spider is the largest web-making spider on the planet. These elegant and efficient arachnids can weave impressive webs up to three feet wide in less than an hour. And these spiders' silk-spinning abilities could have far-reaching implications for science and medicine.

Earthquakes,
volcanoes,
tsunamis.
Headline-making natural disasters with devastating consequences for millions of people. But what do we actually know about these literally earth-shaking events?

New York Times bestselling author, explorer, journalist, and geologist Simon Winchester—who’s been shaken by earthquakes in New Zealand, skied through Greenland to help prove the theory of plate tectonics, and even charred the soles of his boots climbing a volcano—looks at the science, technology, and societal impact of these inter-connected natural phenomena.

What happens to food after you eat it?
In this newly illustrated book, complete with photos, Paul Showers and Edward Miller take you on a journey through the human digestive system into the mouth, down the gullet, into the stomach, and finally into the small and large intestines. You will learn what each of these body parts does to help transform the food you eat. And you will also find out what happens to the food your body cannot use.

Everything that happens inside your body whenever you swallow a bite of food will amaze you!

How did nonliving atoms evolve into modern people? Find out in this engaging illustrated exploration of how nothing became everything.

The science of evolution is a topic of utmost importance, especially as the focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education continues to increase. Fortunately, important doesn’t have to mean boring. From explaining how scientists discovered how life began on earth to speculating about whether space aliens are carnivores, this engaging investigation of all things evolution is infused with fun as well as facts.

Wise old owls? Problem-solving dolphins? Maybe you have heard of Koko the gorilla, who has mastered one thousand signs in American Sign Language, or Chaser the border collie, who recognizes one thousand names for her stuffed toys.

But what about ants building megacolonies or bees reporting to the hive about new nesting sites? What about escape artist octopuses and jellyfish that use their eyes (they have twenty-four!) to navigate? Are insects, spiders, and other animals without backbones considered smart, too?

Biosphere 2 was built nearly thirty years ago to develop technologies for human living in space and on other worlds. Eight biospherians survived sealed inside the engineered ecosystem for two years. The results of the mission were mixed, but they definitely succeeded in constructing a research facility like none other in the world.

On a cold day in November 1944, eighteen-month-old Eileen Saxon was brought into an operating room at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She could barely breathe, and he lips and fingertips had turned a dusky blue, the result of a heart condition known as blue baby syndrome. Most doctors who had seen her expected her to die within hours.