The veteran of four space flights and the American record holder for consecutive days spent in space, Scott Kelly has experienced things very few have. Now, he takes us inside a sphere utterly inimical to human life. He describes navigating the extreme challenge of long-term spaceflight, both existential and banal: the devastating effects on the body; the isolation from everyone he loves and the comforts of Earth; the pressures of constant close cohabitation;...

"Vera Rubin was one of the astronomers who discovered and named dark matter, the thing that keeps the universe hanging together. Throughout her career she was never taken seriously as a scientist because she was one of the only female astronomers at that time, but she didn't let that stop her. She made groundbreaking and incredibly significant discoveries that scientists have only recently been able to really appreciate-and she changed the way that...

"An in-depth look at the lives and accomplishments of seven extraordinary women in the world of astronomy and space study. With a focus on feminist and stem-related content, this non-fiction book is written by a Senior Science Reporter for CBC."--

My Brief History Writing with characteristic humility and humor, Hawking opens up about the challenges that confronted him following his diagnosis of ALS at age twenty-one. Tracing his development as a thinker, he explains how the prospect of an early death urged him onward through numerous intellectual breakthroughs, and talks about the genesis of his masterpiece A Brief History of Time Clear-eyed, intimate, and wise, My Brief History opens a window...

J. Richard Gott was among the first cosmologists to propose that the structure of our universe is like a sponge made up of clusters of galaxies intricately connected by filaments of galaxies. This magnificent structure is now called the Cosmic Web and has been mapped extensively by teams of astronomers. Here is his gripping insider account of how a generation of undaunted theorists and observers solved the mystery of the architecture of our cosmos....

The story of Frank Kovac, who built a planetarium in the woods of Wisconsin)

While mathematics itself may be a formidable subject for many, the lives and accomplishments of history's greatest mathematicians-from Pythagoras to Cantor-offer fascinating reading. In this delightful and informative recounting, for example, we learn how Pascal's life was abruptly changed by a family of fanatical bonesetters, how Descartes was influenced by three dreams, and how the scholarly Swiss Leonhard Euler (whose famous conjecture was finally...

"The biography of a pioneering woman astronomer whose work was ignored until she uncovered evidence for the existence of dark matter--and then was passed over for the Nobel prize"--