Book cover of The Remarkable Life of the Skin: An Intimate Journey Across Our Largest Organ by Monty Lyman
Biological Sciences

The Remarkable Life of the Skin: An Intimate Journey Across Our Largest Organ

Providing a cover for our delicate bodies, the skin is our largest and fastest-growing organ. We see it, touch it, and live in it every day. It is a habitat for a mesmerizingly complex world of micro-organisms and physical functions that are vital to our health and survival. One of the first things people see about us, skin is also crucial to our sense of identity. And yet much about it is largely unknown to us. […Learn More]

Book cover of Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn't Food by Chris Van Tulleken
Food & Wine

Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn’t Food

A manifesto to change how you eat and how you think about the human body.

It’s not you, it’s the food.

We have entered a new age of eating. For the first time in human history, most of our calories come from an entirely novel set of substances called Ultra-Processed Food. There’s a long, formal scientific definition, but it can be boiled down to this: if it’s wrapped in plastic and has at least one ingredient that you wouldn’t find in your kitchen, it’s UPF. […Learn More]

Book cover of Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach
Biological Sciences

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal

“America’s funniest science writer” (Washington Post) takes us down the hatch on an unforgettable tour. The alimentary canal is classic Mary Roach terrain: the questions explored in Gulp are as taboo, in their way, as the cadavers in Stiff and every bit as surreal as the universe of zero gravity explored in Packing for Mars. Why is crunchy food so appealing? Why is it so hard to find words for flavors and smells? Why doesn’t the stomach digest itself? How much can you eat before your stomach bursts? Can constipation kill you? Did it kill Elvis […Learn More]

Book cover fo Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia
Biological Sciences

Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity

A groundbreaking manifesto on living better and longer that challenges the conventional medical thinking on aging and reveals a new approach to preventing chronic disease and extending long-term health, from a visionary physician and leading longevity expert […Learn More]

Book cover of Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist by Frans De Waal
Biological Sciences

Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist

In Different, world-renowned primatologist Frans de Waal draws on decades of observation and studies of both human and animal behavior to argue that despite the linkage between gender and biological sex, biology does not automatically support the traditional gender roles in human societies. While humans and other primates do share some behavioral differences, biology offers no justification for existing gender inequalities. […Learn More]

Book cover of The Wine-Dark Sea Within: A Turbulent History of Blood by Dhun Sethna
Biological Sciences

The Wine-Dark Sea Within: A Turbulent History of Blood

A revisionist history of medicine, in which blood plays the starring role 
 
Inspired by Homer’s description of the ebb and flow of the “wine dark sea,” the ancient Greeks conceived a back-and-forth movement of blood. That false notion, perpetuated by the influential Roman physician Galen, prevailed for fifteen hundred years until William Harvey proved that blood circulates: the heart pumps blood in one direction through the arteries and it returns through the veins. […Learn More]

Book cover of The Next 500 Years: Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds by Christopher E. Mason
Astronomy & Space Science

The Next 500 Years: Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds

Introducing a 10-phase, 500-year vision for the future of space exploration, genetic engineering, and the human species—on Earth and on other planets.

As the only species aware that life on Earth has an expiration date, we have a moral duty to land on, to live on, and to extend life to other planets. […Learn More]

Book cover of Aroused: The History of Hormones and How They Control Just About Everything by Randhi Hutter Epstein
Biological Sciences

Aroused: The History of Hormones and How They Control Just About Everything

A guided tour through the strange science of hormones and the age-old quest to control them.

Metabolism, behavior, sleep, mood swings, the immune system, fighting, fleeing, puberty, and sex: these are just a few of the things our bodies control with hormones. Armed with a healthy dose of wit and curiosity, medical journalist Randi Hutter Epstein takes us on a journey through the unusual history of these potent chemicals from a basement filled with jarred nineteenth-century brains to a twenty-first-century hormone clinic in Los Angeles. […Learn More]