In 2003, Russian physicists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov found a way to produce graphene – the thinnest substance in the world – by using sticky tape to separate an atom-thick la...
Born in Vienna in 1882, Melanie Klein became a pioneer in child psychoanalysis and developed several ground-breaking concepts about the nature and crucial importance of the early stages of infantil...
Despite the overwhelming diversity of life on earth, one theme hasdominated its evolution: the apparently simple act of moving from one place toanother.Restless Creatures is the first b...
A very good guide to the state we're in' Paul Krugman, New York Review of Books'A well-written, thought-provoking book by one of America's leading economic thinkers and progressive champions.' Huff...
Infinity is a profoundly counter-intuitive and brain-twisting subject that has inspired some great thinkers – and provoked and shocked others. The ancient Greeks were so horrified by the impl...
Whether you're on the Orient Express or the Inverness to Wick and Thurso route traversing some of the wildest country in Britain, train travel affords a vision of the world like no other. From the ...
Introducing Levi-Strauss is a guide to the work of the great French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss (1908-2009). The book brilliantly traces the development and influence of Levi-Strauss' though...
llustrated guide to the crucial Italian philosopher and author of The Prince. 'Machiavellian' is a popular byword for treachery and opportunism. Machiavelli's classic book on statecraft, The Prince...
For most people, quantum theory is a byword for mysterious, impenetrable science. And yet for many years it was equally baffling for scientists themselves. In this magisterial book, Manjit Kumar gi...
Aristotle was named the "master of those who know." He is a foundational thinker in almost every field of inquiry and for fifteen hundred years he remained the paradigm of knowledge itsel...
Bertrand Russell changed Western philosophy forever. He tackled many puzzles—how our minds work, how we experience the world, and what the true nature of meaning is. In Introducing Bertrand R...
Why is psychiatry such big business? Why are so many psychiatric drugs prescribed - 47 million antidepressant prescriptions in the UK alone last year - and why, without solid scientific justificati...
The only scientist to ever appear on the British twenty pound note, Michael Faraday is one of the most recognisable names in the history of science. Faraday’s forte was electricity, a revolut...
Imagine freewheeling through tufted French vineyards, scaling the rocky, cloud-topped tracks in the Himalayas or rattling past whitewashed sugar-cube houses in narrow Spanish valleys. From survivin...
Illustrated guide to the crucial French philosopher who denied bring a philosopher at all. ‘I am like no one else in the whole world …’ Thus begins Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s ...
Enlightenment botany was replete with sexual symbolism--to the extent that many botanical textbooks were widely considered pornographic. Carl Linnaeus's controversial new system for classifying pla...
René Descartes is famous as the philosopher who was prepared to doubt everything- even his own physical existence. Most people also know that he said ‘I think, therefore I am’, e...