Books in Popular Science series

Contrary to popular wisdom, you don’t have to be an ace electrician, a coding prodigy, or a mechanical master to come up with a game-changing invention! You just need curiosity, a strong desire to fix a problem that you see in the world, and the determination to see your ideas become reality—and this book, which will teach you everything you need to go from zero to inventor.Everyone wants to be the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, but there’s never been a clear road map to becoming a wildly successful innovator—until now. In The Total Inventor’s Manual, you’ll learn to… MAKE ONE Get that great idea out of your brain and into the real world with a crash course in ideation, prototyping, and testing. Includes clever, can-do lessons in CAD, 3D-printing, laser-cutting, electronics, robotics, coding, and more. SELL ONE Whether you’re riding the Kickstarter wave or hitting the venture capital beat, get your idea funded—and protect it with a proper patent. Then learn to refine your prototype’s look and feel to give it a boost in the market. MAKE MANY Bring your invention to the masses with tips on manufacturing processes and best practices, plus solid advice for beginners on a running supply chain. SELL MANY You’ve built it—time to make them come. Discover how to effectively position your product in the marketplace, deal with consumer feedback, and run—or sell—your newly successful company. With profiles by Rachel Nuwer on the winning inventors who brought you the space glove, heart stent, Super Soaker, Roomba, digital camera, Makerbot 3D Printer, UV water purification, home pregnancy test, and more.

"Although we are amused, we may also be embarrassed to find our friends or even ourselves among the gullible advocates of plausible-sounding doubletalk." — Saturday Review"A very able and even-tempered presentation." — New YorkerThis witty and engaging book examines the various fads, fallacies, strange cults, and curious panaceas which at one time or another have masqueraded as science. Not just a collection of anecdotes but a fair, reasoned appraisal of eccentric theory, it is unique in recognizing the scientific, philosophic, and sociological-psychological implications of the wave of pseudoscientific theories which periodically besets the world.To this second revised edition of a work formerly titled In the Name of Science, Martin Gardner has added new, up-to-date material to an already impressive account of hundreds of systematized vagaries. Here you will find discussions of hollow-earth fanatics like Symmes; Velikovsky and wandering planets; Hörbiger, Bellamy, and the theory of multiple moons; Charles Fort and the Fortean Society; dowsing and the other strange methods for finding water, ores, and oil. Also covered are such topics as naturopathy, iridiagnosis, zone therapy, food fads; Wilhelm Reich and orgone sex energy; L. Ron Hubbard and Dianetics; A. Korzybski and General Semantics. A new examination of Bridey Murphy is included in this edition, along with a new section on bibliographic reference material.

Art meets science and earth in EARTHSONG, a spectacular collection of breathtaking aerial photographs of the earth's surface, available in paperback for the very first time. The book is divided into four chapters or 'zones': Aqua, Green, Desert, and Barren. The photographs are accompanied by text offering the geographical context and explaining the importance of climate and the impact of humans on the environment. EARTHSONG features photographs from around the world, from the Bahamas to Iceland, New Zealand to North America, and Europe to Alaska. It includes a wide variety of subjects, from bubbling mud pools, volcanic eruptions, coral reefs, and deserts to eroded canyons and arctic glaciers. By celebrating the earth's natural beauty, EARTHSONG documents the threatened wild landscapes of our planet and is ideal for those interested in preservation and environmental issues as well as photography.

In a thought-provoking and entertaining exploration of The Five Biggest Ideas in Science, authors Charles Wynn and Arthur Wiggins provide a panoramic view of the questions scientists seek to answer about the natural world:* Do basic building blocks of matter exist, and if so, what do they look like?* BIG IDEA #1: Physics' Model of the Atom* What relationships, if any, exist among different kinds of atoms?* BIG IDEA #2: Chemistry's Periodic Law* Where did the atoms of the universe come from,and what is their destiny?* BIG IDEA #3: Astronomy's Big Bang Theory* How is the matter of the universe arranged in planet Earth?* BIG IDEA #4: Geology's Plate Tectonics Model* How did life on planet Earth originate and develop?* BIG IDEA #5: Biology's Theory of EvolutionGet set for a lively and informative discussion, as you also learn how to evaluate potential applications of these and other scientific ideas.

An engaging and informative guide to the natural history of the vast, forbidding Arctic region. In clear and elegant prose, the author details the history, flora and fauna, geology, and importance of the far northern world. He covers such topics as the ice ages, glaciers and other geologic formations, weather, birds and animals of the tundra, the great northern forests, and man's arctic explorations. Illustrated.