Best Astronomy & Astrophysics
With more than 150 photographs including Hubble All-Stars—the most famous of all the noteworthy images— The Hubble Cosmos shows how this telescope is revolutionizing our understanding of the universe. ROBERT P. KIRSHNER, Clowes Professor of Science in the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University, accomplished groundbreaking work on supernovas and the expansion of the universe using the Hubble Space Telescope.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Fantastic book with great pictures and very informative text on the history of Hubble and its role in science."
"Unbelievable pictures."
"A spectacular compilation of the glory that arts supreme in the universe, makes you realize that all the universe is full of light and feel the eternal movement of the spheres, which we are all a part of."
"Beautiful book."
"And a awsum team worked their butt off to make it and put it in Space."
"Beautiful."
"Fabulous pictures and interesting informative text."
“[Tyson] tackles a great range of subjects . “Tyson comes across as having an excellent grasp of the current state of astrophysics, cosmology, chemistry and other scientific disciplines... he conveys knowledge clearly to the nonspecialist, often with ingratiating humor and wit.”. - Roy E. Perry, The Tennessean.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Amazing :) thank you so much."
"Bought it for my cousin, he seems to be enjoying it."
"Very happy, quick delivery."
"Came clean and just as expected!"
"Super cool and a good variety of concepts."
3 The Zoomable Universe: An Epic Tour Through Cosmic Scale, from Almost Everything to Nearly Nothing
Stops along the way―all enlivened by Scharf’s sparkling prose and his original insights into the nature of our universe―include the brilliant core of the Milky Way, the surface of a rogue planet, the back of an elephant, and a sea of jostling quarks. Ron Miller is an award-winning illustrator and author whose work has appeared in National Geographic , Scientific American , the bestselling app Journey to the Exoplanets , and editions of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea , Journey to the Center of the Earth , and many other books.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"A real thought provoking book."
"This was a complete book about the dimensions from the universe down to the smallest particles."
"It's similar to what you would find at New York's Rose Center at the Natural Science Museum, but with more explanation."
"beautifully illustrated, very nice book."
"Interesting way to learn about our amazing universe."
"Window to our hidden and incredible universe."
Best Astronomy
The fourth edition has improvements over the 3rd edition in every chapter, including: This fantastically revised edition continues that tradition, but now includes sky maps for observers in the southern hemisphere and a guide to celestial phenomena up to 2018. Renowned author and astronomer Terence Dickinson took Grade 5 and 6 students from the [North Bay] area through the universe to make snowballs from water and ice particles that make up Saturn's rings, and visit the red liquid methane lakes of its moon, Titan.... "I'm hoping that they'll walk away with excitement about the universe," he said." New, better-quality photos; amped-up sections on astrophotography and using amateur telescopic equipment; and a new chapter on the skies visible from the Southern hemisphere. This fourth edition of the essential guide for amateur stargazers is newly updated, lavishly illustrated...and packed with facts...and a cosmic closet-full of other astronomical delights. It may be hard to justify upgrading from later printings of the third edition, but NightWatch remains one of the best sourcebooks to introduce beginning astronomers to the night sky -- and to keep them interested.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Great for putting things into perspective and inspiring awe and deep interest in star gazing."
"I give is book away regularly."
"This is a beautiful book, as well as, well written information for kids and adults alike."
"Very well written and illustrated with a lot of good information for those getting into astronomy."
"A comprehensive beginner's handbook of the Night Skies."
"Very informative a lot of good things I didn't know."
"Everything you should know before spending lots of cash for a telescope."
"A great book to read for veiwing space."
Best Astrophotography
The Hubble Space Telescope is now at the apex of its imaging capabilities yet until the publication of Hubble's Universe , no other popular book had presented the latest pictures taken by the new Wide Field Camera 3. For his most recent book, Terence Dickinson selected a breathtaking portfolio of Hubble pictures from a library of more than 700,000 images. The book uncovers the telescope's technical workings, revealing how the images are created and interpreted, and explains how the images support scientists' theories and predictions, even as some images have taken scientists by surprise. [review for 11 X 11 edition] At first glance, some readers might consider this a coffee table book with just a bunch of pretty pictures--the color images are very high quality--but the substantial captions for the images are extremely well written. [review for 11 X 11 edition] There's a new Hubble picture book every year, but this year we're lucky to have one authored by the guy who wrote NightWatch and The Universe and Beyond. [review for 11 X 11 edition] {starred review) Dickinson details the Hubble Space Telescope's contributions to science in both text and images. Especially fantastic are the images of solar wind stripping away large gas clouds that harbor stellar nurseries; images of Hubble's deep field, revealing galaxy clusters from halfway across the universe; and sublime images of vast, colorful nebulas.... Dickinson explains how all the photographed objects fit into scientists' understanding of cosmology, adding extra context to the pictures. [review for 11 X 11 edition] Dickinson showcases extraordinary late-breaking pictures, many of which have yet to receive wide distribution...and presents a breathtaking portfolio drawn from an archive of over 500,000 existing Hubble images. [review for 11 X 11 edition] A visually breathtaking array of Hubble's images in an extraordinary new volume...a book to fill readers with wonder.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Ordered this book as a gift, not realizing that it was the Compact Edition, which is a full inch smaller in width and length, so not quite as impressive as the 11x11 version."
"There are pictures in it I've not seen when searching Nasa's website and many are full page shots at roughly 11x11."
"I read Hubble's Universe every night and was just amazed at the science and technology behind this venture."
""Hubble's Universe" is quite possibly the most beautiful book I've ever laid eyes on."
"Gave to a huge star fan and she loves it, says she spends hours just slowly flipping through the images."
"The pictures are detailed and absolutely gorgeous; the written portions are detailed and share a wealth of information on the featured celestial bodies."
"This book has been on my wish list far too long and then I finally decided to treat myself for my birthday and bought this book."
"He's bought a large tabletop stand for the book and each day turns a new page to reveal another glorious image."
Best Particle Physics
The first chapter provides a detailed historical introduction to the subject, while subsequent chapters offer a quantitative presentation of the Standard Model. The first chapter provides a detailed historical introduction to the subject, while subsequent chapters offer a quantitative presentation of the Standard Model. - Revised edition of a well-established text on elementary particle physics. - With a number of worked examples and many end-of-chapter problems. - Helps the student to master the Feynman rules. - Solution manual available for instructors.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Displays the key equations showing their form but does not dwell on the math."
"Best starter book for field theory."
"I friggin love this book."
"Every physics student should read this book before they take the physics GRE, or even just for fun."
"If you've read and understood undergrad mechanics, e&m (Griffiths), and quantum mechanics (Griffiths), then you're ready for this book and you'll know what to expect from Griffiths."
Best Telescopes
Any amateur astronomer who is interested in astrophotography, particularly if just getting started, needs to know what objects are best for imaging in each month of the year. This book focuses on what northern latitude objects to image at any given time of the year to get the most spectacular results. … The book’s intent is to provide a visually compelling list of the 100 most interesting deep sky objects from the perspective of a digital imager, more precisely of the CCD user. I was particularly impressed at how well some deep sky objects can now be imaged even with the full moon in the sky.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I have collected many lists of astronomy targets. With a fair section of the book telling you the basics of how to take pictures (equipment, S/W, techniques)."
"Great book!"
"The book starts out with some basics about astro photograpy and CCD imaging and moves on to a little equipment guide, covering mounts, OTA's, CCD camera's and autoguiding for Astro photography."
"Gives all the stuff you want to know, scope used, exposure time, imager used, processing techniques - and best of all these are all done at medium exposure times so no 30 minute sub exposures (and the $$ mounts needed to do it) to get similar results. Although calibrating, stacking, SNR, ... 'processing images' is a theater all it's own - too often it's time spent on one object only to find on others a very different proceedure required."
"I can feel just one slight "bottle neck" (maybe, it would mean some improvement for the second edition): what a difference can be seen on the same target using different cameras. This "CCD-test" was not the goal of this book, it is obvious, but it could have been a secondary but, at the same time, very useful "added value" mainly for beginners who are the vast part of the readers I think... (Maybe CCD producers could sponsor the book...). All in all, this is a fantastic guide for astrophotography, it is no doubt."
"Each target has a full color full page photograph with the all the information necessary to photograph it."
"This book concisely lays out the equipment best suited for each object: telescope type, exposure times, filter choices, and much more."
Best Physics
It is then organized by type of reaction including chapters such as "Fantastic Reactions and Where to Find Them," "On the Origin of Light and Color," "The Boring Chapter," in which we learn about reactions such as paint drying, grass growing, and water boiling, and "The Need for Speed," including topics such as weather, ignition, and fire. Nick Mann is the photographer of The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe and Molecules: The Elements and the Architecture of Everything .
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I enjoy reading it because it demonstrates new ways to look at atoms and molecules."
"Amazing book with great information and facts with a bit of comedy."
"Theodore Gray explains how elements interact with one another, the basics of chemical reactions, and looks at some ordinary and not so ordinary reactions."
"For someone who is just beginning into chemistry, understanding reactions is helpful, while reading about them...lets just say he makes it fun and engaging."
"Anyone with a chemistry class in their distant past will thoroughly enjoy the full page molecule illustrations our textbooks were lacking and greatly appreciate the clarity they provide when teaching their youngsters about the magic of reactions."
"My 12-year-old loves adding this to her collection by this author!"
"Excellent book which has good reactons on chemistry, therefore. it has good demand."
Best Biology & Life Sciences
Sapolsky's storytelling concept is delightful but it also has a powerful intrinsic logic: he starts by looking at the factors that bear on a person's reaction in the precise moment a behavior occurs, and then hops back in time from there, in stages, ultimately ending up at the deep history of our species and its evolutionary legacy. Sapolsky keeps going: How was that behavior influenced by structural changes in the nervous system over the preceding months, by that person's adolescence, childhood, fetal life, and then back to his or her genetic makeup? The result is one of the most dazzling tours d'horizon of the science of human behavior ever attempted, a majestic synthesis that harvests cutting-edge research across a range of disciplines to provide a subtle and nuanced perspective on why we ultimately do the things we do...for good and for ill. Sapolsky builds on this understanding to wrestle with some of our deepest and thorniest questions relating to tribalism and xenophobia, hierarchy and competition, morality and free will, and war and peace. "Sapolsky has created an immensely readable, often hilarious romp through the multiple worlds of psychology, primatology, sociology and neurobiology to explain why we behave the way we do. “[Sapolskly’s] new book is his magnum opus, but is also strikingly different from his earlier work, veering sharply toward hard science as it looms myriad strands of his ruminations on human behavior. The familiar, enchanting Sapolsky tropes are here—his warm, witty voice, a sleight of hand that unfolds the mysteries of cognition—but Behave keeps the bar high. It is a magnificent culmination of integrative thinking, on par with similar authoritative works, such as Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Stee l and Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature .” — Michael Shermer, American Scholar. They should put Behave in hotel rooms instead of the Bible: the world would be a much better, wiser place” — Kate Fox, author of Watching the English. Behave ranges at great length from moral philosophy to social science, genetics to Sapolsky’s home turf of neurons and hormones—but all of it is aimed squarely at the question of why humans are so awful to each other, and whether the condition is terminal.” — Vulture. You feel like a lucky auditor in a fast-paced undergraduate course, where the implications of fascinating scientific findings are illuminated through topical stories and pop-culture allusions.” — Nature “Sapolsky’s book shows in exquisite detail how culture, context and learning shape everything our genes, brains, hormones and neurons do.” — Times Literary Supplement. “[Sapolsky] does an excellent job of bringing together the expansive literature of thousands of fascinating studies with clarity and humor….A tour-de-force.” — Library Journal (starred review). “Sapolsky finds not the high moral drama of the soul choosing good or evil but rather down-to-earth biology….a remarkably encyclopedic survey of the sciences illuminating human conduct.” — Booklist (starred review). “Read Robert Sapolsky’s marvelous book Behave and you’ll never again be surprised by the range and depth of our own bad behavior. —David Eagleman, PhD, neuroscientist at Stanford, author, presenter of PBS's The Brain " Behave is a beautifully crafted work about the biology of morality. Its depth and breadth of scholarship are amazing, building on Sapolsky’s own research and his vast knowledge of the neurobiology, genetic, and behavioral literature. For instance, Behave includes fair evaluations of complex debates (like over sociobiology) that I was involved in, and tackles controversial questions such as whether our hunter-gatherer ancestors warred on each other. All this is done brilliantly with a light and funny touch that shows why Sapolsky is recognized as one of the greatest teachers in science today.” —Paul R. Ehrlich, author of Human Natures.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The downside of reading Sapolsky's latest work is it will cause you to question long held beliefs about guilt or innocence, good and evil, moral or immoral."
"We are capable of both far worse than we want to believe and can do more to change the world for the better than we tend to think we're able; and in both cases it's because of things we don't know, can't explain or don't want to control. But the more we try to expand the tiny sliver of knowledge we do have, with respect for how small that sliver is; and the more awareness we can have that the world around us and our biology drive much more of what we do in any moment than our conscious intellect, emotions or "free will" do - the more hope we have of doing more to change the world with the little bit of actual influence we possess."
"The newest on brain science by the world wide expert, Robert Sapolsky."
"Nature , nurture, early childhood experience (including abuse), and peer pressure all have an impact on behavior. There is no "silver bullet" that explains individual behavior. The pop culture rewrite probably would run 200 pages without the plumbing and wiring diagrams."
"This is an impressive book."
Best Chemistry
Organized in order of appearance on the periodic table, each element is represented by a spread that includes a stunning, full-page, full-color photograph that most closely represents it in its purest form. The element's position on the periodic table is pinpointed on a mini rendering of the table and an illustrated scale of the element's boiling and/or melting points appears on each page along with a density scale that runs along the bottom. Gray, an element collector and Popular Science columnist, has created a visual homage to the periodic table of the elements. The left-hand side of the spread features a large color image of the element in its true form, when possible.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"My personal favorite element is Erbium because of the fact that it has an action potential property like a neuron in the brain."
"It's very informative but uses words that are easier to understand for young minds."
"Kudos to the author for making each of the metals interesting, similar visual appearance notwithstanding. I would be interested in a second edition wherein the author gets some big bucks from, say, National Geographic, and does a nice hardcover in the style of "Our Universe", with all the mythology illustrations and so forth."
"The whole family enjoys paging through it and sharing the facts about elements that we find in it."
"I was so impressed with this book that I bought it for several kids and then bought one for myself."
"The best part is this book is very easy to read."
"Beautiful book!"
"Terrible for a calendar."
Best Mathematics
Best Environmental Studies
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Along the way, other startling observations emerge: biodiversity is declining not only due to the "old causes" such as hunted to extinction for various reasons but also new ones such as global warming impact on life-sustaining ranges, the loss of habitat space, the inability to regenerate a species due to slower reproduction rate and the rapid vulnerability to new diseases (fungal, bacterial or viral). In the prior roughly 500 million years there have been upwards of 25 periods of species extinction, of which five are considered to have been major ones due to breadth and probably rate of surrounding change. Nearly all of these were due to factors beyond the control of the inhabitants at the time: changes in chemical balances, glaciations and global warming due to Earth orbit wobbles, volcanic eruptions and asteroid impact leading to global cooling that killed off many of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. At a speed of change far beyond anything that has happened before - be it global warming by burning millions of years of fossil fuels, by eliminating living space on land or in sea for other species, or by sheer carelessness."
"Kolbert does a very good job reviewing previous extinctions, explaining the science behind current extinctions, and the potential for a sixth extinction due to human activitiy."
"Even in the 1968 Planet of the Apes, the most sophisticated Apes; Cornelius and Zira followed the status quo until this miraculously out of this world Taylor gave them hope for a much more civilized society."
"Presents events of the past, hypothesizes on why and how these events occurred based on scientific evidence, and speculates on possible outcomes in the future."
Best Mechanics
The extensive index contains thousands of terms, most indexed in a variety of ways, in anticipation of how you’ll search for them. Dynamics and Vibrations: Kinematics; Kinetics; Power Transmission Systems; Vibrating Systems Materials: Engineering Materials Properties and Testing; Thermal Treatment of Metals Fluids: Fluid Properties; Fluid Statics; Fluid Flow Parameters; Fluid Dynamics; Hydraulic Machines Power Cycles: Vapor, Combustion, and Nuclear Power Cycles; Refrigeration and Gas Compression Cycles HVAC: Psychrometrics; Fans, Ductwork, and Ventilation; Heating and Cooling Loads; Air Conditioning Systems Heat Transfer: Natural Convection; Evaporation; Condensation; Forced Convection; Radiation Machine Design: Basic and Advanced Machine Design; Pressure Vessels Thermodynamics: Inorganic Chemistry; Fuels and Combustion; Properties of Substances Control Systems: Modeling and Analysis of Engineering Systems Plant Engineering: Manufacturing Processes; Instrumentation and Measurements; Materials Handling and Processing; Fire Protection Systems; Environmental Pollutants and Remediation; Hazardous Material Storage and Disposal Fundamentals: Math Review; Probability; Statics; Engineering Economic Analysis Law and Ethics: Engineering Law; Ethics. What’s New in This Edition 36 chapters with new material, and 46 chapters with revisions to existing material 300 new equations, and 128 updated equations 27 new tables, and 31 updated tables 7 new examples, and 34 updated examples 10 new appendices, and 27 updated appendices 35 new figures, and 28 updated figures 1,094 new index entries, and 108 updated index entires. Michael R. Lindeburg, PE, is one of the best-known authors of engineering textbooks and references.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I just recently passed the mechanical PE exam (fluids discipline), and I thought I would share the studying strategy that seemed to work for me. The very first thing you should do is purchase this book, the Mechanical Engineering Reference Manual (MERM), even if you do not plan to take the PE for several years. At this pace, in about 3 months you will have read the entire book (around 1500 pages) and at least attempted every single practice problem. At this point you will be in full panic mode, because you won’t feel comfortable with any of the practice problems because as I said, they are much harder than what is on the exam. When you have finished the book, it should be right about the time that you have to choose your specific mechanical discipline for the exam. You will start to feel a lot more comfortable at this point because the questions are much easier than what you’ve seen so far. Update in response to some questions: On test day, you will see people walk into the exam with dozens of books. I went into the exam with only the following materials and it was more than enough: Mechanical Engineering Reference Manual. Practice Problems for the Mechanical Engineering Reference Manual. NCEES Sample Questions and Solutions (Thermal and Fluids Systems). NCEES Sample Questions and Solutions (Mechanical Systems and Materials). NCEES Sample Questions and Solutions (HVAC and Refrigeration). A 1" Three Ring Binder of helpful equations, saturation tables, and conversion factors that I accumulated during the study process. I hope this has helped, and most importantly, good luck!"
"If you master this book, it is the only one you'll need (IMHO) to pass the Mechanical Engineering PE test."
"I borrowed someone's copy of the NCEES practice exam and between these materials and that exam, it's all the prep I did. You will see people with a ridiculous amount of materials on exam day, I took this book and my ASHRAE books (I took the HVAC depth exam) and it was everything I needed."
"Used this book (and ONLY this book + a unit conversion book) for the October 2014 Mechanical PE exam and passed."
"Passed my exam and everyone at work loves this book as a general guide to anything."
"I highly recommend this book."
Best Agriculture
The Market Gardener is a compendium of la Grelinette’s proven horticultural techniques and innovative growing methods. The Market Gardener is a compendium of La Grelinette’s proven horticultural techniques, packed with practical information on: Setting-up a micro-farm by designing biologically intensive cropping systems, all with negligible capital outlay; Farming without a tractor and minimizing fossil fuel inputs through the use of the best hand tools, appropriate machinery and minimum tillage practices; Growing mixed vegetables systematically with attention to weed and pest management, crop yields, harvest periods and pricing approaches. Based on low-tech, high-yield methods of production The Market Gardener is a complete, modern, micro-scale farming handbook which shows that making a living wage growing food without large capital outlay or access to an acreage may be closer than you think.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Even though I knew the book was geared toward someone planning to sell their produce as opposed to a home gardener like myself, I decided to buy the book based on reviews and what I saw in the book via Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature. The impression I get from other books and articles is that you can totally sustain your garden forever and ever off the compost you make yourself, and that may be true, but Jean-Martin states that the time and space they would need to create and maintain compost piles is better utilized by growing more produce- plus the organic compost they buy is predictable in terms of quality and composition, which are both important. This book contains, hands down, THE MOST useful information on crop rotation (and how to implement it) than any other resource I have found to date. Before buying this book I had spent literally weeks on the web, trying to figure out the best way (or at least a practical way) to implement crop rotation and not finding anything beyond very generalized advice to “rotate by crop families” or “follow heavy feeders with light feeders” or “don’t plant the same things in the same beds every year”. Trying to find out if plants needed a two, three, four, or more year rotation was difficult and there was a lot of conflicting information on what plants were heavy vs. light feeders (or in between), how long rotations should be, and so on. This book presented me with a wealth of actual, practical, applicable information on crop rotation, the whys, and how they do it. He gives the common name, the plant family and fertilization needs (good to know for crop rotation), intensive spacing requirements, days in the garden (which may or may not be days to maturity depending on if he direct seeds that plant or not, but it’s easy to tell which are which) and some other various bits of information and notes on the plant in question."
"As for the product, I do like the writing style which makes the book very interesting to read even though I am not from a farm business background."
"Hard work, proper tools and techniques, creative problem solving, and commitment to high standards are major themes of his success."
"Jean-Martin has shown me how to take the puzzle pieces, I have accrued from 35 years of gardening, and put them into a time-table of efficiency that works!"
"I am always looking for good gardening books and when I saw all the positive reviews for this one I knew I had to buy it."
"If you're looking for true encouragement and you're serious about farming, this book grants inspiration and a clearer vision to fuel that passion forward into reality."
"After watching his YouTube videos, I purchased Jean-Martin's book to improve my knowledge of how to produce better crops."
"some useful information, it was originally published in French and some of it was mildly hard to understand because of the way it was translated, a few times I had to reread a paragraph to actually understand what was discussed, but except for a few spots its easy to understand."
Best Earth Sciences
The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The book chronicles the 'refuse to quit on even one man' efforts of Shackleton, who struggled against unimaginable hardships in the most inhospitable place on earth, in an effort to deliver His men to safety ... from what must surely be an unavoidable fate. These men WERE made of sterner stuff."
"Wonderfully documented...Amazing journey within the read itself."
"The story of the Shackleton Expedition is truly amazing, and Caroline Alexander brings it to life with her superb ability to recount the harrowing moments and triumphant rescue of these resourceful explorers."
"Although not what I would usually choose to read, this was a book for my monthly bookclub, and I found myself really enjoying it!"
"This book is released in conjunction with the exhibition to be mounted at the Museum of Natural History next spring; I only wish that some additional material, such as journal pages and related artifacts had been included to give the book a little more "warmth" since the subject matter is so undeniably "chilly"!"
"True story of hardship and great courage in the face of disaster!"
"Comprehensive and beautifully illustrated."
""The Endurance" (his ship) and Shackleton's heroic adventure to save the lives of his crew ought to be required reading for all young men."