Happy first day of summer!
Take this time to relax and indulge in inspiring vacation reads about innovation and scientific discovery. Recharge with this unique selection of titles that will set your mind soaring and take your imagination on new adventures.
Save 25% on ALL titles listed. Use discount code X3READ when you order online. Discount may not be combined with any other special or applied to previous purchase. Offer expires 9/21/13.
To get you started, we recommend these top titles:
The Grid: A Journey Through the Heart of Our Electrified World320 pages | Hardcover | Price: $25.15The electrical grid goes everywhere — it’s the largest and most complex machine ever made. Yet the system is built in such a way that the bigger it gets, the more inevitable its collapse.
Named the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century… [more]
Snooze… or Lose!: 10 “No-War” Ways to Improve Your Teen’s Sleep Habits256 pages | Hardcover | Price: $22.45Walk into any first-period high school classroom and it’s obvious: teenagers are exhausted. Sleep deprivation is an epidemic as widespread as obesity and just as damaging. Fortunately, science has answers and Dr. Helene Emsellem has solutions that all parents… [more]
Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, and Momentous Discoveries, Second Edition464 pages | Paperback | Price: $17.95Since 1901 there have been over three hundred recipients of the Nobel Prize in the sciences. Only ten of them — about 3 percent — have been women. Why? In this updated version of Nobel Prize Women in Science, Sharon Bertsch McGrayne explores… [more]
Struck by Lightning: The Curious World of Probabilities270 pages | Paperback | Price: $20.65From terrorist attacks to big money jackpots, Struck by Lightning deconstructs the odds and oddities of chance, examining both the relevant and irreverent role of randomness in our everyday lives. Human beings have long been both fascinated and… [more]
Darwin’s Gift: To Science and Religion256 pages | Hardcover | Price: $22.45With the publication in 1859 of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Charles Darwin established evolution by common descent as the dominant scientific explanation for nature’s diversity. This was to be his gift to science and… [more]
America’s Energy Future: Technology and Transformation: Summary Edition184 pages | Paperback | Price: $22.45Energy production and use touch our lives in countless ways. We are reminded of the cost of energy every time we fill up at the gas pump, pay an electricity bill, or purchase an airline ticket. Energy use also has important indirect impacts, not all of which… [more]
America’s Climate Choices144 pages | Paperback | Price: $26.95Climate change is occurring. It is very likely caused by the emission of greenhouse gases from human activities, and poses significant risks for a range of human and natural systems. And these emissions continue to increase, which will result in further… [more]
Terrorism and the Electric Power Delivery System146 pages | Paperback | Price: $44.10The electric power delivery system that carries electricity from large central generators to customers could be severely damaged by a small number of well-informed attackers. The system is inherently vulnerable because transmission lines may span hundreds of… [more]
U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health420 pages | Paperback | Price: $64.80The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest. Although life expectancy and survival rates in the United States have improved dramatically over the past century, Americans live shorter lives and… [more]
Changing the Conversation: Messages for Improving Public Understanding of Engineering164 pages | Paperback | Price: $31.45Can the United States continue to lead the world in innovation? The answer may hinge in part on how well the public understands engineering, a key component of the ‘innovation engine’. A related concern is how to encourage young people–particularly girls and… [more]
Fueling Innovation and Discovery: The Mathematical Sciences in the 21st Century57 pages | Paperback | Price: $17.95The mathematical sciences are part of everyday life. Modern communication, transportation, science, engineering, technology, medicine, manufacturing, security, and finance all depend on the mathematical sciences. Fueling Innovation and Discovery… [more]
Gorilla Mountain: The Story of Wildlife Biologist Amy Vedder128 pages | Paperback | Price: $8.95Amy Vedder leads a wild life. How many people can say they were once a member of a mountain gorilla family? Amy Vedder is a wildlife biologist, a scientist who studies animals and their behavior. She uses her knowledge to save animals whose lives and habitats… [more]
Bone Detective: The Story of Forensic Anthropologist Diane France128 pages | Paperback | Price: $8.95Diane France loves bones. Why? Because they talk to her. Every skeleton she meets whispers secrets about the life and death of its owner. Diane France can hear those secrets because she’s a forensic anthropologist, a bone detective. She has the science skills… [more]
Robo World: The Story of Robot Designer Cynthia Breazeal128 pages | Paperback | Price: $8.95Cynthia Breazeal is a creature creator. Armed with electronic gadgets, software programs, and her endless imagination, she creates lifelike machines that can respond to the world around them. Cynthia Breazeal is a roboticist, a scientist who designs, builds, and… [more]
Space Rocks: The Story of Planetary Geologist Adriana Ocampo128 pages | Paperback | Price: $8.95Adriana Ocampo grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, dreaming about exploring planets. She never doubted that all her dreams would come true someday. How did Adriana land a job with NASA, the U.S. space agency, while still in her teens? How did a robot parked on… [more]
Beyond Jupiter: The Story of Planetary Astronomer Heidi Hammel128 pages | Paperback | Price: $8.95Heidi Hammel is an out-of-this world explorer. With her feet planted firmly on Earth, she takes trips millions of miles out into space. How does she do this? Heidi Hammel is a planetary astronomer, a scientist who uses the world’s most powerful telescopes to… [more]
Nature’s Machines: The Story of Biomechanist Mimi Koehl128 pages | Paperback | Price: $8.95Mimi Koehl tinkers with machines. Some are so tiny they can’t be seen by the naked eye, and some disappeared millions of years ago. But Mimi isn’t a mechanic. She’s a biomechanist. Mimi Koehl uses engineering and physics to study the designs of living things… [more]
Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics448 pages | Hardcover | Price: $25.15In August 1859 Bernhard Riemann, a little-known 32-year old mathematician, presented a paper to the Berlin Academy titled: “On the Number of Prime Numbers Less Than a Given Quantity.” In the middle of that paper, Riemann made an incidental remark, a guess, a… [more]
Einstein Defiant: Genius Versus Genius in the Quantum Revolution356 pages | Hardcover | Price: $25.15“I find the idea quite intolerable that an electron exposed to radiation should choose of its own free will, not only its moment to jump off, but also its direction. In that case, I would rather be a cobbler, or even an employee in a gaming house, than a… [more]
Out of Thin Air: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Earth’s Ancient Atmosphere296 pages | Hardcover | Price: $25.15For 65 million years dinosaurs ruled the Earth–until a deadly asteroid forced their extinction. But what accounts for the incredible longevity of dinosaurs? A renowned scientist now provides a startling explanation that is rewriting the history of the Age of… [more]
Forecast Earth: The Story of Climate Scientist Inez Fung128 pages | Paperback | Price: $8.95Inez Fung forecasts the future, a future when Earth could look and feel a lot different than it does now. Why care about climate change? Because it affects every living thing on Earth, including you. What if the climate where you live began to change… [more]
Empire of Light: A History of Discovery in Science and Art248 pages | Paperback | Price: $22.45In Empire of Light, Sidney Perkowitz combines the expertise of a physicist with the vision of an art connoisseur and the skill of an accomplished writer to offer a unique view of the most fundamental feature of the universe: light.
Empire of… [more]
Mendel in the Kitchen: A Scientist’s View of Genetically Modified Food384 pages | Hardcover | Price: $22.45While European restaurants race to footnote menus, reassuring concerned gourmands that no genetically modified ingredients were used in the preparation of their food, starving populations around the world eagerly await the next harvest of scientifically… [more]
Mountains of Madness: A Scientist’s Odyssey in Antarctica270 pages | Hardcover | Price: $22.45This extraordinary book is the first-person account of John Long’s two unforgettable “summers” on the southern continent. Told in a highly accessible and entertaining style, Mountains of Madness is the account of his three-month long fossil hunt. As the… [more]
The Third Domain312 pages | Hardcover | Price: $25.15The Third Domain is the untold story of how the discovery of a new form of life — first ridiculed, then ignored for the past thirty years by mainstream scientists — is revolutionizing science, industry, and even our search for extraterrestrial… [more]
Educating the Student Body: Taking Physical Activity and Physical Education to School420 pages | Paperback | Price: $67.50Physical inactivity is a key determinant of health across the lifespan. A lack of activity increases the risk of heart disease, colon and breast cancer, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, osteoporosis, anxiety and depression and others diseases. Emerging… [more]
Environmental Decisions in the Face of Uncertainty258 pages | Paperback | Price: $45.90The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is one of several federal agencies responsible for protecting Americans against significant risks to human health and the environment. As part of that mission, EPA estimates the nature, magnitude, and likelihood… [more]
Continuing Innovation in Information Technology42 pages | Paperback | Price: $24.30Information technology (IT) is widely understood to be the enabling technology of the 21st century. IT has transformed, and continues to transform, all aspects of our lives: commerce and finance, education, employment, energy, health care, manufacturing,… [more]
NASA Space Technology Roadmaps and Priorities: Restoring NASA’s Technological Edge and Paving the Way for a New Era in Space122 pages | Paperback | Price: $34.20NASA’s Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT) has begun to rebuild the advanced space technology program in the agency with plans laid out in 14 draft technology roadmaps. It has been years since NASA has had a vigorous, broad-based program in advanced space… [more]
Frontiers of Engineering: Reports on Leading-Edge Engineering from the 2012 Symposium169 pages | Paperback | Price: $40.50This volume highlights the papers presented at the National Academy of Engineering’s 2012 U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. Every year, the symposium brings together 100 outstanding young leaders in engineering to share their cutting-edge research and… [more]
Delivering Affordable Cancer Care in the 21st Century: Workshop Summary80 pages | Paperback | Price: $34.20Rising health care costs are a central fiscal challenge confronting the United States. National spending on health care currently accounts for 18 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), but is anticipated to increase to 25 percent of GDP by 2037. The… [more]
Research for a Future in Space: The Role of Life and Physical Sciences32 pages | Paperback | Price: $0.90During its more than 50-year history, NASA’s success in human space exploration has depended on the agency’s ability to effectively address a wide range of biomedical, engineering, physical sciences, and related obstacles. This achievement is made possible by… [more]
Toward Precision Medicine: Building a Knowledge Network for Biomedical Research and a New Taxonomy of Disease142 pages | Paperback | Price: $41.40Motivated by the explosion of molecular data on humans-particularly data associated with individual patients-and the sense that there are large, as-yet-untapped opportunities to use this data to improve health outcomes, Toward Precision Medicine… [more]