Biological Sciences

Cosmos is one of the bestselling science books of all time. In clear-eyed prose, Sagan reveals a jewel-like blue world inhabited by a life form that is just beginning to discover its own identity and to venture into the vast ocean of space....

Until very recently, science had no answer to the question of why we sleep, or what good it served, or why its absence is so damaging to our health....

The second volume of memoirs from the author who inspired the BBC series All Creatures Great and Small....

All around us people are looking at their phones too much, eating too much, drinking too much. Our world is addicted to fleeting distracting pleasures that get us nowhere. Dr Anna Lembke provides a clear way back to a balanced life....

The Treeline is a spellbinding blend of nature, travel and science writing, deeply researched and beautifully written, underpinned by an urgent environmental message....

Full of extraordinary facts and astonishing stories, The Body: A Guide for Occupants is a brilliant, often very funny attempt to understand the miracle of our physical and neurological makeup.... 

The Real Anthony Fauci details how Fauci, Gates, and their cohorts use their control of media outlets, scientific journals, key government agencies, global intelligence agencies, and influential scientists and physicians to flood the public with fearful propaganda about COVID-19....

Even if we've never had direct contact with one, we will have seen one, or at the very least, heard one. For those of us who live in the Western world, it is more than likely that one sleeps in our house, possibly even on our bed. I'm talking, of course, of the dog....

For decades, the medical community has looked to a variety of reasons for why we age, and the consensus is that no-one dies of old age; they die of age-related diseases....

The “winner effect” is a term used in biology to describe how an animal that has won a few fights against weak opponents is much more likely to win later bouts against stronger contenders....

In a book that will recalibrate our view of this defining feature of our planet, physicist Helen Czerski dives deep to illuminate the murky depths of the ocean engine, examining the messengers, passengers and voyagers that live in it, travel over it, and survive because of it....

As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science....

How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings? Research is now suggesting trees are capable of much more than we have ever known....

Dawkins' brilliant reformulation of the theory of natural selection has the distinction of having provoked as much excitement and interest outside the scientific community as within it....

Molecular biologist Nicklas Brendborg takes us on a journey from farthest reaches of the globe to the most cutting-edge research to explore what nature has to teach us about longevity....

The full inside story of the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of a multibillion-dollar start-up, by the prize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end....

This book asks questions about our origins, our destiny, and our place in the universe....

Why do human beings behave as they do? We are capable of savage acts of violence but also spectacular feats of kindness: is one side of our nature destined to win out over the other? Find out...

Fresh out of Glasgow Veterinary College, to the young James Herriot 1930s Yorkshire seems to offer an idyllic pocket of rural life in a rapidly changing world....

In a book that is both groundbreaking and accessible, Daniel C. Dennett focuses his unerringly logical mind on the theory of natural selection....

In this volume of memoirs David tells stories of the people and animals he has met and the places that he has visited....

Neuropsychopharmacologist and Professor David Nutt presents the definitive guide to psychedelics, science and our health....

Professor Rose Anne Kenny has 35 years of experience at the forefront of ageing medicine. In Age Proof, she draws on her own pioneering research and the latest evidence to demystify why we age and shows us that 80% of our ageing biology is within our control....

The nation’s greatest voice, David Attenborough, reads a brand-new edition of Life on Earth, now available as an audiobook for the first time....

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Guns, Germs and Steel examines the rise of civilization and the issues its development has raised throughout history....

In ten short and accessible essays, science and nature writer Carolyn Fry takes us on an awe-inspiring journey of the Earth's lungs. From what makes a plant a tree and the incredible impact of forests, to how trees are under attack and what we can do to save them, this book will enthral and inform on the monumental power of the humble tree. Trees: 10 Things You Should Know is an essential introduction to why trees are so important, and why our lives depend on them!

The Mesozoic Era, which lasted from about 252 to 66 million years ago, is divided into three periods, the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. During this era, one type of life came to dominate the planet more completely and for a longer period than had been seen before or since; this was the Age of Reptiles. Beginning in the Triassic but especially in the Jurassic period, reptiles came to dominate the oceans, the land and even the skies.

Over a century after Darwin published the Origin of Species, Darwinian theory is in a "vibrantly healthy state," writes Stephen Jay Gould, its most engaging and illuminating exponent. Exploring the "peculiar and mysterious particulars of nature," Gould introduces the listener to some of the many and wonderful manifestations of evolutionary biology.

Discover the secrets of safe and fun mushroom foraging - and rekindle your love for nature in a few easy steps. Do you wish to experience the thrill of searching and picking your own food in breathtaking locations in your city or around the world? Are all those mushroom-poisoning stories keeping you from pursuing these amazing treasures? Foraging is a rewarding way to restore inner peace and reconnect with nature, as well as an empowering way to become self-sufficient.

For over a century we saw Neanderthals as inferior to Homo Sapiens. After new discoveries, the pendulum swung the other way and they are generally seen as our relatives: not quite human, but similar enough, and still not equal. Now, thanks to an ongoing revolution in palaeoanthropology in which he has played a key part, Ludovic Slimak shows us that they are something altogether different - and they should be understood on their own terms rather than by comparing them to ourselves. As he reveals in this stunning book, the Neanderthals had their own history, their own rituals, their own customs.

Prepare for a mind-expanding journey. Discover how intelligence evolved, starting from DNA and RNA genesis, all the way to the rise of machines. Imagine a world where evolutionary principles influence machine learning algorithms, crafting Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). This provocative exploration delves deep into evolution, unlocking parallels between natural selection and the birth of computing intelligence. The narrative charts an exhilarating course from the dawn of life to an AGI-dominated future.

Jennifer Jewell brings listeners on an insightful year-long journey exploring the outsize impact one of nature's smallest manifestations—the simple seed. She examines our skewed notions where "organic" seeds are grown and sourced, reveals how giant multinational agribusiness has refined and patented the genomes of seeds we rely on for staples like corn and soy, and highlights the efforts of activists working to regain legal access to heirloom seeds that were stolen from Indigenous peoples and people of color.

Sex, after hunger, may be the most powerful motivating force in our lives. It drives us to seek intimate contact with others and to form relationships that may be fleeting or lifelong, blissful or troubled. Yet many mysteries surround sex and sexuality: Why don't we reproduce by virgin birth? Why does so much of our sexual behavior have nothing to do with reproduction? Why isn't everyone heterosexual? How does the brain create sexual arousal? How do sexual kinks develop? Is porn harmful? What is the relationship between sex and love?

It is rare for life to change Earth, yet three organisms have profoundly transformed our planet over the long course of its history. Elemental reveals how microbes, plants, and people used the fundamental building blocks of life to alter the climate, and with it, the trajectory of life on Earth in the past, present, and future. Taking listeners from the deep geologic past to our current era of human dominance, Stephen Porder focuses on five of life’s essential elements—hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus.

Darkness is the first thing we know in our human existence. Safe and warm inside the bubble of the womb, we are comfortable in that embracing dark. But as soon as we are bought into the light, we learn to fear the dark. Why? This book is a celebration of all things that go bump in the night and the joy that can be found when the sun goes down. As a society we have closed our curtains to the darkness, now Dani Robertson urges you to cast those curtains wide, step out of your front door and let the darkness pull you in.

It is the Winter Solstice and Sarah Sands is sitting by her father's bedside, bracing herself for loss. What her father needs to do, she thinks, is conserve his energy - to hibernate like a hedgehog. When the hedgehog curls up in its bed of leaves, its heart rate slows, its body temperature drops and for months there it remains, hardly breathing at all. A few days earlier, Sarah and her grandson had found a poorly hedgehog in the garden and taken it to the local hedgehog sanctuary. They named her Peggy, and her fate had become a matter of pressing concern.

What appeals to you about beekeeping? Is it the prospect of producing your own honey and having the delicious natural product fresh on your breakfast table every morning? Or is it the fascination for the organism "bee", which stands out as a masterpiece of evolution? Perhaps it is a mixture of both. When you hold this book in your hands, you have an exciting journey ahead of you! Perhaps the first bees are already buzzing in your garden and flying from the hive to collect plentiful honey. Or maybe you're just toying with the idea of eventually acquiring a colony.

An entertaining deep dive into muscle, from the discovery of human anatomy to the latest science of strength training.

Evolutionary theory in the theme that binds together these essays on such seemingly disparate topics as the feeding habits of flamingos, flowers and snails that change from male to female and sometimes back again, and the extinction from baseball of the .400 hitter.

Some 40 million miles of roadways encircle the earth, yet we tend to regard them only as infrastructure for human convenience. While roads are so ubiquitous they're practically invisible to us, wild animals experience them as entirely alien forces of death and disruption. In Crossings, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb travels throughout the United States and around the world to investigate how roads have transformed our planet. A million animals are killed by cars each day in the US alone, but as the new science of road ecology shows, the harms of highways extend far beyond roadkill.