The technological achievements that make contemporary society possible are the result of some ten thousand years of development of the intentional use of fire, yet there is surprisingly little information on the practice and importance …

Gary Hart has long been one of the nation’s foremost experts on national security, combining a deep knowledge of national security policy with firsthand experience of the political realities that influence how America safeguards itself …

Success through Failure shows us that making something better — by carefully anticipating and thus averting failure — is what invention and design are all about. Petroski explores the nature of invention and the character …

The way we record knowledge, and the web of technical, formal, and social practices that surrounds it, inevitably affects the knowledge that we record. The ways we hold knowledge about the past — in handwritten …

Whether it’s packed into a bar code, encrypted in a secret wartime message, or sucked into a black hole in the far reaches of the galaxy, information is everywhere — and it’s not just an …

The collapse of communist rule in China will be one of the most momentous events of the twenty-first century. Exploring China’s history and its more recent economic modernization, Bruce Gilley provides an account an account …

The ethical questions concerning biotechnology and genetics (“Superbiology”) are part of a wider philosophical debate about humanity’s place and purpose in the universe: should we accept the fate that some believe Nature and others contend …

“You can accomplish anything you can dream, if you can get someone else to do it!” This is the personal mission statement and secret weapon of R. Philip Hanes — businessman, entrepreneur, civic leader, conservationist, …

Why do some small, insignificant nations go on to build mighty empires, while most do not? And why do those successful empire-builders always eventually lose their empires? Peter Turchin, a leading thinker in the field …

Is the universe actually a giant quantum computer? According to Seth Lloyd — Professor of Quantum-Mechanical Engineering at MIT and originator of the first technologically feasible design for a working quantum computer — the answer …

Throughout history, rivers have been our foremost source of fresh water both for agriculture and for individual consumption, but now economists say that by 2025 water scarcity will cut global food production by more than …

On a landscape that seems to be transforming itself with every new technology, marketing tactic, or investment strategy, business rush to embrace change by trading in their competencies or shifting their focus altogether. All in …

Integrity. It is more than simple honesty. It’s the key to success. A person with integrity has the — often rare — ability to pull everything together, to make it all happen no matter how …

What is black culture? Does it have an essence? What do we lose and gain by assuming that it does, and by building our laws accordingly? This bold and provocative book questions the common presumption …

Some 250 million years ago, the earth suffered the greatest biological crisis in its history. Around 95 percent of all living species died out — a global catastrophe far greater than the dinosaurs’ demise 65 …