Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

$24.99 AUD

Category: Science

#1 New York Times Bestseller From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity's creation and evolution--a #1 international bestseller--that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be "human." One hundred th ousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one--homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us? Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas. Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become? Featuring 27 photographs, 6 maps, and 25 illustrations/diagrams, this provocative and insightful work is sure to spark debate and is essential reading for aficionados of Jared Diamond, James Gleick, Matt Ridley, Robert Wright, and Sharon Moalem. ...Show more

2040: A Household Handbook for the Regeneration by Damon Gameau

$34.99 AUD

Category: Environmental Issues

'You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.' Buckminster Fuller Like most of us, Damon Gameau has spent most of his adult years overwhelmed into inaction by the problem of climate change and its devastating ef fects on the planet. But when Damon became a father, he knew he couldn't continue to look away. So he decided to do what he does best, and tell a story. And the story became an imagining of what the world could look like in 2040, if we all decided to start doing things differently, right now. The result is the era-defining documentary 2040 - a meticulously researched plea for the adoption of community-building, energy-generating, forest-renewing, ocean-replenishing measures that science tells us will reset our planet's health, drive our economies and improve lives across the globe. 2040: A Household Handbook for the Regeneration shows us how we can stitch this magnificent vision into everyday life by engaging in activities such as cooking, shopping, gardening, sharing, working and teaching our kids. It shows us that climate change is a practical problem that can be tackled by each of us, one small step at a time, and that we can make a genuine difference - if we know what to do. Brimming with practical wisdom and even 50 delicious recipes, 2040: A Household Handbook for the Regeneration empowers you to become the change you want to see in the world. ...Show more

Cosmic Chronicles: A User's Guide to the Universe by Fred Watson

$32.99 AUD

Category: General | Reading Level: 4 Science

Are we alone in the universe? Where didthe moon come from? How do we know what stars are made of? Could there reallybe a future in asteroid mining? In CosmicChronicles, Fred Watson - Australia'sAstronomer-at-Large and bestselling author - explores the hottest topics inspace science and astronomy.  Watson presents the most up-to-dateknowledge on everything from light echoing around the cosmos, the mechanics of blackholes and how to navigate the hidden delights of nightfall, to the mostprofound questions facing humankind. With mind-bending stories from thefrontiers of science, Cosmic Chronicles isan expert's view of what we know and how we know it.  ...Show more

Astronomy 2020 Australia by Glenn Dawes and Peter Northfield and Ken Wallace

$29.95 AUD

Category: General

How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems by Randall Munroe

$32.99 AUD

Category: General | Reading Level: 4 Non Fiction

The world's most entertaining and useless self-help guide, from the brilliant mind behind the wildly popular webcomic xkcd and the million-selling What If? and Thing Explainer For any task you might want to do, there's a right way, a wrong way, and a way so monumentally bad that no one would ever try i t. How To is a guide to the third kind of approach. It's full of highly impractical advice for everything from landing a plane to digging a hole. Bestselling author and cartoonist Randall Munroe explains how to predict the weather by analyzing the pixels of your Facebook photos. He teaches you how to tell if you're a baby boomer or a millennial by measuring the radioactivity of your teeth. He offers tips for taking a selfie with a telescope, crossing a river by boiling it, and getting to your appointments on time by destroying the moon. And if you want to get rid of this book once you're done with it, he walks you through your options for proper disposal, including dissolving it in the ocean, converting it to a vapour, using tectonic plates to subduct it into the Earth's mantle, or launching it into the sun. By exploring the most complicated ways to do simple tasks, Munroe doesn't just make things difficult for himself and his readers. As he did so brilliantly in What If?, he invites us to explore the most absurd reaches of the possible. Full of clever infographics and amusing illustrations, How To is a delightfully mind-bending way to better understand the science and technology underlying the things we do every day. ...Show more

Wooleen Way: The Renewing an Australian Resource by David Pollock

$35.00 AUD

Category: Environmental Issues

The outback conjures many images that the Australian psyche is built upon. Its grand vistas of sweeping dusty plains and its evocation of a tough pioneering spirit form the foundation of our prosperous culture. But these romantic visions often hide the stark environmental, economic, and social problems that have inadvertently been left in the wake of our collective past. Through retelling the struggle of his family amid droughts, financial ruin, depression, and death, David Pollock exposes the modern-day realities of managing a remote outback station. Forced by a sense of moral responsibility, he set out on an uncharted course to restore the 153,000 hectares of degraded leasehold land that he felt he was obliged to manage on behalf of the Australian people. Then, just at the point when that course seemed certain to fail, the project was saved by the generosity and faith of everyday Australians. This is an urgent story of political irresponsibility, bureaucratic obstinacy, industrial monopolisation, and, above all, ecological illiteracy in a vast segment of the Australian continent. It is a familiar story of overexploitation. Yet it is also a story of the extraordinary ability of the natural environment to repair itself, given the chance. After over a decade of his hard-won insights, Pollock outlines in The Wooleen Way a specific and comprehensive plan to reverse the ecological damage done to the pastoral resource since European colonisation. He also emphasises the economic and social necessity of carrying it out. This is a story with national implications about a way to curb the conquering human spirit so that it aligns with the subtle power of the natural landscape. ...Show more

Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of how Humans Navigate the World by Maura O'Connor

$32.99 AUD

Category: General

Less Stuff: Simple Zero-Waste Steps to a Joyful and Clutter-free Life by Lindsay Miles

$24.99 AUD

Category: Environmental Issues | Reading Level: 6 Home

 Clutter impacts on our productivity, stresses us out and keeps us stuck. Why do we let our stuff stand in the way of the lives we dream about? Decluttering is great for our mental wellbeing, and when done right, it can be good for the planet too. When we rehome, repurpose or recycle the things we no longer need, we free up existing resources for others and reclaim our homes with less guilt. Less Stuff is a guide for people who find it difficult to declutter and who don't want to see things go to waste. Step by step, you'll explore finding your 'enough', learn how to let go of your old possessions without sending them to landfill, and eventually break the cycle of stuff. The end result is a planet with less strain, a home with more peace and a life with more meaning. ...Show more

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari

$24.99 AUD

Category: Sociology

THE MILLION COPY BESTSELLER Sapiens shows us where we came from. Homo Deus shows us where we're going. Yuval Noah Harari envisions a near future in which we face a new set of challenges. Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century and beyond - from o vercoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: how can we protect this fragile world from our own destructive power? And what does our future hold? 'Homo Deus will shock you. It will entertain you. It will make you think in ways you had not thought before' Daniel Kahneman ...Show more

Planet Earth: Inspirations and Thoughts from a Planet Warrior by Bob Brown

$29.99 AUD

Category: Environmental Issues

In his first speech in the Senate, Bob Brown raised the threat posed by climate change. It has taken 10 years for politicians to finally begin to acknowledge the causes and effects of climate change. Since 1996, Bob has continued to take a courageous, and often politically lonely, stand on issues aroun d the saving of our planet, whether they have a local or international focus: saving Tasmania's ancient forests, opposing the dumping of nuclear waste in Australia, protesting against Japanese whaling, the protection of rainforests and a host of other campaigns. In 2010 Bob led the Australian Greens to a historic result with more than 1.6 million Australians voting for the Greens. In 2012 Bob stepped down as Leader of the Australian Greens, and then retired from the Senate. Since then he has continued to campaign on conservation issues across Australia and the world. This book is both an inspiration and a call to action: Bob Brown's words are a clear message on the issues facing our planet yet his positive approach is an inspiration to us all. ...Show more

Letters from an Astrophysicist by Neil deGrasse Tyson

$29.99 AUD

Category: General | Reading Level: 4 Science

Join the galactic conversation on the biggest issues in the universe 'Don't fear change. Don't fear failure. The only thing to fear is loss of ambition. But if you've got plenty of that, then you have nothing to fear at all' - Neil deGrasse Tyson Neil deGrasse Tyson is arguably the most influential, ac claimed scientist on the planet. As director of the Hayden Planetarium, and host of Cosmos and StarTalk, he has dedicated his life to exploring and explaining the mysteries of the universe. Every year, he receives thousands of letters - from students to prisoners, scientists to priests. Some seek advice, others yearn for inspiration; some are full of despair, others burst with wonder. But they are all searching for understanding, meaning and truth. His replies are by turns wise, funny, and mind-blowing. In this, his most personal book by far, he covers everything from God to the history of science, from aliens to death. He bares his soul - his passions, his doubts, his hopes. The big theme is everywhere in these pages- what is our place in the universe? The result is an awe-inspiring read and an intimate portal into an incredible mind, which reveals the power of the universe to start conversations and inspire curiosity in all of us. ...Show more

Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? by Bill McKibben

$34.99 AUD

Category: Environmental Issues | Reading Level: 4 Non Fiction

Thirty years ago Bill McKibben offered one of the earliest warnings about climate change. Now he broadens the warning: the entire human game, he suggests, has begun to play itself out. Bill McKibben's groundbreaking book The End of Nature - issued in dozens of languages and long regarded as a classic - was the first book to alert us to global warming. But the danger is broader than that: even as climate change shrinks the space where our civilization can exist, new technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics threaten to bleach away the variety of human experience. Falter tells the story of these converging trends and of the ideological fervor that keeps us from bringing them under control. And then, drawing on McKibben's experience in building 350.org, the first truly global citizens movement to combat climate change, it offers some possible ways out of the trap. We're at a bleak moment in human history -- and we'll either confront that bleakness or watch the civilization our forebears built slip away. Falter is a powerful and sobering call to arms, to save not only our planet but also our humanity. ...Show more