"An exuberant work of popular history: the story of how streets got their names and houses their numbers, and why something as seemingly mundane as an address can save lives or enforce power. When most people think about street addresses, if they think of them at all, it is in their capacity to ensure that the postman can deliver mail or a traveler won't get lost. But street addresses were not invented to help you find your way; they were created...

A narrative chronicle of NASA's deep-space mission to Jupiter's ocean moon, Europa, discusses the remarkable work of scientists who overcame formidable hurdles in their effort to determine if organic life exists elsewhere in the solar system.

"Three years ago, headlines delivered shocking news: nearly three billion birds in North America have vanished over the past fifty years. No species has been spared, from the most delicate jeweled hummingbirds to scrappy black crows, from a rainbow of warblers to common birds such as owls and sparrows. For the past year, veteran journalists Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal traveled more than 25,000 miles across the Americas, chronicling costly experiments,...

"What defines who we are? For decades, the biological answer has been our genes. In The Master Builder, leading biologist Alfonso Martinez Arias breaks with decades of scientific and popular tradition to make a bold argument: what defines us is our cells. Drawing on new research from his lab and others, Martinez Arias reveals that we are composed of a thrillingly complex, constantly rearranging symphony of cells that know how to count, feel, and ultimately...

As the planet warms, winter is shrinking. In the last fifty years, the Northern Hemisphere lost a million square miles of spring snowpack and in the US alone, snow cover has been reduced by 15-30%. On average, winter has shrunk by a month in most northern latitudes. In this deeply researched, beautifully written, and adventure-filled book, journalist Porter Fox travels along the edge of the Northern Hemisphere's snow line to track the scope of this...

"One of the most powerful questions humans ask about the cosmos is: Are we alone? In The Possibility of Life, Jaime Green traces the history of our understanding, from the days of Galileo and Copernicus to our contemporary quest for exoplanets. Along the way, she interweaves insights from science fiction writers who construct worlds that in turn inspire scientists. Incorporating expert interviews, research, philosophical inquiry, and pop culture touchstones,...

"When you take the time to look, you'll find that nature is full of patterns. Lyrical, rhyming verse and stunning photographs introduce young readers to patterns throughout the natural world"--

"On a hot August day in Paris, just over a century ago, a desperate guard burst into the office of the director of the Louvre and shouted, La Joconde, c'est partie! The Mona Lisa, she's gone! No one knew who was behind the heist. Was it an international gang of thieves? Was it an art-hungry American millionaire? Was it the young Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, who was about to remake the very art of painting? Travel back to an extraordinary period...

"Walking upright on two feet is a uniquely human skill. It enabled us to walk out of Africa and to spread as far as Alaska and Australia. Every day, we put one foot in front of the other-yet how many of us know how we do that, or appreciate the advantages it gives us? In this book, neuroscientist Shane O'Mara invites us to marvel at the benefits walking confers on our bodies and brains. From walking's evolutionary origins, traced back millions of...

In this creative nonfiction story, Jennifer and her friends at the community center are making a quilt. They begin with lots of colorful fabrics and an idea. Then they measure, cut, stitch, layer, and quilt. It's the work of many hands, many hours, and many stories. And the result is something warm and wonderful they can all share. Lizzy Rockwell tells the heartwarming story of a diverse group of people coming together to make things both lasting...