With cities across the country adding miles of bike lanes and building bike-share stations, bicycling is enjoying a new surge of popularity in America. It seems that every generation or two, Americans rediscover the freedom of movement, convenience, and relative affordability of the bicycle. The earliest two-wheeler, the draisine, arrived in Philadelphia in 1819 and astonished onlookers with the possibility of propelling themselves "like lightning."...

"A riveting narrative of the Atomic Age--from x-rays and Marie Curie to the Nevada Test Site and the 2011 meltdown in Japan--written by the prizewinning and bestselling author of Rocket Men. Radiation is a complex and paradoxical concept: staggering amounts of energy flow from seemingly inert rock and that energy is both useful and dangerous. While nuclear energy affects our everyday lives--from nuclear medicine and food irradiation to microwave technology--its...

In Bernard Mandeville (1670-1733) the English came as close to having a Voltaire of their own as they ever came. A clear-sighted and fearless critic, he had the knack of making furious controversies volcanic and of making people see red wherever he introduced his comments, and he introduced them everywhere. In addition, he was one of the classic prose stylists of English literature, as he went cutting and slashing among the prejudices of his age,...

"This title presents the history of food science. Vivid text details how early studies of nutrition and food chemistry led to today's food safety standards and genetically modified crops. It also puts a spotlight on the brilliant scientists who made these advances possible."--Publisher's website.

Only one hundred years ago, even in the world's wealthiest nations, children died in great numbers--of diarrhea, diphtheria and measles, of scarlet fever and meningitis. Culture was shaped by these deaths; diaries and letters recorded them, poets and writers wrote about and lamented them. Not even the high and mighty could escape: presidents and titans of industry lost their children, the poor and powerless lost theirs even more frequently.The near-conquest...

An excellent discussion of modern trends in cross-cultural literature.