"This book explains the science behind all the machines, gadgets, systems, and processes we take for granted. The perfect book for techies--young or old, male or female--who read Popular Science and Wired or watch "How It Works" and "How It's Made."

The Science Inquiry and Writing Book provides instruction and support for students in performing the four levels of inquiry activities directly related to content in the Big Ideas books. "Science in a Snap" investigations are quick activities that engage students in scientific inquiry. "Think Like a Scientist" and "Write Like a Scientist" sections build understanding of the nature of science and provide opportunities for students to practice scientific writing.

Describes the life of the first woman to study physics at the University College of Paris, who went on to receive two Nobel Prizes for her work in radioactivity.

Offers an illustrated encyclopedia of general science, with informative and fun facts on a broad array of scientific topics.

"Fascinating.... Lays a foundation for understanding human history."—Bill Gates In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed religion --as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war --and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, the Rhone-Poulenc Prize, and the Commonwealth club of California's Gold Medal.