A Good Start in Life:Understanding Your Child's Brain and Behavior

Norbert Herschkowitz, M.D. and Elinore Chapman Herschkowitz, Foreword by Jerome Kagan. 288 pages.

There are lots of child development books on the market. But how do readers—especially parents—find practical answers they can understand and trust? A Good Start in Life provides that and more. Dr. Norbert Herschkowitz and his wife, Elinore Chapman Herschkowitz have teamed up to write this warm, friendly book to guide parents through the formative years of their child’s life. With a specific focus on the brain, they follow the path of early childhood development from gestation to age six years. Each chapter deals with a particular phase of development.

A Miracle and a Privilege:Recounting a Half Century of Surgical Advance

An autobiography by Francis D. Moore, M.D., 2001 Memorial Edition; A Joseph Henry Press Book. 488 pages.

Francis Moore entered Harvard Medical School in September of 1935, seven years before penicillin became available. During his remarkable career in surgery, research, and education, Moore has witnessed and contributed to some of the most important biomedical advances of the century, and his students now practice surgery worldwide. In this autobiography, he brings humor and warmth to the story of a lifetime at the forefront of medicine.

American Hazardscapes: The Regionalization of Hazards and Disasters

Susan L. Cutter, Editor. 226 pages.

American Hazardscapes examines the risks associated with living and owning property in diverse regions across the United States, offering dual perspectives: that of the geographer and that of the social science hazards researcher. The book summarizes what we already know about regional patterns of hazard events and losses during the previous three decades and goes further to shed light on the nature of the events themselves and their impact on society.

Biodiversity II:Understanding and Protecting Our Biological Resources

Marjorie L. Reaka-Kudla, Don E. Wilson, and Edward O. Wilson, Editors; A Joseph Henry Press book. 560 pages.

Biodiversity, as both a word and a concept, did not exist 10 years ago. Today, we think of it as the whole of life on Earth – and every day it is diminished as the human population swells and whole species become extinct. If the world does not act quickly and cooperatively, we lose incredible opportunities in medicine, agriculture, biotechnology and a host of other endeavors. In words that are meaningful to lay readers and scientists alike, E.O. Wilson sounds a warning while bringing us closer to the wonder of natural life.

Biotechnology Unzipped:Promises and Realities

by Eric S. Grace, A Joseph Henry Press book. 264 pages.

A reader-friendly explanation of biotechnology, its history, and its implications for us all. This volume uses everyday metaphors to help readers understand the genetic code and how it works to produce every form of life. From medical technology to agribusiness, Grace examines the realities and ethics of this dynamic technology.

Buzzwords:A Scientist Muses on Sex, Bugs, and Rock 'n' Roll

by May R. Berenbaum; a Joseph Henry Press Book. 320 pages.

What sort of person devotes their life to the study of bugs? How do you picture your average, every-day entomologist? Author May Berenbaum expertly blows away any stereotype with short takes on all things entomological--from the story of a pet ant kept for 14 years to major motion pictures featuring cockroaches –while showing us that there's a fun and even freaky side to life with insects.

Carving Our Destiny: Scientific Research Faces a New Millennium

Susan M. Fitzpatrick and John T. Bruer, Editors; a Joseph Henry Press book. 348 pages.

Recipients of the prestigious Centennial Fellowships, awarded in 1998 by the McDonnell Foundation, discuss their contemporary research and its importance for society's future.

Chaos Theory Tamed

by Garnett P. Williams; A Joseph Henry Press book. 520 pages.

Virtually every branch of the sciences now discusses or refers to chaos theory. But, if you’re not a mathematics professional, some of the concepts may seem overly complex or downright intimidating. Now, there’s a book that allows us to grasp the fundamentals of chaos with little more than introductory courses in algebra, geometry and statistics under our belts. Learn more about one of the most exciting science topics of recent decades.

Cooperating with Nature:Confronting Natural Hazards with Land-Use Planning for Sustainable Communities

Raymond J. Burby, Editor; A Joseph Henry Press book. 368 pages.

Earthquakes, flooding, hurricanes, drought, fire – they’re a way of life for our planet. But these disasters now wreak havoc that goes well beyond the ability of society to take them in stride. Our attempts at taming nature often make the situation worse. Cooperating with Nature offers a better way. By planning for and managing land use to enhance sustainability, we can reduce our vulnerability. This book helps us to engage in important problem-solving and to understand the choices that we face in the coming years.

Disasters by Design:A Reassessment of Natural Hazards in the United States

by Dennis Mileti, A Joseph Henry Press book. 376 pages.

Firefighters battle to save over 350,000 acres in Yellowstone National Park. The Blizzard of '96 closes down the nation's capital. Earthquakes destroy homes and crumble roadways in California. From 1975-1994, natural hazards killed or injured over 50,000 people in the United States with dollar losses in the billions. And the forecast isn’t good -- we can expect plenty more of the same. What can we do? Disasters by Design speaks to the specifics required to stop the ever-increasing spiral of losses and calls for us to create a “sustainable hazards mitigation” plan. This important volume also sets the stage for the more detailed books that are part of this same series.

Dying to Quit:Why We Smoke and How We Stop

by Janet Brigham; A Joseph Henry Press Book. 308 pages.

We are all aware of the public health concerns surrounding the use of tobacco products. Despite these facts, some 1.1 billion people worldwide use them. Advocates vociferously promote a tobacco-free world. But, what about the inner struggles of the tobacco users themselves? They must deal with powerful addictions of both body and mind. And, it’s a fight to the death. Smoking alone kills more than three million people every year. These are staggering figures – read both the science and the personal stories.

Eclipse: The Celestial Phenomenon That Changed the Course of History

Duncan Steel
With a foreword by Paul Davies. 492 pages.

Since the dawn of time, eclipses have been perceived as peculiarly portentous events. Whether interpreted as auspicious omens or as sentinels of doom, they have often evoked consternation, fear, and dread—as well as awe and wonderment. Duncan Steel expertly captures our continuing fascination with all manners of eclipses—from the familiar solar and lunar varieties to other kinds, and provides us with the science to explain all forms of these phenomena.

Einstein's Unfinished Symphony: Listening to the Sounds of Space-Time

Marcia Bartusiak. 266 pages.

A new generation of observatories, now being completed worldwide, will give astronomers not just a new window on the cosmos but a whole new sense with which to explore and experience the heavens above us. Gravity waves are the last prediction of Einstein's general theory of relativity yet to be observed directly. They are Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony, waiting nearly a century to be heard.

Empire of Light: A History of Discovery in Science and Art

by Sidney Perkowitz; A Joseph Henry Press book. 248 pages.

Light is all around us, an ever-present part of our consciousness. It conveys beauty, meaning and mystery in paintings, brings precious gems to life, and imbues even commonplace scenes with special qualities. Sidney Perkowitz, the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Physics at Emory University, investigates the physical nature of light while telling a tale of poetry and wonder. Written so that lay readers will readily grasp the principals and concepts, science professionals will surely appreciate the human experience.

Facing the Unexpected: Disaster Preparedness and Response in the United States

Kathleen J. Tierney, Michael K. Lindell, and Ronald W. Perry. 318 pages.

Facing the Unexpected presents the wealth of information derived from disasters around the world over the past 25 years. The authors explore how these findings can improve disaster programs, identify remaining research needs, and discuss disaster within the broader context of sustainable development. How do different people think about disaster? Are we more likely to panic or to respond with altruism? Why are 200 people killed in a plane crash considered disaster victims while the 50,000 killed annually in traffic accidents in the U.S. are not? At the crossroads of social, cultural, and economic factors, this book examines these and other compelling questions.

Firepower in the Lab: Automation in the Fight Against Infectious Diseases and Bioterrorism

Scott P. Layne, Tony J. Beugelsdijk, and C. Kumar N. Patel, Editors a Joseph Henry Press book. 312 pages.

Today's world poses a triple threat to the American population: infectious diseases, contamination of food and water, and bioattacks (biowarfare or bioterrorism). At least 17 countries are producing weapons of mass destruction using viruses, bacteria, or their toxins. What these dangers have in common is the amount of data required to achieve solutions; in some cases, as much as a petabit (1 followed by 15 zeros) of data is required to study large numbers of samples from widespread locations. Firepower in the Lab examines how the nation can combat this triple threat by improving our ability to detect, measure, and monitor harmful biological agents.

From Certainty to Uncertainty: The Story of Science and Ideas in the Twentieth Century

F. David Peat . 248 pages.

In this thoughtful and compelling book, physicist F. David Peat contrasts the certainty of nineteenth century, when the President of the Royal Society in Britain proclaimed that everything of importance had already been discovered by science and contrasts it with the startling fall of certainty in the twentieth, when such discoveries as black holes and Chaos theory proved the limits of our knowledge.

Good Seeing: A Century of Science at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1902-2002

James Trefil and Margaret Hindle Hazen, Foreword by Timothy Ferris. 256 pages.

Good Seeing presents a readable, inspiring history of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, from its founding in 1902, through the emergence of "big science" after World War II, to the institution's role in addressing the major science questions of the 21st century.

In Search of the Lost Cord: Solving the Mystery of Spinal Cord Regeneration

Luba Vikhanski. 286 pages.

In Search of the Lost Cord is a scientific detective story, the stuff of science fiction en route to science fact. Science journalist Luba Vikhanski profiles the rapidly developing field of spinal cord injury research. She explains the field’s greatest scientific challenges and introduces us to the pioneers who are working toward what would be a startling breakthrough. Perhaps the most riveting aspect of this international effort is the fact that each of these scientists is approaching the problem in very different ways. In the worldwide race to claim the prize of a cure, we witness a drama in the making.

In War and Peace:My Life in Science and Technology

Guy Stever. 385 pages.

Science came into Guy Stever’s life as a pure and peaceful pursuit. It was only later, as he walked through the wreckage of wartime London, that he began to see science as central to a desperate struggle to survive. In this thoughtful and candid memoir, Stever recounts an extraordinary life that reveals as much about the man as about the major scientific and technological events of his day.

Mountains of Madness: A Scientist's Odyssey in Antarctica

John Long
Foreword by Tim Bowden. 270 pages.

Told in a highly accessible and entertaining style, Mountains of Madness is the account of John Long's two unforgettable "summers" on the southern continent. As the story unfolds, we learn of both the highs of scientific discovery as well as the grueling yet essential routines that must be practiced every day just to stay alive in one of the harshest environments on our planet.

Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, and Momentous Discoveries, Second Edition

Sharon Bertsch McGrayne. 464 pages.

Since 1901 there have been over three hundred recipients of the Nobel Prize in the sciences. Only ten of them - about 3 percent - have been women. Why? In this updated version of Nobel Prize Women in Science , Sharon Bertsch McGrayne explores the reasons for this astonishing disparity by examining the lives and achievements of fifteen women scientists who either won a Nobel Prize or played a crucial role in a Nobel Prize - winning project.

One Universe:At Home in the Cosmos

by Neil de Grasse Tyson, Charles Tsun-Chu Liu, and Robert Irion. 224 pages.

Physically and intellectually, the celestial bodies that move about the universe seem unreachable to us from our Earth-bound vantage. But recent discoveries in astronomy and physics reveal that the principles that govern our everyday life and the workings of the cosmos are one and the same. This glorious new book from the Joseph Henry Press draws on a fantastic album of space photographs, diagrams and illustrations to expand our knowledge of the universe. In straightforward language and everyday analogies, the authors take us on a journey through the cosmos, from the infinitesimal to the infinite, stopping along the way to explain these grand and simple connections.

Paying the Price:The Status and Role of Insurance Against Natural Disasters in the United States

Howard Kunreuther and Richard J. Roth, Sr., Editors; A Joseph Henry Press book. 320 pages.

The insurance industry was left reeling from the catastrophic losses many firms experienced in the wake of Hurricane Andrew in Florida and the Northridge earthquake in California. But amid dire predictions that the industry might no longer be in a position to offer adequate protection in the event of disaster, many valuable lessons were learned. The authors of Paying the Price have brought together leading experts to examine how insurers can play a more active and creative role in residential disaster management.

Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction: Where Real Science Ends...and Pseudoscience Begins

Charles M. Wynn and Arthur W. Wiggins
With Cartoons by Sidney Harris . 240 pages.

Astrology... poltergeists and ghosts... firewalking... spontaneous human combustion... psychic surgery... ESP. This is what tabloid headlines label as "science". The fact is that not all "science" is created equally. Indeed, some "science" isn't science at all but is really downright bogus - in other words, pseudoscience. Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction takes us on a tour of the most notorious instances of pseudoscience and sets the record straight.

Reefscape: Reflections on the Great Barrier Reef

Rosaleen Love. 276 pages.

Located off Australia's eastern coast, the Great Barrier Reef is one of the wonders of the natural world. Part travelogue, part Eco-history, Reefscape represents multiple views of the reef - through the eyes of mariners, pearl divers, naturalists, filmmakers, pirates, industrialists, and tourists alike- painting a fascinating portrait of a unique locale. Australian writer Rosaleen Love explores the reef from all these angles, allowing us to see this stunning geography anew.

Secret Agents:The Menace of Emerging Infections

Madeline Drexler. 332 pages.

So you think modern medicine has the whole virus game figured out? Think again. And it’s not even a question of "if" we’ll be hit by some new and deadly disease--it’s "when." Secret Agents looks at today’s new and emerging infections--those that have increased in attack rate or geographic range, or threaten to do so--and tells the stories of scientists racing to catch up with invisible adversaries superior in both speed and guile.

Stephen Hawking:A Life in Science
Second Edition

Michael White and John Gribbin. 360 pages.

Originally published in 1992 to great acclaim, this updated edition traces the course of Hawking's life and science, successfully marrying biography and physics to tell the story of a remarkable man.

Storms from the Sun: The Emerging Science of Space Weather

Michael J. Carlowicz and Ramon E. Lopez . 256 pages.

Space weather is all around us. There are no nightly news reports on space weather (yet), but we’re rapidly developing the tools necessary to measure and observe trends in cosmic meteorology. Storms from the Sun explores the emerging physical science of space weather and traces its increasing impact on a society that relies on space-based technologies. Authors Carlowicz and Lopez explain what space weather really means to us down here—and what it may mean for future explorations and colonization of distant worlds.

Strange Matters:Undiscovered Ideas at the Frontiers of Space and Time

Tom Siegfried. 320 pages.

Scientists studying the universe find strange things in two places--out in space and in their heads. This is the story of how the most imaginative physicists of our time perceive strange features of the universe in advance of the actual discoveries. Strange Matters artfully mixes the present with the past and future, reporting from the frontiers of research where history is in the process of being made.

Swords into Market Shares:Technology, Economics, and Security in the New Russia

by Glenn E. Schweitzer; a Joseph Henry Press book. 330 pages.

Author Glenn Schweitzer asked four Moscow physicists if technological innovation will have a discernible impact on the Russian economy in the coming decade? No, was the immediate reply. Swords into Market Shares examines the roots of such pessimism and the prospects for Russia to prosper from its technology in the post-Soviet world.

The Common Thread:A Story of Science, Politics, Ethics, and the Human Genome

John Sulston and Georgina Ferry. 320 pages.

The world was agog when scientists made the astounding announcement that they had successfully sequenced the human genome. Few contributed so directly to this feat as Sir John Sulston, who was knighted by the Queen for his work on the British arm of the Human Genome Project. The Common Thread is Sulston's personal account of one of the largest international scientific operations ever undertaken.

The Door in the Dream:Conversations with Eminent Women in Science

by Elga Wasserman, Ph.D., A Joseph Henry Press book. 276 pages.

While much has been written about barriers to women in science, very little work celebrates the wisdom and insights of the women who have risen to the top of their chosen scientific profession. This remarkable volume gathers the personal stories of the select few women scientists who have achieved the honor of election to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences. From their passionate love of research to their struggle to balance the demands of home and career, these women share a great deal. At the same time, The Door In The Dream offers widely different insights about how being female has affected their careers.

The End of Stress As We Know It

Bruce McEwen . 285 pages.

There's a whole new way to think about stress. Sure, some stress is inevitable, but being "stressed out" is not. In The End of Stress as We Know It Bruce McEwen shows us how to use the stress activators in our lives to make us more effective.

The Secret Life of the Brain

Richard Restak, M.D. Foreword by David Grubin, Emmy-winning producer of the PBS series.. 224 pages.

Each of the brain’s developmental stages provides its own opportunities and perils. Each is part of a marvelous narrative—opening at the very moment of conception, building to peak adult neurological performance when the brain contains its full repertoire of cells, and slowly edging toward the denouement of old age. The Secret Life of the Brain explores each of these five stages in detail.

The Whole Truth About Contraception:A Guide to Safe and Effective Choices

by Beverly Winikoff, MD, MPH, and Suzanne Wymelenberg; A Joseph Henry Press book. 288 pages.

If you are sexually active, or are a parent of a teenager in today’s society, you owe it to yourself -- and your family -- to read this detailed guide. Find out about the many methods of birth control available in the U.S. today. Learn how they prevent pregnancy, how they may or may not shield against sexually transmitted diseases, discover what affects they have on sexual experience, the potential effects on the user’s health, and review any common problems that might occur. Read the whole truth today.

True Genius:The Life and Science of John Bardeen

Lillian Hoddeson and Vicki Daitch. 352 pages.

John Bardeen ranks among the most imaginative and inspired scientists of our time. But despite being the only person ever to win two Nobel Prizes in physics, this astonishing, though decidedly modest, Midwesterner was often overlooked by both the media and the public, simply because he differed radically from the popular stereotype of genius. Through an exploration of his science as well as his life, a fresh and thoroughly engaging portrait of genius and the nature of creativity emerges. True Genius is a fascinating biography that provides a whole new perspective on what it truly means to be a genius.