In this New York Times bestselling “imperative how-to for creativity” (Nick Offerman), Adam Savage—star of Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters—shares his golden rules of creativity, from finding inspiration to following through and successfully making your idea a reality.Every Tool’s a Hammer is a chronicle of my life as a maker. It’s an exploration of making, but it’s also a permission slip of sorts from me to you. Permission to grab hold of the things you’re interested in, that fascinate you, and to dive deeper into them to see where they lead you. Through stories from forty-plus years of making and molding, building and break­ing, along with the lessons I learned along the way, this book is meant to be a toolbox of problem solving, complete with a shop’s worth of notes on the tools, techniques, and materials that I use most often. Things like: In Every Tool There Is a Hammer—don’t wait until everything is perfect to begin a project, and if you don’t have the exact right tool for a task, just use whatever’s handy; Increase Your Loose Tolerance—making is messy and filled with screwups, but that’s okay, as creativity is a path with twists and turns and not a straight line to be found; Use More Cooling Fluid—it prolongs the life of blades and bits, and it prevents tool failure, but beyond that it’s a reminder to slow down and reduce the fric­tion in your work and relationships; Screw Before You Glue—mechanical fasteners allow you to change and modify a project while glue is forever but sometimes you just need the right glue, so I dig into which ones will do the job with the least harm and best effects. This toolbox also includes lessons from many other incredible makers and creators, including: Jamie Hyneman, Nick Offerman, Pixar director Andrew Stanton, Oscar-winner Guillermo del Toro, artist Tom Sachs, and chef Traci Des Jardins. And if everything goes well, we will hopefully save you a few mistakes (and maybe fingers) as well as help you turn your curiosities into creations. I hope this book serves as “creative rocket fuel” (Ed Helms) to build, make, invent, explore, and—most of all—enjoy the thrills of being a creator. Read more

Million-copy bestselling author of The Elements, Molecules, and Reactions Theodore Gray applies his trademark mix of engaging stories, real-time experiments, and stunning photography to the inner workings of machines, big and small, revealing the extraordinary science, beauty, and rich history of everyday things. Theodore Gray has become a household name among fans, both young and old, of popular science and mechanics. He's an incorrigible tinkerer with a constant curiosity for how things work. Gray's readers love how he always brings the perfect combination of know-how, humor, and daring-do to every project or demonstration, be it scientific or mechanical.In How Things Work he explores the mechanical underpinnings of dozens of types of machines and mechanisms, from the cotton gin to the wristwatch to an industrial loom. Filled with stunning original photographs in Gray's inimitable style, How Things Work is a must-have exploration of stuff--large and small--for any builder, maker or lover of mechanical things. Read more

In Reactions, bestselling author Theodore Gray demonstrates, through stunning, never-before-seen images and illustrations, how molecules interact and change in ways that are essential to our existence.  With Reactions, Theodore Gray completes the journey through the chemical world that began with the tour de force The Elements and continued with Molecules. In The Elements Gray showed us a never-before-seen photographic view of the 118 elements in the periodic table. In Molecules, he showed us how the elements combine to form the matter that makes up our world. At last, we've arrived at the final step in the chemical process. Reactions  begins with a recap of elements and molecules and the goes on to explain the concepts that characterize a chemical reaction, including energy, entropy, and time. Gray introduces us to his favorite reactions, from those characterized by ignition and explosion, to photosynthesis, to "The Boring Chapter" in which he dives deep into reactions like paint drying, grass growing, and water boiling. Reactions is the spectacular finale of the three-act chemical drama that Gray has illustrated for us over the years in his engaging, entertaining, and inimitable way.   Read more

In Molecules, bestselling author Theodore Gray demonstrates, through stunning, never-before-seen images and illustrations, how the elements of the periodic table combine to form the molecules that make up our world. Everything physical is made up of the elements and the infinite variety of molecules they form when they combine with each other. In Molecules, Theodore Gray takes the next step in the story that began with the periodic table in his best-selling book, The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe. Here, he explores, through fascinating stories and trademark stunning photography, the most interesting, essential, useful, and beautiful of the millions of chemical structures that make up every material in the world. Gray begins with an explanation of how atoms bond to form molecules and compounds, as well as the difference between organic and inorganic chemistry. He then goes on to explore the vast array of materials molecules can create, including: soaps and solvents; goops and oils; rocks and ores; ropes and fibers; painkillers and dangerous drugs; sweeteners; perfumes and stink bombs; colors and pigments; and controversial compounds including asbestos, CFCs, and thimerosal. Big, gorgeous photographs, as well as diagrams of the compounds and their chemical bonds, rendered with never before seen beauty, fill the pages and capture molecules in their various states. As he did in The Elements, Gray shows us molecules as we've never seen them before. It's the perfect book for his loyal fans who've been eager for more and for anyone fascinated with the mysteries of the material world. Read more

Permutations And Combinations – Better ExplainedThis book gives examples of how to understand using permutations and combinations, which are a central part of many probability problems. The focus of this book is on understanding why the permutation and combination equations are what they are, which ends up making them a lot easier to understand, remember, and expand than simply memorizing the equations.Permutations and combinations is a subject usually makes up a chapter in most statistics text books, but it is a chapter that doesn’t do the subject its proper justice. Most chapters on this subject start and end with memorizing the permutation and combination equations, and miss the deeper understanding of them and also skip over the permutation and combination problems that can’t be solved with those equations directly.What Kind Of Problems Do Many Other Texts Skip?The permutation & combinations equations are great. Fairly easy to use, and easy to look up if you forget them and aren’t in an exam. If you get a problem like, “You have 20 boxes but can only fit 15 in your truck, how many different combinations of boxes can you take?” It is straight forward to apply the combination equation of N ! / k! / (n-k)! But how would you solve the problem of “You have 20 boxes, and 4 trucks that can fit 6, 5, 4, 3 boxes, how many different ways can the trucks be loaded? Assume it matters what box goes on which truck, but not the order it is loaded within the truck”The application of the combination equation to that second problem is not obvious. This book walks through how that problem would be solved, and it turns out to be relatively simple and intuitive.Feedback From Early ReviewersSeveral of the early reviewers expressed an interest in having a longer book, and a wider variety of examples. Consequently in this version I have added examples for how combinations & permutations relate to the lottery, the traveling salesperson problem, the odds of getting a flush in Texas Hold'em, the classic urn problems, as well as the binomial theorem. A big thank you for those suggestions!What Motivated This Book?I learned the permutation and combination equations in an early college math class, and have used them over the years and never had reason to revisit them looking for a deeper understanding. However after taking a programming challenge for a large tech company recently, challenging permutation & combination problems frequently appear, and the simple equations simply are not sufficient, a deeper understanding is necessary.Consequently this book also devotes a large section to an example permutation problem of the kind that you might find in a programming challenge. Those problems are frequently in programming challenges because permutations are an easy way to ensure that naïve brute force solutions can’t solve the problems in a reasonable amount of time, and that a more elegant understanding of the math is required. Read more

Science & Stuff is a whirlwind tour through the astounding, record-breaking world around us Read more

None

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Inspired by the fantastic worlds of Star Trek, Star Wars, and Back to the Future, the renowned theoretical physicist and national bestselling author of The God Equation takes an informed, serious, and often surprising look at what our current understanding of the universe's physical laws may permit in the near and distant future.Teleportation, time machines, force fields, and interstellar space ships—the stuff of science fiction or potentially attainable future technologies? Entertaining, informative, and imaginative, Physics of the Impossible probes the very limits of human ingenuity and scientific possibility. Read more

Beautifully illustrated collection of naturalist projects anyone can do at homeFeatures 20 projects with clear descriptions of materials and tools, plus a few bonus activitiesIncludes step-by-step instructions with charming, informative illustrationsTips for troubleshooting and taking the project to the next levelThe Naturalist at Home emphasizes hands-on exploration with easy outdoor projects designed to help naturalists observe and study everything from invertebrates to mushrooms to mammals. Critically-acclaimed writer and naturalist Kelly Brenner developed these projects based on real techniques used by naturalists and scientists in the field. Easy to adapt, they are suitable for naturalists at all levels of experience and expertise.These projects bridge the gap between sophisticated science experiments and easy nature activities and between reading about nature and experiencing it in a real and tangible way. They are simple to carry out, and naturalists can repurpose items they have at home, find them at a thrift store, or purchase inexpensive tools and materials. Detailed descriptions of organisms, along with the author’s hand-drawn illustrations, help naturalists visualize what they may discover. Read more

A Los Angeles Times BestsellerOne of The New Yorker's best books of 2024A bold and brilliant revisionist take on the history of psychedelics in the twentieth century, illuminating how a culture of experimental drugs shaped the Cold War and the birth of Silicon Valley."It was not the Baby Boomers who ushered in the first era of widespread drug experimentation. It was their parents." Far from the repressed traditionalists they are often painted as, the generation that survived the second World War emerged with a profoundly ambitious sense of social experimentation. In the '40s and '50s, transformative drugs rapidly entered mainstream culture, where they were not only legal, but openly celebrated. American physician John C. Lilly infamously dosed dolphins (and himself) with LSD in a NASA-funded effort to teach dolphins to talk. A tripping Cary Grant mumbled into a Dictaphone about Hegel as astronaut John Glenn returned to Earth. At the center of this revolution were the pioneering anthropologists—and star-crossed lovers—Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson. Convinced the world was headed toward certain disaster, Mead and Bateson made it their life’s mission to reshape humanity through a new science of consciousness expansion, but soon found themselves at odds with the government bodies who funded their work, whose intentions were less than pure. Mead and Bateson's partnership unlocks an untold chapter in the history of the twentieth century, linking drug researchers with CIA agents, outsider sexologists, and the founders of the Information Age. As we follow Mead and Bateson’s fractured love affair from the malarial jungles of New Guinea to the temples of Bali, from the espionage of WWII to the scientific revolutions of the Cold War, a new origin story for psychedelic science emerges. Read more

Winner of the prestigious 2013 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books“A modern voyage of discovery.” —Frank Wilczek, Nobel Laureate, author of The Lightness of Being The Higgs boson is one of our era’s most fascinating scientific frontiers and the key to understanding why mass exists. The most recent book on the subject, The God Particle, was a bestseller. Now, Caltech physicist Sean Carroll documents the doorway that is opening—after billions of dollars and the efforts of thousands of researchers at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland—into the mind-boggling world of dark matter. The Particle at the End of the Universe has it all: money and politics, jealousy and self-sacrifice, history and cutting-edge physics—all grippingly told by a rising star of science writing. Read more

Einstein’s Shadow follows a team of elite scientists on their historic mission to take the first picture of a black hole, putting Einstein’s theory of relativity to its ultimate test and helping to answer our deepest questions about space, time, the origins of the universe, and the nature of realityPhotographing a black hole sounds impossible, a contradiction in terms. But Shep Doeleman and a global coalition of scientists are on the cusp of doing just that. With exclusive access to the team, journalist Seth Fletcher spent five years following Shep and an extraordinary cast of characters as they assembled the Event Horizon Telescope, a worldwide network of radio telescopes created to study black holes. He witnessed the team’s struggles, setbacks, and breakthroughs, and, along the way, Fletcher explored the latest thinking on the most profound questions about black holes: Do they represent a limit to our ability to understand reality? Or will they reveal the clues that lead to the long-sought theory of everything? Fletcher transforms astrophysics into something exciting, accessible, and immediate, taking us on an incredible adventure to better understand the complexity of our galaxy, the boundaries of human perception and knowledge, and how the messy endeavor of science really works.Weaving a compelling narrative account of human ingenuity with excursions into cutting-edge science, Einstein’s Shadow is a tale of great minds on a mission to change the way we understand our universe—and our place in it. Read more

The Kindle edition of The ARRL Antenna Book for Radio Communications is divided into four convenient volumes.This Kindle purchase is for Volume 2. Volume 1 and 3-4 are available separately.Volume 2 – Basic Antenna Types and MF and HF Antennas includes:Long-Wire and Traveling-Wave AntennasPhased ArraysBroadside and End-Fire Dipole ArraysLoop AntennasFrequency Independent AntennasGeneral Purpose MF and HF AntennasMultiband HF AntennasHF Beam AntennasHF Antenna System DesignThe ARRL Antenna Book for Radio Communications is a single resource covering antenna theory, design and construction, and practical treatments and projects. It includes everything you need to construct your own antenna system, and provides useful advice on selecting, designing, building, testing, and installing antenna systems for every band. From simple dipoles and verticals for portable operation and inverted Ls for 80 and 160 meters, to slot antennas for VHF and dishes for observing the star-forming regions of space, The ARRL Antenna Book has it all for the active radio amateur.Radio amateurs continue to make contributions to the state of the art in antenna design and construction. Updated to reflect the latest advances and technologies, the 25th edition of The Antenna Book is full of material pioneered by dozens of radio amateur experts.Also available: The ARRL Antenna Book Volume 1 and 3-4Volume 1: Antenna FundamentalsVolume 3: VHF, UHF, and Microwave Antennas and Specialty ApplicationsVolume 4: Transmission Lines and Systems, Building and Maintaining Antenna Systems, and Index Read more

From the author of Backyard Ballistics comes this new DIY handbook on building cannons and other fun things that shoot, from wiffle ball launchers and beverage bottle bazookas to super-powered water guns and model culverins. It combines military history and physics with do-it-yourself projects. Now ordinary folks can construct a dozen awesome artillery devices in their garage or basement workshops using inexpensive household or hardware store materials and this step-by-step guide. Clear instructions, diagrams, and photographs show how to build projects ranging from the simple supersonic ping-pong ball shooter to the more complex replica of the Napoleon Cannon. With a strong emphasis on safety, the book also gives tips on troubleshooting, tells the history of how and when the artillery devices were used, and explains the physics behind the projects. This book will be indispensable for the legions of backyard watergunners, model-rocket launchers, and fireworks fanatics who wish every day was the fourth of July. Read more

Make: High-Power Rockets is for all the science geeks who look at the moon and try to figure out where Neil Armstrong walked, watch in awe as rockets lift off, and want to fly their own model rockets. Starting with an overview of mid- and high-power rocketry, readers will start out making rockets with F and G engines, and move on up to H engines. Read more

This bestselling DIY handbook now features new and expanded projects, enabling ordinary folks to construct 16 awesome ballistic devices in their garage or basement workshops using inexpensive household or hardware store materials and this step-by-step guide. Clear instructions, diagrams, and photographs show how to build projects ranging from the simple match-powered rocket to the more complex tabletop catapult and the offbeat Cincinnati fire kite. The classic potato cannon has a new evil twin—the piezo-electric spud gun—and the electromagnetic pipe gun has joined the company of such favorites as the tennis ball mortar. With a strong emphasis on safety, the book also gives tips on troubleshooting, explains the physics behind the projects, and profiles scientists and extraordinary experimenters such as Alfred Nobel, Robert Goddard, and Isaac Newton. This book will be indispensable for the legions of backyard toy-rocket launchers and fireworks fanatics who wish every day was the fourth of July. Read more

The Mysteries of Healing: Dialogues with Doctors and Scientists reports on the current research and personal characteristics of 19 visionaries from the US, Canada, and the UK. They discuss healing with hands, with frequencies, with altered states of consciousness, and with helpful beings. Vanguard scientists believe there is more than we see and formulate a non-materialist paradigm that expands human potential, including mind and matter interaction. Going against the dominant worldview evokes criticism so the book explores the personal backgrounds of the scientists to find out why they are so courageous. We learn that there is another dimension that allows for enhanced abilities, based on extensive interviews by Gayle Kimball, the author of 20 books. The trilogy includes books about the mysteries of reality and knowledge. Gayle Kimball, Ph.D., is the author of 20 books and does clairvoyant sessions and workshops. Read more

From the host of Netflix's Emily's Wonder Lab and FOX's Xploration Outer Space comes a book featuring 50 experiments that introduce the wonders of science to the whole family. MIT engineer Emily Calandrelli shares the science behind each experiment while showing you where to find STEAM concepts in the world around you. You'll learn how to think like a scientist with Make a Hypothesis! and Try This! prompts, where you can experiment within the experiment. With Calandrelli's expert guidance, illustrations throughout, and easy-to-find grocery items, you can make: An alien hovercraft to learn how an air hockey table worksGlow in the dark paint to learn about ultraviolet lightDelicious ice cream to learn about supercoolingOobleck to learn why ketchup is so hard to get out of the bottle With chapters like Magic Tricks, Kitchen Science, and Fun with Physics, this book is packed with experiments that will delight little scientists and their lab assistants. Grab your goggles and a family member to get started on a journey to spark curiosity, critical thinking, and fun family times! Read more

A tour of the exotic and remote outposts where scientists seek answers to the great mysteries: “A thrilling ride around the globe and around the cosmos.” —Sean Carroll, author of From Eternity to Here In The Edge of Physics, a science writer journeys to the ends of the Earth—visiting remote and sometimes dangerous places—in search of the telescopes and detectors that promise to answer the biggest questions in modern cosmology.   Anil Ananthaswamy treks to the Atacama Desert in the Chilean Andes, one of the coldest, driest places on the planet, where not even a blade of grass can survive, and the spectacularly clear skies and dry atmosphere allow astronomers to gather brilliant images of galaxies billions of light-years away. He takes us inside the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere’s Very Large Telescope on Mount Paranal, where four massive domes open to the sky each night “like a dragon waking up.”   Ananthaswamy also heads deep inside an abandoned iron mine in Minnesota—where half-mile-thick rock shields physicists as they hunt for elusive dark matter particles. And to the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, where engineers are drilling 1.5 miles into the clearest ice on the planet. They are building the world’s largest neutrino detector, which could finally help reconcile quantum physics with Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The stories of the people who work at these and other research sites make for a compelling new portrait of the universe—and our quest to understand it.   “From the top of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea to Switzerland’s Large Hadron Collider and more, Ananthaswamy paints a vivid picture of scientific investigations in harsh working conditions. . . . Even for readers who don’t know a neutrino from Adam, these interesting tales of human endeavor make The Edge of Physics a trip worth taking.” —Bookpage   “Ananthaswamy journeys to several geographically and scientifically extreme outposts, and returns not only with engaging portraits of the men and women who work there, but also a vibrant glimpse of how cutting-edge research is actually performed. Part history lesson, part travelogue, part adventure story, ‘The Edge of Physics’ is a wonder-steeped page-turner.” —Seed Magazine   “Ananthaswamy displays a writer’s touch for the fascinating detail.” —The Washington Post Read more

The Kindle edition of The ARRL Antenna Book for Radio Communications is divided into four convenient volumes.This Kindle purchase is for Volume 4. Volume 1-3 are available separately.Volume 4 – Transmission Lines and Systems, Building and Maintaining Antenna Systems, and Index includes:Transmission LinesTransmission Line System TechniquesAntenna Materials and ConstructionSafe PracticesBuilding Antenna Systems and TowersAntenna and Transmission Line MeasurementsAntenna System TroubleshootingThe ARRL Antenna Book for Radio Communications is a single resource covering antenna theory, design and construction, and practical treatments and projects. It includes everything you need to construct your own antenna system, and provides useful advice on selecting, designing, building, testing, and installing antenna systems for every band. From simple dipoles and verticals for portable operation and inverted Ls for 80 and 160 meters, to slot antennas for VHF and dishes for observing the star-forming regions of space, The ARRL Antenna Book has it all for the active radio amateur.Radio amateurs continue to make contributions to the state of the art in antenna design and construction. Updated to reflect the latest advances and technologies, the 25th edition of The Antenna Book is full of material pioneered by dozens of radio amateur experts.Also available: The ARRL Antenna Book Volume 1-3Volume 1: Antenna FundamentalsVolume 2: Basic Antenna Types and MF and HF AntennasVolume 3: VHF, UHF, and Microwave Antennas and Specialty Applications Read more