Scientists and inventors gifts

From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era—a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter. Australian Financial Review Top 20 Read for 2023​ Elon...

The acclaimed biography Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson unravels the rollercoaster journey of Steve Jobs, the visionary co-founder of Apple Inc. and a pioneer in the realms of personal computing, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. This compelling narrative is drawn from more than forty interviews with Jobs himself over two years, as well as interviews with...

Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman is a delightful collection of anecdotes and mind-bending adventures of the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard P. Feynman. This book offers readers an intimate glimpse into the life of a man whose curiosity knew no bounds. Over the course of these anecdotes, Feynman takes us through his childhood, his education at MIT and Princeton, and his...

Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson is an enthralling exploration of the life and mind of the quintessential Renaissance man. This biography delves into the riveting story of Leonardo da Vinci, seamlessly blending the art, science, and personal life of one of history's most innovative figures. The narrative begins with Leonardo's early years in the small Italian town of Vinci,...

Einstein by Walter Isaacson offers a gripping and insightful portrayal of one of history's most esteemed scientists. Delving into the complexities of Albert Einstein's life, Isaacson masterfully chronicles the journey of a man whose ideas shattered centuries of scientific tradition and reshaped our understanding of the universe. From his curious and inquisitive youth, through his personal and professional trials, to...

The origin story of one of the most influential and transformative business leaders and philanthropists of the modern age. Bill Gates is one of the most transformative figures of our age. In Source Code, he takes us back to his beginnings. He describes with candour his childhood in Seattle, the centrality of family—his close relationship with his card-playing grandmother and...

The most influential inventor of the modern world, Sir Tim Berners-Lee is a different kind of visionary. Born in the same year as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, Berners-Lee famously distributed his invention, the World Wide Web, for no commercial reward. Its widespread adoption changed everything - transforming humanity into the first digital species. Through the web, we live, work,...

A revelatory portrait of the visionary behind Google DeepMind, the race to control the future - and what it means to win. Even in a tech world crowded with visionary leaders, Demis Hassabis is recognised as a special case. Born to working-class, immigrant parents in North London, a chess prodigy by five and wizard coder in his teens, he turned...

In the Little People, Big Dreams series, discover the lives of outstanding people from designers and artists to scientists. All of them went on to achieve incredible things, yet all of them began life as a little child with a dream. The book follows Marie Curie, whose love of learning helped her to revolutionise the fight against cancer with her...

The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf is an astonishing and captivating biography that retraces the epic life of Alexander von Humboldt, a visionary scientist whose ideas have had a profound impact on our modern understanding of nature. This page-turner takes readers on a journey through Humboldt's thrilling explorations and his enduring legacy. From scaling the heights of the Andes...

"I would like to die on Mars, just not on impact." - Elon Musk South African-born Elon Musk is the renowned entrepreneur and innovator behind some of today's most revolutionary companies including PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity. Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance offers a deep dive into the life of this complex genius who wants to save our planet, colonise...

In this book from the critically acclaimed, multimillion-copy bestselling Little People, BIG DREAMS series, discover the life of Steve Jobs, the visionary whose ideas still shape the world. Steve Jobs grew up surrounded by inventors in sunny Silicon Valley, California. He and his friend Stephen Wozniak channelled their love of computers into their own inventions, building a successful company from...

Discover the fascinating story of Ernő Rubik, the inventor of the world-famous Rubik's Cube, and master of creativity and problem-solving! Ernő Rubik was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1944. His mother was a poet and his father a flight engineer. As a child, Ernő loved colours and shapes, design, and geometry. He went to art school but soon realised he...

Kiwis have a long history of great achievements. Everyone knows we were the first to split the atom and give women the right to vote, but did you know that we've achieved A LOT of things in health and medicine, too?For a start, it was a Timaru inventor who created the first ever disposable syringe. And a doctor from West...

Dava Sobel, acclaimed and bestselling author of Longitude, chronicles the life and work of the most famous woman in the history of science – and the untold story of the young women who trained in her laboratory. ‘A luminous and illuminating contribution to the cause’ Literary Review For decades, Marie Curie was the only woman in the room at international...

NOW A MAJOR HOLLYWOOD FILM DIRECTED BY CHRISTOPHER NOLAN WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR NONFICTION 'Reads like a thriller, gripping and terrifying' - Sunday Times Physicist and polymath, as familiar with Hindu scriptures as he was with quantum mechanics, J. Robert Oppenheimer - director of the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb - was the most famous scientist...

Discover the incredible story of Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance genius whose boundless curiosity and creativity changed the world. Young readers will follow Leonardo from his childhood in the small village of Vinci, Italy, where he sketched animals and dreamed of flying machines, to his training as an artist and his creation of world-famous paintings like the Mona Lisa and...

New in the critically acclaimed Little People, Big Dreams series, discover the amazing life of Jane Goodall, the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees. When Jane was little, her father gave her a toy chimpanzee named Jubilee. This inspired her lifelong love of animals, and she went to study them in the wild as soon as she could. Jane lived with...

The official book behind the Academy Award-winning film The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges is a riveting biography that delves into the life of one of the most exceptional minds of the 20th century. This meticulously researched biography presents a comprehensive and humanising portrayal of Alan Turing, the brilliant mathematician...

Failure Is Not an Option is an enthralling memoir by Gene Kranz, the charismatic and steely NASA flight director, whose resolve and tenacity helped shape the success of America's space program. The narrative journeys through the spine-tingling challenges and triumphs from the nascent days of the Mercury program, through the iconic Apollo 11 moon landing, and the dramatic Apollo 13...

Learn about the incredible story of Katherine Johnson! The trailblazer whose calculations changed the future of space exploration. Little Katherine loved learning, and her favourite subject was maths. In class, she worked so hard that she was able to move up to high school four years early! Due to the racist laws of the time, Katherine's family had to move...

New in the Little People, Big Dreams series, discover the life of Stephen Hawking, the genius physicist and author, in this true story of his life. As a child, Stephen used to look up at the stars and wonder what else was out there. After gaining his education at Oxford University, Stephen went on to make a groundbreaking discovery to...

Meet Marie, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist! New in board book format in the Little People, Big Dreams series, this inspiring and informative little biography follows the life of Marie Curie, from her childhood in Poland to conducting pioneering research on radioactivity and going on to become the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. With stylish and quirky illustrations and...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY TRIVEDI SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2024 'Fascinating, witty and perspective-shifting . . . I finished it not only better informed about a captivating branch of mathematics, but with an invigorating sense of greater purchase on the world' – OLIVER BURKEMAN Thomas Bayes was an eighteenth-century Presbyterian minister and amateur mathematician whose obscure life belied the profound...

Unearth the mysteries of ancient fossils and discover the life and legacy of Mary Anning in this beautifully illustrated, fact-filled book for curious readers. Have you ever found something mysterious? Something you had no idea what it was but you had this feeling it was important, that it held a secret? Mary Anning was a fossil hunter, scouring the cliffs...

The world of chess witnessed an unprecedented event in May 1997: Garry Kasparov, the finest chess player of his era, faced a monumental challenge against IBM's advanced supercomputer, Deep Blue. This highly publicised match captivated global audiences, marking a pivotal moment in technological history. For the first time, machine intelligence triumphed over human intellect, heralding a new era of AI...

The SUNDAY TIMES and #1 International Bestseller - with a new foreword by Silicon Valley legend Marc Andreessen. Becoming Steve Jobs presents an enthralling and detailed narrative of the rise, fall, and resurrection of one of the world's most iconic entrepreneurs, Steve Jobs. This meticulously crafted biography departs from conventional accounts, providing an unparalleled peek into the mind and life...

The story of two brilliant nineteenth-century scientists who discovered the electromagnetic field, laying the groundwork for the amazing technological and theoretical breakthroughs of the twentieth century. Two of the boldest and most creative scientists of all time were Michael Faraday (1791-1867) and James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879). This is the story of how these two men - separated in age by...

Genius Makers: A ground-breaking account of the race to create Artificial Intelligence. This colourful page-turner puts artificial intelligence into a human perspective . . . Metz explains this transformative technology and makes the quest thrilling. — Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs This is the inside story of a small group of mavericks, eccentrics, and geniuses who turned Artificial Intelligence...

What makes a quark? How many quarks make a proton? How many protons make an oxygen atom? How many oxygen atoms make a carbon dioxide molecule? How many carbon atoms make you? In this accessible little book, packed with helpful diagrams and interesting information, science writer Matt Tweed takes us on a whirlwind tour into the tiny realms, the stuff...

The Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla is the definitive record of the pioneering work of one of the modern world's most groundbreaking inventors. During the early twentieth century, Tesla blazed the trail that electrical technology followed for decades afterward. Although he pioneered inventions like alternating current (AC), radio, wireless transmission, and X-rays, and worked with innovators like George...

Little Sally grew up in California, USA, and soon realised that she had a passion for science. She loved it so much that she studied it at university and became a Doctor of Physics. One day, whilst reading the student newspaper, Sally saw that NASA was looking for astronauts. Women could apply, having never been able to before... so she...

Help your little one dream big with a Little Golden Book biography about Dr. Jonas Salk, the creator of the polio vaccine. Little Golden Book biographies are the perfect introduction to nonfiction for preschoolers! This Little Golden Book about Dr. Jonas Salk—virologist and one of the pioneers of the first successful polio vaccine—is an inspiring read-aloud for young children with...

The extraordinary story of the solving of a puzzle that has confounded mathematicians since the 17th century. The solution of Fermat’s Last Theorem is the most important mathematical development of the 20th century. In 1963, a schoolboy browsing in his local library stumbled across the world’s greatest mathematical problem: Fermat’s Last Theorem, a puzzle that every child can understand but...

From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era—a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter. Australian Financial Review Top 20 Read for 2023​ When...

AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR ‘A peerless intellectual biography. The Glass Universe shines and twinkles as brightly as the stars themselves’ - The Economist #1 New York Times bestselling author Dava Sobel returns with a captivating, little-known true story of women in science. Before they even had the right to vote, a group of remarkable women were employed by...

“This rich volume is a national treasure.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Captivating, informative, and inspiring…Easy to follow and hard to put down.” —School Library Journal (starred review) The inspiring autobiography of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who helped launch Apollo 11. As a young girl, Katherine Johnson showed an exceptional aptitude for maths. In school, she quickly skipped ahead several grades...

Lust, science, adventure — Joseph Banks and his voyages of discovery Sir Joseph Banks was a man of passion whose influence spanned the globe. A fearless adventurer, his fascination with beautiful women was only trumped by his obsession with the natural world and his lust for scientific knowledge. Fabulously wealthy, Banks was the driving force behind monumental voyages and scientific...

From bestselling author Walter Isaacson comes Steve Jobs, the landmark biography of the iconic Apple co-founder. This compelling narrative delves deep into the very essence of one of the most influential figures of our time. From illuminating his visionary work to detailing his personal triumphs and tribulations, Isaacson crafts an extraordinary account, revealing the many facets of Jobs' life that...

From the No.1 bestselling author of Do No Harm, an unflinching and deeply personal exploration of death, life and what matters in the end. From the No.1 bestselling author of Do No Harm, an entrancing and uplifting meditation on the gift of life. "A book to treasure and reread" – Gavin Francis, author of Adventures in Human Being As a...

David Attenborough tells the story of this famous figure, covering his childhood in Leicester and studies at the University of Cambridge through his work in natural history and broadcasting, his famous educational documentaries for the BBC and his enduring scientific and popular legacy today. For children working through book bands, it is suitable for those reading at book band 12:...

Charles Darwin tells the story of this key scientific figure, covering his origins as the son of a wealthy doctor, his famous voyage on HMS Beagle, the development of his evolutionary theories, the publication of On the Origin of Species, and his death and burial in Westminster Abbey. For children working through Book Bands, it is suitable for those working...

This riveting book tells the story of a creative genius, from his early interest in industrial design to his meteoric rise, as well as the principles and practices that led Ive to become the designer of his generation. Steve Jobs discovered Ive in 1997, when he found the scruffy British designer toiling away in a studio surrounded by hundreds of...

Isaac Newton is generally regarded as one of the greatest scientists in history, yet the spectrum of his interests was much broader than that of a contemporary scientist. He was deeply involved in alchemical, religious, and biblical studies, and in the later part of his life, he played a prominent role in British politics, economics, and the promotion of scientific...

WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY MERLIN SHELDRAKE WINNER OF THE 2015 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD WINNER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2016 'A thrilling adventure story' Bill Bryson 'Dazzling' Literary Review 'Brilliant' Sunday Express 'Extraordinary and gripping' New Scientist 'A superb biography' The Economist 'An exhilarating armchair voyage' GILES MILTON, Mail on Sunday Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) is the...

Queen of the Cosmos, Beatrice Hill Tinsley lived every day as if she was on borrowed time. Over her short time on Earth, she was determined to further the world's knowledge of the stars and galaxies. But it was not easy being a female scientist in those times. She would have to make a heartbreaking decision in order to follow...

The groundbreaking New York Times bestseller Women in Science by Rachel Ignotofsky comes to the youngest readers in board format! Highlighting notable women's contributions to STEM, this board book edition features simpler text and Rachel Ignotofsky's signature illustrations reimagined for young readers. It introduces the perfect role models to grow up with while inspiring a love of science. The collection...

A Mind at Play by Rob Goodman and Jimmy Soni is a captivating biography chronicling the life and brilliance of Claude Shannon, a figure often hailed as the father of the Information Age. This engaging book delves into Shannon’s groundbreaking contributions to science and technology, insights that spark the creativity behind every computer, email, and application today. The authors masterfully...

For nearly half a century, Richard Feynman's groundbreaking work was at the forefront of modern physics, leaving an indelible mark on the field. In Genius by James Gleick, readers are treated to an intimate and compelling exploration of Feynman's life and mind. From his early days as a crucial member of the team that developed the atomic bomb at Los...

'When one is faced with the possibility of early death, it makes one realise that life is worth living.' - Stephen Hawking An insatiable curiosity and appreciation for life powered Stephen Hawking to the furthest reaches of the universe and human achievement. During his remarkable lifetime, he shed light on many of the mysteries of black holes and made key...

From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edmund Morris comes a revelatory new biography of Thomas Alva Edison, the most prolific genius in American history. New York Times bestseller. From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edmund Morris comes a revelatory new biography of Thomas Alva Edison, the most prolific genius in American history. Named one of the best books of the year by Time, Publishers...

The Starship and the Canoe is neither a wilderness survival manual nor a book of blueprints. It is another of those rare books impossible to define: the kind that seeks you in time. And you will know it, live it, and consult it thereafter simply by name." --Chicago Sun-Times "In the tradition of Carl Sagan and John McPhee, a bracing...

How did a shy Polish immigrant kid - Karl Sven Woytek Sas Konkovitch Matthew Kruszelnicki - evolve into the fabulously eccentric Dr Karl? The only child of Holocaust survivors who fled to Australia in 1950, Karl has always forged his own destiny in an idiosyncratic way. Before he became one of the world's favourite scientific storytellers, he ambled through a...

Albert Einstein's theory of relativity and the endeavours of Bertrand Russell and David Hilbert to establish the fundamental rules of mathematics inspired some of the most brilliant minds of their generation to convene in post-World War I Vienna. This assemblage, known as the Vienna Circle, consisted of intellectual giants like Kurt Gödel and Rudolf Carnap, who sought to advance the...