- History (1,102)
- Philosophy (871)
Best sellers
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Einstein
- His Life and Universe
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 21 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Based on the newly released personal letters of Albert Einstein, Walter Isaacson explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos....
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This is the kind of book that deserves a Pulitzer
- By Amazon Customer on 05-08-07
By: Walter Isaacson
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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- By: Rebecca Skloot
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells - taken without her knowledge - became one of the most important tools in medicine....
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Many stories in one
- By Ryan on 04-14-12
By: Rebecca Skloot
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Humankind
- A Hopeful History
- By: Rutger Bregman, Erica Moore, Elizabeth Manton
- Narrated by: Rutger Bregman, Thomas Judd
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
If there is one belief that has united the left and the right, psychologists and philosophers, ancient thinkers and modern ones, it is the tacit assumption that humans are bad. It's a notion that drives newspaper headlines and guides the laws that shape our lives....
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He’s correct but he misrepresented the data
- By Andrea Allen on 02-09-21
By: Rutger Bregman, and others
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Stiff
- The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
- By: Mary Roach
- Narrated by: Shelly Frasier
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
An oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem....
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I worked with cadavers for years, but....
- By Linda on 11-11-12
By: Mary Roach
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The Making of the Atomic Bomb
- 25th Anniversary Edition
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 37 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Here for the first time, in rich human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed....
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Wow... Grade A+ ... Exceptional.
- By SPFJR on 03-15-16
By: Richard Rhodes
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The Icepick Surgeon
- Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science
- By: Sam Kean
- Narrated by: Ben Sullivan
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Science is a force for good in the world—at least usually. But sometimes, when obsession gets the better of scientists, they twist a noble pursuit into something sinister. Under this spell, knowledge isn’t everything, it’s the only thing—no matter the cost....
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FANTASTIC! & What’s up with all these naysayers (negative reviewers)?!
- By H. Zophie Leslea on 08-19-21
By: Sam Kean
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Einstein
- His Life and Universe
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 21 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on the newly released personal letters of Albert Einstein, Walter Isaacson explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos....
-
-
This is the kind of book that deserves a Pulitzer
- By Amazon Customer on 05-08-07
By: Walter Isaacson
-
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- By: Rebecca Skloot
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells - taken without her knowledge - became one of the most important tools in medicine....
-
-
Many stories in one
- By Ryan on 04-14-12
By: Rebecca Skloot
-
Humankind
- A Hopeful History
- By: Rutger Bregman, Erica Moore, Elizabeth Manton
- Narrated by: Rutger Bregman, Thomas Judd
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If there is one belief that has united the left and the right, psychologists and philosophers, ancient thinkers and modern ones, it is the tacit assumption that humans are bad. It's a notion that drives newspaper headlines and guides the laws that shape our lives....
-
-
He’s correct but he misrepresented the data
- By Andrea Allen on 02-09-21
By: Rutger Bregman, and others
-
Stiff
- The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
- By: Mary Roach
- Narrated by: Shelly Frasier
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem....
-
-
I worked with cadavers for years, but....
- By Linda on 11-11-12
By: Mary Roach
-
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
- 25th Anniversary Edition
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 37 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here for the first time, in rich human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed....
-
-
Wow... Grade A+ ... Exceptional.
- By SPFJR on 03-15-16
By: Richard Rhodes
-
The Icepick Surgeon
- Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science
- By: Sam Kean
- Narrated by: Ben Sullivan
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Science is a force for good in the world—at least usually. But sometimes, when obsession gets the better of scientists, they twist a noble pursuit into something sinister. Under this spell, knowledge isn’t everything, it’s the only thing—no matter the cost....
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FANTASTIC! & What’s up with all these naysayers (negative reviewers)?!
- By H. Zophie Leslea on 08-19-21
By: Sam Kean
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Chaos
- Making a New Science
- By: James Gleick
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
James Gleick explains the theories behind the fascinating new science called chaos. Alongside relativity and quantum mechanics, it is being hailed as the 20th century's third revolution....
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Best AudioBook on Math/Physics yet
- By Ryanman on 03-02-11
By: James Gleick
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The Great Influenza
- The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History
- By: John M. Barry
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 19 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the winter of 1918, at the height of World War I, history's most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide....
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Gripping and Gory
- By Nancy on 07-01-08
By: John M. Barry
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Ravenous
- Otto Warburg, the Nazis, and the Search for the Cancer-Diet Connection
- By: Sam Apple
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The extraordinary story of the Nazi-era scientific genius who discovered how cancer cells eat - and what it means for how we should....
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Highly recommended, a must read.
- By Joerg on 06-10-21
By: Sam Apple
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The Man from the Future
- The Visionary Life of John von Neumann
- By: Ananyo Bhattacharya
- Narrated by: Nicholas Camm
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Â
The smartphones in our pockets and computers like brains. The vagaries of game theory and evolutionary biology. Nuclear weapons and self-replicating spacecrafts. All bear the fingerprints of one remarkable, yet largely overlooked, man: John von Neumann....
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Amazing story of an amazing man!
- By Bryan Miller on 03-29-22
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Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field
- How Two Men Revolutionized Physics
- By: Nancy Forbes, Basil Mahon
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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 40 years - discovered the existence of the electromagnetic field....
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Amazing narration of an incredibly well told story
- By Paul de Jong on 03-01-21
By: Nancy Forbes, and others
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The Disappearing Spoon
- And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
- By: Sam Kean
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Science Magazine reporter Sam Kean reveals the periodic table as it’s never been seen before....
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One great book
- By Robert on 01-26-11
By: Sam Kean
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The Invisible Rainbow
- A History of Electricity and Life
- By: Arthur Firstenberg
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Over the last 220 years, society has evolved a universal belief that electricity is "safe" for humanity and the planet. Scientist and journalist Arthur Firstenberg disrupts this conviction by telling the story of electricity in a way it has never been told before....Â
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Lot's of conspiracy myths
- By Amazon Customer on 09-21-21
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Origin
- A Genetic History of the Americas
- By: Jennifer Raff
- Narrated by: Tanis Parenteau, Jennifer Raff - Interview, Yvonne Russo - Interview
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From celebrated anthropologist Jennifer Raff comes the untold story - and fascinating mystery - of how humans migrated to the Americas....
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A Superb Account Of The Science Of Indigenous American Anthropology
- By Linda S. on 02-21-22
By: Jennifer Raff
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American Sherlock
- Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI
- By: Kate Winkler Dawson
- Narrated by: Kate Winkler Dawson
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From the acclaimed author of Death in the Air comes the riveting story of the birth of criminal investigation in the 20th century....
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Always use a professional Editor and Reader
- By Steven F. Schroeder on 02-19-20
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Einstein's Fridge
- How the Difference Between Hot and Cold Explains the Universe
- By: Paul Sen
- Narrated by: Malk Williams
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
 Einstein’s Fridge tells the incredible epic story of the scientists who, over two centuries, harnessed the power of heat and ice and formulated a theory essential to comprehending our universe....
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Amazing book!
- By Verma Ajay on 03-29-21
By: Paul Sen
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Elusive
- How Peter Higgs Solved the Mystery of Mass
- By: Frank Close
- Narrated by: Richard Burnip
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The first major biography of Peter Higgs reveals how a short burst of work changed modern physics....
By: Frank Close
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1493
- Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
- By: Charles C. Mann
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 17 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed totally different suites of plants and animals....
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Fascinating Mindbending History.
- By Betsy Powel on 12-19-11
By: Charles C. Mann
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The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
- The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman
- By: Richard P. Feynman
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out is a magnificent treasury of the best short works of Richard P. Feynman....
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Interesting, but material is covered in better book.
- By Erlend on 04-06-16
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The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
- By: Thomas S. Kuhn
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is essential listening for understanding the history, philosophy, and evolution of science....
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Great book but a hard listen.
- By Jonathan on 04-09-12
By: Thomas S. Kuhn
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Where Good Ideas Come From
- The Natural History of Innovation
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Eric Singer
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
What sparks the flash of brilliance? One of our most innovative, popular thinkers takes on - in exhilarating style - one of our key questions....
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Ambitious
- By Roy on 12-08-10
By: Steven Johnson
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Longitude
- By: Dava Sobel
- Narrated by: Kate Reading, Neil Armstrong
- Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
An exciting scientific adventure from the days of wooden ships and iron men, Longitude is full of heroism and chicanery, brilliance and the absurd....
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To hear Neil Armstongs Voice
- By Boots on 01-19-13
By: Dava Sobel
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The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe
- How to Know What's Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake
- By: Steven Novella, Bob Novella - contributor, Cara Santa Maria - contributor, and others
- Narrated by: Steven Novella
- Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
An all-encompassing guide to skeptical thinking from podcast host and academic neurologist at Yale University School of Medicine Steven Novella and his SGU co-hosts, which Richard Wiseman calls "the perfect primer for anyone who wants to separate fact from fiction"....
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Buyer Beware
- By Dawn M. Davidson on 01-16-20
By: Steven Novella, and others
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A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts
- By: Andrew Chaikin
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 23 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
This book conveys every aspect of the Apollo missions with breathtaking immediacy and stunning detail....
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Long, comforting book on moon exploration
- By Mark on 06-17-16
By: Andrew Chaikin
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The Information
- A History, a Theory, a Flood
- By: James Gleick
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 16 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
James Gleick, the author of the best sellers Chaos and Genius, now brings us a work just as astonishing and masterly: A revelatory chronicle and meditation that shows how information has become the modern era’s defining quality....
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Made me nostalgic
- By Amazon Customer on 05-07-11
By: James Gleick
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The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons
- The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery
- By: Sam Kean
- Narrated by: Henry Leyva
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The author of the best seller The Disappearing Spoon reveals the secret inner workings of the brain through strange but true stories....
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Detailed but not overly Technical
- By Michael on 05-06-15
By: Sam Kean
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The Myth of Race
- The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea
- By: Robert Wald Sussman
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Although eugenics is now widely discredited, some groups and individuals claim a new scientific basis for old racist assumptions. Pondering the continuing influence of racist research and thought, despite all evidence to the contrary, Robert Wald Sussman explains why....
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An important look at race, genetics, & politics
- By Elisabeth Carey on 03-29-18
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Some Assembly Required
- Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA
- By: Neil Shubin
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
An exciting and accessible new view of the evolution of human and animal life on Earth. From the author of national bestseller, Your Inner Fish, this extraordinary journey of discovery spans centuries, as explorers and scientists seek to understand the origins....
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Interesting but thin. ANNOYING narration
- By MSB on 04-10-20
By: Neil Shubin
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Lost Enlightenment
- Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane
- By: S. Frederick Starr
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 25 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Lost Enlightenment chronicles this forgotten age of achievement, seeks to explain its rise, and explores the competing theories about the cause of its eventual demise....
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What a wonderful find!
- By Julia on 11-10-13
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Lost in Math
- How Beauty Leads Physics Astray
- By: Sabine Hossenfelder
- Narrated by: Laura Jennings
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A contrarian argues that modern physicists' obsession with beauty has given us wonderful math but bad science....
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A rare glimpse into the inner world of physics
- By Joe on 12-08-18
New releases
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A Force of Nature
- The Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford
- By: Richard Reeves
- Narrated by: Alex Hyde-White
- Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Ernest Rutherford, who grew up in colonial New Zealand and came to Cambridge on a scholarship, made numerous revolutionary discoveries, among them the orbital structure of the atom and the concept of the “half-life” of radioactive materials, which led to a massive re-evaluation of the age of the Earth―previously judged just 100 million years old. Above all, perhaps, Rutherford and the young men working under him were the first to split the atom, unlocking tremendous forces―forces, as Rutherford himself predicted, that would bring us the atomic bomb.
By: Richard Reeves
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Lavoisier in the Year One
- The Birth of a New Science in an Age of Revolution (The Great Discoveries Series)
- By: Madison Smartt Bell
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Antoine Lavoisier reinvented chemistry, overthrowing the long-established principles of alchemy and inventing an entirely new terminology, one still in use by chemists. Madison Smartt Bell’s enthralling narrative comes across like a race to the finish line, as the very circumstances that enabled Lavoisier to secure his reputation as the father of modern chemistry—a considerable fortune and social connections with the likes of Benjamin Franklin—also caused his glory to be cut short by the French Revolution.Â
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The Georgian Star
- How William and Caroline Herschel Revolutionized Our Understanding of the Cosmos (The Great Discoveries Series)
- By: Michael D. Lemonick
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Trained as a musician, amateur scientist William Herschel found international fame after discovering the planet Uranus in 1781. Though he is still best known for this finding, his partnership with his sister Caroline yielded groundbreaking work, including techniques that remain in use today. The duo pioneered comprehensive surveys of the night sky, carefully categorizing every visible object in the void. Caroline wrote an influential catalogue of nebulae, and William discovered infrared radiation.
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The Sky Is for Everyone
- Women Astronomers in Their Own Words
- By: Virginia Trimble, David A. Weintraub - editor
- Narrated by: Kaliswa Brewster, Marnie Chesterton, Katherine Fenton, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Sky Is for Everyone is an internationally diverse collection of autobiographical narratives by women who broke down barriers and changed the face of modern astronomy. This audiobook vividly describes how, before 1900, a woman who wanted to study the stars had to have a father, brother, or husband to provide entry, and how the considerable intellectual skills of women astronomers were still not enough to enable them to pry open doors of opportunity for much of the twentieth century. Here are the stories of the tough and determined women who flung the doors wide open.
By: Virginia Trimble, and others
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Elusive
- How Peter Higgs Solved the Mystery of Mass
- By: Frank Close
- Narrated by: Richard Burnip
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On July 4, 2012, the announcement came that one of the longest-running mysteries in physics had been solved: the Higgs boson, the missing piece in understanding why particles have mass, had finally been discovered. On the rostrum, surrounded by jostling physicists and media, was the particle’s retiring namesake—the only person in history to have an existing single particle named for them. Why Peter Higgs? Drawing on years of conversations with Higgs and others, Close illuminates how an unprolific man became one of the world’s most famous scientists. Â
By: Frank Close
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Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel
- Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages
- By: Frances Gies, Joseph Gies
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this account of Europe’s rise to world leadership in technology, Frances and Joseph Gies make use of recent scholarship to destroy two time-honored myths. Myth One: that Europe’s leap forward occurred suddenly in the “Renaissance,” following centuries of medieval stagnation. Myth Two: that Europe achieved its primacy through “Western” superiority.Â
By: Frances Gies, and others
-
A Force of Nature
- The Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford
- By: Richard Reeves
- Narrated by: Alex Hyde-White
- Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ernest Rutherford, who grew up in colonial New Zealand and came to Cambridge on a scholarship, made numerous revolutionary discoveries, among them the orbital structure of the atom and the concept of the “half-life” of radioactive materials, which led to a massive re-evaluation of the age of the Earth―previously judged just 100 million years old. Above all, perhaps, Rutherford and the young men working under him were the first to split the atom, unlocking tremendous forces―forces, as Rutherford himself predicted, that would bring us the atomic bomb.
By: Richard Reeves
-
Lavoisier in the Year One
- The Birth of a New Science in an Age of Revolution (The Great Discoveries Series)
- By: Madison Smartt Bell
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Antoine Lavoisier reinvented chemistry, overthrowing the long-established principles of alchemy and inventing an entirely new terminology, one still in use by chemists. Madison Smartt Bell’s enthralling narrative comes across like a race to the finish line, as the very circumstances that enabled Lavoisier to secure his reputation as the father of modern chemistry—a considerable fortune and social connections with the likes of Benjamin Franklin—also caused his glory to be cut short by the French Revolution.Â
-
The Georgian Star
- How William and Caroline Herschel Revolutionized Our Understanding of the Cosmos (The Great Discoveries Series)
- By: Michael D. Lemonick
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Trained as a musician, amateur scientist William Herschel found international fame after discovering the planet Uranus in 1781. Though he is still best known for this finding, his partnership with his sister Caroline yielded groundbreaking work, including techniques that remain in use today. The duo pioneered comprehensive surveys of the night sky, carefully categorizing every visible object in the void. Caroline wrote an influential catalogue of nebulae, and William discovered infrared radiation.
-
The Sky Is for Everyone
- Women Astronomers in Their Own Words
- By: Virginia Trimble, David A. Weintraub - editor
- Narrated by: Kaliswa Brewster, Marnie Chesterton, Katherine Fenton, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Sky Is for Everyone is an internationally diverse collection of autobiographical narratives by women who broke down barriers and changed the face of modern astronomy. This audiobook vividly describes how, before 1900, a woman who wanted to study the stars had to have a father, brother, or husband to provide entry, and how the considerable intellectual skills of women astronomers were still not enough to enable them to pry open doors of opportunity for much of the twentieth century. Here are the stories of the tough and determined women who flung the doors wide open.
By: Virginia Trimble, and others
-
Elusive
- How Peter Higgs Solved the Mystery of Mass
- By: Frank Close
- Narrated by: Richard Burnip
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On July 4, 2012, the announcement came that one of the longest-running mysteries in physics had been solved: the Higgs boson, the missing piece in understanding why particles have mass, had finally been discovered. On the rostrum, surrounded by jostling physicists and media, was the particle’s retiring namesake—the only person in history to have an existing single particle named for them. Why Peter Higgs? Drawing on years of conversations with Higgs and others, Close illuminates how an unprolific man became one of the world’s most famous scientists. Â
By: Frank Close
-
Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel
- Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages
- By: Frances Gies, Joseph Gies
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this account of Europe’s rise to world leadership in technology, Frances and Joseph Gies make use of recent scholarship to destroy two time-honored myths. Myth One: that Europe’s leap forward occurred suddenly in the “Renaissance,” following centuries of medieval stagnation. Myth Two: that Europe achieved its primacy through “Western” superiority.Â
By: Frances Gies, and others
-
Beyond Measure
- By: James Vincent
- Narrated by: James Vincent
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
We measure rainfall and radiation, the depths of space and the emptiness of atoms, calories and steps, happiness and fear. If we could not measure then we could not observe the world around us; we could not experiment, learn, and co-operate. But why did this urge to measure flourish? And when did measurement become ubiquitous? It is an incredible story that spans hunter-gatherer societies to ancient Egyptians, the French Revolution to the relentless quantification of the 21st-century self. It is a tale that tracks humanity's search for dependable truths in a chaotic universe.Â
By: James Vincent
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Atoms and Ashes
- From Bikini Atoll to Fukushima
- By: Serhii Plokhy
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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In 2011, a 43-foot-high tsunami crashed into a nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan. In the following days, explosions would rip buildings apart, three reactors would go into nuclear meltdown and the surrounding area would be swamped in radioactive water. It is now considered one of the costliest nuclear disasters ever. But Fukushima was not the first, and it was not the worst. In Atoms and Ashes, acclaimed historian Serhii Plokhy tells the tale of the six nuclear disasters that shook the world: Bikini Atoll, Kyshtym, Windscale, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima.Â
By: Serhii Plokhy
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Maladies of Empire
- How Colonialism, Slavery, and War Transformed Medicine
- By: Jim Downs
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Most stories of medical progress come with ready-made heroes. John Snow traced the origins of London's 1854 cholera outbreak to a water pump, leading to the birth of epidemiology. Florence Nightingale's contributions to the care of soldiers in the Crimean War transformed hospitals from crucibles of infection to sanctuaries of recuperation. Yet histories of individual innovators ignore many key sources of medical knowledge.
By: Jim Downs
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Tesla's Words
- A Stunning Utopia of the Future
- By: Ellis Oswalt
- Narrated by: Ellis Oswalt
- Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Tesla’s Words is a creative nonfiction audiobook that utilizes exhaustive research and recreation of drama to enrich a classic text with additional information, context, and immersive flare in order to highlight the previously unexplored aspects of Nikola Tesla's life and also reinforce his genius.
By: Ellis Oswalt
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The Matter of Everything
- Twelve Experiments that Changed Our World
- By: Suzie Sheehy
- Narrated by: Suzie Sheehy
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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For millennia, people have asked questions about the nature of matter. In the 20th century, this curiosity led to an unprecedented outburst of scientific discovery that changed the course of history. In The Matter of Everything, accelerator physicist Suzie Sheehy introduces us to the people who, through a combination of genius, persistence and luck, staged these groundbreaking experiments.
By: Suzie Sheehy
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Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
- Ptolemaic and Copernican
- By: Galileo Galilei, Albert Einstein - foreword, Stillman Drake - preface
- Narrated by: Brian Keating, Carlo Rovelli, Lucio Piccirillo, and others
- Length: 21 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems compares the Copernican or Heliocentric system with the Ptolemaic or Peripatetic, system of the cosmos. Published in Florence in 1632, it resulted in him being tried before the Inquisition. Using the dialogue form, Galileo masterfully shows the truth of the Copernican system that the Earth revolves around the Sun. The Dialogue is one of the most important treatises ever written. A work of supreme clarity and accessibility, it remains as accessible now as when it was published.Â
By: Galileo Galilei, and others