Sci-fi dreams have turned into reality when Elon Musk launched SpaceX. This book describes the desperate early days and is a true and astounding story of the men and women involved. In 2006, a young team of engineers at SpaceX launched the company's first single-engine rocket. The Falcon 1 rose into the air for 30 seconds until its engine flamed out and the rocket crashed back into the ocean. After two more failed test flights, and with only one rocket left in the factory, Elon Musk decided to try one last, dramatic launch. If it crashed and burned, so would SpaceX. In 2008 the rocket lifted off and accelerated like a dream, soaring into orbit. The following decade would see SpaceX go from strength to strength, building two different space craft, pioneering reusable rocket-descents, and creating a rocket with a staggering 27 engines. But such achievements would not be possible without the gamble of SpaceX's first four test flights and the leadership provided by a hugely ambitious CEO. Here is the complete story. The prologue begins 'A fat, red sun sank into the Texas horizon as Elon Musk bounded towards a silvery spaceship. Reaching its concrete landing pad, Musk marvelled up at the stainless steel steampunk contraption looming above, which shone brilliantly in the dying light. 'It's like something out of a Mad Max movie' he gushed about the first prototype of his Mars rocket, nicknamed Starhopper.' 280pp in large softback, colour photos.

A spectacular journey through space and time that shows the fundamentals of science in groundbreaking visuals, many with black or block colour backgrounds and colourful lines and squares in a superb graphic design book. Starting from the primary point of physical origin, the book moves through quarks, atoms, molecules and stars to planet building, organic chemistry, the emergence of life, sentience, and finally on to the human mind in its quest to understand the Universe through exploration and science. Spectacular visuals provide unexpected insights covering all the major areas - physics, cosmology, chemistry, earth science, biology, nano-science, medicine, engineering and computer technology with visually striking infographics to explain the universe around us. Taste, brain evolution, biosphere, bird migration, trees and forests, gills versus lungs, enzymes, water and aqueous chemistry, the solar system, metals and carbon and states of matter to Pi in a superb numbered grid graphic, this truly is a spectacular book to hold and behold. 256 large pages, colour illus.

The Mars Explorer and NASA mission scientist Larry S. Crumpler presents a cosmically challenging and fascinating tome on the new era of Rover and spacecraft discovery on the Red Planet. Up until the last few decades we knew Mars only as a morning and evening 'star'. Initial photographs by satellites showed us a hunk of dry, red dust with no signs of past or present life. Thanks to NASA's Rover missions and scientists like Dr Crumpler we now know that Mars is far from dead. What we didn't see was that the planet had a wet, possibly living history, and conditions were indeed present for the evolution of complex organic life. Dr Crumpler uses his expertise as a leading planetary geologist to provide a definitive record from the Age of Enlightenment to the Space Age of the 1960s to NASA's Perseverance Rover's successful landing in February 2021. He uses never-before-seen photographs, stunning panoramas, full colour maps, Rover 'selfies' showing craters and outcrops of the Meridiani Planum sulphate-cemented sandstone with bounce marks from the landing airbags visible or a microscopic Imager view of the 'blueberries' or 'Hematite' concretions which became the rage all over again in Earth's geological circles. From the comprehensive exercise of mapping the surface geology of Mars the results were a significant accomplishment in deciphering the Red Planet with exciting big surface features, an alien geological time emerging and this tour of the Martian landscape takes us roving into a new world. There are gypsum veins, evidence of water everywhere, soft hard rocks, desert varnish at Mazatzal and Route 66, the miracle of Sol 419 and the panel-cleaning events and the visual devices were showing trends in the amount of dust on the panels, these are truly epic expeditionary moments recounted by an expert. Big glossy heavyweight hardback packed with colour photos, 336pp.

Sub-titled 'Eleven Deadly Substances and the Killers Who Used Them' this is "a fascinating tale of poisons and poisonous deeds" according to Kathy Reichs. Original and invigorating, this is a tremendously entertaining dip into the workings of crime from a scientific basis. As any reader of murder mysteries can tell you, poison is one of the most enduring and popular weapons of choice for a scheming murderer. It can be slipped into a drink, smeared onto the tip of an arrow or handle of a door, even filtered through the air we breathe. But how exactly do these poisons work to break our bodies down, and what can we learn from the damage they inflict? In a fascinating blend of popular science, medical history and narrative crime, Dr Neil Bradbury explores this most morbidly captivating method of murder from a cellular level. Alongside real-life accounts of murderers and their crimes, some forgotten, some still unsolved, are the equally compelling stories of the poisons involved - eleven molecules of death that work their way through the human body and paradoxically illuminate the way in which our bodies function. Here are fascinating tales of spurned lovers, shady scientists, medical professionals and political assassins, from the deadly origins of the gin and tonic cocktail to the arsenic-laced wallpaper in Napoleon's bedroom. Chapters include Insulin and Mrs Barlow's Bathtub, Strychnine and the Lambeth Poisoner, Aconite and Mrs Singh's Curry, Cyanide and the Professor from Pittsburgh, Potassium and the Nightmare Nurse and Chlorine and the Killer Nurse of Lufkin among them. Rumpole of the Bailey author once said 'As a rule, women are the great poisoners, although I do recall with pleasure the case of the gentleman solicitor in Wales who poisoned everybody in sight. He couldn't stop himself.' 291pp.

Myrmecologist Edward Wilson, who has won two Pulitzer prizes for his scientific writing, has created an absorbing account of his lifelong interest in ants, partly in the hope of encouraging aspiring scientists to specialise in the insect world, where most of the 15,000 ant species discovered so far still await further study. Ants organise themselves into societies of a complexity that rivals that of humans, though the details are very different, for instance all the ants that are active in the social life of colonies are females. Adult male ants do no work and their only function is insemination. Ants are the most warlike of animals and many eat their dead and injured in battle. When forming an army they start with the oldest, sending their old ladies into the front line and continuing down the age hierarchy. The author started studying insects as a boy when he was given a microscope for Christmas, and when a horde of ants marched three or four abreast into his backyard he decided ants were to be his life's work. A different mode of hunting is the swarm-raiding tactic of the species Eciton burchelli, in which tightly packed ants fan out. When they encounter a crevice, the leaders link jaws and legs to form a bridge. Dolichoderus imitator, by comparison, is an unaggressive, timid ant which the author encountered in the Amazon, and they ran away so quickly that it was difficult to get a specimen. Social insects communicate by taste and smell, or in scientific terms by pheromones, chemical substances passed back and forth by individuals. Ants are the virtuosos of chemical communication, and you can test this by putting a drop of sugar near a nest and then watching the result. Together with other entomologists the author has developed a system which allows him to interpret the meaning of some of these pheromones. 230pp, black and white illustrations.

Find mathematical perfection with practice, practice, practice! Practice makes perfect-and we have the perfect study guide! This is a follow-up and supplement to one of the most successful maths books, The Complete Idiot's Guide(r) to Algebra, Second Edition. Perfect as a stand-alone workbook for those already familiar with algebra who just want additional practice problems to test their knowledge. 320 page paperback.

In the super Haynes Owners' Workshop Manual series, the special treatment is given to the space voyagers and astronauts in fiction and movies and real life. It covers missions and destinations, Earth orbital flights, Lagrange points, the Moon, asteroids and Mars and other planets. Plus recruitment and selection, training and improvisation, spacecraft like the SSTO, current and imminent spacecraft, capsules and spaceplanes. We take a look at preparing for Soyuz launch and launch day and lift off or... Pusk! Then the delights of weightlessness and life in orbit, food and drink, medical effects and cosmic vision. Space suits, Abort suits, EVA suits, American EMU, and back to earth with losing speed and gaining heat, undocking, de-orbit engine firing, spacecraft disassembly, re-entry, parachutes and landing. And life after space, coping with fame and celebrity and a changed perspective. The role of the astronaut as a professional career exists for more than 500 men and women since Yuri Gagarin became the first human to enter space in 1961. And we look to the future with Earth orbital flight, Moon landings and expeditions to Mars, asteroids and deep space and spacecraft under development including American, Russian, Chinese and commercial vehicles. Lavishly illustrated with colour photos and unique explanatory graphics of the tools, backpacks, zero gravity toilets and so much more and written in a style accessible to the layperson. 176pp, 22 x 28cm.

With headquarters in Paris, 33 Institutes throughout the world, and ten Nobel Prizes, the Institute Pasteur has truly changed the world. This detailed and illustrated book sheds light on its activities, battles, history and plans for the future in scientific and medical research, public health surveillance, and the transfer of knowledge to future generations of scientists and physicians for the benefit of human health worldwide. French biologist and chemist Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) transformed medicine and the lives of people around the world when he developed the first rabies vaccine in 1885. Two years later he founded the Institut Pasteur to fight infectious diseases - tuberculosis, hepatitis, tetanus, plague, influenza, malaria and other vector-borne diseases and many more. This international organisation has been at the forefront of revolutionary discoveries in particular the isolation of HIV in 1983 and progress in tackling AIDS that offers new hope for patients. It works on the importance of vaccination for protecting populations, the urgent need to combat antibiotic resistance, new treatment possibilities raised by stem cell research, the unexpected impact on our health of the symbiotic microorganisms living in our body (the microbiota), our ability to respond to emerging diseases and outbreaks across the world, and how unlocking the brain's mysteries can help us understand and treat neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. A big glamorous beautifully designed Abrams publication packed with extraordinary colour photos including laboratory specimens we would otherwise not see, diagrams, fact boxes and charts. 19 x 25.4cm, 208pp.

Sub-titled 'Nature's Secrets to Longevity' molecular biologist Brendborg provides a hugely enjoyable whistle-stop tour of the science of ageing from far flung places to cutting-edge research labs. From the backwards-ageing jellyfish to the woman who successfully edited her own DNA, he follows the thread of every experiment, story and myth in search of immortality. With mind-bending discoveries and psychological gifts that feel closer to magic than reality, the book will make us marvel at the possibilities held by scientific discovery, and most of all at nature. We meet the fighting naked mole-rats who are much better than their close relatives mice at surviving stressors such as DNA-damaging chemicals, heavy metals or extreme heat. Chapters include The Secrets of Easter Island, Zombie Cells and How to Get Rid of Them, Winding the Biological Clock, Microbe Struggles and Immune Rejuvenation, Flossing for Longevity, Starving for Fun and Medieval Monks to Modern Science. Judicious and refreshingly clear, 270pp, paperback.

The compelling story of how the first transatlantic cable was laid, the people who dared, the people who lost, and the people who profited, the book tells the dramatic attempts to cross the Atlantic during the 1850s and 1860s, from the first failed attempts to the project that finally succeeded. An inconceivably audacious attempt to overcome the forces of nature in the name of human progress and technology, the laying of the cable was to change forever our means of communication. The speed with which information could now be transmitted was unprecedented and revolutionised the face of news and the global economy, revolutionised our understanding of electricity and created a new global trade. Gillian Cookson is an industrial historian specialising in the origins of engineering and is a research fellow at Durham University. Full of facts and easy to read, this is a fantastic journey with some excellent diagrams and photographs in the colour plate section. 160pp, paperback.