One of the premier novelists of the twentieth century, James A. Michener captures a frenzied time when sane men and women risked their very lives in a forbidding Arctic land to win a dazzling and elusive prize: Yukon gold. In 1897, gold fever sweeps the world. The promise of untold riches lures thousands of dreamers from all walks of life on a perilous trek toward fortune, failure—or death. Journey is an immersive account of the adventures...

The atom. The Big Bang. DNA. Natural selection. All ideas that have revolutionised science - and that were dismissed out of hand when they first appeared. The surprises haven't stopped: here, Michael Brooks, bestselling author of 13 Things that Don't Make Sense, investigates the new wave of unexpected insights that are shaping the future of scientific discovery.
Through eleven radical new insights, Brooks takes us to the extreme frontiers

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"How many items can you think of that are made of plastic? Probably quite a few! It might be hard to imagine a world without plastic, but until about 100 years ago, plastic as we know it today didn't exist! The word "plastic" wasn't even used until the 1920s! In this volume, readers learn how many types of plastic were invented accidentally by scientists who were trying to make something else. In accessible, fun content, it describes how these discoveries...

This thrilling story of the Klondike Gold Rush is at once first-rate history and first-rate entertainment. Some of the anecdotes of the last great gold rush have been told by others, but Pierre Berton is the first to distill the Klondike experience into a single, complete, coherent and immensely dramatic narrative. He spent 12 years in Dawson City researching the work. The entire tale has an epic ring, as much because of its splendid folly as because...

In January of 1848, the discovery of gold at Sutters Mill in California sparked a nationwide frenzy, fueling the dreams of Americans from coast to coast. By 1849, hundreds of thousands of fortune hunters from across the globe headed west to stake their claim. Armed with pan or pick axe, driven by greed or glory, every last one of them was determined to strike it rich--or die trying. For Cord Bennett, it was more than a dream. California was his destiny--even...

A collection of stories about groundbreaking scientific discoveries covers such topics as animal behaviors, the characteristics of distant galaxies, and the incredible capacity of the human mind, in a volume that also provides a chronology of debunked scientific theories.

"If you learn about the scientific method, you learn that first we hypothesize about something we've experienced, and then we look for more of it. This works well enough--but what if you were interested in studying a heretofore unknown comet or supernova? That is the essential problem of the astronomer: the most important discoveries happen without notice! Indeed, as Chris Lintott argues in Accidental Astronomy, luck defines astronomy. Lintott explores...

The astronomer who inadvertently triggered the "demotion" of Pluto in his effort to officially recognize the solar system's tenth planet describes the ensuing debates and public outcry while revealing the behind-the-scenes story of his discovery.