Science - Earth & Physical

ATLANTIC: A VAST OCEAN OF A MILLION STORIES

by Simon Winchester

read by John Hobday

running time 16hrs 30mins

A wonderful journey through time, along the waves of our planet's most significant ocean, in an irresistible blend of gripping history, fascinating science and exhilarating reportage.

BEFORE THE BIG BANG: THE ORIGIN OF OUR UNIVERSE FROM THE MULTIVERSE

by Laura Mersini-Houghton

read by Xe Sands

running time 5hrs 30mins

What came before the Big Bang, and what exists outside of the universe it created? Until recently, scientists could only guess at what lay past the edge of spacetime. But as pioneering theoretical physicist Laura Mersini-Houghton explains, today new scientific tools are giving us the ability to peer beyond the limits of our universe and test our theories about what is there. A mind-expanding journey through the multiverse, Beyond the Big Bang will reshape our understanding of humanity's place in the unfathomable vastness of the cosmos.

A CRACK IN THE EDGE OF THE WORLD

by Simon Winchester

read by John Hobday

running time 15hrs

In 1906 San Francisco came crashing down beneath the wave of a horrifying earthquake. Simon Winchester's breathtaking story portrays the lives of the people who suffered and survived the devastation. He also tells of the hubris of man as he ignores the warnings of nature and how we try to understand the world around us.

DESERTS

by Keith Lye

read by Patrick Purser

running time 1hr 30mins

What are deserts? How are they formed? This book answers these questions and many more.

FORCES OF NATURE

by Andrew Cohen & Brian Cox

read by Samuel West

running time 7hrs 15mins

From the immensity of the universe and the roundness of Earth, to the form of every single snowflake, the forces of nature shape everything we see. Here, Professor Brian Cox uncovers some of the most extraordinary natural events on Earth and in the universe and beyond.

THE GLASS UNIVERSE

by Dava Sobel

read by Laurence Bouvard

running time 12hrs

In the mid-nineteenth century, a group of remarkable women were employed by Harvard College Observatory as ‘Human Computers’ to interpret the observations made by their male counterparts. Enriched by excerpts from letters, diaries, and memoirs, Dava Sobel shines a light on the hidden history of these extraordinary women, who changed the burgeoning field of astronomy and our understanding of the stars and our place in the universe.

HEAT

by Ranulph Fiennes

read by Ranulph Fiennes

running time 16hrs

Ranulph Fiennes, the world's greatest living explorer, has travelled to some of the most remote, dangerous parts of the globe. Well-known for his experiences at the poles and climbing Everest, he has also endured some of the hottest conditions on the planet, where temperatures regularly exceed 40 degrees and, without water and shelter, death is inevitable.

IMAGINE IF...: CREATING A FUTURE FOR US ALL

by Ken Robinson

read by Kate Robinson

running time 2hrs 30mins

We are now the largest population in human history: seven and half billion people, rising to nine billion by 2050. Our technologies are evolving exponentially, but spiritually and emotionally, we're not keeping pace. Our appetites are straining the Earth's capacity to sustain us, and our attempts to force it to do so are fuelling a holocaust of other species. Communities across the globe are still locked in ancient cultural conflicts, and while the majority of people are materially more comfortable than ever before, there are global epidemics of depression and anxiety. To meet these existential challenges, we have to harness our creativity to a more compassionate and sustainable vision of the world we want to live in and the lives we hope to lead. To do that, we have to create new systems of education for the future and for our children that are based on organic principles of diversity, creativity and collaboration.

JURASSIC MARY: MARY ANNING AND THE PRIMEVAL MONSTERS

by Patricia Pierce

read by Derina Dinkin

running time 7hrs 30mins

Mary Anning was one of the pioneers of the emerging science of geology, and the first woman palaeontologist to make important discoveries. When she was just 12, she discovered the first whole ichthyosaurus skeleton; later, aged 22, she found the first whole skeleton of a plesiosaurus. This biography rescues this extraordinary woman from undeserved obscurity to reveal her full and fascinating life.

THE LIVING MOUNTAIN

by Nan Shepherd

read by Vivienne Ennemoser

running time 3hrs 30mins

Nan Shepherd describes her journeys into the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. There she encounters a world that can be breathtakingly beautiful at times and shockingly harsh at others. Her intense, poetic prose explores and records the rocks, rivers, creatures and hidden aspects of this remarkable landscape.

THE MAP THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

by Simon Winchester

read by Gerald Sanctuary

running time 12hrs

William Smith had a passion for rocks and fossils and single-handedly mapped the geology of Great Britain, making him one of the most significant men of the nineteenth century. His map fundamentally changed the way we look at the world but his vision eventually ruined his life.

NO DREAM IS TOO HIGH

by Buzz Aldrin

read by Traber Burns

running time 5hrs 45mins

Buzz Aldrin is the best known of a generation of astronauts whose achievements surged in just a few years from first man in space to first men on the moon. An impassioned advocate for space exploration, he pauses to reflect and share what he has learned, from the vantage point not only of outer space but also of time.

OTHERLANDS: A WORLD IN THE MAKING

by Thomas Halliday

read by Adetomiwa Edun

running time 11hrs

Journeying backwards in time from the most recent Ice Age to the dawn of complex life itself, and across all seven continents, Halliday immerses us in a series of extinct ecosystems, each one rendered with a novelist's eye for detail and drama. Yet every description - whether the colour of a beetle's shell, the rhythm of pterosaurs in flight or the lingering smell of sulphur in the air - is grounded in fact. We visit the birthplace of humanity in Pliocene-era Kenya; in the Jurassic, we wander among dinosaur-inhabited islands in the Mediterranean; and we gaze at the light of an enormous moon in the Ediacaran sky, when life hasn't yet reached land.

THE PARTICLE AT THE END OF THE UNIVERSE

by Sean Carroll

read by Jonathan Hogan

running time 10hrs 45mins

Sean Carroll reveals the history-making forces of insight, rivalry, and wonder that fuelled the Higgs search and how its discovery opens a door to the mind-boggling domain of dark matter and other phenomena we never predicted. Told with unrivalled ambition, authority, and access to the teams, this is the greatest science story of our time.

QUANTUM THEORY CANNOT HURT YOU

by Marcus Chown

read by Clive Mantle

running time 6hrs

Marcus Chown reveals the wonders of modern physics - and explains why the faster you travel, the slimmer you get.

THE SEASHELL ON THE MOUNTAINTOP

by Alan Cutler

read by Paul Hecht

running time 6hrs 15mins

Seventeenth-century scientist, Steno, ‘the founder of geology’ set the stage for modern science by answering the question of how the fossils of seashells are found on the tops of mountains. At the same time Steno was entering the priesthood and ultimately became venerated as a saint.

THIS WAY TO THE UNIVERSE: A JOURNEY INTO PHYSICS

by Michael Dine

read by Michael Dine

running time 9hrs

In This Way to the Universe, Dine takes us on a fascinating tour through the history of modern physics - from Newtonian mechanics to quantum, from particle to nuclear physics - delving into the wonders of our universe at its largest, smallest, and within our daily lives. If you are looking for the one book to help you understand physics, written in language anyone can follow, this is it.

UNDERLAND: A DEEP TIME JOURNEY

by Robert Macfarlane

read by Roy McMillan

running time 13hrs

From the ice-blue depths of Greenland's glaciers, to the underground networks by which trees communicate, from Bronze Age burial chambers to the rock art of remote Arctic sea-caves, this is a deep-time voyage into the planet's past and future. Global in its geography, gripping in its voice and haunting in its implications, this is a work of huge range and power.

WHAT IF? 2

by Randall Munroe

read by Wil Wheaton

running time 6hrs 34mins

The millions of people around the world who read and loved What If? still have questions, and those questions are getting stranger. Planning to ride a fire pole from the moon back to Earth? The hardest part is sticking the landing. Hoping to cool the atmosphere by opening everyone's freezer doors at the same time? Maybe it's time for a brief introduction to thermodynamics. Want to know what would happen if you rode a helicopter blade, built a billion-storey building, made a lava lamp out of lava, or jumped on a geyser as it erupted? Okay, if you insist. Welcome (back) to the mind-blowing world of What If? Filled with bonkers science, boundless curiosity, and Randall's signature stick-figure comics, What If? 2 is sure to be another instant classic adored by inquisitive readers of all ages.