"Learn all about sparkling gemstones and eye-catching crystals in this handy reference guide for young readers. From the rarest crystal to the most common stone, gems from around the world are revealed in dazzling detail in this illustrated guide. Discover what exactly crystals and gems are, how they're formed, how to identify them, and how they can be used in everything from microchips to jewelry making. How can a rough diamond become a show-stopping...

A picture-packed guide to the fascinating story of trains and how they have transformed our world. Discover how the vision of George Stephenson, the "father of the railroad," materialized into an age of steam around the world. Study the cut-out of a locomotive to understand how the movement of the piston turns the wheels. Learn how the American railroad contributed to the development and progress in the US and facilitated the spread of population...

Naomi Rosenblum's classic history of photography traces the evolution of this young art form chronologically and thematically. Exploring the diverse roles that photography has played in the communication of ideas, Rosenblum devotes special attention to topics such as portraiture, documentation, advertising, and photojournalism, and to the camera as a means of personal artistic expression. Her text is illustrated with nearly nine hundred images by...

"A visual and informative guide to the numerous crawly creatures on Earth, now revised and updated in the relaunched DK Eyewitness Books format. Get up close and personal and be an eyewitness to some of the most successful, adaptable, and numerous crawly creatures on the planet with DK Eyewitness Books: Insect. See how the first animals to fly actually take to the skies; discover the difference between beetles and bugs; witness a wasp building a nest;...

"In The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, Riley Black walks readers through what happened in the days, the years, the centuries, and the million years after the impact, tracking the sweeping disruptions that overtook this one spot, and imagining what might have been happening elsewhere on the globe. Life's losses were sharp and deeply-felt, but the hope carried by the beings that survived sets the stage for the world as we know it now. Picture yourself...

Describes the different types of vegetables and explains where they come from and how they end up in the grocery store.

"From New Yorker staff writer and author of The Longing for Less Kyle Chayka comes a timely history and investigation of a world ruled by algorithms, which determine the shape of culture itself. From coffee shops to rental apartments to social media posts the world round, a sleek and deceptively simple aesthetic has come to predominate. It's in the neon signs and exposed brick of an Internet cafe in Nairobi or the skeletal, modern furniture of an...

"Bill Bryson, bestselling author of A Short History of Nearly Everything, takes us on a head-to-toe tour of the marvel that is the human body. As compulsively readable as it is comprehensive, this is Bryson at his very best, a must-read owner's manual for everybody. Bill Bryson once again proves himself to be an incomparable companion as he guides us through the human body--how it functions, its remarkable ability to heal itself, and (unfortunately)...

From the expert who understands both sides of one of the world's most complex, controversial topics, a modern-day Guide for the Perplexed-a primer on Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "Can't you just explain the Israel situation to me? In, like, 10 minutes or less?" This is the question Daniel Sokatch is used to answering on an almost daily basis as the head of the New Israel Fund, an organization dedicated to equality and democracy for...

"The story of the worldwide scientific quest to decipher the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, trace its source, and make possible the vaccines to fight the Covid-19 pandemic"--