Engineering Nonfiction

When painter Winslow Homer first sailed into the Gulf of Mexico, he was struck by its "special kind of providence." Indeed, the Gulf presented itself as America's sea - bound by geography, culture, and tradition to the national experience - and yet, there has never been a comprehensive history of the Gulf until now. And so, in this rich and original work that explores the Gulf through our human connection with the sea, environmental historian Jack E. Davis finally places this exceptional region into the American mythos in a sweeping history that extends from the Pleistocene age to the 21st century.

In late September 2015, Hurricane Joaquin swept past the Bahamas and swallowed a pair of cargo vessels in its destructive path: El Faro, a 790-foot American behemoth with a crew of 33, and the Minouche, a 230-foot freighter with a dozen sailors aboard. From the parallel stories of these ships and their final journeys, Tristram Korten weaves a remarkable tale of two veteran sea captains from very different worlds, the harrowing ordeals of their desperate crews, and the Coast Guard’s extraordinary battle against a storm that defied prediction.

Three species of bear inhabit North America: the grizzly, the polar bear, and the black bear. But the American black bear is truly North America's bear, found only in North America. Black bears range from Canada to Mexico, from New England to California.

With this fascinating audiobook, award-winning journalist Richard Conniff satisfies your cravings for the thrill and horror of formication - that chilling sensation of something crawling across your skin. Blending humor and sophistication, he introduces you to a host of spineless creatures, from moths to leeches, and the extraordinary enthusiasts who study them. For over 20 years, the author has trekked through jungles, oceans, and deserts in search of invertebrates.

This audiobook reveals the secret lives of salt marshes. Along the coasts, where ocean tides mix salt water with fresh water, nature has created salt marshes - soggy places full of natural wonders. For years, salt marshes were maligned, drained, or filled in. Now salt marshes are valued as the home of fascinating wildlife, including more than twenty different species of birds. Ornithologist and photographer Doug Wechsler takes the reader on a down-and-muddy tour of the year-round activity in these wonderlands.

Have you ever wondered just how a glow stick works? Or what about those glow-in-the-dark stars you stick on your ceiling keep on shining? In her first book, author and teacher Anita Sitarski answers these questions and more giving listeners the inside scoop on everything that glows. Fireflies, bacteria, squid, jelly fish—what do all of these things have in common? They glow! It seems like one of mother nature’s mysteries, but many curious scientists have begun to shine light on this beautiful phenomenon.

Director Solomon gives a guided tour of Star City Planetarium, where he explains such things as what equipment is used in a planetarium show and what some of the different objects in the night sky are.

A prize-winning journalist upends our centuries-long assumptions about migration through science, history, and reporting - predicting its lifesaving power in the face of climate change.

How do you know you have the right answer to a problem? Prove it! Listeners will learn the importance of finding patterns, recording facts, making observations, and more.

Dozens of astronauts travel to space every year, but what makes these amazing trips possible? Max Axiom has the answers. Join Max as he explores the science and engineering behind space travel.

Charlotte Runcie has always felt pulled to the sea, lured by its soothing, calming qualities but also enlivened and inspired by its salty wildness. When she loses her beloved grandmother and becomes pregnant with her first child, she feels its pull even more intensely. In Salt on Your Tongue Charlotte explores what the sea means to us and particularly what it has meant to women through the ages.

In this fascinating audiobook, narrator John Harnish talks us through over 100 amazing facts about planes from all eras. So whether you want to know who owns the most expensive private jet in the world or what is particularly unusual about the photographs of the Wright brothers’ first flight, then this is the perfect audiobook for you!

Born and raised in India, Kalpana Chawla was told that she shouldn’t try to become an aeronautical engineer because it was hard for women everywhere to succeed in that field. But she persisted, getting her university degree and then immigrating to the US to keep studying. She then joined NASA and became the first Indian-born American woman to go to space. Though she was tragically killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, she continues to inspire people in India, the United States, and around the world to pursue their dreams of reaching for the stars.

This book is the product of The Earhart Project, a thirty-four-year investigation of the Earhart tragedy by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery. TIGHAR investigators had no agenda. They were not out to advocate, excuse, honor, or impugn. They saw the Earhart disappearance as an aviation accident and reasoned the answer to its cause and outcome should be discoverable if they could find, assemble, and analyze the relevant data.

If you've always suspected the universe was out to get you . . . you were right! Yes, the universe we live in is cosmically beautiful and mysterious and all that c--p. But it's also a bit of an a-----e. After all, remember that you are just a group of atoms structured in a specific way for barely long enough to try to understand this thing we call existence. The fact is, when you zoom out to look at the universe and how it functions, you'll see that it's usually not in our favor, and many of the laws of physics are actively working against our survival.

Meet Ellen Ochoa, once just a girl from Los Angeles, California. The granddaughter of Mexican immigrants, Ellen would pursue a career in physics at a young age, and go on to earn master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University. In 1993, Ellen became the first Latina in space. As a retired astronaut, she’s served as director of the Johnson Space Center, become an advocate for women and minorities in STEM fields, and was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame.

Every wonder how a vehicle weighing several tons can soar through the sky? This audiobook explains briefly why airplanes are able to fly and notes certain historical milestones in the field of aeronautics.

The human species is relatively new to the planet in geologic terms. With origins reaching back only a few million years, the rise of humans from primate ancestors is a remarkable evolutionary success story. Early Humans traces the beginnings of the human species, its success and adaptability, and the development of such innovations as human language and culture.

In this fantastic audiobook, John Harnish talks us through over 100 amazing facts about ships and boats, covering categories such as famous ships, seafaring terminology, naval ship classes and much more. So if you want to know which ship is the world's fastest or who made the deepest solo dive in a submarine, this is the perfect book for you!

Lorcan was seven years old when his mother first heard him say ‘I love you’. The words were not directed at her, but at Jessi-cat, the family pet. Lorcan suffers from autism and selective mutism, rendering him unable to speak in certain situations. This all began to change with the arrival of a kitten named Jessi-cat.