Popular Science eBooks

Almost everything ordinary is stranger than it looks once you know how it works. That is the whole premise of this shelf: take something you walk past daily and explain it properly.

The books cover the discoveries and inventions that shaped modern life, the mathematics hidden in the digits and shapes around you, phenomena in the natural world that seem impossible until they are explained, and the scientific ideas that are genuinely worth understanding even if you will never use them.

They are written for adults who liked the interesting bits of school and could do without the exams. No prior study is assumed, nothing is dumbed down to the point of being wrong, and every book is honest about where scientific understanding still has gaps.

Good for reading in short sittings, and good for handing to a curious teenager. If you enjoy one, the hidden histories shelf scratches a very similar itch from a different direction.

Each title is an instant PDF download you own outright.