Penguin Books Australia

Learn what you and your doctor can do today to alter your genetic destiny.

Genetic testing is the most exciting-and groundbreaking-medical development in decades. Outsmart Your Genes is the definitive guide for anyone considering genetic testing or curious about its benefits.

Separating myth from fact, answering the tough questions, and arming you with the information you need to harness the amazing...

10 world-changing revolutions in medicine, and the remarkable discoveries and human stories behind them

What we now know about mobile DNA--and the substantial roles it plays in humans, animals, and plants.

A powerful, personal guide to the history and future of neuroscience, from one of the field's leading researchers

How bacteria keep you alive, how they can kill you, and how we can all live together more successfully .

The definitive report on the AIDS pandemic: where it stands, where it's headed, what we know, and the choices we face

A New York Times and BusinessWeek bestseller.

Most of us have no idea what's really going on inside our heads. Yet brain scientists have uncovered details every business leader, parent, and teacher should know—like that physical activity boosts your brain power.

How do we learn? What exactly do sleep and stress do to our brains? Why is multi-tasking a myth? Why is it so easy to forget—and...

Plastic built the modern world. Where would we be without bike helmets, toothbrushes, babies bottles and pacemakers? But a century into our love affair with plastic, we're starting to realise it's not such a healthy relationship. Plastics draw on dwindling fossil fuels, leach harmful chemicals, litter landscapes, and destroy marine life. As journalist Susan Freinkel points out in this engaging and...

Darwin's theory of evolution is infamous but it has one major chink. If life is all about survival of the fittest, then why do people risk their lives to save strangers? And what about charity and fairness? Why do we cooperate?

In a work that beautifully demonstrates the rewards of closely observing nature, Elisabeth Tova Bailey shares an inspiring and intimate story of her uncommon encounter with a Neohelix albolabris —a common woodland snail.

While an illness keeps her bedridden, Bailey watches a wild snail that has taken up residence on her nightstand. As a result, she discovers the solace and sense of wonder that...

Is science the only path to knowledge?

In this sparkling and provocative book Jonah Lehrer, author of The Decisive Moment , explains that when it comes to understanding the brain, art got there first.  Taking a group of celebrated writers, painters and composers, Lehrer shows us how artists have discovered truths about the human mind - real, tangible truths - that science is only now rediscovering...

We've all seen the happiness in the face of a child while playing in the schoolyard. Or the blissful abandon of a golden retriever racing with glee across a lawn. This is the joy of play. By definition, play is purposeless and all-consuming. And, most important, it's fun.

An astonishing new scientific discovery called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the adult human brain is fixed and unchanging. It is, instead, able to change its own structure and function, even into old age.

Psychiatrist and rersearcher Norman Doidge, M.D., travelled around the United States to meet the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity, and the people whose...

A timely reminder of how far we've come since the days of routine slaughter, of how hard conservationists fought to bring it to an end, and how vigilant we must be in making sure that the dark days of whaling are behind us forever.' - Tim Winton