David Baker

A fascinating journey through life, the universe and everything. How did time begin? What conditions led to humans evolving on Earth? Will we survive the Anthropocene? And is it really true that we're all made from stars? The Shortest History of the World follows the continuum of historical change in the cosmos—from the Big Bang, through the evolution of life,...

The big history of sex from early life to sexbots 'I hope the reader of this book doesn't blush easily. They're in for a bit of a wild ride . . .' How did sex begin? How did it evolve to be so varied and complex in humans? What influence does our genetic ancestry have on our love life today?...

David Baker, acclaimed for his combination of “visionary scope” (Gettysburg Review) and “emotional intensity” (Georgia Review), is one of contemporary poetry's most gifted lyric poets. In Swift, he gathers poems from eight collections, including his masterful latest, Scavenger Loop (2015); the prize-winning, intimate travelogues of Never-Ending Birds (2009); and the complications of history and home in Changeable Thunder (2001). Opening...

We are all human and nonhuman on the move. The poems in Transit emerge from just such a walk through the world. In keenly observed verse, David Baker carries us across physical and emotional geographies, moving seamlessly from deep woods, city streets, and creek beds to the contours of his psyche and the larger cultural circumstances that mark off our...

Acclaimed as an essential voice of the American Midwest, David Baker expands both his environment and his form in his eleventh collection. Whale Fall is about time, measured in the wingbeats of a hummingbird or the epochs of geological change, and about place, whether a backyard in Ohio or the slopes of a melting glacier. In the exquisite, musical title...

Nasa Operations Manual provides, for the first time, a comprehensive manual explaining how NASA works and operates its various programmes, opening the door to NASA facilities across the United States. The down-to-earth text provides a directory of information on the various facilities, what they do, the technical parameters of their equipment and laboratory assets, and how it all fits together....

On 13 April 1970, Apollo 13 suffered a near-catastrophic explosion. The planned lunar landing was instantly called off, and the new challenge was to get the spacecraft safely back to Earth. When the carbon dioxide in the three astronauts' exhaled breath threatened to asphyxiate them, the crew improvised a filter device, which had been tested in Mission Control, to make...