Nonfiction Science

Fall brings cooler weather and in autumn there are shorter days. The leaves change from green to orange, red, and purple, until they start falling to the ground.

Both Thomas Edison and Henry Ford started off as insatiably curious tinkerers. That curiosity led them to become inventors - with very different results. As Edison invented hit after commercial hit, gaining fame and fortune, Henry struggled to make a single invention (an affordable car) work. Witnessing Thomas' glorious career from afar, a frustrated Henry wondered about the secret to his success.

Have you ever seen a bird nest? Birds make all kinds of different nests! Nests are made from lots of different kinds of materials and are shaped differently. Learn about the different kinds of nests that are made by different species of birds!

Karl is an Abyssinian ground hornbill with a special challenge. His lower bill had broken off and made eating difficult. Karl did a great job of adapting and finding new ways to eat, but he wasn't getting all the food he needed. His zookeepers at the National Zoo and friends at the Smithsonian Institute wanted to help. Could an old bird skeleton and a 3D printer give Karl a new beak? Karl's new adventure was about to begin!

In this simple question-and-answer audio program with immersive sound design, follow our intrepid babies on an adventure into the their own backyard. Discover the varieties of insects that can be found around the world—their sizes, shapes, and colors. Plus, learn how many species remain for young entomologists to discover in this simple text written in question-and-answer format. Nerdy Babies is a series that the very littlest nerds will want to return to again and again. Stay curious. There’s more to learn about everything!

Does your child love dinosaurs? Then this lively, fast-paced and informative audiobook will enchant them! Dinosaurs are endlessly fascinating. Their ferocity, size and speed, and the fact that they once roamed the earth before mysteriously disappearing, enchant kids and adults alike.

Did you know that a rattlesnake’s rattle is made up of segments of keratin? These segments knock against each other to produce a buzzing or rattle-like sound. Rattlesnakes use their rattles to distract their prey or to warn a predator to stay away! Each time a rattlesnake sheds its skin, it adds another segment to their rattle. Have you ever wondered why snakes stick out their tongues? They use their tongues to pick up scents. As they move their tongues back inside their mouths, a special “taste-smell” organ helps them locate their next meal.

From the Periphery consists of more than 30 first-person narratives of everyday people who describe what it's like to be treated differently by society because of their disabilities. The stories are raw and painful, but also surprisingly funny and deeply inspiring. The oral histories describe anger, independence, bigotry, solidarity, and love - in the family, at school, and at the workplace. From the Periphery will become a classic collection that increases understanding of the lived experiences of people with disabilities.

What looks like a sea horse covered with leaves? It’s the sea dragon! Learn all about this real-life dragon that lives in the ocean off the coast of southern Australia. Life science curriculum links are covered throughout. Critical thinking questions using the common core are also included.

If you love to learn about dinosaurs, you might want to consider becoming a paleontologist. A paleontologist studies the remains of prehistoric life. They study why fossils form and why the animals and plants lived where they did.

Inside every loggerhead turtle is genius: the ability to find their first home, no matter how far away. Follow one, from her birth on a beach in Australia...to her trip across an ocean filled with sharks and seahorses and much more...to her rescue from a net by a fisherman, who names her Yoshi...to her rehabilitation at an aquarium...to her record-breaking swim across the Indian Ocean to the beach on which she hatched, to lay her eggs.

Discover the world of sound in this charming nonfiction tale. Young science fans will learn how sound is created through vibrations that vary in pitch and volume and much more!

The West is in shock. Al-Qaeda has struck the US on 9/11, and thousands are dead. Within weeks, UK Special Forces enter the fray in Afghanistan alongside the CIA's Team Alpha and US troops. Victory is swift but fragile. Hundreds of jihadists surrender, and two operatives from Team Alpha enter Qala-i Jangi - the 'Fort of War' - to interrogate them. The prisoners revolt; one CIA man falls, and the other is trapped inside the fort. Seven members of the SBS - elite British Special Forces - volunteer for the rescue force and race into danger and the unknown.

Bite, chew, grind! Sharp beaked triceratops is hungry. With giant horns and a shield-like neck frill, this gentle giant can put up a fight. Learn more about this massive dinosaur in Triceratops: Three Horned Giant.

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.

Did you know that scientists can track animals? By tracking animals, scientists can see where animals migrate to and from. These trackers can be big or small and are different depending on the kind of animal being tracked. Learn about the different technology that is used for tracking!

This essay comes from the NPR series This I Believe, which features brief personal reflections from both famous and unknown Americans. The pieces that make up the series compel listeners to rethink not only what and how they have arrived at their beliefs, but also the extent to which they share them with others.

Pirates have long lived in the realm of romance and fantasy, symbolizing risk, lawlessness, and radical visions of freedom. But at the root of this mythology is a rich history of pirate societies—vibrant, imaginative experiments in self-governance and alternative social formations at the edges of European empire. David Graeber explores how the proto-democratic, even libertarian practices of the Zana-Malata—an ethnic group made up of mixed descendants of pirates who settled on Madagascar at the beginning of the eighteenth century—came to shape the Enlightenment project.

Sloths spend most of their lives in trees, and until recently, scientists didn’t know very much about them. But Dr. Rebecca Cliffe was determined to discover their secrets. To find out more, she fitted sloths with special backpacks containing a device to track their activity. She learned how to climb trees in the Costa Rican jungle so she could take sloth hair samples and test their DNA. And she’s helped create sloth crossings and plant trees to ensure the sloths aren’t trapped in shrinking territories. Along the way, she earned the nickname Dr. Sloth.

This essay comes from the NPR series This I Believe, which features brief personal reflections from both famous and unknown Americans. The pieces that make up the series compel listeners to rethink not only what and how they have arrived at their beliefs, but also the extent to which they share them with others.