Don Brown
Machines That Think! explores machines from ancient history to today that perform a multitude of tasks, from making mind-numbing calculations to working on assembly lines to guiding spaceships to the moon. Machines That Think! includes fascinating looks at the world's earliest calculators,...
In her time, Alexandra David-Neel was the most famous woman in France. She had traveled extensively in China and Tibet and, in 1924, was the first Western woman ever to enter Tibet's forbidden capital, Lhasa. Alexandra was a self-taught Buddhist scholar and spoke Tibetan flawlessly. And she did it all as a mature woman—she was in her mid-fifties when she arrived in Lhasa.
Not only is Alexandra David-Neel's story one of high adventure, of
...As a young boy, Neil Armstrong had a recurring dream in which he held his breath and floated high in the sky. He spent his free time reading stacks of flying magazines, building model airplanes, and staring through a homemade telescope. As a teenager, Neil worked odd jobs to pay for flying lessons at a nearby airport. He earned his student pilot's license on his sixteenth birthday. But who was to know that this shy boy, who also loved books and
...Dolley was a farm girl who became a fine first lady when she married James Madison. She wore beautiful dresses, decorated her home, and threw lavish parties. Everyone talked about Dolley, and everyone loved her, too. Then war arrived at her doorstep, and Dolley had to meet challenges greater than she'd ever known. So Dolley did one thing she thought might make a difference: she saved George Washington. Not the man himself, but a portrait of him,
...Before the word dinosaur was even invented, an English girl discovered a remarkable skeleton on the rocky beach at Lyme Regis. Thus began a lifelong passion for the woman who became one of the first commercial fossil collectors.
Mary Anning (1799–1847) spent her lifetime teaching herself about fossils and combing the rugged shore for ancient treasures. Her collection thrilled the public, excited the scientific community, and proved that
...Mary Kingsley spent her childhood in a small house on a lonely lane outside London, England. Her mother was bedridden, her father rarely home, and Mary served as housekeeper, handyman, nursemaid, and servant. Not until she was thirty years old did Mary get her chance to explore the world she'd read about in her father's library. In 1893, she arrived in West Africa, where she encountered giant Xying insects, crocodiles, hippos, and brutal heat.
...A wizard from the start, Thomas Edison had a thirst for knowledge, taste for mischief, and hunger for discovery—but his success was made possible by his boundless energy. At age fourteen he coined his personal motto: “The More to do, the more to be done," and then went out and did: picking up skills and knowledge at every turn. When learning about things that existed wasn't enough, he dreamed up new inventions to improve the world.
From
...On the morning of August 15, 1945, Captain Jerry Yellin flew the last combat mission of World War II out of Iwo Jima. Today, Captain Yellin is a sharp, engaging, ninety-three-year-old veteran whose story is brought to life by bestselling author Don Brown (Treason).
From April to August of 1945, Captain Jerry Yellin and a small group of fellow fighter pilots flew dangerous bombing and strafing missions out of Iwo Jima over Japan. Even
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