Military Technology

The definitive history of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon agency that has quietly shaped war and technology for nearly 60 years. Founded in 1958 in response to the launch of Sputnik, the agency's original mission was to create "the unimagined weapons of the future". Over the decades, DARPA has been responsible for countless inventions and technologies that extend well beyond military technology.

Drones are transforming warfare through the use of artificial intelligence, drone swarms, and surveillance - leading to competition between the US, China, Israel, and Iran. Who will be the next drone superpower?

SOME THINGS ARE BEST LEFT UNDISTURBED... When a devastating earthquake rocks the earth, it brings something else with it – something ancient, intelligent, and absolutely lethal. As bodies begin piling up in its wake, each death more bizarre than the last, one thing becomes terrifyingly clear: this is only the beginning. From the rubble of the first tremors emerges a threat beyond imagination. A force that's been waiting millions of years to reclaim its dominion. And humanity? We're standing in its way. The ground is shifting. Time is running out. And the apocalypse isn't coming from above...

In this magnificent synthesis of military, technological, and social history, William H. McNeill explores a whole millennium of human upheaval and traces the path by which we have arrived at the frightening dilemmas that now confront us. McNeill moves with equal mastery from the crossbow - banned by the Church in 1139 as too lethal for Christians to use against one another - to the nuclear missile, from the sociological consequences of drill in the 17th century to the emergence of the military-industrial complex in the 20th.

Since the 1930s, the scale of scientific endeavors has grown exponentially. The birth of Big Science can be traced to Berkeley, California, nearly nine decades ago, when a resourceful young scientist pondered his new invention and declared, "I'm going to be famous!" Ernest Orlando Lawrence's cyclotron would revolutionize nuclear physics, but that was only the beginning of its impact.This is the incredible story of how one invention changed the world and of the man principally responsible for it all. Michael Hiltzik tells the riveting full story here for the first time.

A new industrial revolution has begun. Like mechanization or electricity before it, artificial intelligence will touch every aspect of our lives—and cause profound disruptions in the balance of global power, especially among the AI superpowers: China, the United States, and Europe. Autonomous weapons expert Paul Scharre takes listeners inside the fierce competition to develop and implement this game-changing technology and dominate the future.

Retired from his fighting days, John Perry is now village ombudsman for a human colony on distant Huckleberry. With his wife, former Special Forces warrior Jane Sagan, he farms several acres, adjudicates local disputes, and enjoys watching his adopted daughter grow up. That is, until his and Jane's past reaches out to bring them back into the game — as leaders of a new human colony, to be peopled by settlers from all the major human worlds, for a deep political purpose that will put Perry and Sagan back in the thick of interstellar politics, betrayal, and war.

From the acclaimed author of The Nobel Prize comes this fascinating portrait of four of the greatest minds in the history of science and the impossible turning point they faced. As World War II wound down, and it became increasingly clear that the Allies would emerge victorious, Albert Einstein invited three close friends - all titans of contemporary science and philosophy - to his home at 112 Mercer Street in Princeton, New Jersey, to discuss what they loved best: science and philosophy.

Drone Wars: The Future of Conflict is a groundbreaking exploration of how unmanned systems are transforming the battlefield, shifting global power, and redefining the rules of war. From the Bronze Age to the nuclear era, history has demonstrated that revolutions in military technology have reshaped societies. Today, the rapid rise of drones—affordable, autonomous, and increasingly lethal—is the next evolution. Once the domain of superpowers, drone warfare has been democratized. Now, insurgents, terrorists, criminal cartels, and lone actors can wield capabilities once reserved for the ...

Best-selling journalist Antony Loewenstein, author of Disaster Capitalism, uncovers a largely hidden world in a global investigation with secret documents, revealing interviews and on-the-ground reporting. This book shows in-depth, for the first time, how Palestine has become the perfect laboratory for the Israeli military-techno complex: surveillance, home demolitions, indefinite incarceration and brutality to the hi-tech tools that drive the 'Start-up Nation'.

From Satellites to Side Streets: How GPS Transformed the World and Changed the World What began as a Cold War military project is now the invisible force powering your smartphone, your car, your farm equipment—and even your bank account. From Satellites to Side Streets tells the remarkable story of how the Global Positioning System (GPS) evolved from a secret Pentagon initiative into a global utility woven into every aspect of modern life. In this engaging and deeply researched book, author Kevin Shelton explores the origins, engineering, and astonishing reach of GPS. From battlefield ...

On the edge of human space, the aging destroyer Błyskawica is a symbol of Polonia Prime’s resilience – a forgotten colony just trying to survive. But when a routine patrol led by junior officer Maria Roszak stumbles upon a derelict alien starship, they uncover a secret that will ignite a war: the "bubble drive", a revolutionary FTL technology that holds the key to the future. Suddenly, Błyskawica is the most important ship in the galaxy, and Polonia Prime is a target. The ruthless Zenith Caliphate will burn worlds to possess their discovery, while powerful allies plot to control it ...

Centuries ago the human race fought its first great war against an alien race - and lost. A tiny population of human beings fled to distant Safehold. Centuries later their descendants have forgotten their history; for them, life has been an eternal Middle Ages, ruled by the Church of God Awaiting, whose secret purpose is to prevent the reemergence of industrial civilization. But not all of Safehold's founders were onboard with this plan. Those dissidents left behind their own secret legacies.

In 1901, Nikola Tesla proved there is energy in every object in the universe: the air, a rock, a tree, or a living being. Now, over a hundred years later and with much more technology at man’s disposal, science has achieved the unthinkable: radiant energy for all captured from thin air. No need to burn coal, drill for oil, or fracture the atom for power. The atmosphere is now energized, free power broadcast for all through radiant energy receivers and oscillators. Social upheaval exploded across the world as massive industries are now useless. This was anticipated by the powers that be. ...

Faulkner's victory came at a terrible price. Driving back the Da’al’s initial attack has left the Mantis destroyed and her crew scattered across space. All hope now seems lost. And with the arrival of their new battle fleet, it seems that the Da’al are determined to push humanity to the very brink of extinction. Desperate to turn the tide, the remaining Marines are dispatched to Tigris where the discovery of a long lost alien technology may well provide them with the advantage they’re looking for. But it may already be too late. R.L.Giddings’ Silver Fleet Series is a masterclass...

In the 1940s and '50s, when the newly minted Jet Propulsion Laboratory needed quick-thinking mathematicians to calculate velocities and plot trajectories, they didn't turn to male graduates. Rather, they recruited an elite group of young women who, with only pencil, paper, and mathematical prowess, transformed rocket design, helped bring about the first American satellites, and made the exploration of the solar system possible.

The virus now known as Stuxnet was unlike any other piece of malware built before: Rather than simply hijacking targeted computers or stealing information from them, it proved that a piece of code could escape the digital realm and wreak actual, physical destruction—in this case, on an Iranian nuclear facility.

On the morning of April 26, 1986, Europe witnessed the worst nuclear disaster in history: the explosion of a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Ukraine. Dozens died of radiation poisoning, fallout contaminated half the continent, and thousands fell ill. In Chernobyl, Serhii Plokhy draws on new sources to tell the dramatic stories of the firefighters, scientists, and soldiers who heroically extinguished the nuclear inferno. He lays bare the flaws of the Soviet nuclear industry....

In this fascinating foray into the centuries-old relationship between science and military power, acclaimed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and writer-researcher Avis Lang examine how the methods and tools of astrophysics have been enlisted in the service of war. "The overlap is strong, and the knowledge flows in both directions," say the authors, because astrophysicists and military planners care about many of the same things: multi-spectral detection, ranging, tracking, imaging, high ground, nuclear fusion, and access to space. Tyson and Lang call it a "curiously complicit" alliance.

Ninja warriors were masters of stealth and disguise. They could quickly defeat their enemies without raising the alarm. They may not have realized it, but they owed their success to science. Learn how science helped ninjas successfully achieve their secret missions.