The world of science offers countless wonders for us to consider, but many of its key concepts can be difficult to understand. Designed with the layman in mind, these guides focus on 100 milestones, each discussed in an accessible text that provides scientific and historical perspective. Illustrated throughout with photographs and period illustrations, each volume also includes capsule biographies on the discipline's greatest thinkers, and a pull-out poster with a timeline of 1,000 important breakthroughs.

Beginning with the taming of fire and the development of the first boats, this inspiring look at the progress of engineering encompasses Roman sewers and the development of gunpowder, the invention of the laser and the Curiosity rover's first steps on Mars. Here are astonishing structures (the pyramids, the Parthenon, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Burj Khalifa); vehicles (bicycle, automobile, jumbo jet, Maglev train); and innovations that changed everyday life (paper, the telephone, the World Wide Web).