Books like Broken Genius by Joel N. Shurkin

Jon Ronson's investigative inquiry into psychopathy examines the tools, practitioners, and personalities behind the science—and reveals how the lines between study and madness can blur.

A biography of the prolific mathematician Paul Erdős, detailing his restless travels, groundbreaking collaborations, and the mathematical problems that shaped his legacy.

Oliver Sacks explores the many faces of hallucination, weaving patient stories and his own psychedelic encounters to reveal how these visions illuminate brain function, culture, and the human experience.

A biography of mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr., detailing his brilliance, his 31‑year battle with schizophrenia, and his eventual remission.

A sweeping, nonfiction biography of cancer that traces the disease’s discovery, the development of therapies, and the lives of patients and scientists who shaped its history, earning a Pulitzer Prize and New York Times bestseller status.

A biography of Srinivasa Ramanujan that traces his upbringing in India, his extraordinary mathematical achievements, and his collaboration with G. H. Hardy at Cambridge.

Explores the groundbreaking science of neuroplasticity, showing how the brain can recover from injury, learn new skills, and even rewire itself to overcome long‑standing mental limits.

From Kay Redfield Jamison - an international authority on manic-depressive illness, and one of the few women who are full professors of medicine at American universities - a remarkable personal testimony: the revelation of her own struggle since adolescence with manic-depression, and how it has shaped her life. Vividly, directly, with candor, wit, and simplicity, she takes us into the fascinating and dangerous territory of this form of madness - a world in which one pole can be the alluring dark land ruled by what Byron called the "melancholy star of the imagination," and the other a desert of depression and, all too frequently, death. A moving and exhilarating memoir by a woman whose furious determination to learn the enemy, to use her gifts of intellect to make a difference, led her to become, by the time she was forty, a world authority on manic-depression, and whose work has helped save countless lives.

Biography of a Business Legend: The Autobiography of Andy Grove

With irresistibly persuasive vigor, David Shenk debunks the long-standing notion of genetic "giftedness." We are not prisoners of our DNA, and greatness is in the reach of every individual. Now in the Ebook version, you can delve more deeply into the exhaustive research behind the argument and seamlessly jump back and forth between the text and notes section for an interactive experience. With direct links, resources for students and online forums, you can also fully participate in the lively debates Shenk's book will spark.DNA does not make us who we are. "Forget everything you think you know about genes, talent, and intelligence," he writes. "In recent years, a mountain of scientific evidence has emerged suggesting a completely new paradigm: not talent scarcity, but latent talent abundance."Integrating cutting-edge research from a wide swath of disciplines--cognitive science, genetics, biology, child development--Shenk offers a highly optimistic new view of human potential. The problem isn't our inadequate genetic assets, but our inability, so far, to tap into what we already have. IQ testing and widespread acceptance of "innate" abilities have created an unnecessarily pessimistic view of humanity--and fostered much misdirected public policy, especially in education.The truth is much more exciting. Genes are not a "blueprint" that bless some with greatness and doom most of us to mediocrity or worse. Rather our individual destinies are a product of the complex interplay between genes and outside stimuli-a dynamic that we, as people and as parents, can influence.This is a revolutionary and optimistic message. We are not prisoners of our DNA. We all have the potential for greatness. EBOOK-ONLY EXTRAS:-- Throughout the book, links connect endnote marks to the corresponding sources and notes in the Evidence section.-- In the Evidence section, direct links to original sources.-- Each chapter closes with a direct link to an online discussion forum at David's Shenk blog. Requires a reader that features a web browser and has access to the web.

A young hacker, the son of Frankenstein’s Monster and the Bride, leaves home for college in Switzerland, only to discover that the hidden world of monsters and mythical creatures is unraveling under sudden conflict.

Philo T. Farnsworth, the unsung father of television, pioneered the first electronic image‑scanning and transmission system that reshaped American media and culture.