One of nature’s most dramatic mysteries—the migration of birds, turtle, salmon and other animals—depends on iron magnets. The bodies of some animals contain minute deposits of magnetite that are sensory navigators. Far reaching in scope, Iron, Nature’s Universal Element also looks at global issues including iron’s power over the earth’s oceans, vegetation, and populations; and the low-protein diets that lead to long-term cognitive damage in iron-deficient children in poor countries.

The Bahá’í Faith is one of the fastest growing, but least studied, of the world’s religions. Adherents view themselves as united by a universal belief that transcends national boundaries. Michael McMullen examines how the Bahá’í develop and maintain this global identity. Taking the Bahá’í community in Atlanta, Georgia, as a case in point, his book is the first to comprehensively examine the tenets of this little-understood faith.

Graphic cinematic violence is a magnet for controversy.  From passionate defenses to outraged protests, theories abound concerning this defining feature of modern film: Is it art or exploitation, dangerous or liberating? Screening Violence  provides an even-handed examination of the history, merits, and effects of cinematic “ultraviolence.” 

The circle is an elegant, abstract form that has been transformed by humans into tangible, practical forms to make our lives easier. And yet no one has ever discovered a true mathematical circle. Ernest Zebrowski, Jr., discusses why investigations of the circle have contributed enormously to our current knowledge of the physical universe. Beginning with the ancient mathematicians and culminating in twentieth-century theories of space and time, the mathematics of the circle has pointed many investigators in fruitful directions in their quests to unravel nature’s secrets.