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    The Secret Life of Circuits

    From Atoms to Microcontrollers

    Author Michal Zalewski
    Paperback
    $39.99 US
    No Starch | No Starch Press
    7"W x 9-1/4"H | 13 oz | 24 per carton
    On sale Sep 22, 2026 | 400 Pages | 9781718504806
    Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies

    A richly illustrated deep dive into how electricity and circuits really work — from the physics of charge and fields to the messy truth of real-world component behavior — by acclaimed security researcher and electronics obsessive Michal Zalewski.

    Real circuits don't behave the way you might have been taught. The Secret Life of Circuits is a physics-first deep dive into circuit design — covering not just the theory behind fields, charge, and signals, but the parasitics,coupling, ringing, noise, and failure modes that cookbook electronics education systematically ignores.

    Michal Zalewski, a self-taught polymath who spent 11 years leading Google's product security program, brings hundreds of original diagrams, photographed experiments, and step-by-step mathematical models to bear on the real behavior of electronic components. The result is a book that builds working mental models rather than a collection of memorized rules — rigorous enough for working engineers closing gaps in their foundational knowledge, readable enough for makers and self-taught hobbyists who are tired of following tutorials they don't fully understand.

    Inside the book, readers will find:
    • Physical foundations of electricity developed from first principles, not hydraulic metaphors
    • Detailed treatment of real-world component behavior: parasitics, tolerances, temperature dependence, and failure modes
    • Hundreds of original diagrams, schematics, and photographs of actual lab experiments
    • Mathematical models derived step by step, with intuitive explanations alongside the equations
    • In-depth coverage of signals, noise, coupling, resonance, and other effects, demonstrated through photographed experiments
    • Guidance on reasoning about unfamiliar circuits from fundamental principles rather than pattern-matching to known designs
    Michal Zalewski (lcamtuf) is a self-taught security researcher, electronics hobbyist, and robotics tinkerer. He spent 11 years at Google, where he built the product security program and led a team of roughly 100 engineers responsible for code audit, penetration testing, and vulnerability management across products from Gmail to self-driving cars. He is currently VP of Security & Privacy Engineering at Snap Inc. Zalewski has been named one of the 15 most influential people in security and one of the 100 most influential people in IT by eWeek, and is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Pwnie Award.

    He is the author of three previous books from No Starch Press: Silence on the Wire (2005), The Tangled Web (2011), and Practical Doomsday (2022). His electronics-focused Substack, lcamtuf's thing, covers circuit design from first principles and has attracted thousands of subscribers. Originally from Poland, Zalewski has lived in the United States since 2001.
    Michal Zalewski View titles by Michal Zalewski
    Introduction

    Part I: The Fundamentals
    Chapter 1: A Primer on Conduction
    Chapter 2: The Curious Case of Semiconductors
    Chapter 3: Time-Invariant Circuit Characteristics
    Chapter 4: Signals That Change Over Time
    Chapter 5: Ideal Inductors and Capacitors
    Chapter 6: Electronics at the Speed of Light

    Part II: Circuit Building Blocks
    Chapter 7: Voltage and Current Sources
    Chapter 8: Common Passive Components
    Chapter 9: Basic Electromechanical Devices
    Chapter 10: Discrete Semiconductors

    Part III: Exploring Analog Circuits
    Chapter 11: Creating Circuit Schematics
    Chapter 12: Arrangements of Passive Components
    Chapter 13: Applications of Diodes
    Chapter 14: Working with Transistors
    Chapter 15: Operational Amplifiers
    Chapter 16: Supply Regulation
    Chapter 17: Other Analog ICs

    Part IV: The Digital Realm
    Chapter 18: Logic Gates
    Chapter 19: Adders and Binary Math
    Chapter 20: Memory
    Chapter 21: Sequential Operations
    Chapter 22: Analog to Digital and Back
    Chapter 23: Clocks in Digital Circuits
    Chapter 24: Toward a Rudimentary Computer

    Part V: Software Eats the World
    Chapter 25: Exploring Microcontrollers
    Chapter 26: Talking to Peripherals
    Chapter 27: Hello, World

    Part VI: Making Your Dream a Reality
    Chapter 28: Surface-Mount Components
    Chapter 29: The Basics of PCB Design
    Chapter 30: High-Speed Signals
    Chapter 31: Electronics That Last

    Epilogue
    Index

    About

    A richly illustrated deep dive into how electricity and circuits really work — from the physics of charge and fields to the messy truth of real-world component behavior — by acclaimed security researcher and electronics obsessive Michal Zalewski.

    Real circuits don't behave the way you might have been taught. The Secret Life of Circuits is a physics-first deep dive into circuit design — covering not just the theory behind fields, charge, and signals, but the parasitics,coupling, ringing, noise, and failure modes that cookbook electronics education systematically ignores.

    Michal Zalewski, a self-taught polymath who spent 11 years leading Google's product security program, brings hundreds of original diagrams, photographed experiments, and step-by-step mathematical models to bear on the real behavior of electronic components. The result is a book that builds working mental models rather than a collection of memorized rules — rigorous enough for working engineers closing gaps in their foundational knowledge, readable enough for makers and self-taught hobbyists who are tired of following tutorials they don't fully understand.

    Inside the book, readers will find:
    • Physical foundations of electricity developed from first principles, not hydraulic metaphors
    • Detailed treatment of real-world component behavior: parasitics, tolerances, temperature dependence, and failure modes
    • Hundreds of original diagrams, schematics, and photographs of actual lab experiments
    • Mathematical models derived step by step, with intuitive explanations alongside the equations
    • In-depth coverage of signals, noise, coupling, resonance, and other effects, demonstrated through photographed experiments
    • Guidance on reasoning about unfamiliar circuits from fundamental principles rather than pattern-matching to known designs

    Author

    Michal Zalewski (lcamtuf) is a self-taught security researcher, electronics hobbyist, and robotics tinkerer. He spent 11 years at Google, where he built the product security program and led a team of roughly 100 engineers responsible for code audit, penetration testing, and vulnerability management across products from Gmail to self-driving cars. He is currently VP of Security & Privacy Engineering at Snap Inc. Zalewski has been named one of the 15 most influential people in security and one of the 100 most influential people in IT by eWeek, and is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Pwnie Award.

    He is the author of three previous books from No Starch Press: Silence on the Wire (2005), The Tangled Web (2011), and Practical Doomsday (2022). His electronics-focused Substack, lcamtuf's thing, covers circuit design from first principles and has attracted thousands of subscribers. Originally from Poland, Zalewski has lived in the United States since 2001.
    Michal Zalewski View titles by Michal Zalewski

    Table of Contents

    Introduction

    Part I: The Fundamentals
    Chapter 1: A Primer on Conduction
    Chapter 2: The Curious Case of Semiconductors
    Chapter 3: Time-Invariant Circuit Characteristics
    Chapter 4: Signals That Change Over Time
    Chapter 5: Ideal Inductors and Capacitors
    Chapter 6: Electronics at the Speed of Light

    Part II: Circuit Building Blocks
    Chapter 7: Voltage and Current Sources
    Chapter 8: Common Passive Components
    Chapter 9: Basic Electromechanical Devices
    Chapter 10: Discrete Semiconductors

    Part III: Exploring Analog Circuits
    Chapter 11: Creating Circuit Schematics
    Chapter 12: Arrangements of Passive Components
    Chapter 13: Applications of Diodes
    Chapter 14: Working with Transistors
    Chapter 15: Operational Amplifiers
    Chapter 16: Supply Regulation
    Chapter 17: Other Analog ICs

    Part IV: The Digital Realm
    Chapter 18: Logic Gates
    Chapter 19: Adders and Binary Math
    Chapter 20: Memory
    Chapter 21: Sequential Operations
    Chapter 22: Analog to Digital and Back
    Chapter 23: Clocks in Digital Circuits
    Chapter 24: Toward a Rudimentary Computer

    Part V: Software Eats the World
    Chapter 25: Exploring Microcontrollers
    Chapter 26: Talking to Peripherals
    Chapter 27: Hello, World

    Part VI: Making Your Dream a Reality
    Chapter 28: Surface-Mount Components
    Chapter 29: The Basics of PCB Design
    Chapter 30: High-Speed Signals
    Chapter 31: Electronics That Last

    Epilogue
    Index

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