Science
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Robert Oppenheimer: His Life and Mind
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Ray Monk
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House (2013, May 14th).
Pages: 848
Robert Oppenheimer was among the most brilliant and divisive of men. As head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he oversaw the successful effort to beat the Nazis in the race to develop the first atomic bomb—a breakthrough that was to have eternal ramifications for mankind and that made Oppenheimer the “Father of the Atomic Bomb.” But with his actions leading up to that great achievement, he also set himself on a dangerous collision course with Senator Joseph McCarthy and his witch-hunters. In Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center, Ray Monk, author of peerless biographies of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell, goes deeper than any previous biographer in the quest to solve the enigma of Oppenheimer’s motivations and his complex personality. more
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Farmacology: What Innovative Family Farming Can Teach Us About Health and Healing
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Daphne Miller
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: William Morrow (2013, Apr 16th).
Pages: 304
In Farmacology: What Innovative Family Farming Can Teach Us About Health and Healing, Daphne Miller, practicing physician and author of The Jungle Effect , draws from the lessons of organic farming to offer a fascinating and completely novel approach to staying well and preventing disease.What can farming teach a family doctor about the art and science of medicine? Nothing less than a revolutionary new way of thinking about health and well-being—an approach to wellness, holistic healing, and sustainable good health.Spending time with a diverse group of farmers committed to sustainable agriculture, Dr. Miller acquired a new understanding of good health, practices she applies to her patients suffering common modern maladies, from allergies, diabetes, and cancer, to ADHD, infertility, and heart disease. more
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The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Mutant Gene and the Quest to Cure Cancer at the Genetic Level
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Jessica Wapner
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: The Experiment (2013, May 14th).
Pages: 320
One of Publishers Weekly’s Top Ten Spring 2013 Science BooksPhiladelphia, 1959: A scientist scrutinizing a single human cell under a microscope detects a missing piece of DNA. That scientist, David Hungerford, had no way of knowing that he had stumbled upon the starting point of modern cancer research—the Philadelphia chromosome. This book charts not only that landmark discovery, but also—for the first time, all in one place—the full sequence of scientific and medical discoveries that brought about the first-ever successful treatment of a lethal cancer at the genetic level.The significance of this mutant chromosome would take more than three decades to unravel; in 1990, it was recognized as the sole cause of a deadly blood cancer, chronic myeloid leukemia, or CML. more
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Time Reborn: From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Lee Smolin
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2013, Apr 23rd).
Pages: 352
From one of our foremost thinkers and public intellectuals, a radical new view of the nature of time and the cosmosWhat is time?This deceptively simple question is the single most important problem facing science as we probe more deeply into the fundamentals of the universe. All of the mysteries physicists and cosmologists face—from the Big Bang to the future of the universe, from the puzzles of quantum physics to the unification of forces and particles—come down to the nature of time.The fact that time is real may seem obvious. You experience it passing every day when you watch clocks tick, bread toast, and children grow. But most physicists, from Newton to Einstein to today’s quantum theorists, have seen things differently. more
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Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Mary Roach
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (2013, Apr 1st).
Pages: 352
The irresistible, ever-curious, and always best-selling Mary Roach returns with a new adventure to the invisible realm we carry around inside.“America’s funniest science writer” (Washington Post) takes us down the hatch on an unforgettable tour. The alimentary canal is classic Mary Roach terrain: the questions explored in Gulp are as taboo, in their way, as the cadavers in Stiff and every bit as surreal as the universe of zero gravity explored in Packing for Mars. Why is crunchy food so appealing? Why is it so hard to find words for flavors and smells? Why doesn’t the stomach digest itself? How much can you eat before your stomach bursts? Can constipation kill you? Did it kill Elvis? In Gulp we meet scientists who tackle the questions no one else thinks of—or has the courage to ask. more
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Green Equilibrium: The vital balance of humans and nature
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Christopher Wills
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (2013, May 1st).
Pages: 320
In Green Equilibrium, award-winning field biologist Christopher Wills explains the rules by which ecosystems thrive, shining light on a set of ecological balancing acts that he calls "green equilibria," rules which keep our world vibrant, verdant, and ecologically intact. To explain the idea of "green equilibrium," Wills draws on a fascinating range of examples, including coral reefs off the densely populated Philippines, the isolated and thickly forested valleys of Papua New Guinea, the changing Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, and a Californian ranch being allowed to return to a wild state. Wills travels to Guyana's rainforests and savannahs, for instance, to provide startling vignettes of ecological processes in action. Among other topics, he highlights the astonishing snake-head mimicry that swallowtail caterpillars use to scare off predators, the symbiotic relationship between the exceedingly rare Golden Poison-Dart Frog and the tank bromeliad plant, and the invisible world of pathogens and parasites that helps to drive diversity. more
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The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Eric Schmidt
Format: Deckle Edge]
Publisher: Knopf (2013, Apr 23rd).
Pages:
In an unparalleled collaboration, two leading global thinkers in technology and foreign affairs give us their widely anticipated, transformational vision of the future: a world where everyone is connected—a world full of challenges and benefits that are ours to meet and to harness. Eric Schmidt is one of Silicon Valley’s great leaders, having taken Google from a small startup to one of the world’s most influential companies. Jared Cohen is the director of Google Ideas and a former adviser to secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton. With their combined knowledge and experiences, the authors are uniquely positioned to take on some of the toughest questions about our future: Who will be more powerful in the future, the citizen or the state? Will technology make terrorism easier or harder to carry out? What is the relationship between privacy and security, and how much will we have to give up to be part of the new digital age? In this groundbreaking book, Schmidt and Cohen combine observation and insight to outline the promise and peril awaiting us in the coming decades. more
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Butterfly People: An American Encounter with the Beauty of the World
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: William R. Leach
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Pantheon; 1 edition (2013, Apr 9th).
Pages: 416
With 32 pages of full-color inserts and black-and-white illustrations throughout.From one of our most highly regarded historians, here is an original and engrossing chronicle of nineteenth-century America’s infatuation with butterflies, and the story of the naturalists who unveiled the mysteries of their existence. A product of William Leach’s lifelong love of butterflies, this engaging and elegantly illustrated history shows how Americans from all walks of life passionately pursued butterflies, and how through their discoveries and observations they transformed the character of natural history. Leach focuses on the correspondence and scientific writings of half a dozen pioneering lepidopterists who traveled across the country and throughout the world, collecting and studying unknown and exotic species. more
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My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Brian Switek
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2013, Apr 16th).
Pages: 272
One of Publishers Weekly’s Top Ten Spring Science BooksSelected by Apple’s iBookstore as one of the best books of AprilDinosaurs, with their awe-inspiring size, terrifying claws and teeth, and otherworldly abilities, occupy a sacred place in our childhoods. They loom over museum halls, thunder through movies, and are a fundamental part of our collective imagination. In My Beloved Brontosaurus, the dinosaur fanatic Brian Switek enriches the childlike sense of wonder these amazing creatures instill in us. Investigating the latest discoveries in paleontology, he breathes new life into old bones.Switek reunites us with these mysterious creatures as he visits desolate excavation sites and hallowed museum vaults, exploring everything from the sex life of Apatosaurus and T. more
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The Power Surge: Energy, Opportunity, and the Battle for America's Future
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Michael Levi
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (2013, Apr 30th).
Pages: 272
The United States is in the throes of two unfolding energy revolutions, and partisans-convinced that only their side holds the key to American prosperity, security, and safety-are battling over which one should prevail. In The Power Surge, Michael Levi takes readers inside these revolutions to find out what's really happening-and which side is right. From the back roads of Ohio where old friends are warring over fracking, to the wilds of Colorado where speculators are chasing the holy grail of oil, he shows how oil and gas production, after decades in decline, are being propelled upward by new technologies and high prices, prompting enthusiasts to predict an economic renaissance and impending energy independence. On the other side of the fight, he visits California eco-startups developing game-changing technologies and Midwest manufacturers betting on a new energy future, revealing how more efficient cars and trucks are increasingly dominating the road and costs for renewable energy have plummeted, leading many to herald a starkly different future that moves beyond fossil fuels and saves the planet. more
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