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Nature and Science August 2020
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Breath : The New Science of a Lost Art (ebook)
by
James Nestor
No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how resilient your genes are, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you're not breathing properly. There is nothing more essential to our health and wellbeing than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat 25,000 times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences. Science journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong with our breathing and how to fix it. Why are we the only animals with chronically crooked teeth? Why didn't our ancestors snore?
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The Remarkable Life of the Skin: An Intimate Journey Across Our Largest Organ (also on ebook) by Monty Lyman What it is: a dermatologist's cross-disciplinary "circumnavigation of, and love letter to" human skin.
You'll learn: what makes skin waterproof, how to achieve a healthy glow without risking a sunburn, why we can't tickle ourselves, and much more.
Reviewers say: "Tantalizing tidbits of information abound" (Booklist) in this "illuminating and thought-provoking" (Kirkus Reviews) book. | | How to Die in Space: A Journey Through Dangerous Astrophysical Phenomena (ebook) by Paul M. Sutter, Ph.D First things first: "You're not going to make it in space," declares the astrophysicist author of this witty, eye-opening book, which explains the many ways the cosmos will kill you, should you happen to slip the surly bonds of Earth.
For fans of: Philip Plait's Death from the Skies!, Bob Berman's Earth-Shattering, or Mary Roach's Packing for Mars. | | The Language of Butterflies: How Thieves, Hoarders, Scientists, and Other Obsessives... by Wendy Williams What it's about: the past, present, and future of butterflies, and the role of human obsession in discovering their secrets.
Don't miss: the profile of pioneering 17th-century naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian, whose detailed illustrated studies of lepidopteran life cycles shaped the emerging field of entomology.
About the author: Wendy Williams' previous book was the bestselling The Horse: The Epic History of Our Noble Companion. | |
The Art of Statistics: How to Learn from Data
by
D. J Spiegelhalter
A world-renowned British statistician uses real world examples, including the luckiest passenger on the Titanic and whether or not a notorious serial killer could’ve been caught earlier to introduce readers to complex issues and concepts in statistics 20,000 first printing.
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Weird Math: A Teenage Genius & His Teacher Reveal the Strange Connections Between... (Audiobook) by David Darling and Agnijo Banerjee What it's about: a science writer and his protégé, a teen prodigy, discuss their favorite mathematical concepts in a style that's accessible without being over-simplistic.
Topics include: the fourth dimension, topology, prime numbers, Turing machines, and infinity.
For fans of: Alex Bellos' Here's Looking at Euclid, Ian Stewart's Visions of Infinity, or Steven Strogatz's The Joy of X. | | Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe (Audiobook) by Steven Strogatz What it is: an applied mathematician's surprisingly accessible guide to calculus, which outlines its basic concepts while recounting its history.
Food for thought: "If anything deserves to be called the secret of the universe, calculus is it."
You might also like: mathematician Amir Alexander's similarly engaging Infinitesimal, which also explores a world-changing concept. | |
Humble Pi : When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World
by
Matt Parker
"This tour of real-world mathematical disasters reveals the importance of math in everyday life. All sorts of seemingly innocuous mathematical mistakes can have significant consequences. Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near misses, and mathematical mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman Empire, and an Olympic team, Matt Parker uncovers the ways math trips us up"
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e : The Story of a Number (ebook)
by
Eli Maor
The interest earned on a bank account, the arrangement of seeds in a sunflower, and the shape of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis are all intimately connected with the mysterious number e. In this informal and engaging history, Eli Maor portrays the curious characters and the elegant mathematics that lie behind the number.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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