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Nature and Science August 2016
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"Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure science" Edwin Powell Hubble
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The value of the Moon : how to explore, live, and prosper in space using the Moon's resources
by Paul D Spudis
"While the Moon was once thought to hold the key to space exploration, in recent decades, the U.S. has largely turned its sights toward Mars and other celestial bodies instead. In The Value of the Moon, lunar scientist Paul Spudis argues that the U.S. can and should return to the moon in order to remain a world leader in space utilization and development and a participant in and beneficiary of a new lunar economy. Spudis explores three reasons for returning to the Moon: it is close, it is interesting, and it is useful. The proximity of the Moon not only allows for frequent launches, but also control of any machinery we place there. It is interesting because recorded deep on its surface and in its craters is the preserved history of the moon, the sun, andindeed the entire galaxy. And finally, the moon is useful because it is rich with materials and energy. The moon, Spudis argues, is a logical base for further space exploration and even a possible future home for us all. Throughout his work, Spudis incorporates details about man's fascination with the moon and its place in our shared history. He also explores its religious, cultural, and scientific resonance and assesses its role in the future of spaceflight and our national security and prosperity"
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| Cyberspies: The Secret History of Surveillance, Hacking, and Digital Espionage by Gordon Corera"The computer was born to spy," asserts BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera. Created as a machine of military intelligence, the same qualities that make it useful as a tool of espionage also make it an ideal target of espionage. Indeed, as Corera describes how the role of computers evolved from World War II to the present day, it becomes clear that cyber-espionage will one day be called, simply, espionage. From encryption and code-breaking to data-driven surveillance, this eye-opening, occasionally chilling, book may cause you to reconsider your relationship with technology. |
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| The Next Pandemic: On The Front Lines Against Humankind's Gravest Dangers by Ali S. KhanDr. Ali Khan is the former director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (PHPR) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So when he talks about communicable diseases, it's worth listening to what he has to say. Khan draws on 25 years in the field of public health to cut through the hysteria surrounding the headlines while pointing out policy and infrastructure issues that make global pandemics inevitable. For more on infectious diseases and how they get around, check out Sonia Shah's Pandemic or David Quammen's Spillover. |
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| Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary RoachChicken guns are pretty much what you'd expect, but what about HRVs? That stands for "human research volunteers," by the way, and they're an essential part of keeping soldiers alive, what with testing shark-repellent, flying fighter jets while blindfolded, and injecting themselves with snake venom (among other heroic actions). Steering clear of the battlefield, bestselling science writer Mary Roach instead focuses on the unsung heroes of military science while tackling, in her signature witty and irreverent style, the quirkier aspects of feeding, clothing, cleaning, and healing members of the armed forces.
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| The Dragon Behind the Glass: A True Story of Power, Obsession, and the World's Most... by Emily VoigtImagine being murdered for the contents of your aquarium. As implausible as it might sound, homicide is a genuine risk when your tank contains the Asian arowana. Known as the "dragon fish," a single specimen can cost more than $150,000, and in this eye-opening look at the exotic animal trade, author Emily Voigt investigates how this "mass-produced endangered species" became a hot commodity within a thriving aquatic black market. Whether following detectives from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation as they investigate a fish-running ring or attempting to locate dwindling arowana populations in the wild, Voigt takes readers on a fascinating journey through the murky depths of an unseen and unexpected world. |
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Focus on: Books You Might Have Missed |
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The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, & Pips Conquered the...
by Thor Hanson
An estimated 352,000 species of plant reproduce by seed, prompting conservation biologist Thor Hanson to call seeds the most important evolutionary development in the entire history of plants. And they're equally important to humans, supplying us with "food and fuels, intoxicants and poisons, oils, dyes, fibers and spices." If you enjoyed Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire, check out The Triumph of Seeds, a similarly engaging, accessible science book about the co-evolution of plants and humans.
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Sextant : a young man's daring sea voyage and the men who mapped the world's oceans
by David Barrie
Since its invention in 1759, a mariner's most prized possession has been the sextant. A navigation tool that measures the angle between a celestial object and the horizon, the sextant allowed sailors to pinpoint their exact location at sea. David Barrie chronicles the sextant's development and shows how it not only saved the lives of navigators in wild and dangerous seas, but played a pivotal role in their ability to map the globe. He synthesizes centuries of seafaring history and the daring sailors who have become legend, including James Cook, Matthew Flinders, Robert Fitz-Roy, Frank Worsley of the Endurance, and Joshua Slocum, the redoubtable old "lunarian" and first single-handed-round-the-world yachtsman. He also recounts his own maiden voyage, and insights gleaned from his experiences as a practiced seaman and navigator. Full of heroism, danger, and excitement, told with an infectious sense of wonder, Sextant offers a new look at a masterful achievement that changed the course of history.
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Before Galileo : the birth of modern science in medieval Europe
by John Freely
Virtually nothing is said about the European scholars who came before. In reality, more than a millennium before the Renaissance, a succession of scholars paved the way for the discoveries for which Galileo, Newton, and others are often credited.In Before Galileo, John Freely examines the pioneering research of the first European scientists, many of them monks whose influence ranged far beyond the walls of the monasteries where they studied and wrote. One of the earliest of them, Saint Bede, writing a thousand years before Galileo, was so renowned that two centuries after his death a Swiss monk wrote that "in the sixth day of the world [God] has made Bede rise from the West as a new Sun to illuminate the whole Earth" before Galileo trenchantly fills a notable gap in the history of science, and places the great discoveries of the age in their rightful context.
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Darwin's ghosts : the secret history of evolution
by Rebecca Stott
Darwin's Ghosts tells the story of the collective discovery of evolution, from Aristotle, walking the shores of Lesbos with his pupils, to Al-Jahiz, an Arab writer in the first century, from Leonardo da Vinci, searching for fossils in the mine shafts of the Tuscan hills, to Denis Diderot in Paris, exploring the origins of species while under the surveillance of the secret police, and the brilliant naturalists of the Jardin de Plantes, finding evidence for evolutionary change in the natural history collections stolen during the Napoleonic wars. Evolution was not discovered single-handedly, Rebecca Stott argues, contrary to what has become standard lore, but is an idea that emerged over many centuries, advanced by daring individuals across the globe who had the imagination to speculate on nature's extraordinary ways, and who had the courage to articulate such speculations at a time when to do so was often considered heresy.
Read the e-book
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The secret lives of bats : my adventures with the world's most misunderstood mammals
by Merlin D. Tuttle
From menacing moonshiners and armed bandits to charging elephants and man-eating tigers, Merlin Tuttle has stopped at nothing to find and protect bats on every continent they inhabit. Enamored of bats ever since discovering a colony in a cave as a boy, Tuttle saw how effective photography could be in persuading people not to fear bats, and he has spent his career traveling the world to document them. Few people realize how sophisticated and intelligent bats are. Tuttle shares research showing that frog-eating bats can identify frogs by their calls, that vampire bats have a social order similar to that of primates, and that bats have remarkable memories. Bats also provide enormous benefits by eating crop pests, pollinating plants, and carrying seeds needed for reforestation. They save farmers billions of dollars annually and are essential to a healthy planet. Sharing highlights from a lifetime of adventure and discovery, Tuttle takes us to the frontiers of bat research and conservation and forever changes the way we see these poorly understood yet fascinating creatures.
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