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Nature and Science June 2019
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Cosmological Koans : A Journey to the Heart of Physical Reality
by Anthony Aguirre
What it's about: A leading physicist builds on Koan vignettes from ancient Zen tradition to explore universal philosophical questions, including the meaning of quantum theory, the nature of time and the origin of multiple universes.
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| Down from the Mountain: The Life and Death of a Grizzly Bear by Bryce AndrewsWho is she? Millie, a 500-pound grizzly sow (and mother of two cubs) from Montana's Mission Valley.
What does she want? Corn! Montana's grizzly bear population is addicted to the crop, which lures them from their isolated habitats into more populous areas, resulting in conflicts with local farmers.
You might also like: Nate Blakeslee's American Wolf, which similarly explores tensions between humans and wildlife by recounting the life and death of a charismatic animal. |
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Gravity's Century : From Einstein's Eclipse to Images of Black Holes
by Ron Cowen
What it's about: Explains why understanding gravity is so important to understanding quantum mechanics, and describes the 1919 solar eclipse observation that proved Einstein's theory of relativity and the planned 2019 Event Horizon Telescope experiment.
Reviewer's say: "Filled with vivid descriptions of cutting-edge work and the scientists behind it, Cowen's book is fascinating, both a learning experience and a pleasure to read." (Publisher's Weekly)
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| The Human Swarm: How Our Societies Arise, Thrive, and Fall by Mark W. MoffettWhat it's about: the development of human civilization from "individual recognition societies" characterized by small and intimate groups (think chimpanzees) to modern-day "collective marker" societies based on distinctions between in-groups and out-groups.
Further reading: For other recent perspectives on this topic, check out Edward O. Wilson's Genesis: The Deep Origins of Societies or Nicholas A. Christakis' Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society. |
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Mama's Last Hug : Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves
by F. B. M. de Waal
What it's about: The influential primatologist and best-selling author of Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? draws on renowned primate studies in an exploration of animal emotions that touches on such subjects as expressions, animal sentience and free will.
For fans of: Marc Bekoff or Barbara J. King.
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| Adventures in Human Being: A Grand Tour From the Cranium to the Calcaneum by Gavin FrancisWhat it is: a head-to-toe survey of the human body by a physician.
Want a taste? "I was nineteen years old when I first held a human brain. It was heavier than I had anticipated; grey, firm, and laboratory-cold."
For fans of: the blend of medical writing and memoir in Henry Marsh's Do No Harm; the philosophical tone of F. Gonzalez-Crussi's Notes of an Anatomist. |
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| Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. SapolskyWhat it is: an interdisciplinary study of human behavior by neurobiologist and primatologist Robert Sapolsky.
What it does: Behave explores human behavior by taking a single (re)action and examining what's going on in the brain and body in the seconds, minutes, hours, days, and even years before it occurs.
Don't miss: the author's top ten strategies for reducing violence in our species. |
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| Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah HarariThe big question: So now that we've mitigated the effects of famine, plague, and war, what's next for human beings?
About the author: Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari is the author of the bestselling Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.
Is it for you? Believers in the march of human progress should be aware that Home Deus forecasts several possible futures for our species, most of them downright dystopian. |
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| Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, From Pointless Bones to Broken Genes by Nathan H. LentsWhat it is: an offbeat and entertaining catalog of the design flaws and anatomical oddities of the human body, courtesy of natural selection.
Such as? Knees ill-adapted to bipedal locomotion; DNA riddled with errors, redundancies, and extraneous material; and reproductive processes as scattershot as they are hazardous...to name just a few.
Words of wisdom: "Evolution is a constant game of trade-offs. Most innovations come at a cost." |
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| The Upright Thinkers: The Human Journey from Living in Trees to Understanding the Cosmos by Leonard MlodinowWhat it is: a history of scientific discovery that makes a case for human curiosity about the universe as a defining attribute of our species.
Topics covered: the evolution of the human brain, a grand tour of the sciences (featuring greats minds from Aristotle to Heisenberg), and a brief introduction to quantum physics.
For fans of: the accessible presentation of science in Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. |
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Contact the Reference Dept. for more great books! |
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