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Nature and Science August 2019
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Borrowed Time: The Science of How and Why We Age
by Sue Armstrong
Discusses the scientific quest to understand how and why organisms age by describing astonishing experiments including transfusing blood between young and old rats and transplanting the first human head and interviewing key scientists in the field. Borrowed Time explores where science is taking us and what issues are being raised from a psychological, philosophical, and ethical perspective.
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| Symphony in C: Carbon and the Evolution of (Almost) Everything by Robert M. HazenA sweeping history of carbon, the basic yet multifaceted chemical element that's essential to life as we know it. Structured like a symphony, this book unfolds in four parts inspired by the classic elements of earth, air, fire, and water. Authored by Robert M. Hazen, geologist (and semi-professional musician) who was a founder of the Deep Carbon Observatory, an international, interdisciplinary group of scientists dedicated to carbon research. |
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| Slime: How Algae Created Us, Plague Us, and Just Might Save Us by Ruth KassingerThe 3.7 billion-year history of algae, "Earth's authentic alchemists": powered by sunlight and water, these organisms play a vital role in turning carbon dioxide into organic matter. Follows science writer Ruth Kassinger as she travels the world to learn about algae's culinary uses, its role in everyday consumer products, and its potential as a renewable fuel. Includes a selection of tasty, easy-to-prepare seaweed recipes. |
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Professor Maxwell's Duplicitous Demon : The Life and Science of James Clerk Maxwell
by Brian Clegg
James Clerk Maxwell, an unassuming Victorian Scotsman, explained how we perceive colour. He uncovered the way gases behave. Most significantly, he transformed the way physics was undertaken in his explanation of the interaction of electricity and magnetism, revealing the nature of light and laying the groundwork for everything from Einstein's special relativity to modern electronics. Along the way, he set up one of the most enduring challenges in physics, one that has taxed the best minds ever since. Maxwell's demon is a tiny but thoroughly disruptive thought experiment that suggests the second law of thermodynamics, the law that governs the flow of time itself, can be broken. This is the story of a groundbreaking scientist, a great contributor to our understanding of the way the world works, and his duplicitous demon.
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Wild at Heart: America's Turbulent Relationship with Nature, from Exploitation to Redemption
by Alice B Outwater
A beautifully written and ultimately hopeful history of our relationship with the natural world. In a narrative that reaches from Native American tribal practices to public health and commercial hunting, Wild at Heart shows how western attitudes towards nature have changed dramatically in the last five hundred years. Across the US, people are taking individual action, planting native species and fighting for projects like dam removal and wolf restoration. Cities are embracing nature, too. Humans can learn from the past, and our choices today will determine whether nature survives.
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Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon
by Craig Nelson
Author Craig Nelson restores the mystery and majesty to an event that may have become too familiar for most people to realize what a stunning achievement it represented in planning, technology, and execution. Through interviews, 23,000 pages of NASA oral histories, and declassified CIA documents on the space race, Nelson creates a vivid and detailed account of the Apollo 11 mission. From the quotidian to the scientific to the magical, readers are taken right into the cockpit with Aldrin and Armstrong and behind the scenes at Mission Control
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| Shoot for the Moon: The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11 by James DonovanOne of the world's greatest technological achievements and a triumph of American spirit and ingenuity, the Apollo 11 mission was a mammoth undertaking involving more than 410,000 men and women dedicated to winning the space race against the Soviets. Set amid the tensions of the Cold War and the upheavals of the sixties, and filled with first-person, behind-the-scenes details, Shoot for the Moon is a gripping account of the dangers, the challenges, and the sheer determination that defined not only Apollo 11, but also the Mercury and Gemini missions that came before it. |
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| Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight by Jay BarbreeAn engaging biography of astronaut Neil Armstrong, who, on July 20, 1969, made history as the first person to walk on the moon. During his 50-year career as a journalist, veteran NBC space correspondent Jay Barbree reported on every single crewed launch of the U.S. space program. |
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| Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon by Jeffrey KlugerAn exciting account of the Apollo 8 mission that blends technical details of the mission with profiles of its participants. Science writer Jeffrey Kluger draws on interviews with crew members Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders, as well as materials from the NASA Oral History Project, to recreate the mission. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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