|
Nature and Science April 2021
|
|
|
|
| The Mission: or: How a Disciple of Carl Sagan, an Ex-Motocross Racer, a Texas Tea Party... by David W. BrownAn "extensively researched, humorous, raucous, dramatic, and pop-culture- and science-fiction-laced" (Booklist) chronicle of NASA’s quest to launch a fly-by mission to Jupiter's moon Europa. Think Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff meets Alan Stern and David Grinspoon's Chasing New Horizons. Author David W. Brown spent seven years interviewing the scientists, engineers, lawmakers, and NASA administrators profiled in this character-driven account. |
|
| The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens and Ourselves by Arik KershenbaumCambridge zoologist Arik Kershenbaum draws on Earth's evolutionary history to speculate about what forms extraterrestrial life might take. Might there be an alien planet with supersonic animals? A moon where creatures have a language composed of smells? Will aliens scream with fear, act honestly, or have technology? The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy answers these questions using the latest science to tell the story of how life really works, on Earth and in space. |
|
| Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age by Annalee NewitzFour Lost Cities explores four so-called "lost" (abandoned) cities and analyzes their "common point of failure" (political instability plus environmental disaster) while exploring the origins of this enduring trope. Includes the Neolithic Anatolian settlement of Çatalhöyük; the Roman town of Pompeii; Angkor, the capital of the Khmer Empire; and Cahokia, North America's largest city prior to European invasion. Annalee Newitz is a journalist and science fiction writer who co-hosts the podcast Our Opinions Are Correct with novelist Charlie Jane Anders. |
|
|
How to be Animal: A New History of What it Means to be Human
by Melanie Challenger
A wide-ranging take on why humans have a troubled relationship with being an animal, and why we need a better one. Humans are the most inquisitive, emotional, imaginative, aggressive, and baffling animals on the planet. But we are also an animal that does not think it is an animal. How well do we really know ourselves? As well as piecing together the mystery of how this mindset evolved, Challenger's book examines the wide-reaching ways in which it affects our lives, from our politics to the way we distance ourselves from other species. We travel from the origin of homo sapiens through the agrarian and industrial revolutions, the age of the internet, and on to the futures of AI and human-machine interface. Challenger examines how technology influences our sense of our own animal nature and our relationship with other species with whom we share this fragile planet. Blending nature writing, history, and moral philosophy, How to Be Animal is both a fascinating reappraisal of what it means to be human, and a robust defense of what it means to be an animal.
|
|
| Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It by Ethan KrossAn experimental psychologist examines the science behind "the most important conversations of our lives: the ones we have with ourselves." Read it for the practical tips on how to harness the positive aspects of "chatter" while minimizing the adverse effects of negative self-talk on mental health. |
|
| An Anatomy of Pain: How the Body and the Mind Experience and Endure Physical Suffering by Dr. Abdul-Ghaaliq LalkhenAn anesthesiologist's comprehensive multidisciplinary exploration of the science of pain, from the neurobiological mechanisms of pain, to the history of analgesics, to the pros and cons of current chronic pain treatments. Covers current treatments, including opioids, while illuminating the complex body and brain interactions that trigger pain and its perception. |
|
| This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race by Nicole PerlrothAn "intricately detailed, deeply sourced and reported" (New York Times) exposé of the underground cyberarms industry -- and the critical role the United States played in creating it. Nicole Perlroth is a journalist who covers cybersecurity for The New York Times. |
|
|
The Shadow Drawing: How Science Taught Leonardo How to Paint
by Francesca Fiorani
A new biography of the artist behind the Mona Lisa distinguishes between his life as an artist and as an inventor and discusses how he used his understanding of optical science to perfect his painting techniques. Using information gleaned from infrared reflectography and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy done on Leonardo's paintings, Fiorani leads readers through the artist's tortuous re-working of his art. "The secret of the Mona Lisa's smile," she notes, is created by the application of "multiple layers of colors and varnishes with low atomic density."
|
|
|
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2020
by Michio Kaku
Presents a collection of nature and science essays published in American periodicals in the previous year, including works by such authors as David H. Freedman, Siddhartha Mukherjee, and Natalie Wolchover.
|
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
|
|
|