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Nature and Science December 2018
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| Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms by Hannah FryHello World takes us on a tour through the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of the algorithms that surround us on a daily basis. Mathematician Hannah Fry reveals their inner workings, showing us how algorithms are written and implemented, and demonstrates the ways in which human bias can literally be written into the code. By weaving in relatable, real world stories with accessible explanations of the underlying mathematics that power algorithms, Hello World helps us to determine their power, expose their limitations, and examine whether they really are improvement on the human systems they replace. |
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| Nine Pints: A Journey through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood by Rose GeorgeIn Nine Pints, George takes us from ancient practices of bloodletting to the breakthough of the "liquid biopsy," which promises to diagnose cancer and other diseases with a simple blood test. She introduces Janet Vaughan, who set up the world’s first system of mass blood donation during the Blitz, and Arunachalam Muruganantham, known as “Menstrual Man” for his work on sanitary pads for developing countries. She probes the lucrative business of plasma transfusions, in which the US is known as the “OPEC of plasma.” And she looks to the future, as researchers seek to bring synthetic blood to a hospital near you. |
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| Plight of the Living Dead: What the Animal Kingdom's Real-Life Zombies Reveal... by Matt SimonZombieism isn't just the stuff of movies and TV shows. It's real, and it's happening in the world around us: from wasps and worms to dogs and moose-and even humans. In Plight of the Living Dead, science journalist Matt Simon documents his journey through the bizarre evolutionary history of mind control. Along the way, he visits a lab where scientists infect ants with zombifying fungi, joins the search for kamikaze crickets in the hills of New Mexico, and travels to Israel to meet the wasp that stings cockroaches in the brain before leading them to their doom. This book is a surreal dive into a world that would be totally unbelievable if very smart scientists didn't happen to be proving it's real, and most troubling of all - how even we humans are affected. |
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| The Ravenmaster: My Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London by Christopher SkaifeMeet Yeoman Warder Christopher Skaife, of Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London. Straife is the Tower of London's Ravenmaster, responsible for the care of the Tower's seven resident ravens, who all have names and distinctive personalities. This narrative explores what it's like to live among the ravens at England's most famous national monument, woven together with insight from folklore, history, and contemporary behavioral science about this unusual bird. |
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Burning Planet: The Story of Fire Through Time
by Andrew C. Scott
Raging wildfires have devastated vast areas of California and Australia in recent years, and predictions are that we will see more of the same in coming years, as a result of climate change. But this is nothing new. Since the dawn of life on land, large-scale fires have played their part in shaping life on Earth. Andrew Scott tells the whole story of fire's impact on our planet's atmosphere, climate, vegetation, ecology, and the evolution of plant and animal life. Looking at the impact of wildfires in our own time, Scott also looks forward to how we might better manage them in future, as climate change has an increasing effect on our world.
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Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold
by Tom Shachtman
The history of "cold" covers the wide gamut of scientific inquiry into the subject, from the invention of the thermometer to the "air conditioning" of Westminster Abbey in the sixteenth century, to the latest revelations from the field of physics. Absolute Zero is for everyone who loves history and science history stories, who's eager to explore Nobel Prize-winning physics today, or who has ever sighed with pleasure on encountering air conditioning.
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Chasing the Sun: The Epic Story of the Star That Gives Us Life
by Richard Cohen
A chronicle of humanity's historical, mythological and scientific relationship with the sun draws on various world cultures to explore such topics as the religious beliefs of Ancient Egypt, Galileo's early discoveries of sun spots and the modern world's efforts to address global warming.
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Antarctica: A Biography
by David Day
The first ever major international history of this forbidding continent - from the eighteenth century voyages of discovery to the fierce rivalries of today, as governments, scientists, environmentalists, and oil companies compete for control. On one level it is the story of explorers battling the elements in the most hostile place on earth as they strive for personal triumph, commercial gain, and national glory. On a deeper level, it is the story of nations seeking to incorporate the Antarctic into their own national stories - and to claim its frozen wastes as their own.
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| Heat: Adventures in the World's Fiery Places by Bill StreeverBiologist Bill Streever, author of the bestselling Cold, embarks on a wide-ranging discussion of heat in all its forms. Whether hiking through Death Valley, California, or cooking popcorn on lava in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, Streever leaves no stone unturned in his quest to understand heat. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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