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Nature and Science October 2020
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Nerve : adventures in the science of fear
by Eva Holland
The award-winning Outside correspondent illuminates how fears and phobias play a key role in both staying and feeling alive, exploring what high-risk activities and cutting-edge research reveal about universal existential questions.
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| The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy's Vanishing Explorers by Emily LevesqueWhat it's about: an astronomer recounts her career in science while contemplating the past, present, and future of her field.
Don't miss: visits to Hawaii's Mauna Kea Observatories, Chile's Paranal Observatory, and the airborne Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).
Did you know? Professional astronomers spend relatively little time looking through giant telescopes (and a lot of time on laptops). |
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Physical Intelligence : The Science of How the Body and the Mind Guide Each Other Through Life by Scott Grafton What is it that stops us from walking into walls or off cliffs? How do you pick the right moment to cross a busy road, or decide if you can drive through a storm? ...? The answer is Physical Intelligence. Sometimes, you need to do it to know it. Your hands have to be on the steering wheel to learn the feel of slipping tyres. You need to be watching the traffic to judge the best moment to cross the road. Everything we do, from changing a lightbulb to navigating unknown terrain relies on physical intelligence, our oldest and most important form of cognition. Physical intelligence was the key development in human evolution; thinking evolved first and foremost so we could do things. It has been the key to our survival against all the odds for so long that it has become instinctive, and continues to underpin our every action, from the ordinary (walking down a street) to the extraordinary (winning a race) and beyond. Renowned neuroscientist, doctor and keen climber, Scott Grafton was fascinated to discover how physical intelligence's most important components were laid bare, away from civilisation. In this book he takes you on a journey to explore the hidden depths of this silent, ruthless intellect we all possess. Drawing on the latest scientific discoveries and research, experiences with patients, and Professor Grafton's own gripping stories of survival in the wilderness, Physical Intelligence explains the science behind our most overlooked ability and takes a fascinating and vital look at how we could and should use it better.
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| The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir by Sara SeagerWhat it is: the memoir of a planetary astrophysicist that weaves together her Canadian childhood, her career in physics, her marriage and widowhood, and her later-in-life autism diagnosis.
About the author: astrophysicist Sara Seager is a recipient of the Sackler International Prize in Physics and a MacArthur Fellowship.
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A Natural Year : Living Simply Through the Seasons by Wendyl NissenA Natural Year follows writer Wendyl Nissen's life in the peaceful New Zealand countryside over one year. It's the story of what happens in her garden, her kitchen and her life over twelve months, and the thoughts inspired by each passing season. She writes about the freedom that she has found in ageing and the joy that comes along with it. She addresses her depression, anxiety and the mental well-being she's gained from her back-to-basics lifestyle and the practical things she does to live in a sustainable, natural way. With photographs taken at her home in Northland, Wendyl shares 100 new recipes, including how to make yeast from grapes, yoghurt using chilli stalks and many others she has discovered. In a world which can be full of stress and confusion, A Natural Year is a guide to a simpler, less complicated life
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Focus on: The Lighter Side of Science
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| Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals about Death by Caitlin Doughty; illustrated by Dianne RuzThe premise: a mortician answers children's questions about death in an engaging and matter-of-fact style.
About the author: Funeral director Caitlin Doughty is the creator of the web series "Ask a Mortician" and the author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and From Here to Eternity.
So...will your cat eat your eyeballs? Not immediately. (Not when there are tastier tidbits like eyelids.) |
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| Liquid Rules: The Delightful and Dangerous Substances that Flow Through Our Lives by Mark MiodownikWhat it's about: Having tackled solids in Stuff Matters, materials scientist Mark Miodownik introduces readers to the unique properties of liquids from the confines of an airplane cabin during a transatlantic flight.
Why you might like it: Filled with fascinating facts (airplanes are essentially glued together), this accessible book pairs scientific principles (viscosity, vaporization) and their real-life applications (how ballpoint pens work, brewing the perfect cup of tea). |
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| The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth: And Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine by Thomas MorrisWhat it is: Historian (Matters of the Heart) and blogger Thomas Morris' well-researched and eye-opening compendium of medical oddities.
Is it for you? As you might expect from a book containing chapters dedicated to "Horrifying Operations," "Unfortunate Predicaments," and "Dubious Treatments," these case studies are not for the squeamish.
For fans of: Sam Kean's The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons or Arnold van de Laar's Under the Knife. |
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How to : absurd scientific advice for common real-world problems by Randall MunroeFor any task you might want to do, there's a right way, a wrong way, and a way so monumentally bad that no one would ever try it. How To is a guide to the third kind of approach. It's full of highly impractical advice for everything from landing a plane to digging a hole. Bestselling author and cartoonist Randall Munroe explains how to predict the weather by analyzing the pixels of your Facebook photos. He teaches you how to tell if you're a baby boomer or a millennial by measuring the radioactivity of your teeth. He offers tips for taking a selfie with a telescope, crossing a river by boiling it, and getting to your appointments on time by destroying the moon. And if you want to get rid of this book once you're done with it, he walks you through your options for proper disposal, including dissolving it in the ocean, converting it to a vapour, using tectonic plates to subduct it into the Earth's mantle, or launching it into the sun. By exploring the most complicated ways to do simple tasks, Munroe doesn't just make things difficult for himself and his readers. As he did so brilliantly in What If?, he invites us to explore the most absurd reaches of the possible. Full of clever infographics and amusing illustrations, How To is a delightfully mind-bending way to better understand the science and technology underlying the things we do every day.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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