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Nature and Science February 2017
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| Are Numbers Real? The Uncanny Relationship of Mathematics and the Physical World by Brian CleggTo what extent do numbers accurately reflect reality? Pretty well, if you're counting livestock. Less so if you're talking about black holes, which are "more the product of mathematics than of science" (that is, there is only indirect evidence for their existence.) Science writer Clegg, examines the relationship between numbers and science, explaining why mathematical models, while increasingly powerful, can never fully account for the complexity of the physical universe. |
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| The Wood for the Trees: One Man's Long View of Nature by Richard ForteyUpon his retirement from London's Natural History Museum (a career he describes in Dry Storeroom No. 1), British paleontologist Richard Fortey purchased four acres of Grim's Dyke Wood, located in the Chiltern Hills of Oxfordshire, England. He then spent a year exploring the woodlands and documenting his discoveries. |
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Citizen science : how ordinary people are changing the face of discovery
by Caren B. Cooper
Cites the essential contributions of millions of people in the lay community who contribute to the scientific process by volunteering in cooperation with scientists to help collect and discover information, tracing the history of citizen scientists and how they are reshaping scientific awareness.
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The thinking person's guide to climate change
by Robert Henson
Provides factual information about climate change, including what is happening to the environment now and what may happen in the future, how scientists study climate change, and what ordinary people can do about climate change
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| The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth KolbertIn its 4.54-billion-year history, Earth has experienced five mass extinctions -- and humans are on course to cause a sixth, according to New Yorker staff writer Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe. Traveling the world to talk to scientists, Kolbert describes the extinction events that ended previous geological epochs, all caused by natural phenomena ranging from impact events to glaciation. |
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Now or never : why we must act now to end climate change and create a sustainable future
by Tim F. Flannery
The best-selling author of The Weather Makers offers a powerful argument for immediate action on climate change and a wide-range of ideas to help solve the crisis, in a book that looks at all the major issues--from balancing energy demands and food supply in India and China to the possibility of a viable electric car that could spell the end of big oil.
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| Half-Earth: Our Planet's Fight for Life by Edward O. WilsonA mass extinction is under way, according to biologist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward O. Wilson. Only one-quarter to one-half of all species on Earth are likely to survive the 21st century and it is not guaranteed that Homo sapiens will be among them. Wilson's solution? Set aside 50 percent of the planet as wildlife preserves to counter rapidly decreasing biodiversity. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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