Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/03/2013
ISBN-13: 9780393239881
ISBN-10: 0393239888

Confessing that "I know shamefully little about how my body actually works," science writer Hugh Aldersey-Williams sets out to remedy his ignorance. In addition to consulting textbooks and physicians, he also visits art museums and cadaver dissections to understand not only how the human body works but also how our understanding of it has evolved over time. Divided into chapters focusing on individual body parts and stuffed with intriguing, often eye-opening anecdotes -- from instructions for making a shrunken head to one food critic's use of his own fat as an ingredient in cake icing -- this comprehensive cultural survey of the body blends art, biology, history, philosophy, pop culture, and technology in an offbeat, engaging manner that should appeal to fans of Mary Roach's work.

Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/21/2013
ISBN-13: 9781250019066
ISBN-10: 1250019060

No stranger to the stranger side of science, Brian Clegg -- author of such works as How to Build a Time Machine: The Real Science of Time Travel and Upgrade Me: Our Amazing Journey to Human 2.0 -- here focuses on "parapsychology," a term he uses to describe "abilities that go beyond the everyday (and still remarkable) capabilities of the brain." Why ESP and not UFOs? According to Clegg, telepathy and other powers of the mind are unique in that they could conceivably have physical explanations that fall within the scope of science -- meaning that they could be proved or disproved by experimentation. In this book, Clegg examines researchers' attempts to apply the scientific method to unexplained, possibly unexplainable phenomena.

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Publisher: Bloomsbury Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/11/2013
ISBN-13: 9781608196920
ISBN-10: 1608196925

Although global sea-level fluctuations have shaped Earth throughout nearly its entire history, only recently have the consequences of rising sea levels become truly dire (among these are catastrophic natural disasters and environmental refugees). As anthropologist Brian Fagan explains, human activity has accelerated climate change while human population increases place a greater number of individuals in danger, as more and more people cluster in densely populated, soon-to-be inundated coastal cities. Drawing on geological studies, archaeological discoveries, and current research data, this persuasive, richly detailed account also includes two tables of contents -- one chronological, one geographical -- enabling readers to explore the narrative in the manner of their choosing.

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Publisher: Harper Perennial
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/28/2013
ISBN-13: 9780062225207
ISBN-10: 0062225200

Time is precise and measurable, an objective reality: the caesium clock located at the National Institute of Standards and Technology is so accurate that it will neither gain nor lose even a second over the next 60 million years. How we perceive time, on the other hand, is flexible, very subjective, and often paradoxical -- it seems to speed up or slow down depending on our circumstances. And, despite the fact that humans possess no single organ dedicated to the perception of time, our minds and bodies can sense its passing even with a lack of physical clues. Drawing on current research in psychology, neuroscience and biology, this thought-provoking book by award-winning science writer Claudia Hammond will engage readers from the moment they open the book and entertain them for hours.

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Publisher: Harper
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/11/2013
ISBN-13: 9780062015884
ISBN-10: 0062015885

"Much of what we are doing in terms of drug education, treatment, and public policy is inconsistent with scientific data," argues neuropsychopharmacologist Carl Hart. For decades, he has studied the effects of drugs on human behavior and physiology and come to some surprising conclusions. Interwoven with Hart's research is his life story. Raised in an impoverished, predominantly African-American community in Miami, Hart overcame the odds against him and became a university professor. Using his scientific background to explore questions such as "What is addiction?" he challenges many widespread (but incorrect) assumptions regarding illegal drugs and the individuals who use them, pointing out that our collective misunderstandings are detrimental to already marginalized populations.

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Publisher: Basic Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/04/2013
ISBN-13: 9780465029822
ISBN-10: 0465029825

What does it mean to be human? Using this question as his starting point, influential developmental psychologist Jerome Kagan surveys the contemporary landscape of research into human development, offering cogent critiques of neuroscience, genetics, and evolutionary psychology as they relate to human behavior. Much of what we think we know about "the forces that transform infants into children, children into adolescents, and adolescents into adults" are not supported by empirical research, argues Kagan. As he outlines the assumptions and methodologies of modern psychology, he encourages readers to think critically about what they do -- and what they're told to do by others.

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Publisher: Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/22/2012
ISBN-13: 9780374288730
ISBN-10: 0374288739

Although plants have no eyes, they can "see" -- in fact, they constantly monitor their visual environment (although they're effectively deaf, so there's no need to sing to them). They also respond to touch, determine which direction is up, self-medicate, and "remember." In fact, claims Daniel Chamovitz, director of the Manna Center for Plant Biosciences at Tel Aviv University, plants display a variety of behaviors analogous to human sensory experience, despite the absence of a brain or central nervous system. In this book, Chamovitz provides detailed descriptions of plants' perceptions of light, moisture, temperature, and chemical processes, as well as their ability to respond to these stimuli.

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Publisher: Scribner
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/24/2012
ISBN-13: 9781439193549
ISBN-10: 1439193541

Without trees, the United States of America would not exist. In American Canopy, author Eric Rutkow, an environmental lawyer and historian, explains how the nation's history is inextricably linked to its millions of acres of forest. North America's colonization by Europeans was spurred in large part by an insatiable demand for timber, and the United States' subsequent rise to power would have been impossible without the trees that furnished the raw materials for railroads, stockyards, dockyards, barges, wagons, trains, telephone lines, and newspapers. Moreover, trees remain crucial to the country's future: 20 perecent of freshwater reserves originate in U.S. forests, whose potential as a weapon against climate change is threatened by the average American's annual consumption of 250 board feet of lumber and 700 pounds of paper.

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Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/23/2010
ISBN-13: 9780143116899
ISBN-10: 0143116894

If you enjoy Shasta daisies or Russet potatoes, thank Luther Burbank. Known as the "Edison of the Garden," Burbank developed more than 800 varieties of plants over the course of his 55-year career as a horticulturalist. Dividing his efforts between the practical (spineless cacti for cattle feed) and the offbeat (white blackberries), Burbank never got rich from his inventions (laws permitting patents for plants were passed after his death). However, his efforts would revolutionize the produce sections of markets worldwide. In addition to providing a look at Burbank's life and work, The Garden of Invention also offers a fascinating portrait of the era in which agriculture became a science.

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Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/21/2009
ISBN-13: 9781565126831
ISBN-10: 1565126831

From sturdy South American vines whose toxic sap is used to make lethal arrowheads to delicate-looking herbs such as white snakeroot, which when ingested by cows poisons their milk (and the people who drink it), plants can be as dangerous as they are beautiful. In this book, Amy Stewart, author of Flower Confidential and the proud owner of a "poison garden" full of toxic plants, has created an A-to-Z guide to the flowers, seeds, shrubs, vines, and weeds that "kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend." With original etchings by Briony Morrow-Cribbs, Wicked Plants provides a fascinating glimpse into the dark side of botany.

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