Publisher: Riverhead Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/05/2010
ISBN-13: 9781594487712
ISBN-10: 1594487715

Isolation does not lead to innovation, says science writer Steven Johnson. While we love the idea of the solitary genius who has a "Eureka!" moment, good ideas are far more likely to emerge from collaboration in environments that foster creativity and risk-taking. So what does innovation need in order to thrive? Johnson outlines seven general patterns: the adjacent possible, liquid networks, the slow hunch, serendipity, error, exaptation, and emergent platforms. This free-ranging book, which touches on subjects ranging from Darwin to Google, may appeal to fans of Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, which also attributes success to background factors.

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Publisher: Little, Brown
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/07/2008
ISBN-13: 9780316016407
ISBN-10: 0316016403

Documents the author's professional battles with Stephen Hawking and Gerard 't Hooft over their theories about black holes, a conflict that has significantly influenced the modern scientific community's understanding of the universe's fundamental laws. By the author of The Cosmic Landscape.

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Publisher: Viking
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/23/2010
ISBN-13: 9780670022168
ISBN-10: 0670022160

Numbers may not lie, but the people who use them can--and do. In Proofiness, mathematician Charles Seife discusses some of the mathematical deceptions out there, both self-inflicted and perpetrated by unscrupulous individuals. These include outright falsifications such as Potemkin numbers, "randumbness" (seeking patterns in random events), and savvy numerical manipulations--including the "fruit-packing" operations of cherry-picking data, apple polishing (i.e. giving technically correct but misleading numbers), and comparing apples with oranges. To learn more about statistics and misinformation, try The Numbers Game by Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot.

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Publisher: MIT Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/30/2009
ISBN-13: 9780262013109
ISBN-10: 026201310X

Publisher: Harper
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/02/2010
ISBN-13: 9780061702587
ISBN-10: 0061702587

Having explored the origins of the Oxford English Dictionary in The Professor and the Madman, author Simon Winchester now dives into an equally vast subject: the Atlantic Ocean. Born less than 100 million years ago in the basin that formed when Africa and South America drifted apart, the Atlantic has played a prominent role in the development of modern Western civilization ever since humans "discovered" it a few thousand years ago. Combining geology, history, and personal reflection, Winchester (who's also a sailing enthusiast) presents a biography of a living ocean that continues to evolve.

Publisher: Firefly Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/10/2008
ISBN-13: 9781554073986
ISBN-10: 1554073987

A comprehensive guide filled with vibrant illustrations and detailed maps captures this wondrous and remote land of ice and snow, with up-to-date information on its climate, the nature of ice, its famous explorers, conservation issues, geology, geography, and the animals who call it home.

Publisher: Harcourt
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/08/2007
ISBN-13: 9780156032544
ISBN-10: 0156032546

AVALANCHE! Fun to say, but not so fun if you're unlucky enough to get caught in one. So what causes an avalanche? Is it possible to predict them? What do you do if you're buried in one? In Snowstruck, avalanche expert Jill A. Fredston, who with her husband founded the Alaska Mountain Safety Center, explains the science of avalanches, while sharing thrilling (and sometimes tragic) stories of rescue operations. Can't get enough of the white stuff? Check out Gary Krist's The White Cascade, about a 1910 railway disaster caused by the deadliest avalanche in American history.

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Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/23/2009
ISBN-13: 9780618777099
ISBN-10: 0618777091

Provides middle readers with a fascinating look at how scientists conduct research on bowhead whales in remote Barrow, Alaska, and the incredible discoveries that have been made throughout the years.

Publisher: Avery
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/15/2009
ISBN-13: 9781583333570
ISBN-10: 1583333576

Due to its sensitivity, ice is an important indicator of climate change. So when it starts melting, we should start worrying. In A World Without Ice, geophysicist Henry Pollack, advisor to the National Science Foundation and a member of the Nobel Prize-winning UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, explores the scientific properties of ice and the consequences of its disappearance. It won't be pretty: loss of glaciers will lead to a corresponding loss of agricultural and drinking water for as much as a quarter of the Earth's population and by the end of the 21st century, sea level could rise anywhere from three to six feet--displacing 100 million people. Although Pollack's forecast is grim, he lays out clear, accessible information about a complex, often confusing topic.

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Publisher: Little, Brown
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/22/2009
ISBN-13: 9780316042918
ISBN-10: 0316042919

As the chair of the North Slope Science Initiative's Science Technical Advisory Panel, Bill Streever knows cold--and in this anecdote-rich compendium of all things frozen, the Alaska-based biologist sets out to prove it, starting by immersing himself in 35-degree water to explain the difference between hypothermia and frostbite. While Streever looks at the physical and geological properties of ice and snow, he also describes their role in human history, from polar expeditions (both successful and tragic) to the composition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to the Schoolchildren's Blizzard of 1888, the onset of which was so sudden that it froze grazing cattle in place. Kirkus Reviews calls Cold a "seamless blend of travelogue, history and scientific treatise."