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Showing 1 - 20 of 94392 items
By Michael Harris. 2014
Only one generation in history (ours) will experience life both with and without the internet. For everyone who follows us,…
online life will simply be the air they breathe. Today, we revel in ubiquitous information and constant connection, rarely stopping to consider the implications for our logged-on lives. The author chronicles this massive shift, exploring what we've gained and lost in the bargain. He argues that our greatest loss has been that of absence itself -- of silence, wonder and solitude. Winner of the 2014 Governor General’s Award for Non-fiction. 2014.By Wade Davis. 1998
Davis examines the link between the diversity of our biological landscape and cultural diversity. He argues that the more we…
destroy the biological landscapes of the Earth, the more we cause diverse cultures to assimilate with the more mainstream cultures. Davis uses his travels around the world to illustrate his argument and shares stories of his time spent with a variety of peoples throughout the world. c1998.By Gwynne Dyer. 2008
Dwindling resources, massive population shifts, natural disasters, spreading epidemics. Drought, rising sea levels, plummeting agricultural yields, crashing economies and political…
extremism. These are some of the expected consequences of runaway climate change in the decades ahead, and any of them could tip the world towards conflict. 2008.By Jay Ingram. 1994
By Natalie Angier. 1996
Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer for the New York Times offers her essays on the beauty of organisms usually considered beastly,…
and the beastliness behind conventional icons of beauty in the natural world. Admitting she "anthropomorphizes shamelessly," she humorously discusses commonalities that humans share with other species. Topics include loving, adapting, healing, creating, and dying. Some descriptions of violence. 1995.A collection of humourous and surprising essays which examine the scientific explanation for certain human behaviours, the scientific world's attempts…
to re-examine history, including the Salem witch trials, and some of the stranger questions tackled by scientists. Sections on human behaviour, curiosities of life, science and history, natural battles and how things work are included. 1998.By Theresa Larsen Crenshaw. 1997
Identifies the role our hormones play in the different sexual stages, exploring the age-old concept of chemistry between the sexes…
and how hormones can determine the course of human relationships. Functions as both an encyclopedia of our attachment-related hormones, telling us exactly what they are and exactly what modern science thinks they do, and a guide to what we can do to get them to keep functioning the way we want them to. Descriptions of sex and some strong language. 1996.By Rick Smith, Bruce Lourie, Sarah Dopp. 2009
To prove that the most dangerous pollution comes from commonplace items in our homes and workplaces, Smith and Lourie ingested…
and inhaled these items for one week. They expose the miscreant corporate giants who manufacture the toxins, the weak-kneed government officials who let it happen, and the effects on people across the globe; they also describe the extent to which we are poisoned, from the simple household dust that is polluting our blood to the toxins in our urine that are created by run-of-the-mill shampoos and toothpaste. c2009.By Stuart Laidlaw. 2003
A vivid portrait of what modern industrial farming is, what it is doing to the environment, to farmers, to the…
plants and livestock we eat, and to us as consumers and as citizens. The author takes us from the dairy farms of Pennsylvania to Canada's prairie wheatfields, from the tomato greenhouses of southern Ontario to the potato fields of P.E.I. All along the way, he shows us food's secret ingredient - its hidden costs. 2003.By Shelley Tanaka, Peter Brand. 1999
Four mummies, from a mighty pharaoh to a poor weaver, are studied scientifically to reveal the lives and times of…
these three-thousand-year-old people. Also describes embalming and mummification, life in ancient Egypt, and the scientific techniques now used to study mummies. Grades 3-6. 1999.By Marq De Villiers, Sheila Hirtle. 2003
Description of the world's largest desert landscape and its inhabitants. Discusses the geography, natural cycles, and resilient life-forms of the…
sandy wilderness stretching across the broadest part of Africa. Covers the history of the Sahara's indigenous people--Berbers, Moors, and Tuareg--and the ancient kingdoms of past civilizations. 2003.By Erik Orsenna. 2005
By Andrew Hodges. 2007
Have you ever thought about the uniqueness and simplicity of One, or what it means to be Two? Is Four…
really so square and why are there Seven days of the week, Seven deadly sins, or even Seven wonders of the world? An investigation into such topics as musical harmony, code breaking, and probabilities in poker and lotteries, which probes the surprising symmetries of time, space, matter, and forces. c2007.By Diane Swanson. 2001
By Bob McDonald. 2000
A collection of essays that illuminate the author's scientific take on our world. With more than 25 years experience as…
a science journalist, McDonald has had the opportunity to meet some of the most important minds in modern science. Drawing from these experiences, he shares his alternative perception of nature. 2000.By Mathieu Bélisle. 2017
Lecture attentive de la grande et de la petite histoire de ce pays ainsi que de sa littérature, cet essai…
brosse le portrait de l'homme québécois moyen dont le défi, qui est aussi celui de l'Occident, consiste à supporter la tension entre Sancho Pança et son maître, entre l'horizon prosaïque et le goût du vertige et de la verticalité. L'honnêteté intellectuelle et la bienveillante ironie de l'essayiste - qui se définit comme un généraliste formé par la littérature et qui avoue se reconnaître dans cet homme moyen -, la sobriété de sa prose et de sa pensée en font un guide sûr pour voyager dans un pays où la vie ordinaire est pour les uns un point d'arrivée et pour les autres un point de départ. 2017.By Albert Camus. 1951
L'homme est la seule créature qui refuse d'être ce qu'elle est. La révolte est le mouvement de la vie. Inhérente…
à l'homme, elle manifeste sa grandeur devant l'absurdité du monde. L'auteur distingue révolte et révolution. La révolution se retourne contre ses origines et détruit l'humanité. 1985, c1951.By James Harkin. 2009
Once upon a time there were no text messaging, no e-mail and no social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and…
MySpace. The introduction of these new forums for communication has radically transformed the way that we live - and we can only guess what will come next. Describes the architecture of our digital life, how it has developed over the past seventy years, and how it will evolve in the future. Some strong language, some descriptions of violence and some descriptions of sex. c2009.By Alain Leygonie. 2016
Le langage est le seul outil que nous possédions pour décrire les odeurs. Impossible de les sculpter, de les mettre…
en musique, de les dessiner, de les peindre ou de les photographier. Patrick Süskind, qui sait de quoi il parle pour avoir consacré tout un roman au parfum (Le Parfum), prétend que notre langage ne vaut rien pour les décrire. C'est précisément en raison de cette difficulté qu'Alain Leygonie s'est lancé dans cette aventure. 37 odeurs abordées, les bonnes et les mauvaises. De l'odeur du fumier au parfum de la rose, en passant par l'odeur du tilleul, l'odeur de l'eau de javel, l'odeur d'Afrique, l'odeur du brouillard, l'odeur du feu de bois, l'odeur de la soupe, l'odeur de la poudre, l'odeur de l'argent, l'odeur de l'encens, l'odeur de la punaise et celle de l'eau de Cologne. Odeurs familières pour la plupart, choisies par la mémoire. Rien de tel que l'odeur pour restituer le passé. C'est à la recherche du temps passé de l'enfance en particulier que nous invite cet ouvrage. 2016.By Charles-Edouard Bouée, François Roche. 2017
Des machines plus intelligentes que l'homme ? Une utopie que les auteurs de science-fiction et les scénaristes d'Hollywood ont imaginée...…
mais que les progrès technologiques sont en passe de réaliser. Deux phénomènes se conjuguent : la puissance de calcul des superordinateurs augmente de façon exponentielle ; de nouveaux logiciels reproduisent le fonctionnement des neurones du cerveau humain et confèrent aux machines la faculté d'apprendre. Les systèmes pensants peupleront bientôt les domiciles, les entreprises, les usines, les administrations, les hôpitaux, les villes, les armées. Jusqu'où iront-ils dans leur degré d'autonomie et leur liberté de décision ? Quelle place les hommes préserveront-ils dans un univers contrôlé par les robots ? Après la bombe atomique, l'intelligence artificielle est-elle la deuxième arme létale inventée par l'homme et capable de le détruire ? La chute de l'empire humain retrace l'histoire méconnue de l'intelligence artificielle du point de vue du robot : c'est une machine qui raconte ici son aventure et dévoile les mystères de son long cheminement avec l'homme, jusqu'au combat final. 2017.