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Silicon city: San Francisco in the long shadow of the valley (ITK audio)
By Cary McClelland. 2018
The tech boom of our time is changing San Francisco at warp speed. Famously home to artists and activists, and…
known as the birthplace of the Beats, the Black Panthers, and the LGBTQ movement, the Bay Area has been transformed by Silicon Valley. But the richer the region gets, the more unequal and less diverse it becomes, and the cracks in the city's facade begin to show. Inspired by Studs Terkel's classic works of oral history, writer and filmmaker Cary McClelland has spent several years interviewing people at the epicenter of the Bay Area's rapid change: tech innovators, venture capitalists, coders, homeless advocates, pawn brokers, prosecutors and public defenders, tattoo artists, and tour guides. Silicon City masterfully weaves together their voices and unforgettable stories to create a dynamic portrait of a beloved city and a cautionary tale for the entire country. 2018.Strange new worlds: the search for alien planets and life beyond our solar system
By Ray Jayawardhana. 2011
After millennia of musings and a century of false claims, astronomers have found hundreds of planets around other stars since…
1995, and at the crux of the astronomers’ pursuit is one basic question: Is our solar system, with planets in circular orbits, gas giants in the outer realm and at least one warm, wet, rocky world teeming with life, the exception or the norm? Astronomers expect to find alien earths by the dozens within the next three years, and to look for signs of life before this decade is out. If they succeed, the ramifications for all areas of human thought and endeavour - from religion and philosophy to art and biology - are profound, if not revolutionary. c2011.Shadows in the sun: Travels To Landscapes Of Spirit And Desire
By Wade Davis. 1992
The diversity of humankind and the relationship to landscape, from the high Arctic and the northern forests to the swamps…
of the Orinoco, is hunted, gathered and appreciated here by Davis. He recounts a dozen journeys, some in search of ethnobotanicals; others for spiritual and poetic influences. 1992.Streampunks: YouTube and the rebels remaking media
By Robert Kyncl, Maany Peyvan. 2017
Storms of controversy: the secret Avro Arrow files revealed
By Palmiro Campagna. 1997
Campagna examines the myths and legends left by the Avro Arrow jet fighter and its cancellation in 1959. Using newly-released…
documents and photos, he discusses the reasons why the Canadian government terminated the Arrow program, including the involvement of the United States. 1997.Storm kings: the untold history of America's first tornado chasers
By Lee Sandlin. 2013
Sandlin brings readers a riveting true account of supercell tornadoes. Re-creating some of the most destructive storms in America's history,…
this narrative delves into the origins of meteorology, as well as the harrowing adventures of the weather-obsessed scientists whose dedication to their profession changed a nation. 2013.Stonehenge: Neolithic man and the cosmos
By John David North. 1996
There have been many attempts to explain the purpose of Stonehenge. Using archaeological detail and a knowledge of the heavens…
as they were many millennia ago, the author establishes the function of the stones themselves and what can be known of the religion that caused them to be erected. 1996.Social media 101: tactics and tips to develop your business online (Your coach in a box)
By Chris Brogan. 2010
Snowy science: 25 cool experiments
By Shar Levine, Leslie Johnstone. 2011
Kids can learn to make their own ice cream, create an indoor avalanche and pick up an ice cube with…
just a piece of string. Also included are fun facts about icebergs, frost, "orange" snow and lots more ‘cool’ winter science! Grades 2-4. 2011.Starman: the truth behind the legend of Yuri Gagarin
By Jamie Doran. 1999
In April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in history to leave the Earth's atmosphere and venture into space.…
An icon of the 20th century, he also became a danger to himself and a threat to the Soviet state until he was killed in a plane crash at the age of 34. The book is based on material from sensitive KGB files and restricted documents from the Russian space authorities. 1999.Chilling and absorbing account of a week spent by the author at the famed Livermore nuclear lab in California. Describes…
the young scientists absorbed in making futuristic space weapons with lasers, particle beams, and microwaves. 1985.SportScience: physical laws and optimum performance
By Peter J Brancazio. 1984
Space odyssey: the first forty years of space exploration
By Stephen Lyle, Serge Brunier. 2000
French journalist chronicles the landmark achievements of humankind's space ventures from Yuri Gagarin's inaugural flight and Neil Armstrong's first steps…
on the moon to twenty-first-century Mars probes. Discusses Russian and American missions, technological developments, the International Space Station, challenges posed by deep space exploration, and more. 2000. Uniform title: Odyssée de l'espace.Slow death by rubber duck: how the toxic chemistry of everyday life affects our health
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.Simplexity: why simple things become complex (and how complex things can be made simple)
By Jeffrey Kluger. 2008
Frustrated by the traffic on narrow bridges? Stunned by the number of buttons on a remote control? Saddened by the…
lack of basic medical care in the developing world? Kluger makes the modern world comprehensible, analyzing social and technological systems to reveal that things that seem complicated can be preposterously simple; things that seem simple can be dizzyingly complex. c2008.Signor Marconi's magic box: how an amateur inventor defied scientists and began the radio revolution
By Gavin Weightman. 2003
On a winter's evening in the East End of London in 1896, an unassuming young Italian gave the first public…
demonstration of a device he had created in the attic of his family home near Bologna. It consisted of two wooden boxes, one of which could apparently transmit messages to the other. Many of those in the audience suspected that they were witnessing a mere conjuring trick. None can have guessed that Signor Marconi's magic box would be regarded as the most remarkable invention of the nineteenth century, and that he himself would become one of the most famous men in the world. 2003.Shenfan
By William Hinton. 1983
She has her mother's laugh: the powers, perversions, and potential of heredity
By Carl Zimmer. 2018
Presents a profoundly original perspective on what we pass along from generation to generation. Charles Darwin played a crucial part…
in turning heredity into a scientific question, and yet he failed spectacularly to answer it. The birth of genetics in the early 1900s seemed to do precisely that. Gradually, people translated their old notions about heredity into a language of genes. As the technology for studying genes became cheaper, millions of people ordered genetic tests to link themselves to missing parents, to distant ancestors, to ethnic identities. But, Zimmer writes, "Each of us carries an amalgam of fragments of DNA, stitched together from some of our many ancestors. Each piece has its own ancestry, traveling a different path back through human history. A particular fragment may sometimes be cause for worry, but most of our DNA influences who we are--our appearance, our height, our penchants--in inconceivably subtle ways." Heredity isn't just about genes that pass from parent to child. Heredity continues within our own bodies, as a single cell gives rise to trillions of cells that make up our bodies. We say we inherit genes from our ancestors--using a word that once referred to kingdoms and estates--but we inherit other things that matter as much or more to our lives, from microbes to technologies we use to make life more comfortable. We need a new definition of what heredity really is. 2018.Seven wonders of the industrial world
By Deborah Cadbury. 2004
Deborah Cadbury explores the history behind the epic monuments that spanned the industrial revolution from Brunel's extraordinary Great Eastern, the…
Titanic of its day that joined the two ends of the empire, to the Panama Canal, that linked the Atlantic and Pacific oceans half a century later. 2004.Sea of slaughter
By Farley Mowat. 1984
Mowat examines the extermination and mass reduction of wildlife in North America, from the 16th century to the present. He…
reserves most of his wrath for the federal government which takes so long to act against the slaughter.