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Twenty-three women from 10 different countries whose careers span a half century of human spaceflight are profiled in this educational…
book for young readers. Women in Space features such figures as Sally Ride, the first American woman to orbit the earth; Peggy Whitson, who logged more than a year in orbit while aboard the International Space Station; Mae Jemison, the first African American woman in space; and astronauts from Japan, Canada, Italy, South Korea, and France. Additional attention is paid to the women of Mercury 13, a program that trained women in the same screening tests administered to the men who became the first astronauts at NASA. Space pioneer Valentina Tereshkova, who in 1963 became the first woman to rocket into space, is also profiled. These stories of the pilots, physicists, and doctors who broke the stratospheric ceiling demonstrate the vital role women have played in the history of space exploration.Reporting on a range of historical and contemporary female builders and designers, this educational book strives to inspire a new…
generation of girls in the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and math. With many of the profiles set against the backdrop of such landmark events as the women's suffrage and civil rights movements and the Industrial Revolution, and with original interviews from a number of current architects and engineers, this book provides inspiration and advice directly to young women by highlighting positive examples of how a strong work ethic, perseverance, and creativity can overcome life's obstacles. Each profile focuses on the strengths, passions, and interests each woman had growing up; where those traits took them; and what they achieved. Sidebars on related topics, source notes, and a bibliography make this an invaluable resource for further study.Path to the Stars: My Journey from Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist
By Sylvia Acevedo. 2018
The inspiring memoir for young readers about a Latina rocket scientist whose early life was transformed by joining the Girl…
Scouts and who currently serves as CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA.A meningitis outbreak in their underprivileged neighborhood left Sylvia Acevedo’s family forever altered. As she struggled in the aftermath of loss, young Sylvia’s life transformed when she joined the Brownies. The Girl Scouts taught her how to take control of her world and nourished her love of numbers and science. With new confidence, Sylvia navigated shifting cultural expectations at school and at home, forging her own trail to become one of the first Latinx to graduate with a master's in engineering from Stanford University and going on to become a rocket scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Simultaneously available in Spanish!The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom
By Graham Farmelo. 2009
Paul Dirac was among the great scientific geniuses of the modern age. One of the discoverers of quantum mechanics, the…
most revolutionary theory of the past century, his contributions had a unique insight, eloquence, clarity, and mathematical power. His prediction of antimatter was one of the greatest triumphs in the history of physics. One of Einstein's most admired colleagues, Dirac was in 1933 the youngest theoretician ever to win the Nobel Prize in physics. Dirac's personality is legendary. He was an extraordinarily reserved loner, relentlessly literal-minded and appeared to have no empathy with most people. Yet he was a family man and was intensely loyal to his friends. His tastes in the arts ranged from Beethoven to Cher, from Rembrandt to Mickey Mouse. Based on previously undiscovered archives, The Strangest Man reveals the many facets of Dirac's brilliantly original mind. A compelling human story, The Strangest Man also depicts a spectacularly exciting era in scientific history.Aviation: Cool Women Who Fly
By Carmella Van Vleet, Lena Chandhok. 2016
Have you ever looked up into the sky, seen an airplane, and wondered where it was going and who was…
flying it? Aviation is the study of the design, development and production, and operation of aircraft. In Aviation: Cool Women Who Fly, children ages 9 to 12 learn about this fascinating field and meet three successful women working in aviation. Meg Godlewski is a master certified flight instructor, Kristin Wolfe is a pilot in the Air Force, and Taylor McConnell is a production support engineer.Nomad Press books in the Girls in Science series supply a bridge between girls' interests and their potential futures by investigating science careers and introducing women who have succeeded in science. Compelling stories of real-life aviation experts provide readers with role models that they can look toward as examples of success.Aviation: Cool Women Who Fly uses engaging content, links to primary sources, and essential questions to whet kids' appetites for further exploration and study of aviation. This book explores the history of aviation, the women who helped pioneer flight, and the multitude of varied careers in this exciting and important field. Both boys and girls are encouraged to let their imaginations and dreams soar.Caminando el Amazonas
By Ed Stafford. 2011
La apasionante narración del histórico recorrido de un hombre a lo largo de todo el Amazonas--y a través del medio…
ambiente de mayor diversidad biológica del planeta. En abril del 2008, Ed Stafford inició su trayecto para convertirse en el primer hombre en caminar por todo lo largo del Amazonas. Comenzó en la costa pacífica del Perú, y cruzó la cordillera de los Andes para encontrar la fuente oficial del río. Su viaje lo condujo a través de partes de Colombia y por medio del Brasil, mientras burlaba animales peligrosos e indígenas de machete en ristre, al tiempo que sufría lesiones, se enfrentaba al clima y confrontaba sus propios temores y dudas. Pero Stafford no se dio por vencido. En su agotador viaje de 860 días y más de 4,000 millas, Stafford fue testigo directo de la devastación de la deforestación selvática, de la presión con que viven las tribus a causa de la pérdida de su medio ambiente natural, así como de la naturaleza en su manifestación más genuina y cruda. Caminando el Amazonas, asombroso de principio a fin, es tan apasionante como los libros de Bill Bryson, Jon Krakauer y David Grann Caminando el Amazonas es la historia inolvidable de una aventura sin precedente.You're not a little kid anymore. As a young adult, you have important decisions to make. Your growing independence and…
your developing sexuality are part of the thrill and joy of being a teen--but these factors also mean you have to take responsibility for your own life. Your parents can't do it all for you Some teenagers choose to have sex--and others wait. Some teens who opt for sex will also opt for contraception--but others will not. Others will get pregnant even while using contraception. Once pregnant, teens have still more difficult decisions to make about abortion, adoption, and parenthood. These are all life-changing decisions. This book will give you the facts you need to make thoughtful and informed choices in this important area of your life. At whatever level you're at right now--whether you're exploring the basic facts about sexuality, choosing whether to have sex now or wait, deciding on a form of birth control that's right for you, or needing to learn more about pregnancy and the decisions it involves--each chapter offers you the information you need in an easy-to-read package. Then it's up to you to take responsibility.About What Was Lost
By Jessica Berger Gross. 2007
In this intimate anthology, twenty writers explore the grief and sadness--and hope--that living through a miscarriage can bring. Featuring such…
notable writers as Pam Houston, Joyce Maynard, Caroline Leavitt, Susanna Sonnenberg, and Julianna Baggott, among many others, About What Was Lost is the only book that uses honest, eloquent, and deeply moving narrative to provide much-needed solace and support on the subject of pregnancy loss. Today, as many as one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage. And yet, many women are surprised to find that instead of simply grieving the end of a pregnancy, they feel as if they are mourning the loss of a child. Taken aback by their sorrow, they seek solace in similar perspectives--only to find that a silence and lingering stigma surrounds the topic. Revealing a wide spectrum of experiences and perspectives, this powerful collection offers comfort and community for the millions of women (and their loved ones) who experience this all-too-common kind of loss every year.Gary Jobson
By Gary Jobson, Cynthia Goss. 2011
For Gary Jobson-the three-time All American sailor, America's Cup winner, Fastnet Race winner, and ESPN sailing commentator since 1985-sailing is…
life. In 2003, he was diagnosed with lymphoma, and here he relays the tumultuous diagnosis and treatments endured before the cancer went into remission. Through remission he remembers how his life has intertwined with some of the greatest sailors, how the sport has changed since his childhood, how the public view of sailing went through a revolutionary change with the advent of ESPN, how sailing can create lasting bonds of friendship that endure, and how sailing offers everything from the highest of adventures to the simplest of pleasures. This uplifting memoir also includes a foreword by Ted Turner.Breakthrough!: How Three People Saved "Blue Babies" and Changed Medicine Forever
By Jim Murphy. 2015
In 1944 a groundbreaking operation repaired the congenital heart defect known as blue baby syndrome. The operation's success brought the…
surgeon Alfred Blalock international fame and paved the way for open-heart surgery. But the technique had been painstakingly developed by Vivien Thomas, Blalock's African American lab assistant, who stood behind Blalock in the operating room to give him step-by-step instructions. The stories of this medical and social breakthrough and the lives of Thomas, Blalock, and their colleague Dr. Helen Taussig are intertwined in this compelling nonfiction narrative.Labor of Love: Gestational Surrogacy and the Work of Making Babies
By Heather Jacobson. 2016
While the practice of surrogacy has existed for millennia, new fertility technologies have allowed women to act as gestational surrogates,…
carrying children that are not genetically their own. While some women volunteer to act as gestational surrogates for friends or family members, others get paid for performing this service. The first ethnographic study of gestational surrogacy in the United States, Labor of Love examines the conflicted attitudes that emerge when the ostensibly priceless act of bringing a child into the world becomes a paid occupation. Heather Jacobson interviews not only surrogate mothers, but also their family members, the intended parents who employ surrogates, and the various professionals who work to facilitate the process. Seeking to understand how gestational surrogates perceive their vocation, she discovers that many regard surrogacy as a calling, but are reluctant to describe it as a job. In the process, Jacobson dissects the complex set of social attitudes underlying this resistance toward conceiving of pregnancy as a form of employment. Through her extensive field research, Jacobson gives readers a firsthand look at the many challenges faced by gestational surrogates, who deal with complicated medical procedures, delicate work-family balances, and tricky social dynamics. Yet Labor of Love also demonstrates the extent to which advances in reproductive technology are affecting all Americans, changing how we think about maternity, family, and the labor involved in giving birth. For more, visit http://www.heatherjacobsononline.com/Moth and Wasp, Soil and Ocean: Remembering Chinese Scientist Pu Zhelong
By Sigrid Schmalzer, Melanie Linden Chan. 2018
Moth and Wasp, Soil and Ocean tells its story through the memories of a farm boy who, inspired by Pu…
Zhelong, became a scientist himself. The narrator is a composite of people Pu Zhelong influenced in his work. With further context from Melanie Chan’s historically precise watercolors, this story will immerse young readers in Chinese culture, the natural history of insects, and the use of biological controls in farming. Backmatter provides context and background for this lovely, sophisticated picture book about nature, science, and Communist China. “The first time I saw a scientist in my village was also the first time I saw a wasp hatch out of a moth’s egg,” writes the narrator of this picture book about Chinese scientist Pu Zhelong. “In that moment I could not have said which was the more unexpected—or the more miraculous.” In the early 1960s, while Rachel Carson was writing and defending Silent Spring in the U.S., Pu Zhelong was teaching peasants in Mao Zedong’s Communist China how to forgo pesticides and instead use parasitic wasps to control the moths that were decimating crops and contributing to China’s widespread famine. This story told through the memories of a farm boy (a composite of people inspired by Pu Zhelong) will immerse young readers in Chinese culture, the natural history of insects, and sustainable agriculture. Backmatter provides historical context for this lovely, sophisticated picture book. The author, Sigrid Schmalzer, won the Joseph Levenson Post-1900 Book Prize for 2018 for her book Red Revolution, Green Revolution. This is the most prestigious prize for a book about Chinese history, and the book upon which Moth and Wasp, Soil and Ocean is based. Fountas & Pinnell Level UOne Mountain Thousand Summits: The Untold Story of Tragedy and True Heroism on K2
By Freddie Wilkinson. 2010
An insider's account of one of the deadliest and most controversial tragedies in mountaineering history-the 2008 K2 disaster. When eleven…
men perished on the slopes of K2 in August 2008, it was one of the deadliest single events in Himalayan climbing and made headlines around the world. Yet non of the surviving western climbers could explain precisely what happened. Their memories were self-admittedly fogged by exhaustion, hypoxia, and hallucinations. The truth of what happened lies with four Sherpa guides who were largely ignored by the mainstream media in the aftermath of the tragedy, who lost two of their own during the incident, and whose heroic efforts saved the lives of at least four climbers. Based on his numerous trips to Nepal and in-depth interviews he conducted with these unacknowledged heroes, the other survivors, and the families of the lost climbers, alpinist and veteran climbing writer Freddie Wilkinson presents the true story of what actually occurred on the "savage" mountain. This work combines a criticism of the mainstream press's less-than-complete coverage of the tragedy and an insightful portrait of the lives of 21st-century Sherpas into an intelligent, white-knuckled adventure narrative. .A Life Decoded: My Genome: My Life
By J. Craig Venter. 2007
The triumphant memoir of the man behind one of the greatest feats in scientific historyOf all the scientific achievements of…
the past century, perhaps none can match the deciphering of the human genetic code, both for its technical brilliance and for its implications for our future. In A Life Decoded, J. Craig Venter traces his rise from an uninspired student to one of the most fascinating and controversial figures in science today. Here, Venter relates the unparalleled drama of the quest to decode the human genome-a goal he predicted he could achieve years earlier and more cheaply than the government-sponsored Human Genome Project, and one that he fulfilled in 2001. A thrilling story of detection, A Life Decoded is also a revealing, and often troubling, look at how science is practiced today.The Post-Pregnancy Handbook
By Sylvia Brown, Mary Dowd Struck. 2002
While a number of books exist which deal with various aspects of the postnatal experience - breastfeeding, exercise, motherhood, post-partum…
depression - this is the first complete source of information on what a woman experiences both physically and emotionally in the days, weeks and months after childbirth. It is also the only book in its field which balances medical advice with practical tips and numerous references to alternative remedies. From Sylvia Brown, a mother, and Mary Dowd Struck, RN,MS,CNM, a nurse/midwife, comes The Post-Pregnancy Handbook, a wonderfully comprehensive, honest self-help guide which every new (and repeat) mother should keep by her bedside. Brown and Struck give detailed guidance on: The First Few Days - alleviating discomfort from the after-effects of labor or a ceasarian - making the hospital stay more pleasant- coping with possible medical complications The First Few Weeks - organizing home life with a new baby - surviving fatigue- breastfeeding successfully - managing older siblings, parents and friends- introducing a new dimension to the couple (returning to sex after childbirth)- navigating the new mother's dietary needs- identifying and overcoming a range of emotional difficulties from "baby blues" to severe postnatal depression- dealing with stress, guilt and that elusive maternal instinct The First Year- achieving a complete physical recovery: how to get back into shape from the inside out - restoring strength and tone to the pelvic floor- countering the legacies of pregnancy: problems with hair, skin, and varicose veinsA thorough, straightforward guide to helping the new mother achieve an effective and harmonious recovery.Planet Hunter: Geoff Marcy and the Search for Other Earths
By Vicki O. Wittenstein. 2010
He has discovered more planets than anyone in history. In this inspiring true story, winner of the American Institute of…
Physics Award, Geoff Marcy's love of space helped him overcome struggles in his studies until finally he became an astronomer. But he was not on track to make major discoveries. Eventually, he went back to the questions that thrilled him as a boy: Are we alone? Do Earth-like planets orbit the stars in the night sky? It would not be easy to find a planet outside our solar system. Others had tried and failed. But Marcy never gave up. Since 1995, he and his colleagues have discovered nearly half of the 380 known "extrasolar" planets. Stunning paintings transport the reader to the exotic worlds that he and others have found.Meet 21 determined women who have dedicated their lives to healing others. In the 19th century, Florence Nightingale and Clara…
Barton—the "Lady with the Lamp" and the "Angel of the Battlefield"—earned their nicknames by daring to enter battlefields to aid wounded soldiers, forever changing the standards of medicine. Modern-day medical heroines such as Bonnie Simpson Mason, who harnessed the challenges of her chronic illness and founded an organization to introduce women and minorities to orthopedic surgery, and Kathy Magliato, who jumped the hurdles to become a talented surgeon in the male-dominated arena of heart transplants, will inspire any young reader interested in the art, science, and lifechanging applications of medicine. Lovers of adventure will follow Mary Carson Breckinridge, the "nurse on horseback" who delivered babies in the Appalachian Mountains and believed that everyone, including our poorest and most vulnerable citizens, deserve good health care, and Jerri Nielsen, the doctor stationed in Antarctica who, cut off from help, had to bravely treat her own breast cancer. These and 15 other daring women inspire with their courage, persistence, and belief in the power of both science and compassion.Packed with photos and informative sidebars and including source notes and a bibliography, Bold Women of Medicine is an invaluable addition to any student's or aspiring doctor or nurse's bookshelf.Rocket Man: Robert H. Goddard and the Birth of the Space Age
By David A. Clary. 2003
More famous in his day than Einstein or Edison, the troubled, solitary genius Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945) was the American…
father of rocketry and space flight, launching the world's first liquid-fuel rockets and the first powered vehicles to break the sound barrier. Supported by Charles Lindbergh and Harry Guggenheim, through fiery, often explosive, experiments at Roswell, New Mexico, he invented the methods that carried men to the moon. Today, no rocket or jet plane can fly without using his inventions. Yet he is the "forgotten man" of the space age. His own government ignored his rocketry until the Germans demonstrated its principles in the V-2 missiles of World War II. The American government usurped his 214 patents, while suppressing his contributions in the name of national security, until it was forced to pay one million dollars for patent infringement. Goddard became famous again, monuments and medals raining upon his memory. But his renewed fame soon faded, and Goddard's pivotal role in launching the Space Age has been largely forgotten.Rocket Man: Robert H. Goddard and the Birth of the Space Age
By David A. Clary. 2003
More famous in his day than Einstein or Edison, the troubled, solitary genius Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945) was the American…
father of rocketry and space flight, launching the world's first liquid-fuel rockets and the first powered vehicles to break the sound barrier. Supported by Charles Lindbergh and Harry Guggenheim, through fiery, often explosive, experiments at Roswell, New Mexico, he invented the methods that carried men to the moon. Today, no rocket or jet plane can fly without using his inventions. Yet he is the "forgotten man" of the space age. His own government ignored his rocketry until the Germans demonstrated its principles in the V-2 missiles of World War II. The American government usurped his 214 patents, while suppressing his contributions in the name of national security, until it was forced to pay one million dollars for patent infringement. Goddard became famous again, monuments and medals raining upon his memory. But his renewed fame soon faded, and Goddard's pivotal role in launching the Space Age has been largely forgotten.Me ... Jane
By Patrick Mcdonnell. 2011
The "New York Times"-bestselling author of "The Gift of Nothing" presents an inspiring story of the young Jane Goodall and…
her special childhood toy chimpanzee. With anecdotes taken directly from Goodall's autobiography, McDonnell makes this very true story accessible for the very young.