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To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight
By James Tobin. 2003
James Tobin, award-winning author of Ernie Pyle's War and The Man He Became, has penned the definitive account of the…
inspiring and impassioned race between the Wright brothers and their primary rival Samuel Langley across ten years and two continents to conquer the air.For years, Wilbur Wright and his younger brother, Orville, experimented in obscurity, supported only by their exceptional family. Meanwhile, the world watched as Samuel Langley, armed with a contract from the US War Department and all the resources of the Smithsonian Institution, sought to create the first manned flying machine. But while Langley saw flight as a problem of power, the Wrights saw a problem of balance. Thus their machines took two very different paths--Langley's toward oblivion, the Wrights' toward the heavens--though not before facing countless other obstacles. With a historian's accuracy and a novelist's eye, Tobin has captured an extraordinary moment in history. To Conquer the Air is itself a heroic achievement.Teaching the Cat to Sit: A Memoir
By Michelle Theall. 2014
A compelling memoir of a gay Catholic woman struggling to find balance between being a daughter and a mother raising…
her son with a loving partner in the face of discrimination.From the time she was born, Michelle Theall knew she was different. Coming of age in the Texas Bible Belt, a place where it was unacceptable to be gay, Theall found herself at odds with her strict Roman Catholic parents, bullied by her classmates, abandoned by her evangelical best friend whose mother spoke in tongues, and kicked out of Christian organizations that claimed to embrace her--all before she'd ever held a girl's hand. Shame and her longing for her mother's acceptance led her to deny her feelings and eventually run away to a remote stretch of mountains in Colorado. There, she made her home on an elk migration path facing the Continental Divide, speaking to God every day, but rarely seeing another human being. At forty-three years of age and seemingly settled in her decision to live life openly as a gay woman, Theall and her partner attempt to have their son baptized into the Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church in the liberal town of Boulder, Colorado. Her quest to have her son accepted into the Church leads to a battle with Sacred Heart and with her mother that leaves her questioning everything she thought she knew about the bonds of family and faith. And she realizes that in order to be a good mother, she may have to be a bad daughter. Teaching the Cat to Sit examines the modern roles of motherhood and religion and demonstrates that our infinite capacity to love has the power to shape us all.Malignant Metaphor: Confronting Cancer Myths
By Alanna Mitchell. 2017
Clear medical explanations will bring comfort to those readers and their loved ones facing…
a cancer diagnosis Publishers Weekly A Finalist for the Lane Anderson Award for Science Writing Alanna Mitchell explores the facts and myths about cancer in this powerful book as she recounts her family s experiences with the disease When her beloved brother-in-law John is diagnosed with malignant melanoma Alanna throws herself into the latest clinical research providing us with a clear description of what scientists know of cancer and its treatments When John enters the world of alternative treatments Alanna does too looking for the science in untested waters She comes face to face with the misconceptions we share about cancer which are rooted in blame and anxiety and opens the door to new ways of looking at our most-feared illness Beautifully written Malignant Metaphor is a compassionate and persuasive book that has the power to change the conversation about cancer Mitchell s research is rooted in science while her writing remains grippingly personal Quill QuireTweaked: A Crystal Memoir
By Patrick Moore. 2006
"There are moments when I suddenly realize that I'm a nice boy from Iowa who is entirely comfortable sitting in…
a room of freaks. " So begins Patrick Moore's unforgettable account of life as a crystal meth addict—a "tweaker. " Like a wild ride down Alice's rabbit hole with a guide who is darkly funny and heartbreakingly honest, Tweaked chronicles a twenty-year trip that stretches from Moore's lonely childhood in Iowa with his grandmother, Zelma—an alcoholic artist who, when loaded, turns frozen food into crafts projects —to the day he sits, naked, in a Los Angeles rental, hallucinating about psycho-robbers while talking to a possum he's sure is God. Along the way, there are acid trips at the V. F. W. , Dexetrim study halls with his Bad Girl Posse in the seventies, teeth-grinding nights of dancing and anonymous sex in New York City's hottest eighties clubs, taking pictures of Andy Warhol, losing friends and lovers, and navigating a Byzantine underworld of cookers, users, club kids, dealers, and colorful characters as intense as the drug itself. There is Lee, the glamorous, outr#65533; bad boy with a devastating wit and a taste for danger; Tony, the tweaker who likes to remove his eyebrows; Ding-Dong, the Depends-wearing, nearly blind housemate; Hisako, the artist and squatter with an impenetrable Japanese accent and a fondness for hot plate cooking; "Mother" Judy, the tough, butch rehab counselor who takes no prisoners, and countless others on the road from crystal meth hell to eventual sobriety. Candid, gripping, and ultimately triumphant, Tweaked is that rarest of memoirs—a tale so vivid and personal in the telling it feels like fiction, but every word is true.Cambridge Scientific Minds
By Simon Mitton, Peter Harman. 2002
Since the 'scientific revolution' of the seventeenth century, a great number of distinguished scientists and mathematicians have been associated with…
the University of Cambridge. Cambridge Scientific Minds provides a portrait of some of the most eminent scientists associated with the University over the past 400 years, including accounts of the work of three of the greatest figures in the entire history of science, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and James Clerk Maxwell. The chronological balance reflects the increasing importance of science in the recent history of the University. The book comprises personal memoirs and historical essays, including contributions by leading Cambridge scientists. Cambridge Scientific Minds will be of interest not only to graduates of the University, science students and historians of science, but to anyone wishing to gain an insight into some of the greatest scientific minds in history.Biographical Memoirs: Volume 91
By National Academy of Science the National Academies. 2009
Biographical Memoirs is a series of essays containing the life histories and selected bibliographies of deceased members of the National…
Academy of Sciences. The series provides a record of the life and work of some of the most distinguished leaders in the sciences, as witnessed and interpreted by their colleagues and peers. They form a biographical history of science in America--an important part of our nation's contribution to the intellectual heritage of the world.The Match
By Susan Whitman Helfgot. 2010
Joseph Helfgot, the son of Holocaust survivors, worked his way from a Lower East Side tenement to create a successful…
Hollywood research company. But his heart was failing. After months of waiting for a heart transplant, he died during the operation. Hours after his death, his wife Susan was asked a shocking question: would she donate her husband’s face to a total stranger?The stranger was James Maki, the adopted son of parents who spent part of World War II in an internment camp for Japanese Americans. Rebelling against his stern father, a professor, by enlisting to serve in Vietnam, he returned home a broken man, addicted to drugs. One night he fell facedown onto the electrified third rail of a Boston subway track. A young Czech surgeon who was determined to make a better life on the other side of the Iron Curtain was on call when the ambulance brought Maki to the hospital. Although Dr. Bohdan Pomahac gave him little chance of survival, Maki battled back. He was sober and grateful for a second chance, but he became a recluse, a man without a face. His only hope was a controversial face transplant, and Dr. Pomahac made it happen. InThe Match,Susan Whitman Helfgot captures decades of drama and history, taking us from Warsaw to Japan, from New York to Hollywood. Through wars and immigration, poverty and persecution, from a medieval cadaver dissection to a stunning seventeen-hour face transplant, she weaves together the story of people forever intertwined—a triumphant legacy of hope.Biographical Memoirs: Volume 74
By National Academy of Sciences Staff. 1863
Trans Voices: Becoming Who You Are
By Declan Henry, Jane Fae, Professor Stephen Whittle OBE. 2017
Imagine what it must be like to feel you are a woman 'trapped' in a man's body. Or a man…
'trapped' in a woman's body. And what happens if you decide to reject your birth gender and become a trans man or a trans woman? Drawing on over one hundred interviews with individuals, this book is a compilation of the voices of those who have decided to undergo transition - both male-to-female and female-to-male. The book details the diverse experiences and challenges faced by those who transition, exploring a range of topics such as hormone treatments; reassignment surgeries; coming out; sex and sexuality; physical, emotional and mental health; transphobia; discrimination; and hate crime, as well as highlighting the lives of non-binary individuals and those who cross-dress to form a wider understanding of the varied ways in which people experience gender. This powerful book is an ideal introduction to those keen to understand more about contemporary trans issues as well as those questioning their own gender identity.The realistic empiricism of Mach, James, and Russell
By Erik C. Banks. 2014
In the early twentieth century, Ernst Mach, William James, and Bertrand Russell founded a philosophical and scientific movement known as…
'neutral monism', based on the view that minds and physical objects are constructed out of elements or events which are neither mental nor physical, but neutral between the two. This movement offers a unified scientific outlook which includes sensations in human experience and events in the world of physics under one roof. In this book Erik C. Banks discusses this important movement as a whole for the first time. He explores the ways in which the three philosophers can be connected, and applies their ideas to contemporary problems in the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of science - in particular the relation of sensations to brain processes, and the problem of constructing extended bodies in space and time from particular events and causal relations.The $25,000 Flight
By Wesley Lowe, Lori Haskins Houran. 2014
The most exciting adventures are the ones that really happened! This brand-new Totally True Adventures book follow America's first superstar…
pilot, Charles Lindbergh. In the 1920s, flying was brand new--and very dangerous. A $25,000 prize for the first flight from New York to Paris went unclaimed for years. Many teams tried. And many teams failed. Still, Charles Lindbergh felt he had a shot at the prize. He wasn't famous. He wasn't rich. But he was determined. He'd cross the ocean in a tiny plane . . . and he'd do it all by himself! After you've read the story, don't miss the bonus content with extra facts, a timeline, and more 20th century history, geography, and science-tie-ins!From the Trade Paperback edition.German Rocketeers in the Heart of Dixie
By Dr Monique Laney. 2015
This thought-provoking study by historian Monique Laney focuses on the U. S. government-assisted integration of German rocket specialists and their…
families into a small southern community soon after World War II. In 1950, Wernher von Braun and his team of rocket experts relocated to Huntsville, Alabama, a town that would celebrate the team, despite their essential role in the recent Nazi war effort, for their contributions to the U. S. Army missile program and later to NASA's space program. Based on oral histories, provided by members of the African American and Jewish communities, and by the rocketeers' families, co-workers, friends, and neighbors, Laney's book demonstrates how the histories of German Nazism and Jim Crow in the American South intertwine in narratives about the past. This is a critical reassessment of a singular time that links the Cold War, the Space Race, and the Civil Rights era while addressing important issues of transnational science and technology, and asking Americans to consider their country's own history of racism when reflecting on the Nazi past.Explore the Cosmos like Neil deGrasse Tyson
By Cap Saucier. 2015
This introduction to space science for children uses the story of Neil deGrasse Tyson's life and career to frame the…
journey.Catch the thrill of the cosmos and space science through the life of Neil deGrasse Tyson--the popular astrophysicist, science communicator, and host of FOX-TV's Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. In language neither too simple nor overly technical, author CAP Saucier interweaves up-to-date information about the universe and the science of astrophysics with a biographical portrait of the famous astrophysicist. Quotes from Tyson appear throughout each chapter, personalizing the science. Illustrated with striking images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the story of one man's successful life in space science may inspire kids to follow a similar path. As Tyson makes clear, there is still much to do for future space scientists: diverting asteroids, unraveling the mystery of dark matter, finding life elsewhere in the universe, and more!From the Trade Paperback edition.101 Things You Didn’t Know about Einstein: Sex, Science, and the Secrets of the Universe (101 Things)
By Cynthia Phillips, Shana Priwer. 2005
Learn everything you need to know about Albert Einstein, the genius who created the Theory of Relativity and calculated mass-energy…
equivalence.101 Things You Didn’t Know About Einstein provides in-depth, fascinating facts about the famous scientist and mathematician—including details about his personal life, scientific discoveries, interactions with his contemporaries, thoughts on war, religion, and politics, and his impact on the world since his death. Whether you’re seeking inspiration, information, or interesting and entertaining trivia, this book contains everything you need to know about Albert Einstein!Sander tells the story of how The Origin of Species came to be translated into German, how it served Bronn's…
purposes as well as Darwin's, and how it challenged German scholars to think in new ways about morphology, systematics, paleontology.My Watery Self
By Stephen Spotte. 2015
In MY WATERY SELF: AN AQUATIC MEMOIR, author/scientist Stephen Spotte traces a fascinating trail through a life that began in…
West Virgina coal camps, drifted through reckless bohemian times of countercultural indulgence in Beach Haven, New Jersey, and led to a career as a highly-respected marine biologist. Together, these stories form a view not just of one man's life, but that of a generation that often refused to take a direct path to the workplace, insisting instead on a winding unveiling of true self-realization, to achieve previously-unimagined outcomes. For Spotte, the key was water: His years of beach living led to a self-initiated study of literature and the sea. He eventually returned to college and received his training as a marine biologist, and discovered, through his singular voice, a wet and occasionally very weird perspective on the world. His writing is engrossing throughout, the stories he shares--such as his stint as curator of the New York Aquarium at Coney Island at the tail end of the hippie era--are compelling and thoroughly enjoyable as he elevates the people and situations he encounters to mythical levels, blending empirical observation with literary prose.Taking on Water
By Wendy J. Pabich. 2012
When Wendy Pabich received a monthly water bill for 30,000 gallons (for a household of two people and one dog),…
she was chagrined. After all, she is an expert on sustainable water use. So she set out to make a change. Taking on Water is the story of the author's personal quest to extract and implement, from a dizzying soup of data and analysis, day-to-day solutions to reduce water use in her life. She sets out to examine the water footprint of the products she consumes, process her own wastewater onsite, revamp the water and energy systems in her home, and make appropriate choices in order to swim the swim. Part memoir, part investigation, part solution manual, the book is filled with ruminations on philosophy, science, facts, figures, and personal behavioral insights; metrics, both serious and humorous, to track progress; and guidelines for the general public for making small (or perhaps monumental) but important changes in their own lives. Told with humor and grace, Taking on Water offers a raw account of how deep we need to dig to change our wasteful ways.True Genius: The Life And Science Of John Bardeen
By Lillian Hoddeson, Vicki Daitch. 2002
What is genius? Define it. Now think of scientists who embody the concept of genius. Does the name John Bardeen…
spring to mind? Indeed, have you ever heard of him?Like so much in modern life, immediate name recognition often rests on a cult of personality. We know Einstein, for example, not just for his tremendous contributions to science, but also because he was a character, who loved to mug for the camera. And our continuing fascination with Richard Feynman is not exclusively based on his body of work; it is in large measure tied to his flamboyant nature and offbeat sense of humor.These men, and their outsize personalities, have come to erroneously symbolize the true nature of genius and creativity. We picture them born brilliant, instantly larger than life. But is that an accurate picture of genius? What of others who are equal in stature to these icons of science, but whom history has awarded only a nod because they did not readily engage the public? Could a person qualify as a bona fide genius if he was a regular Joe?The answer may rest in the story of John Bardeen.John Bardeen was the first person to have been awarded two Nobel Prizes in the same field. He shared one with William Shockley and Walter Brattain for the invention of the transistor. But it was the charismatic Shockley who garnered all the attention, primarily for his Hollywood ways and notorious views on race and intelligence.Bardeen’s second Nobel Prize was awarded for the development of a theory of superconductivity, a feat that had eluded the best efforts of leading theorists—including Albert Einstein, Neils Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and Richard Feynman. Arguably, Bardeen’s work changed the world in more ways than that of any other scientific genius of his time. Yet while every school child knows of Einstein, few people have heard of John Bardeen. Why is this the case?Perhaps because Bardeen differs radically from the popular stereotype of genius. He was a modest, mumbling Midwesterner, an ordinary person who worked hard and had a knack for physics and mathematics. He liked to picnic with his family, collaborate quietly with colleagues, or play a round of golf. None of that was newsworthy, so the media, and consequently the public, ignored him.John Bardeen simply fits a new profile of genius. Through an exploration of his science as well as his life, a fresh and thoroughly engaging portrait of genius and the nature of creativity emerges. This perspective will have readers looking anew at what it truly means to be a genius.Peregrinaciones profanas
By Fernando Noy. 2018
Elegido Reina del célebre carnaval de Salvador Bahía, personaje central de la vida cultural argentina y animador gay inigualable de…
la escena under desde hace cuatro décadas, Fernando Noy cuenta todo en un libro imperdible donde conviven lo más granado de los habitués de los bares porteños de los 60 a las leyendas del tropicalismo. De Pizarnik a Caetano Veloso, de Mercedes Sosa a Tanguito, de Sumo a María Luisa Bemberg, Noy se ha convertido en el cronista más desenfadado de una historia que pedía a gritos su Homero. «¿Quién nos quita lo brillado?, se pregunta Fernando Noy y sigue el consejo de su amigo Pedro Lemebel que solía decirle, con sabiduría de Machi: 'No hables más, Noy: escríbelo'. Y finalmente lo hizo. Aquí están sus memorias, estas Peregrinaciones profanas, puro vértigo de purpurina, cemento y rincones donde el desamparo se convierte en jardín secreto. El propio nacimiento anunciado por la caída de un jinete mapuche; una cartografía del deseo suburbano con las locas del Oeste en los años 60; los náufragos hippies en flor; las temporadas en París o Bahía. Y, por supuesto, las amistades sagradas de Alejandra Pizarnik, Marosa Di Giorgio, María Luisa Bemberg, Batato Barea, Paco Jamandreu, Alejandro Urdapilleta y tantos más. Entre carnavales, lisergia y poetas, desfilan las deidades de Noy y él nos bendice con su misticismo afro-celta, sus túnicas y collares, su inefable paso andrógino que es maravilla, desafío y carcajada.»Mariana Enríquez «Cuando no existía la palabra queer la poeta, la vedette, la actriz, nuestro Fernando Noy, la estaba inventando. Lean estas memorias danzantes de la reina de la fiesta de la libertad y el arte.»Gabriela Cabezón Cámara «Sabíamos que Noy, poeta 24 horas, tenía el don de adelantarse al futuro. Ahora sabemos que es capaz de atravesar la memoria de su tiempo y recuperar un pasado por venir, impredecible, lleno de promesas.»Liliana Viola Noy va narrando un laberinto de encuentros increíbles, pero siempre reales. De la niñez patagónica a la adolescencia del yire hermafrodita con las locas del Oeste en los 60, a la fugaz militancia frustrada por su homosexualidad. El nacimiento alucinógeno y anfetamínico de venta libre en farmacias del hippismo se sobrexpone con el descubrimiento de la bohemia del Di Tella. La crónica de sus amistades son el índice onomástico de la Historia de la Cultura y el Espectáculo de la Argentina de la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Cuando la Junta Militar prohibía los carnavales, Noy se coronaba reina en Bahía, donde se había exiliado. Trepado al árbol de un neuropsiquiátrico parisino donde había sido internado por tratar de recuperar "sus" joyas de faraona en medio de un viaje con drogas, ve llegar a Jackie O. y María Callas al hospital donde acababa de morir Aristóteles Onassis... Quien se anime a seguir, en estas páginas plagiadas a sí mismo, su incesante deambular, encontrará un mundo fantástico, sobreimpreso con purpurina, visible de noche. Y también para quienes buscan las claves de una fiesta eterna y compartida.Bent: How Yoga Saved My Ass
By Anne Clendening. 2017
“It was nothing at first. Just a little twitch. My left ring finger was twitching, slowly, almost languidly, the way…
fishing line does when you’ve hooked something without any strength. Like a baby perch. I hadn’t even gotten out of bed yet. My first thought: Stress? (Nope, think again)” And here begins a journey that Anne Clendening never saw coming, tried to deny, avoid, postpone and otherwise reject. After all, how does a dark L.A. hippy chick who swore off booze at 22 fit an early onset Parkinson's diagnosis into a life of bartending in Hollywood rock clubs and yoga? “The stories in this book are my experience. They're about life and yoga and illness and love and disaster and happiness. And since you're holding it, I’m hoping you relate in some way because A) That's the whole point, and B) We all need someone to relate to. And maybe a hand up. (But with words.) Because sometimes you just need to hear it’s all going to work out, even though life may have whammed you and half the time everything might seem like a big fat mess and not at all what it’s supposed to look like, which makes no sense in the first place since none of us really know what’s going to happen and you can’t change fate. If I could, I wouldn’t have Parkinson’s and Prince would still be alive. These stories are for you.”