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Pilote du bout du monde: souvenirs d'un pilote de brousse dans le Grand Nord
By Dominique Prinet. 2022
Au cours des années 1960 et 1970, le Grand Nord canadien était en pleine effervescence. Dominique Prinet, alors jeune pilote…
de brousse, y a effectué des vols incroyables, lui qui a transporté, par tous les temps, des pêcheurs, des chasseurs et des trappeurs, des chercheurs d'or ou de pétrole, ainsi que des blessés et des malades nécessitant une évacuation d'urgence. C'était bien avant le GPS, quand les cartes se révélaient imprécises, les modes de communication, rudimentaires, et que les voyages du genre duraient des semainesUn dernier tour d'ambulance: récits d'un paramédic
By Martin Viau. 2023
Peu de gens savent ce qui se passe réellement à l'arrière d'une ambulance. Martin Viau, paramédic, vous dirait que c'est…
très bien ainsi. Lui et ses collègues interviennent sur des corps amochés, parfois méconnaissables, retrouvés dans des circonstances souvent effroyables. Ils affrontent tous les jours la souffrance et parfois, presque régulièrement, la mortEvery Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life
By Jason Roberts. 2024
From the bestselling author of A Sense of the World comes this dramatic, globe-spanning and meticulously-researched story of two scientific…
rivals and their race to survey all life on Earth.In the 18th century, two men dedicated their lives to the same daunting task: identifying and describing all life on Earth. Their approaches could not have been more different. Carl Linnaeus, a pious Swedish doctor with a huckster's flair, believed that life belonged in tidy, static categories. Georges-Louis de Buffon, an aristocratic polymath and keeper of France's royal garden, viewed life as a dynamic swirl of complexities. Both began believing their work to be difficult, but not impossible—how could the planet possibly hold more than a few thousand species? Stunned by life's diversity, both fell far short of their goal. But in the process they articulated starkly divergent views on nature, on humanity's role in shaping the fate of our planet and on humanity itself. The rivalry between these two unique, driven individuals created reverberations that still echo today. Linnaeus, with the help of acolyte explorers he called "apostles" (only half of whom returned alive), gave the world such concepts as mammal, primate and homo sapiens—but he also denied species change and promulgated racist pseudo-science. Buffon coined the term reproduction, formulated early prototypes of evolution and genetics, and argued passionately against prejudice. It was a clash that, during their lifetimes, Buffon seemed to be winning. But their posthumous fates would take a very different turn.With elegant, propulsive prose grounded in more than a decade of research, featuring appearances by Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin and Charles Darwin, bestselling author Jason Roberts tells an unforgettable true-life tale of intertwined lives and enduring legacies, tracing an arc of insight and discovery that extends across three centuries into the present day.The Beauty of Dusk: On Vision Lost and Found
By Frank Bruni. 2022
From New York Times columnist and bestselling author Frank Bruni comes &“a book about vision loss that becomes testimony to…
human courage, a moving memoir that offers perspective, comfort, and hope&” (Booklist, starred review).One morning in late 2017, New York Times columnist Frank Bruni woke up with strangely blurred vision. He wondered at first if some goo or gunk had worked its way into his right eye. But this was no fleeting annoyance, no fixable inconvenience. Overnight, a rare stroke had cut off blood to one of his optic nerves, rendering him functionally blind in that eye—forever. And he soon learned from doctors that the same disorder could ravage his left eye, too. He could lose his sight altogether. In this &“moving and inspiring&” (The Washington Post) memoir, Bruni beautifully recounts his adjustment to this daunting reality, a medical and spiritual odyssey that involved not only reappraising his own priorities but also reaching out to, and gathering wisdom from, longtime friends and new acquaintances who had navigated their own traumas and afflictions. The result is a poignant, probing, and ultimately &“a positive message, a powerful reminder that with great vulnerability also comes great reward&” (Oprah Winfrey). Bruni&’s world blurred in one sense, as he experienced his first real inklings that the day isn&’t forever and that light inexorably fades, but sharpened in another. Confronting unexpected hardship, he felt more blessed than ever before. The Beauty of Dusk is &“a wonderful book. Honest. Poetic. Uplifting.&” (Lesley Stahl).The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy
By Moiya McTier. 2022
In this approachable and fascinating biography of the galaxy, an astrophysicist and folklorist details everything humans have discovered—from the Milky…
Way's formation to its eventual death, and what else there is to learn about the universe we call home. After a few billion years of bearing witness to life on Earth, of watching one hundred billion humans go about their day-to-day lives, of feeling unbelievably lonely, and of hearing its own story told by others, The Milky Way would like a chance to speak for itself. All one hundred billion stars and fifty undecillion tons of gas of it. It all began some thirteen billion years ago, when clouds of gas scattered through the universe's primordial plasma just could not keep their metaphorical hands off each other. They succumbed to their gravitational attraction, and the galaxy we know as the Milky Way was born. Since then, the galaxy has watched as dark energy pushed away its first friends, as humans mythologized its name and purpose, and as galactic archaeologists have worked to determine its true age (rude). The Milky Way has absorbed supermassive (an actual technical term) black holes, made enemies of a few galactic neighbors, and mourned the deaths of countless stars. Our home galaxy has even fallen in love. After all this time, the Milky Way finally feels that it's amassed enough experience for the juicy tell-all we've all been waiting for. Its fascinating autobiography recounts the history and future of the universe in accessible but scientific detail, presenting a summary of human astronomical knowledge thus far that is unquestionably out of this world. NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2022 BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY AND SCIENCENET NAMED A BEST AUDIOBOOK OF 2022 BY BOOKPAGELeft on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life: A Memoir
By Delia Ephron. 2021
The bestselling, beloved writer of romantic comedies like You've Got Mail tells her own late-in-life love story in her "resplendent…
memoir," complete with a tragic second act and joyous resolution (Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of The Good Left Undone). Delia Ephron had struggled through several years of heartbreak. She&’d lost her sister, Nora, and then her husband, Jerry, both to cancer. Several months after Jerry&’s death, she decided to make one small change in her life—she shut down his landline, which crashed her internet. She ended up in Verizon hell. She channeled her grief the best way she knew: by writing a New York Times op-ed. The piece caught the attention of Peter, a Bay Area psychiatrist, who emailed her to commiserate. Recently widowed himself, he reminded her that they had shared a few dates fifty-four years before, set up by Nora. Delia did not remember him, but after several weeks of exchanging emails and sixties folk songs, he flew east to see her. They were crazy, utterly, in love. But this was not a rom-com: four months later she was diagnosed with AML, a fierce leukemia. In Left on Tenth, Delia Ephron enchants as she seesaws us between tears and laughter, navigating the suicidal lows of enduring cutting-edge treatment and the giddy highs of a second chance at love. With Peter and her close girlfriends by her side, with startling clarity, warmth, and honesty about facing death, Ephron invites us to join her team of warriors and become believers ourselves.A "Most Anticipated Book of 2022" by TIME, Bustle, Parade, Publishers Weekly, Boston.comA "Best Memoir of 2022" by Marie ClaireA "Best Memoir of April" by Vanity FairThe Song of Our Scars: The Untold Story of Pain
By Haider Warraich. 2022
A doctor&’s personal and unsparing account of how modern medicine&’s failure to understand pain has made care less effectiveIn The Song…
of Our Scars, physician Haider Warraich offers a bold reexamination of the nature of pain, not as a simple physical sensation, but as a cultural experience.Warraich, himself a sufferer of chronic pain, considers the ways our notions of pain have been shaped not just by science but by politics and power, by whose suffering mattered and whose didn&’t. He weaves a provocative history from the Renaissance, when pain transformed into a medical issue, through the racial legacy of pain tolerance, to the opiate epidemics of both the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries, to the cutting edge of present-day pain science. The conclusion is clear: only by reckoning with both pain&’s complicated history and its biology can today&’s doctors adequately treat their patients&’ suffering.Trenchant and deeply felt, The Song of Our Scars is an indictment of a broken system and a plea for a more holistic understanding of the human body.Bailey's Remarkable Plan
By David R. Hardiman. 2015
An inspiring memoir that &“shows how service dogs can save lives . . . Hardiman shares his story of faith…
and perseverance&” (North Dallas Gazette.com).A dog. A man. A miracle. In Bailey&’s Remarkable Plan, David R. Hardiman shares his poignant story of struggle, prejudice, and pain. But this is also a story of perseverance, triumph, and love. Hardiman discovers that his four-footed companion, delivered to him by chance, is more than his best friend. Bailey is also his service dog, a shih tzu with an extraordinary gift—part of God&’s &“remarkable plan&”—that allows her to assist, to protect, and to love.Bailey&’s Remarkable Plan will inspire you, inform you, and challenge you to feel compassion for those suffering silently among us because of circumstances beyond their control. God sent Bailey to this earth as part of His plan, an angel in the form of a remarkable dog. Not the typical service dog, Bailey performs a miracle in the life of her owner and friend. And Hardiman&’s story will touch your heart as you journey along with the boy who became a man encircled by love.&“This book takes the reader on the author&’s decades-long journey living with a rare medical condition coupled with post-traumatic stress disorder and Bailey&’s intuitive ability to help him cope.&”—Fort Worth Magazine&“Bailey&’s Remarkable Plan is a powerful, true story about a service dog that breaks all stereotypes and reveals a timely message of hope.&”—Mike Norris, film directorExplore the lives and achievements of more than 85 of the world's most inspirational and influential scientists with this innovative…
and boldly graphic biography-led book.The second title in DK's new illustrated biography series, Scientists Who Changed History profiles trailblazing individuals from Greek mathematicians, such as Archimedes and Hipparchus, through physicists of the early 20th-century, such as Marie Curie and Albert Einstein, to modern greats such as Stephen Hawking and Tim Berners-Lee. Each featured individual has made a major contribution to one or more scientific fields, from astronomy, biology, and psychology, to computer science and geology.Combining elements of biography, history, and analysis, Scientists Who Changed History explains the groundbreaking contributions made by these revolutionary men and women in a clear and informative way.El libro de la física (DK Big Ideas)
By Dk. 2020
Grandes ideas, explicaciones sencillasCon una prosa sencilla, El libro de la física presenta explicaciones claras y concisas que desbrozan la…
jerga especializada, diagramas que plasman complejas teorías, citas memorables e ingeniosas ilustraciones que juegan con nuestros conocimientos de la física.¿Cómo generan electricidad los imanes? ¿Qué es la antimateria? ¿Es posible viajar en el tiempo? A partir de estas y otras muchas preguntas, los físicos han ampliado las fronteras del conocimiento humano y nos han ayudado a comprender las leyes físicas que rigen nuestro mundo y el universo.Tanto el estudiante deseoso de aprender como el simple lector curioso acerca del funcionamiento del mundo encontrarán en este libro muchas ideas estimulantes.Explore the laws and theories of physics in this accessible introduction to the forces that shape our universe, our planet,…
and our everyday lives.Using a bold, graphics-led approach, The Physics Book sets out more than 80 of the key concepts and discoveries that have defined the subject and influenced our technology since the beginning of time. With the focus firmly on unpacking the thought behind each theory—as well as exploring when and how each idea and breakthrough came about—five themed chapters examine the history and developments in specific areas such as Light, Sound, and Electricity. Eureka moments abound: from Archimedes' bathtub discoveries about displacement and density, and Galileo's experiments with spheres falling from the Tower of Pisa, to Isaac Newton's apple and his conclusions about gravity and the laws of motion. You'll also learn about Albert Einstein's revelations about relativity; how the accidental discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation confirmed the Big Bang theory; the search for the Higgs boson particle; and why most of the universe is missing. If you've ever wondered exactly how physicists formulated—and proved—their abstract concepts, The Physics Book is the book for you.Series Overview: Big Ideas Simply Explained series uses creative design and innovative graphics along with straightforward and engaging writing to make complex subjects easier to understand. With over 7 million copies worldwide sold to date, these award-winning books provide just the information needed for students, families, or anyone interested in concise, thought-provoking refreshers on a single subject.Celebrating 25 years of The Sopranos: The executive producer of The White Lotus shares how he got his start in…
film and television production on &“the greatest TV show of all time&” (Rolling Stone)An inside look at the film industry for fans, students, and aspiring professionals — featuring a foreword by Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning creator of The White Lotus, Mike WhiteThis page-turning account of starting at the lowest rung on the production ladder among enormously famous & outrageously demanding people will be devoured for its insights, gossip, humor, & storytelling. Married and with a child, the author takes unpaid gigs to get a foot in the door, and eventually ends up working on all seasons of The Sopranos, often named the best TV show ever.The show's setting and its creator's insistence on accuracy placed the native New Jersey author in the right place at the right time to become part of television history, and to witness the effects of sudden fame and acclaim on the show's principal players.Includes many stories about guest stars like Steve Buscemi, Peter Bogdanovich, and Lauren Bacall, as well as the beloved cast, including new tales of James Gandolfini, who Kamine first meets after David Chase casts him as the Dean of Admissions in the classic first season "College" episode. Later, after he&’s been promoted, Kamine gets the calls from Gandolfini when he's hungover, or still drunk, and might or might not make it to the shoot that day. One night, Kamine tries to prevent Gandolfini from taking a swim in the ocean after they've been drinking all night, telling him it could be dangerous but Jim doesn't listen.Woven in is a personal story of home life and strife, achievement and frustration, anxiety and accomplishment. The book's epilogue brings readers up to the moment as the author, after many more years as an anonymous everyman, eventually enjoys outsize professional success as executive producer of the HBO hit series created by Mike White, The White Lotus.Albert Einstein, The Human Side: Glimpses from His Archives
By Albert Einstein. 2014
Modesty, humor, compassion, and wisdom are the traits most evident in this illuminating selection of personal papers from the Albert…
Einstein Archives. The illustrious physicist wrote as thoughtfully to an Ohio fifth-grader, distressed by her discovery that scientists classify humans as animals, as to a Colorado banker who asked whether Einstein believed in a personal God. Witty rhymes, an exchange with Queen Elizabeth of Belgium about fine music, and expressions of his devotion to Zionism are but some of the highlights found in this warm and enriching book.“Amazing….Explores human courage under the most trying circumstances.” —New York Post“An inspirational story about business, medical science, and one father’s…
refusal to give up hope.” —Boston GlobeThe book that inspired the movie, Extraordinary Measures, starring Harrison Ford, Brendan Fraser, and Keri Russell, The Cure by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Geeta Anand is the remarkable true story of one father’s determination to find a cure for his terminally sick children even if it meant he had to build a business from scratch to do so. At once a riveting story of the birth of an enterprise—ala Tracy Kidder’s The Soul of a New Machine—and a inspiring tale of the indomitable human spirit in the vein of Erin Brockovich and A Civil Action, The Cure is a testament to ingenuity, unflagging will, and unconquerable love.John Napier: Life, Logarithms, and Legacy
By Julian Havil. 2015
The most comprehensive account of the mathematician's life and workJohn Napier (1550–1617) is celebrated today as the man who invented…
logarithms—an enormous intellectual achievement that would soon lead to the development of their mechanical equivalent in the slide rule: the two would serve humanity as the principal means of calculation until the mid-1970s. Yet, despite Napier's pioneering efforts, his life and work have not attracted detailed modern scrutiny. John Napier is the first contemporary biography to take an in-depth look at the multiple facets of Napier’s story: his privileged position as the eighth Laird of Merchiston and the son of influential Scottish landowners; his reputation as a magician who dabbled in alchemy; his interest in agriculture; his involvement with a notorious outlaw; his staunch anti-Catholic beliefs; his interactions with such peers as Henry Briggs, Johannes Kepler, and Tycho Brahe; and, most notably, his estimable mathematical legacy.Julian Havil explores Napier’s original development of logarithms, the motivations for his approach, and the reasons behind certain adjustments to them. Napier’s inventive mathematical ideas also include formulas for solving spherical triangles, "Napier’s Bones" (a more basic but extremely popular alternative device for calculation), and the use of decimal notation for fractions and binary arithmetic. Havil also considers Napier’s study of the Book of Revelation, which led to his prediction of the Apocalypse in his first book, A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John—the work for which Napier believed he would be most remembered.John Napier assesses one man’s life and the lasting influence of his advancements on the mathematical sciences and beyond.How two pioneers of math and technology ushered in the computer revolutionBoolean algebra, also called Boolean logic, is at the…
heart of the electronic circuitry in everything we use—from our computers and cars, to home appliances. How did a system of mathematics established in the Victorian era become the basis for such incredible technological achievements a century later? In The Logician and the Engineer, Paul Nahin combines engaging problems and a colorful historical narrative to tell the remarkable story of how two men in different eras—mathematician and philosopher George Boole and electrical engineer and pioneering information theorist Claude Shannon—advanced Boolean logic and became founding fathers of the electronic communications age. Nahin takes readers from fundamental concepts to a deeper and more sophisticated understanding of modern digital machines, in order to explore computing and its possible limitations in the twenty-first century and beyond.Einstein and the Quantum: The Quest of the Valiant Swabian
By A. Douglas Stone. 2016
The untold story of Albert Einstein's role as the father of quantum theoryEinstein and the Quantum reveals for the first…
time the full significance of Albert Einstein's contributions to quantum theory. Einstein famously rejected quantum mechanics, observing that God does not play dice. But, in fact, he thought more about the nature of atoms, molecules, and the emission and absorption of light—the core of what we now know as quantum theory—than he did about relativity.A compelling blend of physics, biography, and the history of science, Einstein and the Quantum shares the untold story of how Einstein—not Max Planck or Niels Bohr—was the driving force behind early quantum theory. It paints a vivid portrait of the iconic physicist as he grappled with the apparently contradictory nature of the atomic world, in which its invisible constituents defy the categories of classical physics, behaving simultaneously as both particle and wave. And it demonstrates how Einstein's later work on the emission and absorption of light, and on atomic gases, led directly to Erwin Schrödinger's breakthrough to the modern form of quantum mechanics. The book sheds light on why Einstein ultimately renounced his own brilliant work on quantum theory, due to his deep belief in science as something objective and eternal.Undiluted Hocus-Pocus: The Autobiography of Martin Gardner
By Martin Gardner. 2013
The autobiography of the beloved writer who inspired a generation to study math and scienceMartin Gardner wrote the Mathematical Games…
column for Scientific American for twenty-five years and published more than seventy books on topics as diverse as magic, religion, and Alice in Wonderland. Gardner's illuminating autobiography is a candid self-portrait by the man evolutionary theorist Stephen Jay Gould called our "single brightest beacon" for the defense of rationality and good science against mysticism and anti-intellectualism.Gardner takes readers from his childhood in Oklahoma to his varied and wide-ranging professional pursuits. He shares colorful anecdotes about the many fascinating people he met and mentored, and voices strong opinions on the subjects that matter to him most, from his love of mathematics to his uncompromising stance against pseudoscience. For Gardner, our mathematically structured universe is undiluted hocus-pocus—a marvelous enigma, in other words.Undiluted Hocus-Pocus offers a rare, intimate look at Gardner’s life and work, and the experiences that shaped both.Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age
By W. Bernard Carlson. 2013
The definitive account of Tesla's life and workNikola Tesla was a major contributor to the electrical revolution that transformed daily…
life at the turn of the twentieth century. His inventions, patents, and theoretical work formed the basis of modern AC electricity, and contributed to the development of radio and television. Like his competitor Thomas Edison, Tesla was one of America's first celebrity scientists, enjoying the company of New York high society and dazzling the likes of Mark Twain with his electrical demonstrations. An astute self-promoter and gifted showman, he cultivated a public image of the eccentric genius. Even at the end of his life when he was living in poverty, Tesla still attracted reporters to his annual birthday interview, regaling them with claims that he had invented a particle-beam weapon capable of bringing down enemy aircraft.Plenty of biographies glamorize Tesla and his eccentricities, but until now none has carefully examined what, how, and why he invented. In this groundbreaking book, W. Bernard Carlson demystifies the legendary inventor, placing him within the cultural and technological context of his time, and focusing on his inventions themselves as well as the creation and maintenance of his celebrity. Drawing on original documents from Tesla's private and public life, Carlson shows how he was an "idealist" inventor who sought the perfect experimental realization of a great idea or principle, and who skillfully sold his inventions to the public through mythmaking and illusion.This major biography sheds new light on Tesla's visionary approach to invention and the business strategies behind his most important technological breakthroughs.Karl Pearson: The Scientific Life in a Statistical Age
By Theodore M. Porter. 2004
Karl Pearson, founder of modern statistics, came to this field by way of passionate early studies of philosophy and cultural…
history as well as ether physics and graphical geometry. His faith in science grew out of a deeply moral quest, reflected also in his socialism and his efforts to find a new basis for relations between men and women. This biography recounts Pearson's extraordinary intellectual adventure and sheds new light on the inner life of science. Theodore Porter's intensely personal portrait of Pearson extends from religious crisis and sexual tensions to metaphysical and even mathematical anxieties. Pearson sought to reconcile reason with enthusiasm and to achieve the impersonal perspective of science without sacrificing complex individuality. Even as he longed to experience nature directly and intimately, he identified science with renunciation and positivistic detachment. Porter finds a turning point in Pearson's career, where his humanistic interests gave way to statistical ones, in his Grammar of Science (1892), in which he attempted to establish scientific method as the moral educational basis for a refashioned culture. In this original and engaging book, a leading historian of modern science investigates the interior experience of one man's scientific life while placing it in a rich tapestry of social, political, and intellectual movements.