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The Consolation of Nature: Spring in the Time of Coronavirus
By Jeremy Mynott, Peter Marren, Michael McCarthy. 2020
'What joy! . . . There's acute and beautiful observation on every page, thrown into exquisite relief by the poignancy…
of the circumstances.'-Isabella Tree'A powerful and moving reflection on the solace brought by nature and its power as a balm for stressed-out lives.'-Caroline Lucas, Green MP'An entrancing testament to nature's power to restore us to ourselves.'-Ruth PadelNature took on a new importance for many people when the coronavirus pandemic arrived, providing solace in a time of great anxiety - not least because the crisis struck at the beginning of spring, the season of light, growth, rebirth and renewal.Three writers, close friends but living in widely separated, contrasting parts of the country, resolved to record their experiences of this extraordinary spring in intimate detail, to share with others their sense of the wonder, inspiration and delight the natural world can offer.The Consolation of Nature is the story of what they discovered by literally walking out from their front doors.Thomas Edison, world-class inventor. You might know that he devised the electric light bulb and the phonograph. But what about…
his development of train-controlling sticks? Or his airborne way to send pancakes to his Cousin Fran in Texas? You&’re about to be treated to the Lieographical aspects of Thomas Edison&’s life, in this funny, lighthearted, &“all that didn&’t happen&” take on the man whose inventions transformed our daily existence. The book ends with a short—but true—account of Edison&’s life—just enough to encourage kids to find out more on this important historical figure. But even if readers have already learned about Edison, the wacky stories in this tall-tales book will be even more enjoyable.Handprints on Hubble: An Astronaut's Story of Invention (Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation series)
By Kathryn D. Sullivan. 2019
The first American woman to walk in space recounts her experience as part of the team that launched, rescued, repaired,…
and maintained the Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble Space Telescope has revolutionized our understanding of the universe. It has, among many other achievements, revealed thousands of galaxies in what seemed to be empty patches of sky; transformed our knowledge of black holes; found dwarf planets with moons orbiting other stars; and measured precisely how fast the universe is expanding. In Handprints on Hubble, retired astronaut Kathryn Sullivan describes her work on the NASA team that made all of this possible. Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space, recounts how she and other astronauts, engineers, and scientists launched, rescued, repaired, and maintained Hubble, the most productive observatory ever built. Along the way, Sullivan chronicles her early life as a “Sputnik Baby,” her path to NASA through oceanography, and her initiation into the space program as one of “thirty-five new guys.” (She was also one of the first six women to join NASA's storied astronaut corps.) She describes in vivid detail what liftoff feels like inside a spacecraft (it's like “being in an earthquake and a fighter jet at the same time”), shows us the view from a spacewalk, and recounts the temporary grounding of the shuttle program after the Challenger disaster. Sullivan explains that “maintainability” was designed into Hubble, and she describes the work of inventing the tools and processes that made on-orbit maintenance possible. Because in-flight repair and upgrade was part of the plan, NASA was able to fix a serious defect in Hubble's mirrors—leaving literal and metaphorical “handprints on Hubble.” Handprints on Hubble was published with the support of the MIT Press Fund for Diverse Voices.Hope in the Balance: A Newfoundland Doctor Meets a World in Crisis
By Andrew Furey. 2020
Dr. Andrew Furey, an orthopedic surgeon, was sitting by the fireplace at his home in St John's, Newfoundland and Labrador,…
watching TV after work, when dreadful images of the aftermath of an earthquake in Haiti burst in on the cosy domestic scene. Human suffering on an epic scale was being documented in real time. Dr. Furey spent a sleepless night, and woke knowing he had to help in some way. In what has been a theme throughout Newfoundland and Labrador's history, he found himself answering the call. Dr. Furey formed a team of three--himself; his wife and pediatric emergency room physician, Dr. Allison Furey; and orthopedic surgeon Will Moores--and together they travelled from to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where they spent a week volunteering. The challenge seemed overwhelming: a multitude of badly injured victims, horrendous working conditions and overstretched aid agencies. But somehow the trio did not lose hope. Instead, they redoubled their efforts. After returning from that first mission, Dr. Furey founded Team Broken Earth--an expert, unbureaucratic, fleet-footed volunteer task force of physicians, nurses and physiotherapists committed to providing aid in Haiti. The organization has continued to grow, recruiting volunteers from all over Canada. It has carried out many more missions to Port-au-Prince and has expanded its operations to other countries like Bangladesh, Guatemala, Ethiopia and Nicaragua. And its mission has expanded in other ways, with education and training for local medical professionals now at the heart of its endeavour. Dr. Andrew Furey tells the story of Team Broken Earth's founding and remarkable work with vivid immediacy and raw honesty. He shares his doubts and failures and moments of near-despair. He explores how his Newfoundland and Labrador upbringing has informed his efforts abroad. And he reaches an optimistic conclusion that will leave readers inspired to bring about positive change in their own lives.Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars: Space, Exploration, and Life on Earth
By Kate Greene. 2020
When it comes to Mars, the focus is often on how to get there: the rockets, the engines, the fuel.…
But upon arrival, what will it actually be like?In 2013, Kate Greene moved to Mars. That is, along with five fellow crew members, she embarked on NASA’s first HI-SEAS mission, a simulated Martian environment located on the slopes of Mauna Loa in Hawai'i. For four months she lived, worked, and slept in an isolated geodesic dome, conducting a sleep study on her crew mates and gaining incredible insight into human behavior in tight quarters, as well as the nature of boredom, dreams, and isolation that arise amidst the promise of scientific progress and glory.In Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars, Greene draws on her experience to contemplate humanity’s broader impulse to explore. The result is a twined story of space and life, of the standard, able-bodied astronaut and Greene’s brother’s disability, of the lag time of interplanetary correspondences and the challenges of a long-distance marriage, of freeze-dried egg powder and fresh pineapple, of departure and return. By asking what kind of wisdom humanity might take to Mars and elsewhere in the Universe, Greene has written a remarkable, wide-ranging examination of our time in space right now, as a pre-Mars species, poised on the edge, readying for launch.Facing the Wave: A Journey in the Wake of the Tsunami
By Gretel Ehrlich. 2013
A passionate student of Japanese poetry, theater, and art for much of her life, Gretel Ehrlich felt compelled to return…
to the earthquake-and-tsunami-devastated Tohoku coast to bear witness, listen to survivors, and experience their terror and exhilaration in villages and towns where all shelter and hope seemed lost. In an eloquent narrative that blends strong reportage, poetic observation, and deeply felt reflection, she takes us into the upside-down world of northeastern Japan, where nothing is certain and where the boundaries between living and dying have been erased by water. The stories of rice farmers, monks, and wanderers; of fishermen who drove their boats up the steep wall of the wave; and of an eighty-four-year-old geisha who survived the tsunami to hand down a song that only she still remembered are both harrowing and inspirational. Facing death, facing life, and coming to terms with impermanence are equally compelling in a landscape of surreal desolation, as the ghostly specter of Fukushima Daiichi, the nuclear power complex, spews radiation into the ocean and air. Facing the Wave is a testament to the buoyancy, spirit, humor, and strong-mindedness of those who must find their way in a suddenly shattered world.The Life Scientific: Explorers
By Anna Buckley. 2019
Inspiring life stories from BBC Radio 4's hit series The Life Scientific'In showing non-scientists why science offers so many paths…
to discovery it has no equal' Gillian Reynolds, TelegraphBased on Jim Al-Khalili's ground-breaking interviews, The Life Scientific: Explorers takes science out of its box and introduces us to the men and women who make it happen.The explorers featured in this volume include: Michele Dougherty, the mathematician who persuaded the Cassini mission to Saturn to make a diversion; Richard Fortey on his love of trilobites; Monica Grady, Meteorite Lady; neurosurgeon Henry Marsh on slicing through our thoughts; the Director of the British Antarctic Survey, Jane Francis; Jocelyn Bell Burnell describing how she missed out on a Nobel Prize; Brian Cox on quantum mechanics; and Nobel Prize winner John Sulston on why he thought it would be a good idea to sequence the human genome.Fix What You Can: Schizophrenia and a Lawmaker's Fight for Her Son
By Mindy Greiling. 2020
One mother&’s fight to support her son and change a broken system In his early twenties, Mindy Greiling&’s son, Jim,…
was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder after experiencing delusions that demanded he kill his mother. At the time, and for more than a decade after, Greiling was a Minnesota state legislator who struggled, along with her husband, to navigate and improve the state&’s inadequate mental health system. Fix What You Can is an illuminating and frank account of caring for a person with a mental illness, told by a parent and advocate. Greiling describes challenges shared by many families, ranging from the practical (medication compliance, housing, employment) to the heartbreaking—suicide attempts, victimization, and illicit drug use. Greiling confronts the reality that some people with serious mental illness may be dangerous and reminds us that medication works—if taken. The book chronicles her efforts to pass legislation to address problems in the mental health system, including obstacles to parental access to information and insufficient funding for care and research. It also recounts Greiling&’s painful memories of her grandmother, who was confined in an institution for twenty-three years—recollections that strengthen her determination that Jim&’s treatment be more humane. Written with her son&’s cooperation, Fix What You Can offers hard-won perspective, practical advice, and useful resources through a brave and personal story that takes the long view of what success means when coping with mental illness.Feynman's Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life
By Leonard Mlodinow. 2003
Academic scientist turned Hollywood screen writer, Mlodinow recounts his first year on the faculty at California Technical Institute, beginning in…
winter 1981, and his interactions there with renowned physicist Richard Feynman during his last years. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Einstein: Top Truths And Lies
By Waldon Volpiceli. 2020
Was Einstein Religious or Atheist? Did Einstein help build the atomic bomb? (in this book you will find the backstage…
pertaining to the arms race between the Allies and the Nazis for obtaining the atomic bomb). Did Einstein create the theory of relativity or was it his wife, Mileva Maric? Was Einstein a Communist? Was he autistic? All the truths and lies about Albert Einstein revealed in this book.Journey of a Thousand Miles: An Extraordinary Life (Biographies et mémoires)
By Scott Simon, Kate Jaimet, Dr Ruey J. Yu, Eugene J. Van Scott. 2017
Born into poverty in Japanese-occupied Taiwan, Ruey Yu overcame near-starvation during the Second World War. Destiny, however, had other plans…
for him: he was to become an award-winning biochemist, then the co-founder of what would soon become the multi-million-dollar skin care company NeoStrata. After living through the Second World War and the post-war military dictatorship of General Chiang Kai-Shek, Dr. Yu won a coveted post-graduate scholarship to study chemistry at the University of Ottawa. He subsequently took up a research position at the renowned Skin and Cancer Hospital (Temple University) in Philadelphia, where he collaborated with pre-eminent dermatologist Dr. Eugene Van Scott to develop treatments for serious skin diseases. In 1972, Dr. Yu and Dr. Van Scott discovered that fruit acids, known as AHAs, could effectively treat the disfiguring skin disease ichthyosis, changing the lives of thousands of people who suffered from this debilitating illness. Their further research into the biochemical properties of AHAs led to the discovery of the anti-wrinkle and anti-aging effects of these natural substances—a discovery that was licensed by skin care companies around the world, sparking the multibillion-dollar cosmeceutical industry.Paula: A Memoir (Ave Fénix Ser. #Vol. 23)
By Isabel Allende. 2004
Newly ReissuedNew York Times Bestselling Author“Beautiful and heartrending. . . . Memoir, autobiography, epicedium, perhaps even some fiction: they are…
all here, and they are all quite wonderful.” —Los Angeles Times When Isabel Allende’s daughter, Paula, became gravely ill and fell into a coma, the author began to write the story of her family for her unconscious child. In the telling, bizarre ancestors appear before our eyes; we hear both delightful and bitter childhood memories, amazing anecdotes of youthful years, the most intimate secrets passed along in whispers. With Paula, Allende has written a powerful autobiography whose straightforward acceptance of the magical and spiritual worlds will remind readers of her first book, The House of the Spirits.Field Notes from a Pandemic: A Journey Through a World Suspended
By Ethan Lou. 2020
Equal parts travelogue and pandemic guide, journalist Ethan Lou examines the societal effects of COVID-19 and takes us on a…
mesmerizing journey around a world that will never be the same.Visiting Beijing in January to see his dying grandfather, Canadian journalist Ethan Lou unknowingly walks into a state under siege. In his journey out of China and into other hot zones in Asia and Europe, he finds himself witnessing the very earliest stages of a virus that will forever change the world as we know it. Lou argues that Coronavirus will have a far greater impact than SARS, for example, simply because China is now many more times integrated with the increasingly interconnected world. Over decades, globalization has crafted a world painfully sensitive and susceptible to shocks such as this pandemic. A crisis like it has thus been long overdue--and we have yet to see it unfold fully. In our integrated world, events that may previously be isolated now ripple farther and wider and in ways we do not expect and cannot foresee. We have not seen the worst, and if and when we outlast this pandemic, nothing will ever be the same--not just healthcare systems but also economies, politics and culture. Decisions now--or indecisions--will shape and define the world for decades.These ideas are fleshed out through the virus's spawning and how it spread, the unprecedented measures to contain it and an examination of past pandemics and other crises and how they shaped the world--and an argument for why this one's different. Lou shows how drastically the virus has transformed the world and charts the greater and more radical shifts to come. His ideas and arguments are framed around his journey around the world, whose path the virus seemed to follow until he landed safely in quarantine in a small town in Germany where he was able to take stock and start telling his story.William Stimpson and the Golden Age of American Natural History
By Ronald Scott Vasile. 2018
William Stimpson was at the forefront of the American natural history community in the latter half of the nineteenth century.…
Stimpson displayed an early affinity for the sea and natural history, and after completing an apprenticeship with famed naturalist Louis Agassiz, he became one of the first professionally trained naturalists in the United States. In 1852, twenty-year-old Stimpson was appointed naturalist of the United States North Pacific Exploring Expedition, where he collected and classified hundreds of marine animals. Upon his return, he joined renowned naturalist Spencer F. Baird at the Smithsonian Institution to create its department of invertebrate zoology. He also founded and led the irreverent and fun-loving Megatherium Club, which included many notable naturalists. In 1865, Stimpson focused on turning the Chicago Academy of Sciences into one of the largest and most important museums in the country. Tragically, the museum was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and Stimpson died of tuberculosis soon after, before he could restore his scientific legacy. This first-ever biography of William Stimpson situates his work in the context of his time. As one of few to collaborate with both Agassiz and Baird, Stimpson's life provides insight into the men who shaped a generation of naturalists—the last before intense specialization caused naturalists to give way to biologists. Historians of science and general readers interested in biographies, science, and history will enjoy this compelling biography.The Poison Eaters: Fighting Danger And Fraud In Our Food And Drugs
By Gail Jarrow. 2019
Formaldehyde, borax, salicylic acid. Today, these chemicals are used in embalming fluids, cleaning supplies, and acne medications. But in 1900,…
they were routinely added to food that Americans ate from cans and jars.In 1900, products often weren't safe because unregulated, unethical companies added these and other chemicals to trick consumers into buying spoiled food or harmful medicines. Chemist Harvey Washington Wiley recognized these dangers and began a relentless thirty-year campaign to ensure that consumers could purchase safe food and drugs, eventually leading to the creation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, a US governmental organization that now has a key role in addressing the COVID-19/Coronavirus pandemic gripping the world today. Acclaimed nonfiction and Sibert Honor winning author Gail Jarrow uncovers this intriguing history in her trademark style that makes the past enthrallingly relevant for today's young readers.Six starred reviews -- ★Booklist ★BCCB ★Kirkus Reviews ★Publishers Weekly ★School Library Connection ★Shelf AwarenessAn ALSC Notable Children's Book * A Washington Post Best Children's Book * NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book * A BCCB Blue Ribbon * A Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book * A NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book for Students K-12 * A Chicago Public Library Best Children's Book★ "Revolting and riveting in turns, Jarrow's masterfully crafted narrative will fundamentally alter how readers view their food.Though laced with toxins, this is anything but toxic." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred reviewFreud the Man: An Intellectual Biography
By Lydia Flem. 2014
The world knows Freud as a thinker--one of the founding giants of modern culture. Now Lydia Flem paints a unique…
and unforgettable portrait of Frued the man: a father, husband, and friend, a secular Jew with passion for classical antiquity and European culture, torn between his need to be fully accepted in an anitsemitic society while remaining fatihful to his orgins.Flem enters into the depths of Freud's creativity, showing how his thinking is connected to his immersion in the arts, the history of religions, and mythology. The intimate details of his daily life, his relationships with women, his poetic gifts, his travels, his dreams, his letters to family, friends, and colleagues: all reveal his vision of the unconscious. We accompany Freud on his walks through Vienna and Rome; look over his shoulder as he writes to his fiancee; learn the significance of the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian figurines that stand before him on his desk as he conceives his groundbreaking ideas; and discover the books, read in childhood, that later shape his self-analysis and his theoretical development.Flem draws on an unusually broad range of sources, but she wears her learning lightly: her biography of Freud reads like a novel, full of vivid details and captivating human interest. From the 6-year-old gleefully tearing up a book illustrated with pictures of Persia; to the young doctor balancing his scientific training with his love of Shakespeare; to the psychoanalyst in his prime, conquering the resistance to his theories; to the old man, ravaged by illness, forced to flee into exile in England, Lydia Flem leads us deep into the life of a genius.As the Twig Is Bent: A Memoir
By Wallace Byron Grange. 2020
Wallace Byron Grange (1905–87) was an influential conservationist who worked alongside Aldo Leopold. Grange’s story vividly describes his mostly idyllic…
childhood watching bird life in the once grand prairies just west of Chicago. He documents his family’s journey and pioneering struggle to operate a farm on the logged cutover country in northern Wisconsin, a land that provided him with abundant opportunities to study the lives of wild creatures he loved most. Written when Grange was in his sixties, As the Twig Is Bent conveys how a leading conservationist was formed through his early relationship to nature. In beautifully composed vignettes, he details encounters both profound and minute, from the white-footed mice attracted by cookie crumbs in his boyhood clubhouse to the sounds of great horned owls echoing through the wintry woods. As he develops his own understanding of the natural world, he comes to an awareness of the dramatic and devastating role of humankind on ecosystems. Grange’s poignant observations still resonate today amid global conversations about the fate of our natural resources and climate change.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.Carrying The Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys
By Michael Collins, Charles A. Lindbergh. 2001
NASA astronaut Michael Collins trained as an experimental test pilot before venturing into space as a vital member of the…
Gemini 10 and Apollo 11 missions. In Carrying the Fire, his account of his voyages into space and the years of training that led up to them, Collins reveals the human tensions, the physical realities, and the personal emotions surrounding the early years of the space race. Collins provides readers with an insider's view of the space program and conveys the excitement and wonder of his journey to the moon. As skilled at writing as he is at piloting a spacecraft, Collins explains the clash of personalities at NASA and technical aspects of flight with clear, engaging prose, withholding nothing in his candid assessments of fellow astronauts Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, and Buzz Aldrin, and officials within NASA. A fascinating memoir of mankind's greatest journey told in familiar, human terms, Carrying the Fire is by turns thrilling, humorous, and thought-provoking, a unique work by a remarkable man.Born Curious: 20 Girls Who Grew Up to Be Awesome Scientists
By Martha Freeman. 2020
&“An inspiring look at women who realized curiosity plus tenacity equals success.&” —Kirkus Reviews Discover the histories of twenty incredible…
female scientists in this inspiring biography collection from beloved author Martha Freeman and Google Doodler Katy Wu.Why do galaxies spin the way they do? What&’s the best kind of house for a Komodo dragon? Can you cure malaria with medicine made from a plant? The scientists and mathematicians in Born Curious sought answers to these and many other fascinating questions. And it&’s lucky for us they did. Without their vision, insight, and hard work, the world would be a sicker, dirtier, and more dangerous place. The twenty groundbreaking women—including Rosalind Franklin, Marie Tharp, Shirley Anne Jackson, and more—came from all kinds of backgrounds and had all kinds of life experiences. Some grew up rich. Some grew up poor. Some were always the smartest kid in class. Some struggled to do well in school. But all had one thing in common: They were born curious. Are you curious, too? Read on.