|
|
Nature and Science June 2026 |
|
|
|
|
|
Botanizing is the new birding! This fascinating book of 101 botany prompts is about the joy of getting to know plants in much the same way we get to know birds, through observation and attention. Let's Botanize! is a guide to learning about and understanding the world of plants, a hobby that can ease stress, bring joy, and deepen your connection with the incredible diversity of life all around you. With easy entry points and lush photography, the 101 prompts inspire readers to engage with plant life meaningfully each day by observing the parts, patterns, and processes that make plants so amazing. |
|
|
|
Body Electric: The Hidden Health Costs of the Digital Age and New Science to Reclaim Your Well-Being by Manoush Zomorodi In her compelling, hopeful book, Manoush Zomorodi, host of NPR’s TED Radio Hour and the Body Electric podcast, draws on expert interviews, cutting-edge research, and real experiences from tens of thousands of everyday participants in her own citizen experiment to reveal the surprising physiological costs of our digital existences, from posture problems and dwindling eyesight to disrupted breathing and weight gain. Along the way, Zomorodi shares scientifically-backed, easy-to-manage tactics and solutions for better health and well-being. She also debunks myths and misconceptions about what helps and hurts us, offers useful insights into the labs, offices, schools, and homes where small shifts are making big difference, culminating in an easy-to-apply protocol that will get us all moving.
|
|
|
|
The world consumes more than 550 million metric tons of meat and seafood each year and that number is expected to continue rising. In response, Good Food Institute founder and president Bruce Friedrich offers a hopeful and rigorously researched exploration of how science, policy, and industry can work together to satisfy the world’s soaring demand for meat while building a healthier and more sustainable world. Envisioning a future where meat is both a delight and a force for good, Friedrich offers a vision of the next agricultural revolution that is optimistic, achievable, and delicious. |
|
|
|
When the Forest Breathes: Renewal and Resilience in the Natural World by Suzanne SimardTrailblazing ecologist Suzanne Simard has watched as timber companies leave forests at higher risk for wildfires, water crises, and plant and animal extinction. But her research has the potential to chart a new course. The forest, she reveals, is a symphony of finely honed cycles of regeneration--from mushrooms breaking down logs to dying elder trees passing their genetic knowledge to younger ones--that hold the key to protecting our forests. Working closely with local Indigenous communities, Simard examines how human interventions endanger new growth and longevity. When the Forest Breathes is a vital reminder of all the natural world has to teach us about adaptability, resilience, and community.
|
|
| Beyond Inheritance: Our Ever-Mutating Cells and a New Understanding of Health by Roxanne Khamsi Science journalist Roxanne Khamsi’s well-researched debut offers a peek at cutting-edge genetics and the idea that our DNA is not static, as previously thought, but constantly mutating, in as many as trillions of occurrences daily. Geneticists hope that better understanding these naturally occurring mutations will give us a window into the cause of genetic diseases like cancer and, more importantly, how best to treat them. |
|
|
|
Walking is as important to our health and longevity as sleep; in fact, your walking speed can even predict your overall health status and risk of early death. And yet we’ve almost engineered it out of our lives. Walk is an expert-driven, science-backed guide that not only underscores the power of movement to just about every aspect of our life and restores walking to its rightful spot as one of the key pillars of health. Are you ready to optimize your wellness? Check out Walk now to enjoy Dr. Conley’s and Dr. McDowell’s up-to-date research, self-assessments, tips on choosing the best shoes for foot health, easy movements to help with pain, and customizable programs to develop or enhance your own fitness. |
|
Dig Into Archaeology & Paleontology |
|
 . |
This year's Summer Reading Program, Unearth a Story, has kicked off with a roar! Visit your local branch of The Public Library Albuquerque and Bernalillo County to get your reading log and start winning prizes. Everyone, from babies to adults, can participate, and prizes range from mystery prizes and books for children to entries into gift card drawings for adults! |
|
|
Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas by Jennifer Raff 20,000 years ago, people crossed a great land bridge from Siberia into Western Alaska and then dispersed southward into what is now called the Americas. Until we venture out to other worlds, this remains the last time our species has populated an entirely new place, and this event has been a subject of deep fascination and controversy. No written records--and scant archaeological evidence--exist to tell us what happened or how it took place. A study of both past and present, Origin explores how genetics is currently being used to construct narratives that profoundly impact Indigenous peoples of the Americas. It serves as a primer for anyone interested in how genetics has become entangled with identity in the way that society addresses the question "Who is indigenous?"
|
|
|
|
Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party: How an Eccentric Group of Victorians Discovered Prehistoric Creatures and Accidentally Upended the World by Edward DolnickDinosaurs at the Dinner Party tells the story of how the accidental discovery of prehistoric creatures upended humanity’s understanding of the world and its own place within it. The tale begins with Mary Anning, a poor, uneducated woman who had a sixth sense for finding fossils buried deep inside cliffs; moves to William Buckland, an eccentric geologist who filled his home with specimens and famously pieced together a prehistoric scene from the fossil record inside a cave; and then on to the controversial Richard Owen, the era’s best-known scientist, and the one who coined the term “dinosaur.”
|
|
|
|
Reefs of Time: What Fossils Reveal about Coral Survival by Lisa S. Gardiner As predictions about the future of these ecosystems grow increasingly dire, scientists are looking in an unlikely place for new ways to save corals: the past. The reefs of yesteryear faced challenges too, from changing sea level to temperature shifts, and understanding how they survived and when they faltered can help guide our efforts to help ensure a future for reefs. Lisa Gardiner weaves together the latest cutting-edge science with stories of her expeditions to tropical locales to show how fossils and other reef remains offer tantalizing glimpses of how corals persisted through time, and how this knowledge can guide our efforts to ensure a future for these remarkable organisms.
|
|
|
|
Dinomania: Why We Love, Fear and Are Utterly Enchanted by Dinosaurs by Boria Sax From Jurassic Park to Sue the T-Rex and Barney, our dino love affair is as real, as astonishing, and as incomprehensible as the gargantuan beasts themselves. In Dinomania, Boria Sax, a leading authority on human-animal relations, tells the story of our unlikely romance with the titanic saurians, from the discovery of their enormous bones—relics of an ancient world—to the dinosaur theme parks of today. Fun and ferocious, and featuring many superb illustrations of dinosaurs from art, popular culture, film, and advertising, Dinomania is a thought-provoking homage to humanity's enduring dinosaur amour.
|
|
|
|
The Story of Birds: A New History from Their Dinosaur Origins to the Present by Steve Brusatte Renowned paleontologist and bestselling author Steve Brusatte takes readers on a sweeping tour of the evolution of birds from dinosaurs to the delicate boned, sometimes extravagantly plumed animals that share the planet with us today. Brusatte explores how dinosaurs gradually developed the trademark features of birds and investigates why birds were the only creatures to survive the cataclysmic asteroid impact 66 million years ago. Going further, Brusatte helps readers to appreciate the extraordinariness of birds alive today – penguins that literally fly underwater, parrots that can mimic human speech and crows that can make tools and are smarter than most mammals.
|
|
|
|
Lost Worlds: How Humans Tried, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World by Patrick Wyman The creator of the hit podcast Tides of History offers a new look at humanity’s deep past, showing us how our world was built not by inevitability, but by trial and error on a global scale. In this nuanced retelling of the 10,000-year span between the end of the Ice Age and the decline of the Bronze Age, human progress is no longer a straight march from caves to cities: Farming didn’t always replace foraging, villages didn’t automatically spark agriculture, and cities didn’t necessitate rigid hierarchies. For thousands of years, humans merely improvised. Combining cutting-edge science with gripping storytelling, Wyman explores the reason behind the rise and fall of early societies, what new archaeology methods are revealing about prehistoric people, and more.
|
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
The Public Library
501 Copper NW
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87102
505-768-5141abqlibrary.org |
|
|
|