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Nature and Science April 2021
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Life's edge : the search for what it means to be alive
by Carl Zimmer
The New York Times “Matter” columnist investigates the science community’s conflicting views on what it actually means to be alive as demonstrated by laboratory attempts to recreate life and the examples of particularly remarkable life forms.
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| The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens... by Arik KershenbaumWhat it's about: Cambridge zoologist Arik Kershenbaum draws on Earth's evolutionary history to speculate about what forms extraterrestrial life might take.
You might also like: Imagined Life by James Trefil and Michael Summers, in which a pair of astronomers discuss what chemistry and physics can tell us about the potential for life on other planets. |
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A world on the wing : the global odyssey of migratory birds
by Scott Weidensaul
The author of the Pulitzer finalist Living on the Wind explores the remarkable science of global bird migration to illuminate the navigational and physiological feats that enable birds to fly across oceans, over mountains and uninterrupted for months. Illustrations. Maps.
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| Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age by Annalee NewitzWhat it does: explores four so-called "lost" (abandoned) cities and analyzes their "common point of failure" (political instability plus environmental disaster) while exploring the origins of this enduring trope.
Includes: the Neolithic Anatolian settlement of Çatalhöyük; the Roman town of Pompeii; Angkor, the capital of the Khmer Empire; and Cahokia, North America's largest city prior to European invasion.
About the author: Annalee Newitz is a journalist and science fiction writer who co-hosts the podcast Our Opinions Are Correct with novelist Charlie Jane Anders. |
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What is life? : five great ideas in biology
by Paul Nurse
A Nobel Prize-winning scientist heralds the achievements of forefront innovators while drawing on personal lab expertise to illuminate five major ideas underpinning biology, including the cell, the gene, evolution by natural selection, life as chemistry and life as information.
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| This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race by Nicole PerlrothWhat it is: an "intricately detailed, deeply sourced and reported" (New York Times) exposé of the underground cyberarms industry -- and the critical role the United States played in creating it.
About the author: Nicole Perlroth is a journalist who covers cybersecurity for The New York Times.
Try these next: Andy Greenberg's Sandworm; Richard A. Clarke and Robert K. Knake's The Fifth Domain; Kim Zetter's Countdown to Zero Day. |
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| The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey Into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred by Chanda Prescod-WeinsteinMeet: theoretical physicist Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, who researches the origins of spacetime and is one of fewer than 100 Black women to earn a PhD in physics.
What sets it apart: Dr. Prescod-Weinstein presents an accessible introduction to cosmology alongside an examination of the social context of science, with particular emphasis on race and gender. |
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Ms. Adventure : my wild explorations in science, lava, and life
by Jess Phoenix
The founder of the environmental scientific research organization Blueprint Earth tells the story of her career in geology, the barriers she faced while advocating for more diversity in science and her incredible adventures. 20,000 first printing.
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| The Loneliest Polar Bear: A True Story of Survival and Peril on the Edge of a Warming... by Kale WilliamsIntroducing: Nora, the first surviving polar bear cub at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium; and the "Nora Moms," a team of zoo employees that hand-raised the cub against steep odds after her mother abandoned her.
Media buzz: The Loneliest Polar Bear originated as a five-part multimedia story in The Oregonian.
You might also like: James Raffan's Ice Walker, which vividly depicts a polar bear family's struggle to survive in a world imperiled by climate change. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Rochester Hills Public Library 500 Olde Towne Rd Rochester, Michigan 48307 (248) 656-2900 rhpl.org |
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