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Artificial wisdom : a novel
by Thomas R. Weaver
In a climate-ravaged landscape where AI and humans vie for political power, a journalist must unravel a murderous plot that will either upend the world or save it.
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Cloud Warriors: Deadly Storms, Climate Chaos - And the Pioneers Creating a Revolution in Weather Forecasting
by Thomas E. Weber
For millennia, humans have tried to understand and predict the weather. The Space Age helped usher in satellites and radar, while computers made it possible to plug all that data into complex equations that anticipated the atmosphere's future behavior. Now a new age of advances in forecasting is unfolding, driven by AI, drones, and satellites. The Internet of Things has turned everything from cellphones to cars into ubiquitous weather sensors. Equally significant are new efforts to understand how people respond to forecasts and warnings. Scientists and government officials are realizing that how people get their weather information, and how they use it, are crucial factors in the outcome of a catastrophic weather event. Employing in-depth reporting on cutting edge science and technology, veteran journalist Thomas E. Weber takes us on a tour of how meteorologists, scientists, and officials track and prepare for major weather events. As climate change is altering our planet and making weather events more extreme, Weber introduces us to those on the front lines of weather preparation and prediction. We travel from coast-to-coast, to space and back, meeting TV meteorologists and storm chasers, city planners, backyard weatherman, and many others. Cloud Warriors will change the way you think about the weather--and the power of being able to see it coming.
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| To Catch a Fish: Essays on the Joy, Frustration, Curiosity, and Allure of Fishing by Mark Kurlansky; illustrations by Bri DostieNonfiction author Mark Kurlansky (The Boston Way) proves an entertaining guide to his favorite pastime. Along with advice on how, where, and with what equipment to catch various species of fish, Kurlansky’s book of essays includes enlightening tangents about fishing in literature, cooking tips, fly-tying, and the obsessive nature of hobbies, as well as vivid paintings by artist Bri Dostie. Read-alike: the anthology The Catch of a Lifetime: Moments of Flyfishing Glory edited by Peter Kaminsky. |
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Facing Infinity: Black Holes and Our Place on Earth
by Jonas Enander
Humanity's relationship with black holes began in 1783 in a small English village, when clergyman John Michell posed a startling question: What if there are objects in space that are so large and heavy that not even light can escape them? Almost 250 years later, in April 2019, scientists presented the first picture of a black hole. Physicist Jonas Enander has traveled the world to investigate how our understanding of these elusive celestial objects has evolved since the days of Michell. With Facing Infinity, he takes us on a spellbinding journey into the universe's greatest mystery, deciphers the most mind-bending science, and answers questions surrounding how black holes work, where they come from, and what role they play in the universe. Along the way Enander discovers how our desire to understand black holes inadvertently paved the way for the invention of Wi-Fi and the calibration of our global navigation satellites, how astronomical discovery became entangled with colonial conflicts, and how our looking outward gave us critical evidence of the impact of climate change. Facing Infinity helps us appreciate and understand as never before these mysterious celestial objects and our surprising connections to them.
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The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze That Captured Turn-Of-The-Century America
by David Baron
There is Life on the Planet Mars --New York Times, December 9, 1906 This New York Times headline was no joke. In the early 1900s, many Americans actually believed we had discovered intelligent life on Mars, as best-selling science writer David Baron chronicles in The Martians, his truly bizarre tale of a nation swept up in Mars mania. At the center of Baron's historical drama is Percival Lowell, the Boston Brahmin and Harvard scion, who observed canals etched into the surface of Mars. Lowell devised a grand theory that the red planet was home to a utopian society that had built gargantuan ditches to funnel precious meltwater from the polar icecaps to desert farms and oasis cities. The public fell in love with the ambitious amateur astronomer who shared his findings in speeches and wildly popular books. While at first people treated the Martians whimsically--Martians headlining Broadway shows, biologists speculating whether they were winged or gilled--the discussion quickly became serious. Inventor Nikola Tesla announced he had received radio signals from Mars; Alexander Graham Bell agreed there was no escape from the conviction that intelligent beings inhabited the planet. Martian excitement reached its zenith when Lowell financed an expedition to photograph Mars from Chile's Atacama Desert, resulting in what newspapers hailed as proof of the Martian canals' existence. Triumph quickly yielded to tragedy. Those wild claims and highly speculative photographs emboldened Lowell's critics, whose withering attacks gathered steam and eventually wrecked the man and his theory--but not the fervor he had started. Although Lowell would die discredited and delusional in 1916, the Mars frenzy spurred a nascent literary genre called science fiction, and the world's sense of its place in the universe would never be the same. Today, the red planet maintains its grip on the public's imagination. Many see Mars as civilization's destiny--the first step toward our becoming an interplanetary species--but, as David Baron demonstrates, this tendency to project our hopes onto the world next door is hardly new. The Martians is a scintillating and necessary reminder that while we look to Mars for answers, what we often find are mirrors of ourselves.
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| Insectopolis: A Natural History by Peter KuperEisner Award-winning graphic novelist Peter Kuper’s illustrated ode to insect life incorporates multiple timelines, talking bugs, and a human de-populated world where the insects happily visit museum exhibits devoted to them! Kuper provides a wealth of science information alongside his stunning illustrations in inventively arranged panels that will draw in readers who like graphic nonfiction. For something similar, try The Hidden Life of Trees, Fred Bernard’s and Benjamin Flao's graphic adaptation of the book by Peter Wohlleben. |
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| Alien Worlds: How Insects Conquered the Earth and Why Their Fate Will Determine Our Future by Steve NichollsFor 400 million years, insects have been the most numerous members of the animal kingdom and have spent that time developing incredible ways to crawl, jump, burrow, fly, hunt and reproduce in ways that perfectly suit virtually every environment on Earth. Yet, as documentary filmmaker and entomologist Steve Nicholls reminds us in his richly illustrated book, it is humans that are proving most problematic to insect survival. For another book on this last point, try Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse by Dave Goulson. |
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| Tales from the Ant World by Edward O. WilsonAnts are not only fascinating but an easy insect to observe -- take it from the foremost ant expert, Pulitzer Prize winner Edward O. Wilson, whose obsession with ants began as a child in his backyard and never stopped. Readers will be captivated by Wilson’s explanation of ants’ complex social behavior, and how thousands of individuals can communicate and act cooperatively in service to the colony -- a trait all species of ant have in common. For fans of: The Jewel Box: How Moths Illuminate Nature’s Hidden Rules by Tim Blackburn. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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