|
Nature and Science February 2018
|
|
|
|
|
Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
by Paul Hawken
What's inside: One hundred solutions to remedy the climate change crisis, ranging from well-known to obscure, including wind energy, electric vehicles, and microbial farming.
What's in the name: "Drawdown" is the point at which greenhouse gases will peak and begin to decline, "the most important goal for humanity to undertake." And one toward which—as Hawken and his contributors so assiduously record in this comprehensive and exacting compilation of vivid exposition and data—we are making progress.
|
|
| Where the Wild Coffee Grows: The Untold Story of Coffee from the Cloud Forests of Ethiopia... by Jeff KoehlerWhat it's about: Having tackled tea in Darjeeling, science writer Jeff Koehler traces the origins of Arabica coffee from the Kafa region of Ethiopia to the large-scale farms of Latin America.
Why you should read it: Between the ravages of disease, deforestation, and climate change, coffee could one day disappear. If you can't imagine life without this magical elixir, pick up this book. |
|
|
The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World
by Jeff Goodell
What it's about: Climate change is melting the polar ice caps and causing sea levels to rise...and we are not prepared for it. At all. In this sobering book, journalist Jeff Goodell outlines "the future we are creating for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren," in which rising tides will swallow coastal cities, costing trillions of dollars a year and displacing millions of people. If you're wondering what the future holds, get to higher ground immediately and then pick up this book.
Reviewers say: "An immersive, mildly gonzo and depressingly well-timed book about the drenching effects of global warming, and a powerful reminder that we can bury our heads in the sand about climate change for only so long before the sand itself disappears." (Jennifer Senior, New York Times)
|
|
|
American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West
by Nate Blakeslee
What it's about: Not every wolf gets an obituary in The New York Times. But O-Six, leader of the Lamar Canyon Pack in Yellowstone National Park, was no ordinary wolf. In this thoroughly researched and vividly written account, Texas Monthly writer Nate Blakeslee chronicles O-Six's life, interviewing the park rangers who monitored her progress, the environmental activists who made her a social media star, and the man who killed her.
Further reading: Interested in the controversial topic of reintroducing wolves to U.S. federal lands? Check out Brenda Peterson's Wolf Nation.
|
|
|
Deadly Outbreaks : How Medical Detectives Save Lives Threatened by Killer Pandemics, Exotic Viruses, and Drug-Resistant Parasites
by Alexandra M. Levitt
What's inside: Recounts the scientific adventures of a special group of intrepid individuals who, part homicide detectives, part physicians, investigate infectious outbreaks around the world, discovering the truth behind unexplained deaths and the alarming headlines we've seen in the media.
Who's the author? Alexandra M. Levitt, PhD, is an alumna of NYU School of Medicine. She joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC in 1995. There she has prepared policy reports on global health, bioterrorism, and pandemic influenza, and drafted critical case studies of large and unusual outbreak responses.
|
|
| I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed YongIntroducing: the microbiome, a complex ecosystem of commensal, symbiotic, and pathogenic microscopic organisms living in and on our bodies.
Why you should read it: Science writer Ed Yong's accessible field guide to microorganisms reveals that they're more than just germs to be wiped out--they form communities that help our bodies function, making them a promising subject for medical research.
You might also like: Rob Dunn's The Wildlife of Our Bodies. |
|
|
Catching Breath: The Making and Unmaking of Tuberculosis
by Kathryn Lougheed
What it's about: A former tuberculosis researcher follows the history of the disease from an infection endured by early humans to how industrialization and urbanization helped tuberculosis become the monstrous, life-threatening disease it is today and examines the latest research in fighting it.
Did you know? TB is a bigger killer than HIV/AIDS and malaria. It has gone by many names (consumption, the white plague, phthisis); been romanticized; and infected many famous figures, including Keats, Chopin, Gauguin, and Kafka.
|
|
| Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology by Johnjoe McFadden and Jim Al-KhaliliWhat it's about: The nascent field of quantum biology, which applies principles of quantum mechanics to biological processes, ranging from our sense of smell (olfaction) to bird migration, which relies on the ability to sense the Earth's magnetic field (magnetoreception).
Read it for: the way the authors--a theoretical physicist and a molecular biologist--make a complex and challenging topic accessible to non-scientists. |
|
|
The Human Superorganism: How the Microbiome is Revolutionizing the Pursuit of a Healthy Life
by Rodney R Dietert
What it's about: The award-winning immunogenetics researcher and co-author of Immunotoxicity outlines a new biological paradigm about the origins of such non-communicable diseases as asthma, autism and cancer, arguing in favor of ancient-world dietary practices and protective measures against unsafe chemicals.
Did you know? The microorganisms that we have sought to eliminate have been there for centuries supporting our ancestors. They comprise as much as 90 percent of the cells in and on our bodies.
|
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
|
|
|