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Nature and Science August 2020
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Nerve: Adventures in the Science of Fear
by Eva Holland
What it's about: When the thing she dreads most comes to pass, journalist Eva Holland embarks on a quest to understand the nature of fear by examining current scientific research, interviewing experts, and confronting some of her personal phobias.
What you'll learn: why we feel fear, what it does to the brain, and strategies for living with it ("overcoming" fear isn't really an option).
For fans of: the immersive, first-person reporting of Mary Roach.
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The Sirens of Mars: Searching for Life on Another World by Sarah Stewart Johnson What it's about: Planetary scientist Sarah Stewart Johnson interweaves the history of Mars exploration with an account of her life and career, both in the lab and out in the field.
For fans of: the intimate blend of science writing and memoir found in Hope Jahren's Lab Girl, Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz's The Dance of Life, or Sara Seager's forthcoming The Smallest Lights in the Universe. | | The Remarkable Life of the Skin: An Intimate Journey Across Our Largest Organ by Monty Lyman What it is: a dermatologist's cross-disciplinary "circumnavigation of, and love letter to" human skin.
You'll learn: what makes skin waterproof, how to achieve a healthy glow without risking a sunburn, why we can't tickle ourselves, and much more.
Reviewers say: "Tantalizing tidbits of information abound" (Booklist) in this "illuminating and thought-provoking" (Kirkus Reviews) book. | | How to Die in Space: A Journey Through Dangerous Astrophysical Phenomena by Paul M. Sutter, Ph.D First things first: "You're not going to make it in space," declares the astrophysicist author of this witty, eye-opening book, which explains the many ways the cosmos will kill you, should you happen to slip the surly bonds of Earth.
For fans of: Philip Plait's Death from the Skies!, Bob Berman's Earth-Shattering, or Mary Roach's Packing for Mars. | |
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Biography of Resistance: The Epic Battle Between People and Pathogens
by Muhammad H. Zaman, Ph.D.
What it's about: the emergence of antibiotic-resistant "superbugs," a problem that humans created but may not be able to solve.
Did you know? Some 35,000 people in the U.S. die every year from multi-drug-resistant infections; worldwide, such infections claim more lives than breast cancer, HIV/AIDS, or complications from diabetes.
Further reading: Matt McCarthy's Superbugs: The Race to Stop an Epidemic.
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How to Bake Pi: An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics of Mathematics
by Eugenia Cheng
In How to Bake Pi, math professor Eugenia Cheng uses cooking to shed light on the heart of mathematics. We learn, for example, how the béchamel in a lasagna can be a lot like the number 5, and why making a good custard proves that math is easy but life is hard. Of course, it’s not all about cooking; we’ll also run the New York and Chicago marathons, take a closer look at St. Paul’s Cathedral, pay visits to Cinderella and Lewis Carroll, and even get to the bottom of why we think of a tomato as a vegetable. At the heart of it all is Cheng’s work on category theory, a cutting-edge “mathematics of mathematics,” that is about figuring out how math works. This is not the math of our high school classes: seen through category theory, mathematics becomes less about numbers and formulas and more about how we know, believe, and understand anything, including whether our brother took too much cake.
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Weird Math: A Teenage Genius & His Teacher Reveal the Strange Connections Between... by David Darling and Agnijo Banerjee What it's about: a science writer and his protégé, a teen prodigy, discuss their favorite mathematical concepts in a style that's accessible without being over-simplistic.
Topics include: the fourth dimension, topology, prime numbers, Turing machines, and infinity.
For fans of: Alex Bellos' Here's Looking at Euclid, Ian Stewart's Visions of Infinity, or Steven Strogatz's The Joy of X. | |
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Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women...
by Margot Lee Shetterly
Touching on some of the themes of Nathalia Holt's Rise of the Rocket Girls, Hidden Figures spotlights more unsung heroines of the space race. This inspiring group biography introduces NASA's African American female mathematicians, whose work in the 1950s and 60s played a pivotal role in launching American astronauts into orbit. Since they worked in segregated spaces within the organization, their stories have remained largely unheard until now. Film fans will be pleased to know that Hidden Figures has already been adapted for the screen and is set for release in December.
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Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality
by Max Tegmark
Max Tegmark leads us on an astonishing journey through past, present and future, and through the physics, astronomy and mathematics that are the foundation of his work, most particularly his hypothesis that our physical reality is a mathematical structure and his theory of the ultimate multiverse. In a dazzling combination of both popular and groundbreaking science, he not only helps us grasp his often mind-boggling theories, but he also shares with us some of the often surprising triumphs and disappointments that have shaped his life as a scientist. Fascinating from first to last—this is a book that has already prompted the attention and admiration of many scientists and mathematicians.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Michigan City Public Library 100 E. 4th Street Michigan City, Indiana 46360 219-873-3044mclib.org/ |
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