New and Recently Released!
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Rain: A natural and cultural history
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Cynthia Barnett
"We long for rain especially when we've gone without," observes author Cynthia Barnett in this richly detailed exploration of precipitation. Rain has always been an important aspect of life on Earth, from the downpours of 4 billion years ago, which filled the planet's oceans, to the erratic weather wrought by climate change. In anecdotal style, Barnett combines science, history, and travel writing to cover a variety of topics, including the shape of raindrops, the cultural significance of water, and human efforts to predict and even alter rainfall patterns. A must-read for days when it's raining cats and dogs (United States), old women and walking sticks (Wales), or men (The Weather Girls).
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This idea must die : Scientific theories that are blocking progress by John Brockman A collection of essays curated by the editor of This Explains Everything features some of the most brilliant minds in the world responding to Edge.org's question about what is stalling scientific progress, including Steven Pinker, Richard Dawkins, Sherry Turkle, Rebecca Newberger and Ian McEwan.
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Cuckoo: Cheating by Nature
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Nick Davies
In this "highly literate, beautifully written natural history" of the common cuckoo (Library Journal), British ornithologist Nick Davies examines the biology, behavior, and cultural significance of Cuculus canorus. A brood parasite that lays its eggs in other birds' nests, the cuckoo is also an active participant in an "evolutionary arms race," in which cuckoos devise clever strategies for tricking other species into raising their young while their targets (including reed warblers, wagtails, meadow pipits, and dunnocks) develop ever-more sophisticated defenses against the invaders.
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The triumph of seeds: How grains, nuts, kernels, pulses, & pips conquered the plant kingdom and shaped human history
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Thor Hanson
An estimated 352,000 species of plant reproduce by seed, prompting conservation biologist Thor Hanson to call seeds the most important evolutionary development in the entire history of plants. And they're equally important to humans, supplying us with "food and fuels, intoxicants and poisons, oils, dyes, fibers and spices." If you enjoyed Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire, you'll find this a similarly engaging, accessible science book about the co-evolution of plants and humans.
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Headstrong: 52 women who changed science--and the world
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Rachel Swaby
As these 52 concise, yet informative, biographical profiles demonstrate, women have always changed the world through science -- from the invention of the aquarium (Jeanne Villepreux-Power) to the development of protein crystallography (Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin) to the discovery of the Earth's inner core (Inge Lehmann). Recounting their (often overlooked) achievements in a wide variety of disciplines -- including astronomy, biology, chemistry, computer science, genetics, mathematics, medicine, and physics -- Headstrong also describes how each woman overcame significant obstacles to pursue her passion for knowledge.
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"It is strange that the tactile sense, which is so infinitely less precious to men than sight, becomes at critical moments our main, if not only, handle to reality."
~ Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977), Russian-American novelist,
Lolita
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Sonic wonderland by Trevor CoxWelcome to a world where galleries whisper, waterfalls hiss, glaciers creak. and Mayan pyramids chirp. Acoustic engineer Trevor Cox provides a fascinating tour of "the sonic wonders of the world," a collection of unusual sounds both natural and synthetic. In the process, Cox explains the acoustic qualities that characterise the places we use and occupy, distinguishing between "live" (concert halls, bathrooms) and "dead" (offices, classrooms) spaces. After reading this fascinating book, you'll never look at -- or listen to -- your surroundings in the same way.
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What the nose knows : The science of scent in everyday life by Avery N. Gilbert An olfactory scientist journeys inside the world of smell to highlight the latest discoveries about our sense of smell, discussing the physiology of the nose, how smell works, the natural and human-crafted scents to which we are exposed on a daily basis, and the role of smell in contemporary culture.
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The scent of desire: Discovering our enigmatic sense of smell by Rachel Herz In this "lively, seductive exploration of what the nose knows" ( Kirkus Reviews ), psychologist Rachel Herz examines our olfactory sense and how it affects our behavior. Did you know that our perception of odors depends on emotional and cultural factors, and that there is no universally "good" or "bad" smell? Or that mothers and their newborns can recognize each other by smell?
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Tasty: The art and science of what we eat
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John McQuaid
The tongue has one job: "to distinguish food from everything else." However, the process though which we determine what's edible is complicated, requiring an understanding of, among other areas, microbiology, genetics, and neuroscience. It also requires cleansing one's mental palate by, for example, discarding that diagram of the tongue depicting four distinct regions dedicated to sweet, salty, sour, and bitter flavors (which has no scientific basis) and accepting that, to a large extent, taste is hereditary. If you've ever wondered why and how we eat what we eat, check out Tasty.
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See what I'm saying : the extraordinary powers of our five senses
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Lawrence D. Rosenblum
The author explores the astonishing abilities of humans' five senses, abilities that people rarely detect in day-to-day life, from a blind person that can "see" through bat-like echolocation to pheromones that can signal a lover's compatibility.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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