| Liberty's Grid: A Founding Father, a Mathematical Dreamland, and the Shaping... by Amir AlexanderHave you ever flown over the United States and wondered why so much of it looks like a grid? Math historian Amir Alexander (Proof!) reveals the history behind the precisely measured layouts, including Thomas Jefferson proposing the grid plan to Congress in 1784 and a look at some of those who opposed it, such as George Washington, and why. |
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| The Catalyst: RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life's Deepest Secrets by Thomas R. CechNobel Prize-winning biochemist Thomas R. Cech explains RNA, covering its amazing properties, exciting early developments, modern day advances (CRISPR, mRNA vaccines), and possible future uses in this "lively and entertaining" (Wall Street Journal) debut. For fans of: Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Song of the Cell; Katalin Kariko's Breaking Through. |
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| Sharks Don't Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist by Jasmin GrahamIn this inspiring memoir, marine biologist Jasmin Graham talks sharks and describes her lifelong passion for the water, her journey to becoming a scientist, co-founding Minorities in Shark Sciences, and the challenges she's faced in a white, male-dominated field. You might also like: Chanda Prescod-Weinstein's The Disordered Cosmos; B. Rosemary Grant's One Step Sideways, Three Steps Forward. |
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Deep Water : the World in the Ocean
by James Bradley
This deeply reported examination of the complex relationship of humans and the seas explores the many ways that scientists and researchers are working to unlock the secrets of the deepest recesses of the modern world. Original.
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| Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water by Amorina KingdonSynthesizing past knowledge with new research, this "exquisite debut" (Publishers Weekly) lyrically discusses the importance of sound to marine animals, how sound acts differently in the water, the perils of human-made noise on life beneath the waves, and more. Further Reading: Karen Bakker's The Sounds of Life; David George Haskell's Sounds Wild and Broken. |
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The Tree Collectors : Tales of Arboreal Obsession
by Amy Stewart
Profiling 50 extraordinary people whose lives have been transformed by their obsessive passion for trees, this lively compendium, along with side trips to investigate more about trees, reveals what drives one to collect something as enormous, majestic and deeply rooted as a tree. Illustrations.
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The Secret History of Sharks : the Rise of the Ocean's Most Fearsome predators
by John A. Long
"From ancient megalodons to fearsome Great Whites, this is the complete, untold story of how sharks emerged as Earth's ultimate survivors, by a world-leading paleontologist Sharks have been fighting for their lives for 500 million years and are under dire threat today. They are the longest surviving vertebrate on Earth, outlasting multiple mass extinction events that decimated life on the planet. How did they thrive so long? By developing superpower-like abilities that allowed them to ascend to the top of the oceanic food chain. Yet they often found themselves in the shadows of larger, more formidable killers-and they not only survived, but also took their crown as the king of the sea. The Secret History of Sharks is the thrilling story of sharks' unparalleled reign. Because of recent technological breakthroughs scientists' understanding of sharks has taken a quantum leap forward in the last decade. John Long has been on the cutting edge of this research and in this masterwork weaves a fully updated and unexpected tale of shark's extraordinary evolutionary adventure. Along the way, The Secret History of Sharks introduces an enormous range of incredible organisms: a thirty-foot-long shark with a deadly saw blade of jagged teeth protruding from its lower jaws, a monster giant clams crusher, and bizarre sharks fossilized while in their mating ritual, and also includes startling new facts about the mighty megalodon, with its sixty-six-foot-long body, massive jaws, and six-inch serrated teeth that allowed it to dismember baleen whales. The book showcases the global search to discover sharks' secret history, led by Long and dozens of other extraordinary scientists. They embark on digs to all seven continents, investigating layers of earth to reveal never-before-found fossils and the clues to sharks' singular story. With insights into the threats to sharks today, how sharks contribute to medical advances, and the lessons sharks can teach us for our own survival, The Secret History of Sharks is a thrilling storyof scientific discovery with ramifications far beyond the ocean"
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| The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Hidden History of Math's Unsung Trailblazers by Kate Kitagawa and Timothy RevellIn this engaging, accessible narrative that spans six continents and begins with a 20,000-year-old bone, a math historian and a science journalist shine a light on important people who've often been ignored or forgotten in the history of mathematics. Further reading: The Art of More by Michael Brooks; The Man from the Future by Ananyo Bhattacharya. |
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Mastering AI : a survival guide to our superpowered future
by Jeremy Kahn
"A Fortune magazine journalist draws on his expertise and extensive contacts among the companies and scientists at the forefront of artificial intelligence to offer dramatic predictions of AI's impact over the next decade, from reshaping our economy and the way we work, learn, and create to unknitting our social fabric, jeopardizing our democracy, and fundamentally altering the way we think. Within the next five years, Jeremy Kahn predicts, AI will disrupt almost every industry and enterprise, with vastly increased efficiency and productivity. It will restructure the workforce, making AI copilots a must for every knowledge worker. It will revamp education, meaning children around the world can have personal, portable tutors. It will revolutionize health care, making individualized, targeted pharmaceuticals more affordable. It will compel us to reimagine how we make art, compose music, and write and publish books. The potential of generative AI to extend our skills, talents, and creativity as humans is undeniably exciting and promising. But while this new technology has a bright future, it also casts a dark and fearful shadow. AI will provoke pervasive, disruptive, potentially devastating knock-on effects. Leveraging his unrivaled access to the leaders, scientists, futurists, and others who are making AI a reality, Kahn will argue that if not carefully designed and vigilantly regulated AI will deepen income inequality, depressing wages while imposing winner-take-all markets across much of the economy. AI risks undermining democracy, as truth is overtaken by misinformation, racial bias, and harmful stereotypes. Continuing a process begun by the internet, AI will rewire our brains, likely inhibiting our ability to think critically, to remember, and even to get along with one another--unless we all take decisive action to prevent this from happening"
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| Adventures in Volcanoland: What Volcanoes Tell Us About the World and Ourselves by Tamsin MatherTaking readers to volcanoes in Pompeii, Nicaragua, Hawaii, and more, Oxford scientist Tamsin Mather reflects on her own life as she ponders intriguing questions in each chapter, such as: Whey do volcanoes erupt in different ways? What messages do volcanic gases carry from the deep? Further reading: Clive Oppenheimer's Mountains of Fire; Robin George Andrews' Super Volcanoes; Jess Phoenix's Ms. Adventure. |
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| Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI by Madhumita MurgiaIn her compelling and unsettling first book, a veteran tech journalist describes what she learned traveling the world and speaking with a wide range of people about the effects, good and bad, of artificial intelligence on everyday people's lives. Further reading: Unmasking AI by Joy Buolamwini; The Algorithm by Hilke Schellmann; Feeding the Machine by James Muldoon, Mark Graham, and Callum Cant (out in August). |
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| What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World's Ocean by Helen ScalesAcclaimed marine biologist and writer Helen Scales (The Brilliant Abyss) delves into a wide array of topics in her eloquent, engaging latest, examining how humans endanger the oceans, what we might do differently, and why there's still hope. Try these next: Holly Hogan's Message in a Bottle; Christina Conklin's The Atlas of Disappearing Places. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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