NON FICTION SCIENCE BOOKS
The bestselling landmark account of the first
emergence of the Ebola virus. A highly infectious,
deadly virus from the central African rain forest
suddenly appears in the suburbs of Washington,
D.C. There is no cure. In a few days 90 percent of
its victims are dead. A secret military SWAT team of
soldiers and scientists is mobilized to stop the
outbreak of this exotic "hot" virus. The Hot Zone
tells this dramatic story, giving a hair-raising account
of the appearance of rare and lethal viruses and
their "crashes" into the human race. Shocking,
frightening, and impossible to ignore, The Hot Zone
proves that truth really is scarier than fiction.
Focusing on USAMRIID's top virologist, Peter Jahrling,
and his work to combat the possible development of a
superpox virus by terrorists worldwide. His most urgent
priority is to develop a drug that will take on smallpox-and
win. Eradicated from the planet in 1979 in one of the great
triumphs of modern science, the smallpox virus now
resides, officially, in only two high-security freezers-at the
Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and in Siberia, at a
Russian virology institute called Vector. But the demon in
the freezer has been set loose. It is almost certain that illegal
stocks are in the possession of hostile states, including Iraq
and North Korea. Jahrling is haunted by the thought that
biologists in secret labs are using genetic engineering to
create a new superpox virus, a smallpox resistant to all
vaccines.
Panic in Level 4is a grand tour through the eerie and
unforgettable universe of Richard Preston, filled with
incredible characters and mysteries that refuse to leave
one's mind. Here are dramatic true stories from this
acclaimed and award-winning author, including: • The
phenomenon of "self-cannibals," who suffer from a rare
genetic condition caused by one wrong letter in their
DNA that forces them to compulsively chew their own
flesh-and why everyone may have a touch of this
disease. • The search for the unknown host of Ebola
virus, an organism hidden somewhere in African rain
forests, where the disease finds its way into the human
species, causing outbreaks of unparalleled horror. • The
brilliant Russian brothers-"one mathematician divided
between two bodies"-who built a supercomputer in their
apartment from mail-order parts in an attempt to find
hidden order in the number pi (?).
The New York Times bestseller that's
changing America's diet is now perfect
for younger readers 'What 's for dinner?'
seemed like a simple question-until
journalist and supermarket detective
Michael Pollan delved behind the scenes.
From fast food and big organic to small
farms and old-fashioned hunting and
gathering, this young readers' adaptation
of Pollan's famous food-chain
exploration encourages kids to consider
the personal and global health
implications of their food choices.
In this fascinating sociocultural report,
Schlosser digs into the deeper meaning
of Burger King, Auggie's, The Chicken
Shack, Jack-in-the-Box, Little Caesar's
and myriad other examples of fast food
in America. Frequently using
McDonald's as a template, Schlosser, an
Atlantic Monthly correspondent,
explains how the development of fastfood restaurants has led to the
standardization of American culture,
widespread obesity, urban sprawl and
more.
In the tradition of Fast Food Nation and The
Omnivore's Dilemma comes a fascinating and
cutting-edge look at the scary truth about what
really goes into our food. If a piece of individually
wrapped cheese can retain its shape, color, and
texture for years, what does it say about the food
we eat and feed to our children? Former New York
Times business reporter and mother Melanie
Warner decided to explore that question when she
observed the phenomenon of the indestructible
cheese. She began an investigative journey that
took her to research labs, university food science
departments, and factories around the country.
What she discovered provides a rare, eye-openingand sometimes disturbing-account of what we're
really eating.
Like many young Americans, Jonathan Safran
Foer spent much of his teenage and college years
oscillating between enthusiastic carnivore and
occasional vegetarian. As he became a husband,
and then a father, the moral dimensions of eating
became increasingly important to him. Faced with
the prospect of being unable to explain why we
eat some animals and not others, Foer set out to
explore the origins of many eating traditions and
the fictions involved with creating them. Traveling
to the darkest corners of our dining habits, Foer
raises the unspoken question behind every fish we
eat, every chicken we fry, and every burger we
grill.
"America's funniest science writer"
(Washington Post) takes us down the hatch
on an unforgettable tour. The alimentary
canal is classic Mary Roach terrain:Why is
crunchy food so appealing? Why is it so hard
to find words for flavors and smells? Why
doesn't the stomach digest itself? How much
can you eat before your stomach bursts? Can
constipation kill you? Did it kill Elvis? In
Gulp we meet scientists who tackle the
questions no one else thinks of--or has the
courage to ask. We go on location to a petfood taste-test lab, a fecal transplant, and
into a live stomach to observe the fate of a
meal.
Space is a world devoid of the things we need to live
and thrive: air, gravity, hot showers, fresh produce,
privacy, beer. Space exploration is in some ways an
exploration of what it means to be human. How much
can a person give up? How much weirdness can they
take? What happens to you when you can't walk for a
year? have sex? smell flowers? What happens if you
vomit in your helmet during a space walk? Is it
possible for the human body to survive a bailout at
17,000 miles per hour? To answer these questions,
space agencies set up all manner of quizzical and
startlingly bizarre space simulations. As Mary Roach
discovers, it's possible to preview space without ever
leaving Earth.
A guided tour through the strange and sometimes
dangerous microscopic world Germs are everywhere--in
our intestines and on our skin as well as on kitchen
counters, public toilets, doorknobs, and just about
everything else. Why are there so many microorganisms?
Which ones are dangerous? And how can we avoid the
ones that will make us sick? This entertaining and
informative book provides the answers. Profiling a
rogue's gallery of harmful germs--from the influenza
virus, salmonella, and herpes to hepatitis, tuberculosis,
and HIV--as well as helpful microbes (we actually need
E. Coli and other bacteria for proper digestion), the
book reveals how different germs interact with the
human body and what happens when they do.
David Oshinsky tells the gripping story of the
polio terror and of the intense effort to find a
cure, from the March of Dimes to the discovery
of the Salk and Sabin vaccines - and beyond.
Here is a remarkable portrait of America in the
early 1950s, using the widespread panic over
polio to shed light on our national obsessions
and fears. Drawing on newly available papers of
Jonas Salk, Albert Sabin and other key players,
Oshinsky paints a suspenseful portrait of the
race for the cure, weaving a dramatic tale
centered on the furious rivalry between Salk and
Sabin. Indeed, the competition was marked by a
deep-seated ill will among the researchers that
remained with them until their deaths.
At the height of WWI, history's most lethal
influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas,
moved east with American troops, then exploded,
killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It
killed more people in twenty-four months than
AIDS killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than
the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not
the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision
of science and epidemic disease. Magisterial in its
breadth of perspective and depth of research and
now revised to reflect the growing danger of the
avian flu, The Great Influenza is ultimately a tale of
triumph amid tragedy, which provides us with a
precise and sobering model as we confront the
epidemics looming on our own horizon.
Homer called salt a divine substance. Plato described it
as especially dear to the gods. Today we take salt for
granted, a common, inexpensive substance that seasons
food or clears ice from roads, a word used casually in
expressions ("salt of the earth," take it with a grain of
salt") without appreciating their deeper meaning.
However, as Mark Kurlansky so brilliantly relates in his
world- encompassing new book, salt--the only rock we
eat--has shaped civilization from the very beginning. Its
story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history
of mankind. Until about 100 years ago, when modern
chemistry and geology revealed how prevalent it is, salt
was one of the most sought-after commodities, and no
wonder, for without it humans and animals could not
live. Salt has often been considered so valuable that it
served as currency, and it is still exchanged as such in
places today.
Science need not be dull and bogged down by
jargon, as Richard Dawkins proves in this
entertaining look at evolution. The themes he
takes up are the concepts of altruistic and
selfish behaviour; the genetical definition of
selfish interest; the evolution of aggressive
behaviour; kinshiptheory; sex ratio theory;
reciprocal altruism; deceit; and the natural
selection of sex differences. 'Should be read,
can be read by almost anyone. It describes with
great skill a new face of the theory of
evolution.
There is a story that is usually told
about extremely successful people, a
story that focuses on intelligence and
ambition. Gladwell argues that the
true story of success is very different,
and that if we want to understand
how some people thrive, we should
spend more time looking around
them-at such things as their family,
their birthplace, or even their birth
date. And in revealing that hidden
logic, Gladwell presents a fascinating
and provocative blueprint for making
the most of human potential.
The tipping point is that magic moment
when an idea, trend, or social behavior
crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like
wildfire. Just as a single sick person can
start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a
small but precisely targeted push cause a
fashion trend, the popularity of a new
product, or a drop in the crime rate. This
widely acclaimed bestseller, in which
Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly
illuminates the tipping point phenomenon,
is already changing the way people
throughout the world think about selling
products and disseminating ideas.
Why do we look the way we do? What does the human hand have
in common with the wing of a fly? Are breasts, sweat glands, and
scales connected in some way? To better understand the inner
workings of our bodies and to trace the origins of many of today's
most common diseases, we have to turn to unexpected sources:
worms, flies, and even fish. Neil Shubin, a leading paleontologist
and professor of anatomy who discovered Tiktaalik --the "missing
link" that made headlines around the world in April 2006--tells the
story of evolution by tracing the organs of the human body back
millions of years, long before the first creatures walked the earth.
By examining fossils and DNA, Shubin shows us that our hands
actually resemble fish fins, our head is organized like that of a longextinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genome look and
function like those of worms and bacteria. Shubin makes us see
ourselves and our world in a completely new light. Your Inner Fish
is science writing at its finest--enlightening, accessible, and told
with irresistible enthusiasm
An international best seller embraced and endorsed by policy
makers, scientists, writers and energy industry executives from
around the world, Tim Flannery's The Weather Makers contributed
in bringing the topic of global warming to national prominence. For
the first time, a scientist provided an accessible and comprehensive
account of the history, current status, and future impact of climate
change, writing what has been acclaimed by reviewers everywhere as
the definitive book on global warming. The Weather Makers is both
an urgent warning and a call to arms, outlining the history of climate
change, how it will unfold over the next century, and what we can do
to prevent a cataclysmic future. Originally somewhat of a global
warming skeptic, Tim Flannery spent several years researching the
topic and offers a connect-the-dots approach for a reading public
who has received patchy or misleading information on the subject.
Pulling on his expertise as a scientist to discuss climate change from
a historical perspective, Flannery also explains how climate change is
interconnected across the planet.
Bestselling author and environmental activist Bill McKibben
recounts the personal and global story of the fight to build
and preserve a sustainable planet. Bill McKibben is not a
person you'd expect to find handcuffed and behind bars, but
that's where he found himself in the summer of 2011 after
leading the largest civil disobedience in thirty years, protesting
the Keystone XL pipeline in front of the White House. With
the Arctic melting, the Midwest in drought, and Irene
scouring the Atlantic, McKibben recognized that action was
needed if solutions were to be found. Some of those would
come at the local level, where McKibben joins forces with a
Vermont beekeeper raising his hives as part of the growing
trend toward local food. Other solutions would come from a
much larger fight against the fossil-fuel industry as a whole.
Oil and Honey is McKibben's account of these two necessary
and mutually reinforcing sides of the global climate fight-from
the center of the maelstrom and from the growing hive of
small-scale local answers to climate change.
What can music teach us about the brain? What can the brain
teach us about music? And what can both teach us about
ourselves? In this groundbreaking union of art and science,
rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explores the
connection between music - its performance, its composition, how
we listen to it, why we enjoy it - and the human brain. Drawing on
the latest research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart
to Duke Ellington to Van Halen, Levitin reveals: How composers
produce some of the most pleasurable effects of listening to
music by exploiting the way our brains make sense of the world
Why we are so emotionally attached to the music we listened to as
teenagers, whether it was Fleetwood Mac, U2, or Dr. Dre That
practice, rather than talent, is the driving force behind musical
expertise How those insidious little jingles (called earworms ) get
stuck in our head Taking on prominent thinkers who argue that
music is nothing more than an evolutionary accident, Levitin poses
that music is fundamental to our species, perhaps even more so
than language.
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know
her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco
farmer who worked the same land as her slave
ancestors, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge-became one of the most important tools in
medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in
culture, they are still alive today, though she has been
dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all
HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they'd weigh
more than 50 million metric tons--as much as a
hundred Empire State Buildings. As Rebecca Skloot
so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family-past and present--is inextricably connected to the
dark history of experimentation on African
Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal
battles over whether we control the stuff we are
made of.
1793, Philadelphia. The nation's capital and the
largest city in North America is devastated by an
apparently incurable disease, cause unknown . . . In
a powerful, dramatic narrative, critically acclaimed
author Jim Murphy describes the illness known as
yellow fever and the toll it took on the city's
residents, relating the epidemic to the major social
and political events of the day and to 18th-century
medical beliefs and practices. Drawing on firsthand accounts, Murphy spotlights the heroic role
of Philadelphia's free blacks in combating the
disease, and the Constitutional crisis that President
Washington faced when he was forced to leave the
city--and all his papers--while escaping the deadly
contagion.
While the Black Death, smallpox, and AIDS may seem to
have little in common, Giblin draws parallels between
them that are both striking and fascinating. The Black
Death was often blamed on Jews, leading to hatred,
mistrust, and violence against them. In much the same
way, many people have blamed AIDS on homosexuals.
The author's tracing of the medical community's fearful
and confused reactions to these diseases and his portrayal
of the infighting among AIDS researchers are certainly
eye-opening. Overall, the text is brutally matter-of-fact.
The medical terms are clearly explained and Giblin
moves deftly from one historical highlight to another,
touching briefly, yet thoroughly, on the major events that
make up the history of each disease.
What is neuroplasticity? Is it possible to change your brain?
Norman Doidge's inspiring guide to the new brain science
explains all of this and more An astonishing new science
called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old
notion that the human brain is immutable, and proving that
it is, in fact, possible to change your brain. Psychoanalyst,
Norman Doidge, M.D., traveled the country to meet both
the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity, its
healing powers, and the people whose lives they've
transformed--people whose mental limitations, brain
damage or brain trauma were seen as unalterable. We see a
woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as
a whole, blind people who learn to see, learning disorders
cured, IQs raised, aging brains rejuvenated, stroke patients
learning to speak, children with cerebral palsy learning to
move with more grace, depression and anxiety disorders
successfully treated, and lifelong character traits changed.
Bill Bryson is one of the world's most beloved and
bestselling writers. In A Short History of Nearly
Everything , he takes his ultimate journey-into the
most intriguing and consequential questions that
science seeks to answer. It's a dazzling quest, the
intellectual odyssey of a lifetime, as this insatiably
curious writer attempts to understand everything that
has transpired from the Big Bang to the rise of
civilization. How do we know what is in the center of
the earth, thousands of miles beneath the surface?
How can we know the extent and the composition of
the universe, or what a black hole is? How can we
know where the continents were 600 million years ago?
How did anyone ever figure these things out?
This powerful and inspiring new book shows how one
person can make a difference, as Kidder tells the true
story of a gifted man who is in love with the world
and has set out to do all he can to cure it. At the
center of Mountains Beyond Mountains stands Paul
Farmer. Doctor, Harvard professor, renowned
infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist, the
recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant, world-class
Robin Hood, Farmer was brought up in a bus and on
a boat, and in medical school found his life's calling: to
diagnose and cure infectious diseases and to bring the
lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who
need them most. This magnificent book shows how
radical change can be fostered in situations that seem
insurmountable, and it also shows how a meaningful
life can be created, as Farmer--brilliant, charismatic,
charming, both a leader in international health and a
doctor who finds time to make house calls in Boston
and the mountains of Haiti--blasts through
convention to get results.
From New York Times bestselling author Sam Kean comes
incredible stories of science, history, finance, mythology, the arts,
medicine, and more, as told by the Periodic Table. Why did Gandhi
hate iodine (I, 53)? How did radium (Ra, 88) nearly ruin Marie Curie's
reputation? And why is gallium (Ga, 31) the go-to element for
laboratory pranksters?* The Periodic Table is a crowning scientific
achievement, but it's also a treasure trove of adventure, betrayal, and
obsession. These fascinating tales follow every element on the table
as they play out their parts in human history, and in the lives of the
(frequently) mad scientists who discovered them. THE
DISAPPEARING SPOON masterfully fuses science with the classic
lore of invention, investigation, and discovery--from the Big Bang
through the end of time. *Though solid at room temperature, gallium
is a moldable metal that melts at 84 degrees Fahrenheit. A classic
science prank is to mold gallium spoons, serve them with tea, and
watch guests recoil as their utensils disappear
Why do fools fall in love? Why does a man's annual salary, on
average, increase $600 with each inch of his height? When a
crack dealer guns down a rival, how is he just like Alexander
Hamilton, whose face is on the ten-dollar bill? How do optical
illusions function as windows on the human soul? Cheerful,
cheeky, occasionally outrageous MIT psychologist Steven Pinker
answers all of the above and more in his marvelously fun,
awesomely informative survey of modern brain science. Pinker
argues that Darwin plus canny computer programs are the key
to understanding ourselves--but he also throws in apt references
to Star Trek, Star Wars, The Far Side, history, literature, W. C.
Fields, Mozart, Marilyn Monroe, surrealism, experimental
psychology, and Moulay Ismail the Bloodthirsty and his 888
children. If How the Mind Works were a rock show, tickets
would be scalped for $100.
Aaseng offers a great deal of information in this
title that's written in an easily accessible and
engaging style. He establishes the importance of
recognizing pseudoscience, exploring issues on
four ``battlegrounds'': mind and spirit, the human
body, planet Earth, and the cosmos. He discusses
near-death experiences, ESP, miracle cures,
earthquake predictions, ``creation science,''
UFOs, astrology, and other pseudoscientific
belief systems and evaluates them against 10
criteria for determining what is science. A few
captioned black-and-white photographs add
interest.
When the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the
American Museum of Natural History reclassified Pluto
as an icy comet, the New York Times proclaimed on
page one, "Pluto Not a Planet? Only in New York."
Immediately, the public, professionals, and press were
choosing sides over Pluto's planet hood. Pluto is
entrenched in our cultural and emotional view of the
cosmos, and Neil deGrasse Tyson, award-winning
author and director of the Rose Center, is on a quest to
discover why. He stood at the heart of the controversy
over Pluto's demotion, and consequently Plutophiles
have freely shared their opinions with him, including
endless hate mail from third-graders. With his inimitable
wit, Tyson delivers a minihistory of planets, describes
the oversized characters of the people who study them,
and recounts how America's favorite planet was ousted
from the cosmic hub.
Based on his 13-part television
series, discusses science in a broad
human context summarizing how
science and civilization grew up
together, considers the findings on
life elsewhere, and the directions
our science might take in the
future.
Sacks (Awakenings) is one of a handful of contemporary scientistauthors with immediate name recognition, and deservedly so. Best
known for the tales of his experiences as a clinical neurologist, he
has a special gift for conveying the humanity and hopes of
patients struggling with sometimes bizarre mental disorders. In his
memoir, he writes with the same enthusiasm and empathy about
his boyhood infatuation with chemistry. As a youth, Sacks was
insatiably curious about the properties of chemical substances and
was ardently encouraged by his family, especially his Uncle Dave,
nicknamed "Uncle Tungsten" for the light bulbs he manufactured
with tungsten wire filaments. Delighting in the experiments that he
conducted, Sacks also read about and clearly idolized the great
chemists. His book is much more than just the lab notes of a
junior chemist, though. It is also about growing up Jewish and
coming of age in London during the wartime years. The passion
that Sacks felt for learning permeated every aspect of his young
life, and it comes through vividly in his adult prose. Tungsten
could not possibly have a more inspiring spokesman
BRILLIANTLY EXPLORING TODAY'S CUTTING-EDGE
BRAIN RESEARCH,MIND WIDE OPENIS AN
UNPRECEDENTED JOURNEY INTO THE ESSENCE OF
HUMAN PERSONALITY, ALLOWING READERS TO
UNDERSTAND THEMSELVES AND THE PEOPLE IN THEIR
LIVES AS NEVER BEFORE. Using a mix of experiential reportage,
personal storytelling, and fresh scientific discovery, Steven Johnson
describes how the brain works -- its chemicals, structures, and
subroutines -- and how these systems connect to the day-to-day
realities of individual lives. For a hundred years, he says, many of us
have assumed that the most powerful route to self-knowledge took the
form of lying on a couch, talking about our childhoods. The possibility
entertained in this book is that you can follow another path, in which
learning about the brain's mechanics can widen one's self-awareness as
powerfully as any therapy or meditation or drug. InMind Wide Open,
Johnson embarks on this path as his own test subject, participating in a
battery of attention tests, learning to control video games by altering
his brain waves, scanning his own brain with a $2 million fMRI
machine, all in search of a modern answer to the oldest of questions:
who am I?