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Science for the Rest of Us!
A Suggested Reading List
Bodanis, David
E = mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation
The story of Einstein's formulation of the equation in 1905 its impact on the
scientific community. 530.11 Bod (Main)
Cheney, Annie
Body Brokers: Inside the American Underground Trade in Human Remains
Cheney carefully researched the modern practice of selling "surplus" corpses to
the highest bidder as well as the sale of transplantable tissues for patients
undergoing surgery. 617.9 Che (Main) Compare this with Roach’s Stiff!
Croke, Vicki Constantine
Lady and the Panda
Here is the true story of Ruth Harkness, the Manhattan bohemian socialite who,
against all but impossible odds, trekked to Tibet in 1936 to capture the most
mysterious animal of the day: a bear that had for countless centuries lived in
secret in the labyrinth of lonely cold mountains. 599.79 Cro (Main)
Gawande, Atul
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science
In gripping accounts of true cases, surgeon Atul Gawande explores the power and
the limits of medicine, offering an unflinching view from the scalpel's edge.
617.092 Gaw (West)
Hawking, Stephen
A Brief History of Time (Updated & Expanded 10th Anniversary Edition)
A Brief History of Time, published in 1988, was a landmark volume in science
writing and in world-wide acclaim and popularity. The original edition was on
the cutting edge of what was then known about the origins and nature of the
universe. This edition updates the chapters throughout to document those
advances in micro- and macro-cosmology, and also includes an entirely new
chapter on Wormholes and Time Travel. 523.1 Haw (Main)
Jamison, Kay Redfield
Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide
Weaving together a historical and scientific exploration of the subject with
personal essays on individual suicides, Jamison brings not only her remarkable
compassion and literary skill but also all of her knowledge and research to bear
on this devastating problem. 616.85 Jam (Main & West)
King, Ross
Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture
By all accounts, Brunelleschi, goldsmith and clockmaker, was an unkempt,
cantankerous, and suspicious man. He also designed and erected a dome over the
cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence-a feat of architectural daring
that we continue to marvel at today. At first denounced as a madman,
Brunelleschi reinvented the field of architecture amid plagues, wars, and
political feuds to raise seventy million pounds of metal, wood, and marble
hundreds of feet in the air. 726.6 Kin (West)
Kurlansky, Mark
Salt: A World History
Kurlansky, author of Cod and The Basque History of the World, takes an
extraordinary look at an ordinary substance--salt, the only rock humans eat--
and how it has shaped civilization from the very beginning. 553.6 Kur (Main &
West)
Larson, Erik
Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
Focussing on Isaac Cline, head of the U.S. Weather Bureau's Galveston (TX)
office in 1900, this is the story of the deadliest hurricane in U.S. history.
976.4 Lar (Main & West)
Nasar, Sylvia
A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash
Vividly re-creates the life of a mathematical genius whose career was cut short
by schizophrenia and who, after three decades of devastating mental illness,
miraculously recovered and was honored with a Nobel Prize. B Nash (Main)
Orlean, Susan
The Orchid Thief
In 1994, Laroche and three Seminole Indians were arrested with rare orchids they
had stolen from a wild swamp in south Florida that is filled with some of the
world's most extraordinary plants and trees. Laroche had planned to clone the
orchids and then sell them for a small fortune to impassioned collectors. Orlean
followed Laroche through swamps and into the eccentric world of Florida's orchid
collectors, a subculture of aristocrats, fanatics, and smugglers whose obsession
with plants is all-consuming. 635.9344 Orl (Main) 635.9 Orl (West)
Pollan, Michael
The Botany of Desire
Exploration of the relationships between humans and four plants that satisfy
four of our desires: apples, tulips, marijuana and potatoes. 306.4 Pol (Main)
Preston, Richard
The Hot Zone
Suspenseful tale of the detection of and combat against an Ebola virus outbreak
in Virginia in 1989. A classic! 614 Pre (Main & West)
Roach, Mary
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Explains how medical practitioners use cadavers donated for research purposes to
help the living and also discusses burial practices. 611 Roa (Main) Compare this
with Cheney’s Body Brokers!
Sacks, Oliver
The Island of the Colorblind and Cycad Island (or any other title)
Drawn to the tiny Pacific atoll of Pingelap by intriguing reports of an isolated
community of islanders born totally color-blind, Sacks finds himself setting up
a clinic in a one-room island dispensary, where he listens to these islanders
describe their colorless world in rich terms of pattern and tone, luminance and
shadow. And on Guam, where he goes to investigate the puzzling neurodegenerative
paralysis endemic there for a century, he becomes, for a brief time, an island
neurologist. The islands reawaken Sacks' lifelong passion for botany--in
particular, for the primitive cycad trees, whose existence dates back to the
Paleozoic--and the cycads are the starting point for an intensely personal
reflection on the meaning of islands, the dissemination of species, the genesis
of disease, and the nature of deep geologic time. 617.7 Sac (Main)
Sobel, Dava
Galileo's Daughter
Using correspondence with his daughter, Sobel examines Galileo's scientific work
and his desire to reconcile this work with his religious beliefs. B Galileo
(Main & West)
Svenvold, Mark
Big Weather: Chasing Tornadoes in the Heart of America
Following and eccentric band of storm chasers during tornado season, Svenvold
delves deep into our fascination with catastrophic weather. 551.55 Sve (West)
DG 5/07
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