Science and Nature - May 8, 2012
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Tuesday, May 8, 2012 Madison Public Library’s 25 email newsletters switched to new software and a new format early this year. We've got a new name as well - Madison Public Library Insider. This is the first Science and Nature newsletter since the switch. Selected new or newer science, nature, and sustainability titles in the library's collection. Published monthly. Read more from this newsletter: Blog View | Archived Newsletter View | Insider Questions? Email madtech @ scls.lib.wi.us |
 Beyond the Blue Horizon: How the Earliest Mariners Unlocked the Secrets of the Oceans "We know the tales of Columbus and Captain Cook, yet much earlier mariners made equally bold and world-changing voyages. In Beyond the Blue Horizon, archaeologist and historian Brian Fagan tackles his richest topic yet: the enduring quest to master the oceans, the planet's most mysterious terrain. From the moment when ancient Polynesians first dared to sail beyond the horizon, Fagan vividly explains how our mastery of the oceans changed the course of human history. |
 Bombast: Spinning Atoms in the Desert Blowing up bombs and planning nuclear tombs in Nevada has left a legacy to the residents, a mixture of loss of innocence and discovery of their own invisibility.
Bombast Spinning Atoms in the Desert is a crucial linchpin in Atomic Revival studies. Michon Mackedon recounts Nevada’s relationship with the nuclear industry and a host of players including the Atomic Energy Commission, the Department of Energy, scientists, military men, and journalists. With “an awareness born of deceit” shared by other Nevadans, Mackedon considers the manipulated language and imagery doled out by the atomic industry to make the unsafe appear safe and the unthinkable, thinkable. This second book published by Black Rock Institute Press is an environmentally charged survey of nuclear culture in the “Silver State.” Augmented with “Atomic Pop” images of the nuclear era, this book is an ironic, dead-serious, no-holds barred post-mortem that lights up Nevada’s nuclear industry. |
 Florotica: Revealing the Sensuality of the Micro World Florotica: Revealing the Sensuality of the Micro World is a unique art photography book featuring the micro photography of Dr. Gary Greenberg. It contains 86 pages of color photographs taken through unique 3D microscopes, which he invented. Dr. Greenberg focuses his microscopes on ordinary objects, such as flowers, grains of sand, and food. When magnified hundreds of times, everyday objects take on a new reality, revealing hidden dimensions. He shows how ordinary objects are truly extraordinary when seen closely. |
 Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature A biologist reveals the secret world hidden in a single square meter of forest.
In this wholly original book, biologist David Haskell uses a one- square-meter patch of old-growth Tennessee forest as a window onto the entire natural world. Visiting it almost daily for one year to trace nature's path through the seasons, he brings the forest and its inhabitants to vivid life.
Each of this book's short chapters begins with a simple observation: a salamander scuttling across the leaf litter; the first blossom of spring wildflowers. From these, Haskell spins a brilliant web of biology and ecology, explaining the science that binds together the tiniest microbes and the largest mammals and describing the ecosystems that have cycled for thousands- sometimes millions-of years. Each visit to the forest presents a nature story in miniature as Haskell elegantly teases out the intricate relationships that order the creatures and plants that call it home.
Written with remarkable grace and empathy, The Forest Unseen is a grand tour of nature in all its profundity. Haskell is a perfect guide into the world that exists beneath our feet and beyond our backyards. |
 How to Walk a Puma: And Other Things I Learned While Stumbling Through South America On his nineteenth birthday, Peter Allison flipped a coin. One side meant Africa and the other, South America, the two places he most wanted to explore. After eight years as a safari guide in Africa and another eight in Sydney, Australia, he finally makes his way to Santiago, Chile, ready to seek out the continent’s wildest adventures and to chase the elusive jaguar.
In just the first six months, Allison is bitten by a puma (several times), knocked on his head by a bad empanada, and surrounded by piranhas while rafting down a Bolivian river—all because of his fear of staying in any one place for too long. Ever the gifted storyteller, Allison makes many observations about life in humid climes and exactly what it is like to be nearly blasted off a mountain by the famous Patagonia wind. His self-deprecating humor is as delightful as his crazy stunts, and his love for animals—even when they bite—is infectious. -- from publisher's web site |
 My Paddle to the Sea: Eleven Days on the River of the Carolinas Three months after a family vacation in Costa Rica ends in tragedy when two fellow rafters die on the flooded Rio Reventazón, John Lane sets out with friends from his own backyard in upcountry South Carolina to calm his nerves and to paddle to the sea.
By the time Lane and his companions finally approach the ocean about forty miles north of Charleston they have to fight the tide and set a furious pace. Through it all, paddle stroke by paddle stroke, Lane is reminded why life and rivers have always been wedded together.
Like Huck Finn, Lane sees a river journey as a portal to change, but unlike Twain’s character, Lane isn’t escaping. He’s getting intimate with the river that flows right past his home in the Spartanburg suburbs. Lane’s threehundred-mile float trip takes him down the Broad River and into Lake Marion before continuing down the Santee River. Along the way Lane recounts local history and spars with streamside literary presences such as Mind of the South author W. J. Cash; Henry Savage, author of the Rivers of America Series volume on the Santee; novelist and Pulitzer Prize–winner Julia Peterkin; early explorer John Lawson; and poet and outdoor writer Archibald Rutledge. Lane ponders the sites of old cotton mills; abandoned locks, canals, and bridges; ghost towns fallen into decay a century before; Indian mounds; American Revolutionary and Civil War battle sites; nuclear power plants; and boat landings. Along the way he encounters a cast of characters Twain himself would envy—perplexed fishermen, catfish cleaners, river rats, and a trio of drug-addled drifters on a lonely boat dock a day’s paddle from the sea. -- from publisher's web site |
 No Animals Were Harmed: The Controversial Line Between Entertainment and Abuse "A provocative examination of the fine line between the use and abuse of animals. In a continuation of his study on the interaction of animals and humans, Laufer (Journalism/Univ. of Oregon; Forbidden Creatures: Inside the World of Animal Smuggling and Exotic Pets, 2010, etc.) opens the doors to the complex world of animal service and exploitation. What is the difference between use, misuse and abuse of animals? How does a person know an animal is actually enjoying itself? Do animals feel pain? Does a chicken raised specifically for meat suffer more or less at its death than a rooster raised specifically for cock fights? Is a circus act entertainment for humans or an enslavement of animals? These are some of the many troubling questions the author poses as he travels the world searching for answers. From a lion handler in Budapest to whale shows at SeaWorld to slaughterhouses in California, Laufer graphically details firsthand the varied ways humans and animals interact. Descriptions of canned hunts, dairy-cow abuse, vivisection and many examples of cockfights force readers to ponder the same questions as the author. Interviews with members of the Humane Society, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and numerous animal-rights organizations counterbalance interviews with breeders of fighting cocks, arsonists and many others who see no harm in how they treat animals. Laufer’s compelling evidence will push readers to assess the distinctions between love and mistreatment among our animal brethren." --Kirkus |
 Taste of Tomorrow: Dispatches from the Future of Food For fans of Michael Pollan and Mark Bittman, TheGreenFoodTechie.org’s Josh Schonwald delivers a fascinating investigation into the trends and technologies that are transforming the world of food before our very eyes—from Alice Waters's micro farm to nanotechnology and beyond. Building upon the knowledge base we have gained from such books as The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Schonwald takes our contemporary conversation about food a step further, debunking myths, clarifying controversies (such as the current storm over GMOs, or genetically modified organisms), and exploring the wild possibilities that food science and chemical engineering are making realities today—from food pills to new species of scratch-built fish. -- from publisher's web site |
