New Books
Check out these new books available at the Coles Science Center
Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures
by Bill Schutt
Harmony
In this salmagundi of abstruse science, informative history and engaging personal anecdotes, Schutt's fascination for sanguivores goes a long way toward disarming, while defining, our primal fear of creatures that feed on blood. For all their fearsome reputation, only three of 1,100 bat species savor blood, and one of those preys exclusively on chickens. The author doesn't make sanguivores entirely cuddly: part two opens with the horrifying theory that George Washington was likely bled to death by ill-informed doctors and eager leeches, and includes an account of the first dog-to-dog transfusion in 1666 (the first successful human transfusion was in 1901). In part three, Schutt surveys other blood feeders: leeches currently making a comeback in modern medicine, pesky bedbugs and chiggers, and potentially lethal mosquitoes and ticks. One oddity (and typically fascinating tidbit) in the sanguivore world is the vampire finch of the Galapagos, which Schutt theorizes is evolving before scientists' eyes, turning to blood-sipping when other nourishment is in short supply. Passages that focus on the science can be a slog, but are quickly alleviated by sections that are witty and illuminating."—Amazon.com
The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies
by Bert Hölldobler & Edward O. Wilson
W.W. Norton & Co.
"The Pulitzer Prize-winning authors of The Ants render the extraordinary lives of the social insects in this visually spectacular volume. The Superorganism promises to be one of the most important scientific works published in this decade. Coming eighteen years after the publication of The Ants, this new volume expands our knowledge of the social insects (among them, ants, bees, wasps, and termites) and is based on remarkable research conducted mostly within the last two decades. These superorganisms—a tightly knit colony of individuals, formed by altruistic cooperation, complex communication, and division of labor—represent one of the basic stages of biological organization, midway between the organism and the entire species. The study of the superorganism, as the authors demonstrate, has led to important advances in our understanding of how the transitions between such levels have occurred in evolution and how life as a whole has progressed from simple to complex forms. Ultimately, this book provides a deep look into a part of the living world hitherto glimpsed by only a very few." ."—Amazon.com
The Unfinished Game: Pascal, Fermat, and the Seventeenth-Century Letter that Made the World Modern
by Keith Devlin
Basic Books
"Starred Review. Prior to the development of statistics in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, even rationalists were convinced that no human could speculate on the future. Devlin, NPR's "Math Guy" and the author of numerous books on the subject, shows us how that belief was transformed through the 1654 correspondence between mathematicians Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat. Devlin uses the critical letter from Pascal to Fermat in which he discusses "the problem of points"-that is, how to determine the probable outcome of a game of chance-as a framework for a history of probability theory and risk management, fields which now dominate our social, political and financial lives. Devlin interweaves the specific issues discussed in that famous letter with the work of other mathematicians … This informative book is a lively, quick read for anyone who wonders about the science of predicting what's next and how deeply it affects our lives." ."—Amazon.com
Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End
by Ph.D., Philip Plait
Viking Adult
"Plait, an astronomer and author of the popular Web site badastronomy.com, presents in loving detail the many, many ways the human race could die, from temperature extremes and poisonous atmosphere to asteroid impacts and supernovae explosions. Such a state of destruction existed some 65 million years ago, when a giant meteoroid struck Earth, sending up so much flaming debris that the whole planet caught fire and the dinosaurs were wiped out. Solar flare activity could bring on another Ice Age. Worse yet would be a gamma ray burster, a collapsed star whose radiation would be comparable to detonating a one-megaton nuclear bomb over every square mile of the planet. Plait discusses insatiable black holes, the death of the Sun and cannibal galaxies—including our own. Balancing his doomsday scenarios with enthusiastic and clear explanations of the science behind each, Plait offers a surprisingly educational and enjoyable astronomical horror show, including a table listing the extremely low odds of each event occurring. He gives readers a good scare, and then puts it in context." ."—Amazon.com
iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind
by Gary Small & Gigi Vorgan
Collins Living
"Their insights are extraordinary, their behaviors unusual. Their brains—shaped by the era of microprocessors, access to limitless information, and 24-hour news and communication—are remapping, retooling, and evolving. They're not superhuman. They're your twenty-something coworkers, your children, and your competition. Are you keeping up?
In iBrain, Dr. Gary Small, one of America's leading neuroscientists and experts on brain function and behavior, explores how technology's unstoppable march forward has altered the way young minds develop, function, and interpret information. iBrain reveals a new evolution catalyzed by technological advancement and its future implications: Where do you fit in on the evolutionary chain? What are the professional, social, and political impacts of this new brain evolution? How must you adapt and at what price?” ."—Amazon.com
The Food Life: Inside the World of Food with the Grocer Extraordinaire at Fairway
by Steven Jenkins & Mitchel London
Ecco
"This enormously enjoyable meditation on subjects like Spanish olive oil, bagels "boiled in city tap water" and the varieties of Italian pork products was penned by the cheese guru behind New York City's Fairway Market, who published in 1996 a definitive cheese encyclopedia (Cheese Primer). Less didactic, but written in the same hard-bitten but friendly style, Jenkins brings wry good humor to his chronicle of the Fairway grocery empire, following his progress from a single, smallish outlet on Manhattan's Upper West Side to a four-warehouses-and-counting institution. Along the way, he introduces readers to the countless characters, headaches and small pleasures that constitute life in the grocery business. "."—Amazon.com
The Calais Garrison: War and Military Service in England, 1436-1558
by David Grummitt
Boydell Press
"This is the book on the Calais garrison we have been waiting for'. COLIN RICHMOND For over 200 years, following its capture by Edward III in 1347, the town of Calais was in English hands; after 1453 it remained the last English possession on the continent, a commercial, cultural, diplomatic and military frontier, until its recapture by the French in 1558. This book - the first full-length study so to do - examines the Calais garrison, the largest standing military force available to the English crown. Based on extensive archival research, it covers recruitment and service in the garrison, the problems of pay and logistics, the weaponry and tactics used, and the chivalric and professional ethos among the soldiers. It also investigates the effectiveness of English arms against their European counterparts, through a detailed study of the failed Burgundian siege of 1436 and the successful French siege of 1558. Overall, it reaffirms the importance of Calais to successive medieval and early modern English kings, and challenges the perceived notion that England lagged behind its northwest European rivals in terms of military technology and effectiveness. The Calais garrison is placed in the wider context of the development of European warfare in general during this period." ."—Amazon.com
Biodiesel: Growing a New Energy Economy, Second Edition
by Greg Pahl & Bill McKibben
Chelsea Green Publishing
"The potential of biodiesel to replace petroleum-based diesel (petrodiesel) fuel is not new. Farmers and alternative fuels advocates have been experimenting with and using vegetable oils to operate tractors, trucks, generators and all sorts of other engines for decades….Pahl's book recounts the story of Rudolph Diesel's late 19th century invention of an engine that could run almost anywhere using a wide range of local fuels. And he reports on the research of University of Idaho professor Charles Peterson who, nearly a century later, perfected the process of transesterification that produces biodiesel fuel from alcohol and vegetable oils or animal fats.” ."—Amazon.com
Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis
by Rowan Jacobsen
Bloomsbury USA
"With a passion that gives this exploration of colony collapse disorder real buzz, Jacobsen (A Geography of Oysters) investigates why 30 billion honeybees—one-quarter of the northern hemisphere's population—vanished by the spring of 2007. He identifies the convergence of culprits—blood-sucking mites, pesticide buildup, viral infections, overused antibiotics, urbanization and climate change—that have led to habitat loss and the destruction of the beautiful mathematics of the hive.” ."—Amazon.com
