Thursday, May 2, 2024

iTunes Store: Top 25 Books in Science & Nature 2024-05-02

Bill Bryson - A Short History of Nearly Everything artwork A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson
Genre: Life Sciences
Price: $11.99
Publish Date: May 06, 2003
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Seller: Penguin Random House Canada

One of the world’s most beloved and bestselling writers takes his ultimate journey -- into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer. In A Walk in the Woods , Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail -- well, most of it. In In A Sunburned Country , he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand -- and, if possible, answer -- the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining.



Lawrence Anthony & Graham Spence - The Elephant Whisperer artwork The Elephant Whisperer
My Life with the Herd in the African Wild
Lawrence Anthony & Graham Spence
Genre: Nature
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: November 10, 2009
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Seller: Macmillan

When South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony was asked to accept a herd of "rogue" wild elephants on his Thula Thula game reserve in Zululand, his common sense told him to refuse. But he was the herd's last chance of survival: they would be killed if he wouldn't take them. In order to save their lives, Anthony took them in. In the years that followed he became a part of their family. And as he battled to create a bond with the elephants, he came to realize that they had a great deal to teach him about life, loyalty, and freedom. The Elephant Whisperer is a heartwarming, exciting, funny, and sometimes sad account of Anthony's experiences with these huge yet sympathetic creatures. Set against the background of life on an African game reserve, with unforgettable characters and exotic wildlife, it is a delightful book that will appeal to animal lovers and adventurous souls everywhere.



Barbara McLean - Shepherd’s Sight artwork Shepherd’s Sight
A Farming Life
Barbara McLean
Genre: Nature
Price: $11.99
Publish Date: March 19, 2024
Publisher: ECW Press
Seller: ECW Press Ltd.

A restorative and resonant memoir of a year in the life of an aging shepherd For 50 years, Barbara McLean has tended a flock of Border Leicester sheep on her small Ontario farm, Lambsquarters. In Shepherd’s Sight she shares the crises, pleasures, and challenges of farm life over the course of a year. Now in her 70s, McLean faces a new problem: how much longer she can continue with the physically taxing work that is her central source of meaning and satisfaction. Through her unsentimental gaze, we witness the highs and heartbreaks of delivering and rearing lambs, the shearing and spinning of wool, the wildlife in the woods (and occasionally in the house), and the garden produce moving from seed to harvest to table. Even after half a century on this land, McLean is still making fresh observations, and she shares them in evocative, elegant prose. As she moves through the calendar year, she also reflects on years past, offering a long view on climate, stewardship, and agriculture. With its vivid description and absorbing storytelling, Shepherd’s Sight offers an unforgettable glimpse of a life lived on the land.



Leonard Susskind & André Cabannes - General Relativity artwork General Relativity
The Theoretical Minimum
Leonard Susskind & André Cabannes
Genre: Physics
Price: $25.99
Publish Date: January 10, 2023
Publisher: Basic Books
Seller: Hachette Digital, Inc.

The latest volume in the New York Times– bestselling physics series explains Einstein’s masterpiece: the general theory of relativity   He taught us classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, and special relativity. Now, physicist Leonard Susskind, assisted by a new collaborator, André Cabannes, returns to tackle Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Starting from the equivalence principle and covering the necessary mathematics of Riemannian spaces and tensor calculus, Susskind and Cabannes explain the link between gravity and geometry. They delve into black holes, establish Einstein field equations, and solve them to describe gravity waves. The authors provide vivid explanations that, to borrow a phrase from Einstein himself, are as simple as possible (but no simpler).  An approachable yet rigorous introduction to one of the most important topics in physics, General Relativity is a must-read for anyone who wants a deeper knowledge of the universe’s real structure.  



James Nestor - Breath artwork Breath
The New Science of a Lost Art
James Nestor
Genre: Life Sciences
Price: $16.99
Publish Date: May 26, 2020
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House Canada

A New York Times Bestseller A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2020 Named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR   “A fascinating scientific, cultural, spiritual and evolutionary history of the way humans breathe—and how we’ve all been doing it wrong for a long, long time.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic and Eat Pray Love No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you’re not breathing properly. There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thousand times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences. Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren’t found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of São Paulo. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe. Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is. Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again.



Paul Davies - The 5th Miracle artwork The 5th Miracle
The Search for the Origin and Meaning of Life
Paul Davies
Genre: Biology
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: September 22, 2015
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Seller: OpenRoad Integrated Media, LLC

“Davies makes a persuasive case that advances in biology and astronomy are turning the origin of life from a mystery into a solvable problem.” — The New York Times Book Review Are we alone in the universe? In his latest far-reaching book,  The Fifth Miracle , internationally acclaimed physicist and writer Paul Davies confronts one of science’s great outstanding mysteries—the origin of life. Three and a half billion years ago, Mars resembled Earth. It was warm and wet and could have supported primitive organisms. If life once existed on Mars, might it have originated there and traveled to Earth inside meteorites blasted into space by cosmic impacts? Davies builds on the latest scientific discoveries and theories to address the larger question: What, exactly, is life? Is it the inevitable by-product of physical laws, as many scientists maintain, or an almost miraculous accident? Are we alone in the universe, or will life emerge on all Earth-like planets? And if there is life elsewhere in the universe, is it preordained to evolve toward greater complexity and intelligence? On the answers to these deep questions hinges the ultimate purpose of mankind—who we are and what our place might be in the unfolding drama of the cosmos. “Davies makes accessible a subject growing increasingly arcane.” — San Francisco Chronicle Book Review “Paul Davies has been writing excellent books about science for so long that it is hard to believe that he is still getting better. But on this evidence, he is . . . Delightful.” —John Gribbin, author of In Search of Schrodinger’s Cat



Matthew Walker - Why We Sleep artwork Why We Sleep
Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
Matthew Walker
Genre: Life Sciences
Price: $12.99
Publish Date: October 03, 2017
Publisher: Scribner
Seller: Simon & Schuster Canada

“ Why We Sleep is an important and fascinating book…Walker taught me a lot about this basic activity that every person on Earth needs. I suspect his book will do the same for you.” —Bill Gates A New York Times bestseller and international sensation, this “stimulating and important book” ( Financial Times ) is a fascinating dive into the purpose and power of slumber. With two appearances on CBS This Morning and Fresh Air 's most popular interview of 2017, Matthew Walker has made abundantly clear that sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life. Until very recently, science had no answer to the question of why we sleep, or what good it served, or why we suffer such devastating health consequences when it is absent. Compared to the other basic drives in life—eating, drinking, and reproducing—the purpose of sleep remains more elusive. Within the brain, sleep enriches a diversity of functions, including our ability to learn, memorize, and make logical decisions. It recalibrates our emotions, restocks our immune system, fine-tunes our metabolism, and regulates our appetite. Dreaming creates a virtual reality space in which the brain melds past and present knowledge, inspiring creativity. In this “compelling and utterly convincing” ( The Sunday Times ) book, preeminent neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker provides a revolutionary exploration of sleep, examining how it affects every aspect of our physical and mental well-being. Charting the most cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs, and marshalling his decades of research and clinical practice, Walker explains how we can harness sleep to improve learning, mood and energy levels, regulate hormones, prevent cancer, Alzheimer’s and diabetes, slow the effects of aging, and increase longevity. He also provides actionable steps towards getting a better night’s sleep every night. Clear-eyed, fascinating, and accessible, Why We Sleep is a crucial and illuminating book. Written with the precision of Atul Gawande, Andrew Solomon, and Sherwin Nuland, it is “recommended for night-table reading in the most pragmatic sense” ( The New York Times Book Review ).



Vaclav Smil - How the World Really Works artwork How the World Really Works
The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going
Vaclav Smil
Genre: Science & Nature
Price: $18.99
Publish Date: May 10, 2022
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House Canada

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A new masterpiece from one of my favorite authors… [ How The World Really Works] is a compelling and highly readable book that leaves readers with the fundamental grounding needed to help solve the world’s toughest challenges.” — Bill Gates   “Provocative but perceptive . . . You can agree or disagree with Smil—accept or doubt his ‘just the facts’ posture—but you probably shouldn’t ignore him.” —The Washington Post An essential analysis of the modern science and technology that makes our twenty-first century lives possible—a scientist's investigation into what science really does, and does not, accomplish. We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don’t know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future, How the World Really Works offers a much-needed reality check—because before we can tackle problems effectively, we must understand the facts.   In this ambitious and thought-provoking book we see, for example, that globalization isn’t inevitable—the foolishness of allowing 70 per cent of the world’s rubber gloves to be made in just one factory became glaringly obvious in 2020—and that our societies have been steadily increasing their dependence on fossil fuels, such that any promises of decarbonization by 2050 are a fairy tale. For example, each greenhouse-grown supermarket-bought tomato has the equivalent of five tablespoons of diesel embedded in its production, and we have no way of producing steel, cement or plastics at required scales without huge carbon emissions.   Ultimately, Smil answers the most profound question of our age: are we irrevocably doomed or is a brighter utopia ahead? Compelling, data-rich and revisionist, this wonderfully broad, interdisciplinary guide finds faults with both extremes. Looking at the world through this quantitative lens reveals hidden truths that change the way we see our past, present and uncertain future.



Suzanne Simard - Finding the Mother Tree artwork Finding the Mother Tree
Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest
Suzanne Simard
Genre: Life Sciences
Price: $11.99
Publish Date: May 04, 2021
Publisher: Penguin Canada
Seller: Penguin Random House Canada

INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *WINNER of the 2021 Banff Mountain Book Prize in Mountain Environment and Natural History* *WINNER of the National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History Literature* *WINNER of the 2022 BC and Yukon Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award* *SHORTLISTED for the 2022 BC and Yukon Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Book Prize* *SHORTLISTED for the 2021 Science Writers and Communicators of Canada Book Award * A world-leading expert shares her amazing story of discovering the communication that exists between trees, and shares her own story of family and grief. Suzanne Simard is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; she’s been compared to Rachel Carson, hailed as a scientist who conveys complex, technical ideas in a way that is dazzling and profound. Her work has influenced filmmakers (the Tree of Souls in James Cameron’s Avatar ), and her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide. Now, in her first book, Simard brings us into her world, the intimate world of the trees, in which she brilliantly illuminates the fascinating and vital truths—that trees are not simply the source of timber or pulp but are a complicated, interdependent circle of life; that forests are social, cooperative creatures connected through underground networks by which trees communicate their vitality and vulnerabilities with communal lives not that different from our own. Simard describes up close—in revealing and accessible ways—how trees, living side by side for hundreds of years, have evolved; how they perceive one another, learn and adapt their behaviors, recognize neighbors, and remember the past; how they have agency about their future; how they elicit warnings and mount defenses, compete and cooperate with one another with sophistication: characteristics previously ascribed to human intelligence, traits that are the essence of civil societies. And, at the center of it all, the Mother Trees: the mysterious, powerful forces that connect and sustain the others that surround them.Simard, born and raised in the rain forests of British Columbia, spent her days as a child cataloging the trees from the forest; she came to love and respect them and embarked on a journey of discovery and struggle. Her powerful story is one of love and loss, of observation and change, of risk and reward. And it is a testament to how deeply human scientific inquiry exists beyond data and technology: it’s about understanding who we are and our place in the world. In her book, as in her groundbreaking research, Simard proves the true connectedness of the Mother Tree to the forest, nurturing it in the profound ways that families and humansocieties nurture one another, and how these inseparable bonds enable all our survival.



David A. Sinclair - Lifespan artwork Lifespan
Why We Age—and Why We Don't Have To
David A. Sinclair
Genre: Life Sciences
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: September 10, 2019
Publisher: Atria Books
Seller: Simon & Schuster Canada

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Brilliant and enthralling.”​ —The Wall Street Journal A paradigm-shifting book from an acclaimed Harvard Medical School scientist and one of Time ’s most influential people. It’s a seemingly undeniable truth that aging is inevitable. But what if everything we’ve been taught to believe about aging is wrong? What if we could choose our lifespan? In this groundbreaking book, Dr. David Sinclair, leading world authority on genetics and longevity, reveals a bold new theory for why we age. As he writes: “Aging is a disease, and that disease is treatable.” This eye-opening and provocative work takes us to the frontlines of research that is pushing the boundaries on our perceived scientific limitations, revealing incredible breakthroughs—many from Dr. David Sinclair’s own lab at Harvard—that demonstrate how we can slow down, or even reverse, aging. The key is activating newly discovered vitality genes, the descendants of an ancient genetic survival circuit that is both the cause of aging and the key to reversing it. Recent experiments in genetic reprogramming suggest that in the near future we may not just be able to feel younger, but actually become younger. Through a page-turning narrative, Dr. Sinclair invites you into the process of scientific discovery and reveals the emerging technologies and simple lifestyle changes—such as intermittent fasting, cold exposure, exercising with the right intensity, and eating less meat—that have been shown to help us live younger and healthier for longer. At once a roadmap for taking charge of our own health destiny and a bold new vision for the future of humankind, Lifespan will forever change the way we think about why we age and what we can do about it.



Farley Mowat - Never Cry Wolf artwork Never Cry Wolf
Farley Mowat
Genre: Nature
Price: $6.99
Publish Date: January 13, 2009
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Seller: Penguin Random House Canada

EYE TO EYE WITH DEATH:  THE WOLF PROJECT Hordes of bloodthirsty wolves are slaughtering the arctic caribou, and the government's Wildlife Service assigns naturalist Farley Mowat to investigate. Mowat is dropped alone onto the frozen tundra, where he begins his mission to live among the howling wolf packs and study their ways. Contact with his quarry comes quickly, and Mowat discovers not a den of marauding killers but a courageous family of skillful providers and devoted protectors of their young. As Mowat comes closer to the wolf world, he comes to fear with them the onslaught of bounty hunters and government exterminators out to erase the noble wolf community from the Arctic.  Never Cry Wolf is one of the brilliant narratives on the myth and magic of wild wolves and man's true place among the creatures of nature. "We have doomed the wolf not for what it is, but for what we deliberately and mistakenly perceive it to be — the mythologized epitome of a savage, ruthless killer — which is, in reality, no more than the reflected image of ourself." — From the new Preface



Bill Bryson - Seeing Further artwork Seeing Further
350 Years of the Royal Society and Scientific Endeavour
Bill Bryson
Genre: Science History
Price: $10.99
Publish Date: November 02, 2010
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Seller: Penguin Random House Canada

From the Royal Society, a peerless collection of all-new science writing Bill Bryson, who explored all - or at least a great deal of - current scientific knowledge in A Short History of Nearly Everything , now turns his attention to the history of that knowledge. As editor of Seeing Further , he has rounded up an extraordinary roster of scientists who write and writers who know science in order to celebrate 350 years of the Royal Society, Britain's scientific national academy. The result is an encyclopedic survey of the history, philosophy and current state of science, written in an accessible and inspiring style by some of today's most important writers. The contributors include Margaret Atwood, Steve Jones, Richard Dawkins, James Gleick, Richard Holmes, and Neal Stephenson, among many others, on subjects ranging from metaphysics to nuclear physics, from the threatened endtimes of flu and climate change to our evolving ideas about the nature of time itself, from the hidden mathematics that rule the universe to the cosmological principle that guides Star Trek . The collection begins with a brilliant introduction from Bryson himself, who says: "It is impossible to list all the ways that the Royal Society has influenced the world, but you can get some idea by typing in 'Royal Society' as a word search in the electronic version of the Dictionary of National Biography . That produces 218 pages of results — 4,355 entries, nearly as many as for the Church of England (at 4,500) and considerably more than for the House of Commons (3,124) or House of Lords (2,503)." As this book shows, the Royal Society not only produces the best scientists and science, it also produces and inspires the very best science writing.



Kirk Wallace Johnson - The Feather Thief artwork The Feather Thief
Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century
Kirk Wallace Johnson
Genre: Nature
Price: $17.99
Publish Date: April 24, 2018
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House Canada

As heard on NPR's This American Life “Absorbing . . . Though it's non-fiction,  The Feather Thief  contains many of the elements of a classic thriller.” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air “One of the most peculiar and memorable true-crime books ever.” — Christian Science Monitor A rollicking true-crime adventure and a captivating journey into an underground world of fanatical fly-tiers and plume peddlers, for readers of  The Stranger in the Woods ,  The Lost City of Z , and  The Orchid Thief . On a cool June evening in 2009, after performing a concert at London's Royal Academy of Music, twenty-year-old American flautist Edwin Rist boarded a train for a suburban outpost of the British Museum of Natural History. Home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world, the Tring museum was full of rare bird specimens whose gorgeous feathers were worth staggering amounts of money to the men who shared Edwin's obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying. Once inside the museum, the champion fly-tier grabbed hundreds of bird skins—some collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Darwin's, Alfred Russel Wallace, who'd risked everything to gather them—and escaped into the darkness. Two years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist high in a river in northern New Mexico when his fly-fishing guide told him about the heist. He was soon consumed by the strange case of the feather thief. What would possess a person to steal dead birds? Had Edwin paid the price for his crime? What became of the missing skins? In his search for answers, Johnson was catapulted into a years-long, worldwide investigation. The gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man's relentless pursuit of justice, The Feather Thief is also a fascinating exploration of obsession, and man's destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature.



Charan Ranganath - Why We Remember artwork Why We Remember
Unlocking Memory's Power to Hold on to What Matters
Charan Ranganath
Genre: Life Sciences
Price: $16.99
Publish Date: February 20, 2024
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Seller: Penguin Random House Canada

Memory is far more than a record of the past—in this groundbreaking tour of the mind and brain, one of the world's top memory researchers reveals the powerful role memory plays in nearly every aspect of our lives, from learning and decision-making to trauma and healing, and helps us take control of our unconscious mind to live happier, more deliberate lives. A new understanding of memory is emerging from the latest scientific research. In short, the memory is not what we think it is—a repository of the past that we tap into as we wish. It is actually a highly transformative power, active at all times, that shapes our present in often secretive and sometimes destructive ways.  We are in many ways creatures of memory and only when we understand the mechanisms of memory can we truly understand ourselves and our motivations, and use our knowledge of those mechanisms to our advantage while avoiding their pitfalls. Why We Remember teaches the principles behind memory storage and retrieval and explains how our memories are always changing. It reveals how these processes affect what we think we know about ourselves and how we make decisions. It shows that the real power of psychotherapy isn't to remember what happened, but to change our interpretations of those events, so we can heal and grow.  Memory is designed to be selective, meaningful and malleable. When we understand how memory works, we can cut through the clutter and remember the things we want to remember. We can not only remember more—we can remember better.



Robert Lanza, Matej Pavšič & Bob Berman - The Grand Biocentric Design artwork The Grand Biocentric Design
How Life Creates Reality
Robert Lanza, Matej Pavšič & Bob Berman
Genre: Science & Nature Essays
Price: $12.99
Publish Date: November 17, 2020
Publisher: BenBella Books
Seller: Penguin Random House Canada

What if life isn't just a part of the universe . . . what if it determines the very structure of the universe itself? The theory that blew your mind in  Biocentrism  and  Beyond Biocentrism  is back, with brand-new research revealing the startling truth about our existence. What is consciousness? Why are we here? Where did it all come from—the laws of nature, the stars, the universe? Humans have been asking these questions forever, but science hasn't succeeded in providing many answers—until now. In The Grand Biocentric Design , Robert Lanza, one of Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People," is joined by theoretical physicist Matej Pavšic and astronomer Bob Berman to shed light on the big picture that has long eluded philosophers and scientists alike. This engaging, mind-stretching exposition of how the history of physics has led us to Biocentrism—the idea that life creates reality-takes readers on a step-by-step adventure into the great science breakthroughs of the past centuries, from Newton to the weirdness of quantum theory, culminating in recent revelations that will challenge everything you think you know about our role in the universe. ​This book offers the most complete explanation of the science behind Biocentrism to date, delving into the origins of the memorable principles introduced in previous books in this series, as well as introducing new principles that complete the theory. The authors dive deep into topics including consciousness, time, and the evidence that our observations-or even knowledge in our minds-can affect how physical objects behave. The Grand Biocentric Design is a one-of-a-kind, groundbreaking explanation of how the universe works, and an exploration of the science behind the astounding fact that time, space, and reality itself, all ultimately depend upon us.



Chris Pellant & Smithsonian Institution - Rocks & Minerals artwork Rocks & Minerals
Chris Pellant & Smithsonian Institution
Genre: Nature
Price: $11.99
Publish Date: August 03, 2021
Publisher: DK
Seller: Penguin Random House Canada

The clearest and sharpest recognition e-guide to more than 500 rocks and minerals. Unearth a treasure trove of knowledge about the rocks and minerals beneath our feet--from their formation to collecting them. Make identification easy and accurate with this compact visual e-guide, includes photographs and details on formation, distinguishing features, and much more. Over 600 high-quality photographs capture the unique characteristics, colors, and attributes of more than 500 rocks and minerals. Each specimen's entry includes annotated photographs to highlight the rock or mineral's distinguishing features, and concise details about its texture, origin, formation, and chemical composition to help identify it. Designed for beginners and experienced collectors alike, the introduction explains what rocks and minerals are, how they are classified, what equipment is needed for specimen collection, and how to start and organize a collection. Learn the differences between igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks, and refer to the glossary for many more technical and scientific terms.



Donald MacKay - The Lumberjacks artwork The Lumberjacks
Donald MacKay
Genre: Nature
Price: $7.99
Publish Date: May 15, 2007
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Seller: Dundurn Press Limited

The 19th century spawned a unique breed of men who took pride in their woodsmen skills and rough codes of conduct. They called themselves lumberers, shantymen, timber beasts, les bucherron – and, more recently, lumberjacks, working in the vast forests of eastern Canada and British Columbia. Across the country, farm boys would go to the woods, lumbering being the only winter work available. Immigrants – Swedes and Finns more often than not – resumed the trades they had learned so well in the forests of northern Europe. They broke the cold, hard monotony of camp life with songs, tall tales and card games. Within these pages, author Donald MacKay allows us a glimpse into that moment in our heritage when men entered the virgin forest to carve out an industry from the seemingly endless array of pine, spruce, maple and balsam fir found there. "[Donald] MacKay's book has many virtues. His prose is clean. He lets the surviving pioneers talk for themselves when they have something to say, but never allows them to get too windy. He separates legends and half-truths from facts ..." – The Montreal Star "... a superb marriage of text and pictures, a nostalgic but not sentimental discussion of one of Canada's primary industries, logging." – The Globe and Mail "It's marvellous material of a type often ignored by historians ... Such books may do more to help us understand ourselves than all the academic tomes together." – Atlantic Insight



Sarah Hart - Once Upon a Prime artwork Once Upon a Prime
The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature
Sarah Hart
Genre: Mathematics
Price: $12.99
Publish Date: April 11, 2023
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Seller: Macmillan

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice “Wide-ranging and thoroughly winning.” —Jordan Ellenberg, The New York Times Book Review “An absolute joy to read!" —Steven Levitt, New York Times bestselling author of Freakonomics For fans of Seven Brief Lessons in Physics , an exploration of the many ways mathematics can transform our understanding of literature and vice versa, by the first woman to hold England's oldest mathematical chair. We often think of mathematics and literature as polar opposites. But what if, instead, they were fundamentally linked? In her clear, insightful, laugh-out-loud funny debut, Once Upon a Prime , Professor Sarah Hart shows us the myriad connections between math and literature, and how understanding those connections can enhance our enjoyment of both. Did you know, for instance, that Moby-Dick is full of sophisticated geometry? That James Joyce’s stream-of-consciousness novels are deliberately checkered with mathematical references? That George Eliot was obsessed with statistics? That Jurassic Park is undergirded by fractal patterns? That Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wrote mathematician characters? From sonnets to fairytales to experimental French literature, Professor Hart shows how math and literature are complementary parts of the same quest, to understand human life and our place in the universe. As the first woman to hold England’s oldest mathematical chair, Professor Hart is the ideal tour guide, taking us on an unforgettable journey through the books we thought we knew, revealing new layers of beauty and wonder. As she promises, you’re going to need a bigger bookcase.



Linda Geddes - Chasing the Sun artwork Chasing the Sun
Linda Geddes
Genre: Astronomy
Price: $17.99
Publish Date: October 01, 2019
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Seller: Simon & Schuster Canada

Our biology is set up to work in partnership with the sun. Little wonder then that humans have long worshipped and revered our nearest star: life itself arose on earth because its relationship with the sun was a special one, and that relationship still affects us well into the era of electric lighting, indoor workdays, and vitamin D supplements. What we are losing when we sever this ancient biological tie to the sun by spending more and more time inside during the day and surrounded by screens at night? Informed by cutting-edge scientific research and sparkling with memorable characters — from the modern druids who worship at Stonehenge each solstice to the Amish farmers who may have the right idea about healthy sleep patterns — Linda Geddes’s Chasing the Sun analyzes all aspects of our relationship to the sun, which continues to shape our bodies and minds in the twenty-first century. The fascinating stories, innovative science, and unique perspectives in this book make it clear that the ancients were right to put the sun at the center of our world, and it is crucial that we remember this bond as we shape our lives today.



Esther Ménévis & Lucy Cooke - Bitch artwork Bitch
Le pouvoir des femelles dans le monde animal
Esther Ménévis & Lucy Cooke
Genre: Nature
Price: $27.99
Publish Date: February 28, 2024
Publisher: ALBIN MICHEL
Seller: ADILIBRE

« Un formidable pied de nez au sexisme scientifique. » Nature « Un ouvrage accessible et malicieux. » Le Monde Au cours des dernières décennies, une révolution a bouleversé notre compréhension de ce qu’est être une femelle. Cette révolution est au cœur de ce livre où Lucy Cooke tord le cou à la mythologie sexiste qui a façonné les sciences du vivant. Les sociétés animales sont en effet loin d’être toutes dominées par des mâles : un tel présupposé ferait doucement ricaner une hyène tachetée. Remontant jusqu’à l’Angleterre victorienne de Charles Darwin, la zoologiste déconstruit avec humour les stéréotypes qui sous-tendent les théories de l’évolution et continuent de nourrir l’imaginaire collectif. Albatros lesbiennes, guenons polyandres, suricates meurtrières, orques ménopausées… autant d’exemples qui nous invitent à repenser joyeusement les questions de sexe et de genre à l’ère post#MeToo ! * Bitch : 1. Femelle du chien et autres canidés. 2. Insulte sexiste qualifiant des femmes vulgaires, méchantes, faciles, etc. 3. Terme récupéré dans les années 1990 et revendiqué dans un sens positif par certaines féministes en lutte contre le sexisme et des tendances sociales patriarcales.



Jeremy Williams - Climate Change Is Racist artwork Climate Change Is Racist
Race, Privilege and the Struggle for Climate Justice
Jeremy Williams
Genre: Nature
Price: $10.99
Publish Date: June 03, 2021
Publisher: Icon Books
Seller: Faber and Faber

** LONGLISTED FOR THE JAMES CROPPER WAINWRIGHT PRIZE LONGLIST 2022 ** 'Really packs a punch' Aja Barber, author of Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism 'Will open the minds of even the most ardent denier of climate change and/or systemic racism. If there's one book that will help you to be an effective activist for climate justice, it's this one.' Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, author of This is Why I Resist 'Accessible. Poignant. Challenging.' Nnimmo Bassey, environmentalist and author of To Cook a Continent: Destructive Extraction and the Climate Crisis in Africa When we talk about racism, we often mean personal prejudice or institutional biases. Climate change doesn't work that way. It is structurally racist, disproportionately caused by majority White people in majority White countries, with the damage unleashed overwhelmingly on people of colour. The climate crisis reflects and reinforces racial injustices. In this eye-opening book, writer and environmental activist Jeremy Williams takes us on a short, urgent journey across the globe - from Kenya to India, the USA to Australia - to understand how White privilege and climate change overlap. We'll look at the environmental facts, hear the experiences of the people most affected on our planet and learn from the activists leading the change. It's time for each of us to find our place in the global struggle for justice.



Nadja Bressan & Catherine M. Creighton - An Introduction to Veterinary Medicine Engineering artwork An Introduction to Veterinary Medicine Engineering
Nadja Bressan & Catherine M. Creighton
Genre: Science & Nature
Price: $169.99
Publish Date: April 18, 2023
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Seller: Springer Nature B.V.

Do cephalopods change color when under distress? Is the reptilian heart analogous to a diaphragm positive displacement pump? Are digital twins the answer for animal experimentation? This book explores the new field of veterinary engineering science and discusses how to better measure vital signs in exotic and companion animals. A vast opportunity exists for developing novel technologies that target reductions to the number of invasive procedures patients are subjected to. We examine improvements to animal care and enhancement of animal welfare while creating a more sustainable veterinary healthcare ecosystem. The authors address the challenges engineers face in designing healthcare equipment for animals and how the field of veterinary engineering contributes to traditional veterinary medicine. This book brings a novel field of engineering to train future veterinarians and engineers on design and application of technology to veterinary medicine.



Sean Carroll - Las ideas fundamentales del Universo artwork Las ideas fundamentales del Universo
Espacio, tiempo y movimiento
Sean Carroll
Genre: Physics
Price: $21.99
Publish Date: March 15, 2023
Publisher: Arpa
Seller: Bookwire Gesellschaft zum Vertrieb digitaler Medien mbH

«Solo Sean Carroll podría introducir la relatividad general de Einstein de una manera tan luminosa y directa». Carlo Rovelli  «Un libro ambicioso que combina precisión técnica y claridad».   Wall Street Journal  «Un maravilloso portal a otro mundo».   Scientific American   La física moderna ofrece numerosos avances sobre el origen y el funcionamiento del universo, conocimientos que se transmiten en forma de ecuaciones que, a menudo, nos parecen un galimatías. Con talento incomparable, Sean Carroll demuestra que esas ecuaciones son como verdaderos poemas repletos de significado que nos ayudan a descubrir un milagroso paisaje multidimensional de gigantes radiantes, espacio-tiempo deformado, agujeros negros o fuerzas increíblemente poderosas, y, en suma, que son accesibles a cualquier persona con estudios de matemáticas de secundaria. Porque Carroll ha logrado construir algo que a muchos les parecía altamente improbable: un sólido puente entre la ciencia popular y el universo matemático de los físicos en activo. Nadie como él nos guía con tanta fluidez hacia la comprensión de la ecuación que Einstein utilizó para describir su teoría de la relatividad general. Este libro constituye una introducción inspiradora y deslumbrante en la comprensión de cómo funciona el universo y sus leyes, y está llamado a convertirse en el referente indiscutible de la divulgación de la física y la astrofísica durante generaciones, en la senda de las legendarias conferencias que Richard Feynman publicó hace ya más de sesenta años.



Nigel Henbest - The Night Sky artwork The Night Sky
An astronomers guide to the night sky and the universe
Nigel Henbest
Genre: Astronomy
Price: $3.99
Publish Date: September 07, 2023
Publisher: Octopus
Seller: Hachette Digital, Inc.

Discover the wonders of the Universe with this indispensable guide. The Night Sky is chock full of information explaining what, when and how to observe space and understanding the night sky. Not only accessible, but also invaluable, this is the perfect practical guide for both budding and seasoned astronomers, an easy introduction to astronomy and a useful resource for more experienced stargazers.



Dinesh Kumar - Research Methods for Successful PhD artwork Research Methods for Successful PhD
Dinesh Kumar
Genre: Science & Nature
Price: $49.99
Publish Date: September 01, 2022
Publisher: River Publishers
Seller: Taylor & Francis Group

A PhD is the start of the research careers, and these students are the backbone of Universities and research institutions. It is the opportunity for youthful energy and creativity to make global impact and train the future researchers to make a difference. However, the candidature can also be the period of confusion and regret because of lack of structure and understanding.Research Methods for Successful PhD is written to help the PhD students and other young researchers navigate their path through this phase that will give them a direction and purpose. It is a candid conversation and developed over the experience of supervising 30 research students and publishing 400 papers over 20 years. The book recognizes that every student is different and has unique circumstances. It teases out the fundamental questions that we forget to ask, the method of relating to the supervisor, discusses methods to improve communication skills and explains the how to get the work published.