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Math and science

  • Author:
    Owen, David
    Summary:

    The surprising science of hearing and the remarkable technologies that can help us hear better Our sense of hearing makes it easy to connect with the world and the people around us. The human system for processing sound is a biological marvel, an intricate assembly of delicate membranes, bones, receptor cells, and neurons. Yet many people take their ears for granted, abusing them with loud restaurants, rock concerts, and Q-tips. And then, eventually, most of us start to go deaf. Millions of Americans suffer from hearing loss. Faced with the cost and stigma of hearing aids, the natural human tendency is to do nothing and hope for the best, usually while pretending that nothing is wrong. In Volume Control, David Owen argues this inaction comes with a huge social cost. He demystifies the science of hearing while encouraging readers to get the treatment they need for hearing loss and protect the hearing they still have. Hearing aids are rapidly improving and becoming more versatile. Inexpensive high-tech substitutes are increasingly available, making it possible for more of us to boost our weakening ears without bankrupting ourselves. Relatively soon, physicians may be able to reverse losses that have always been considered irreversible. Even the insistent buzz of tinnitus may soon yield to relatively simple treatments and techniques. With wit and clarity, Owen explores the incredible possibilities of technologically assisted hearing. And he proves that ears, whether they're working or not, are endlessly interesting.

  • Author:
    Green, Emily K.
    Summary:

    Simple text and supportive images introduce beginning readers to the physical characteristics of volcanoes.

  • Author:
    Summary:

    "The BCcampus Open Education Virtual Lab and Science Resource Directory lists free science resources designed to support remote science education. This directory is updated as new resources are identified. Note that, while all resources in this directory are free, not all are open. Resources that carry Creative Commons or otherwise open licences are clearly labelled"--BCcampus website.

  • Author:
    Osmundson, Joseph
    Summary:

    Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by Literary Hub A leading microbiologist tackles the scientific and sociopolitical impact of viruses in twelve striking essays. Invisible in the food we eat, the people we kiss, and inside our own bodies, viruses flourish-with the power to shape not only our health, but our social, political, and economic systems. Drawing on his expertise in microbiology, Joseph Osmundson brings readers under the microscope to understand the structure and mechanics of viruses and to examine how viruses like HIV and COVID-19 have redefined daily life. Osmundson's buoyant prose builds on the work of the activists and thinkers at the forefront of the HIV/AIDS crisis and critical scholars like José Esteban Munoz to navigate the intricacies of risk reduction, draw parallels between queer theory and hard science, and define what it really means to "go viral." This dazzling multidisciplinary collection offers novel insights on illness, sex, and collective responsibility. Virology is a critical warning, a necessary reflection, and a call for a better future. Special thanks to Ngofeen Mputubwele, Steven D. Booth, and David Barr, whose voices were featured on the audiobook

  • Author:
    Greene, Brian
    Summary:

    From the world-renowned physicist, co-founder of the World Science Festival, and best-selling author of The Elegant Universe comes this utterly captivating exploration of deep time and humanity's search for purpose. Brian Greene takes readers on a breathtaking journey from the big bang to the end of time and invites us to ponder meaning in the face of this unimaginable expanse. He shows us how, from its original orderly state the universe has been moving inexorably toward chaos, and, still, remarkable structures have continually formed: the planets, stars, and galaxies that provide islands in a sea of disorder; biochemical mechanisms, including mutation and selection, animate life; neurons, information, and thought developed into complex consciousness which in turn gave rise to cultures and their timeless myths and creativity. And he describes, as well, how, in the deep reaches of the future, the nature of the universe will threaten the existence of matter itself. Through a series of nested stories Greene provides us with a clearer sense of how we came to be, a finer picture of where we are now, and a firmer understanding of where we are headed. Taken together, it is a completely new perspective on our place in the universe and on what it means to be human.

  • Author:
    Furstinger, Nancy
    Summary:

    Chris P. Bacon was born with malformed legs, but with the help of a wheelchair made of construction toys, he's become a hero to people with similar challenges. Nancy Furstinger profiles Chris P. Bacon and many other animals in Unstoppable-all of whom are making their way around with the help of prosthetics, braces, orthotics and wheelchairs! Readers will meet the caretakers, prosthetists, vets, and loving families that help to make recovery possible. Furstinger offers a glimpse into the cutting-edge technologies, such as 3D printing and brain-controlled prosthetics, that are helping to improve the lives of animals and humans alike.

  • Author:
    Koonin, Steven E.
    Summary:

    "Surging sea levels are inundating the coasts." "Hurricanes and tornadoes are becoming fiercer and more frequent." "Climate change will be an economic disaster." You've heard all this presented as fact. But according to science, all of these statements are profoundly misleading. When it comes to climate change, the media, politicians, and other prominent voices have declared that "the science is settled." In reality, the long game of telephone from research to reports to the popular media is corrupted by misunderstanding and misinformation. Core questions--about the way the climate is responding to our influence, and what the impacts will be--remain largely unanswered. The climate is changing, but the why and how aren't as clear as you've probably been led to believe. Now, one of America's most distinguished scientists is clearing away the fog to explain what science really says (and doesn't say) about our changing climate. In Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn't, and Why It Matters, Steven Koonin draws upon his decades of experience--including as a top science advisor to the Obama administration--to provide up-to-date insights and expert perspective free from political agendas. Fascinating, clear-headed, and full of surprises, this book gives readers the tools to both understand the climate issue and be savvier consumers of science media in general. Koonin takes readers behind the headlines to the more nuanced science itself, showing us where it comes from and guiding us through the implications of the evidence. He dispels popular myths and unveils little-known truths: despite a dramatic rise in greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures actually decreased from 1940 to 1970. What's more, the models we use to predict the future aren't able to accurately describe the climate of the past, suggesting they are deeply flawed. Koonin also tackles society's response to a changing climate, using data-driven analysis to explain why many proposed "solutions" would be ineffective, and discussing how alternatives like adaptation and, if necessary, geoengineering will ensure humanity continues to prosper. Unsettled is a reality check buoyed by hope, offering the truth about climate science that you aren't getting elsewhere--what we know, what we don't and what it all means for our future.

  • Author:
    Dyer, Betsey Dexter
    Summary:

    Wheaton College biology professor Betsey Dexter Dyer examines the role of bacteria as major players in Earth's biodiversity.

  • Author:
    Sanny, Jeff, Moebs, William, Ling, Samuel J.
    Summary:

    "University Physics is a three-volume collection that meets the scope and sequence requirements for two- and three-semester calculus-based physics courses. Volume 1 covers mechanics, sound, oscillations, and waves. Volume 2 covers thermodynamics, electricity and magnetism, and Volume 3 covers optics and modern physics. This textbook emphasizes connections between theory and application, making physics concepts interesting and accessible to students while maintaining the mathematical rigor inherent in the subject. Frequent, strong examples focus on how to approach a problem, how to work with the equations, and how to check and generalize the result."--Open Textbook Library.

  • Author:
    Ling, Samuel J.
    Summary:

    "University Physics is a three-volume collection that meets the scope and sequence requirements for two- and three-semester calculus-based physics courses. Volume 1 covers mechanics, sound, oscillations, and waves. Volume 2 covers thermodynamics, electricity and magnetism, and Volume 3 covers optics and modern physics. This textbook emphasizes connections between theory and application, making physics concepts interesting and accessible to students while maintaining the mathematical rigor inherent in the subject. Frequent, strong examples focus on how to approach a problem, how to work with the equations, and how to check and generalize the result."--Open Textbook Library.

  • Author:
    Ling, Samuel J.
    Summary:

    "University Physics is a three-volume collection that meets the scope and sequence requirements for two- and three-semester calculus-based physics courses. Volume 1 covers mechanics, sound, oscillations, and waves. This textbook emphasizes connections between theory and application, making physics concepts interesting and accessible to students while maintaining the mathematical rigor inherent in the subject. Frequent, strong examples focus on how to approach a problem, how to work with the equations, and how to check and generalize the result."--Open Textbook Library.

  • Author:
    Chastenay, Pierre
    Summary:

    Une visite guidée du système solaire comme si vous y étiez ! Dans ce documentaire aussi amusant qu'instructif, les enfants sont invités à suivre Stella, la guide terrienne, et ses touristes extraterrestres dans une visite guidée du système solaire. Cette visite leur permettra de découvrir non seulement le Soleil et ses huit planètes, mais aussi des lunes, des planètes naines, des astéroïdes et des comètes. Un survol complet des connaissances actuelles en astronomie, livrées par un grand vulgarisateur, soutenues par des photos spectaculaires et des illustrations rigolotes.

  • Author:
    Lincoln, Don
    Summary:

    Consider these commonly held scientific beliefs: Planetary orbits are fixed ellipses; we only use 10 percent of our brains; nothing travels faster than light; a thrown object’s trajectory is a parabola. They seem correct, but they’re all misconceptions that aren’t entirely accurate. There’s much more to the story than you think. These magnificent 24 lectures are devoted to busting myths, clearing up confusion, and giving you scientific epiphanies that could change how you think about your everyday world. You’ll explore shocking truths about some of science’s most well-known - and often controversial - concepts, including the physics of flight, black holes, quantum mechanics, and even the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Delivered with insight, clarity, and a healthy dose of humor, Professor Lincoln’s scientific epiphanies will have you rethinking what you know - or thought you knew - about the world of science. Learn to see matter not as simple spheres but force fields. Discover why most human characteristics aren’t governed by a single gene. Examine why astronauts in the International Space Station aren’t in zero gravity but free fall. And those are just a few. These lectures are, above all, about awareness and respect for what an immense undertaking scientific inquiry and experimentation is. Regardless of where you are in your own scientific adventures, they’ll empower you with not just good science, but better science.

  • Author:
    van de Laar, Arnold
    Summary:

    Surgeon Arnold van de Laar uses his own experience and expertise to tell this engrossing history of surgery through 28 famous operations'from Louis XIV and Einstein to JFK and Houdini. From the story of the desperate man from seventeenth-century Amsterdam who grimly cut a stone out of his own bladder to Bob Marley's deadly toe, Under the Knife offers a wealth of fascinating and unforgettable insights into medicine and history via the operating room. What happens during an operation' How does the human body respond to being attacked by a knife, a bacterium, a cancer cell or a bullet' And, as medical advances continuously push the boundaries of what medicine can cure, what are the limits of surgery' With stories spanning the dark centuries of bloodletting and amputations without anaesthetic through today's sterile, high-tech operating rooms, Under the Knife is both a rich cultural history, and a modern anatomy class for us all.

  • Author:
    Kolbert, Elizabeth
    Summary:

    That man should have dominion "over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth" is a prophecy that has hardened into fact. So pervasive are human impacts on the planet that it's said we live in a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. In Under a White Sky, Elizabeth Kolbert takes a hard look at the new world we are creating. She meets scientists who are trying to preserve the world's rarest fish, which lives in a single, tiny pool in the middle of the Mojave. She visits a lava field in Iceland, where engineers are turning carbon emissions to stone; an aquarium in Australia, where researchers are trying to develop "super coral" that can survive on a hotter globe; and a lab at Harvard, where physicists are contemplating shooting tiny diamonds into the stratosphere in order to reflect sunlight back to space and cool the earth. One way to look at human civilization, says Kolbert, is as a ten-thousand-year exercise in defying nature. In The Sixth Extinction, she explored the ways in which our capacity for destruction has reshaped the natural world. Now she examines how the very sorts of interventions that have imperiled our planet are increasingly seen as the only hope for its salvation. By turns inspiring, terrifying, and darkly comic, Under a White Sky is an utterly original examination of the challenges we face.

  • Author:
    Arenstein, Georges-Henri, Benoit, André, Pétrin, Lucie, Bruder-Sergent, Laurence, Perrin, Marie
    Summary:

    Sous la direction de Georges-Henri Arenstein, André Benoit et Lucie Pétrin évoquent la relation entre l’humain et le cheval. Ils démontrent qu’il est possible de développer un lien unique entre ces deux êtres. Les auteurs veulent distinguer la relation cocréatrice d’une relation utilitaire ou d’une relation affective en spécifiant les éléments qui favorisent les relations harmonieuses entre les animaux et nous. Quant à Laurence Bruder-Sergent, elle aborde dans son chapitre, les mauvais traitements que nous infligeons à nos chiens sans le savoir et sans le vouloir. À travers son discours, elle évoque la nature biologique et éthologique des chiens, leurs besoins sociaux et les particularités individuelles de chacun. Elle fait également le point sur les inadéquations induites maladroitement par les humains dans leur cohabitation avec leurs compagnons canins. Enfin le chapitre rédigé par Marie Perrin traite du stress chez les chiens. Que ce soit par de mauvais traitements ou de mauvaises habitudes de leurs propriétaires, les chiens sont soumis à diverses sources de stress. Hélas, les humains ne s’en rendent pas toujours compte. L’auteure met en perspective les bienfaits que nous procure la compagnie des chiens alors que ceux-ci subissent quotidiennement des chocs stressants qui ne sont pas toujours pris en compte par leurs copains humains.

  • Author:
    McMahon, Peter
    Summary:

    Traces the history of developments in train technology from coal-burning engines to magnetic levitation trains, and contains experiments designed to explain the science behind the technology. Discusses the history of locomotives and the current development of high-speed trains, focusing on magnetic levitation, or Maglev, trains, with suggested experiments which demonstrate the scientific principles behind the trains.

  • Author:
    Flinn, Chad
    Summary:

    "To understand electrical theory, it is important to have a grasp of trigonometry. Whether we are talking about single phase or polyphase power, trigonometry is a key concept. This textbook, divided into three sections and provides easy-to-understand and enjoyable lessons on trigonometry, vectors, and AC generation for those training and working as electricians"--BC Campus website.

  • Author:
    Cross, L. D.
    Summary:

    It is said that the sparkle from Canadian diamonds mimics the awesome and seductive radiance of the northern lights. Yet until 1991, no one thought diamonds could even be found in Canada—no one except Chuck Fipke and Stu Blusson, who uncovered diamond-rich kimberlite in the Barrens at Point Lake, near Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Their spectacular find caused great excitement in international diamond circles and sparked the largest claim-staking rush in Canada since the 1896 Klondike gold rush. Today, Canada is the world’s third-largest producer, by value, of rough stones. Here is the dramatic tale of two determined geologists who risked all and triumphed over incredible odds.

  • Author:
    Hawking, Jane
    Summary:

    Professor Stephen Hawking is one of the most famous and remarkable scientists of our age and the author of the scientific bestseller A Brief History of Time, which has sold more than 25 million copies. In this compelling memoir, his first wife, Jane Hawking, relates the inside story of their extraordinary marriage. As Stephen's academic renown soared, his body was collapsing under the assaults of a motor neuron disease. Jane's candid account of trying to balance his 24-hour care with the needs of their growing family reveals the inner strength of the author, while the self-evident character and achievements of her husband make for an incredible tale presented with unflinching honesty. Jane's candor is no less apparent when the marriage finally ends in a high-profile meltdown, with Stephen leaving Jane for one of his nurses and Jane marrying an old family friend. In this exceptionally open, moving, and often funny memoir, Jane Hawking confronts not only the acutely complicated and painful dilemmas of her first marriage, but also the relationship's fault lines exposed by the pervasive effects of fame and wealth.

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