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Books > Language & Literature > Biography & autobiography > Science, technology & engineering
'A book of marvels, marvellously written' RICHARD DAWKINS A
pioneering marine biologist takes us down into the deep ocean to
understand bioluminescence, the language of light that helps life
communicate in the darkness, and what it tells us about the future
of life on Earth. Edith Widder grew up determined to become a
marine biologist. But after complications from a surgery during
college caused her to go temporarily blind, she became fascinated
by light as well as the power of optimism. Her focus turned to
oceanic bioluminescence, a scientific frontier, and with little
promise of funding or employment she took a leap into the dark.
Below the Edge of Darkness explores the depths of the planet's
oceans as Widder seeks to understand one of the most important and
widely used forms of communication in nature. In the process, she
reveals hidden worlds and a dazzling menagerie of behaviours and
animals, many never-before-seen or, like the legendary Giant Squid,
never-before-filmed in its deep-sea lair. Alongside Widder, we
experience life-and-death equipment malfunctions and witness
breakthroughs in technology and understanding, all of it set
against a growing awareness of the deteriorating health of our
largest and least understood ecosystem. This is an adventure story
as well as a science story. But it's also about the sometimes
complicated business of exploration. And ultimately, Widder shows
us that exploration, and the corresponding senses of discovery and
wonder, are the keys to the ocean's salvation and thus our future
on this planet. 'Edie's story is one of hardscrabble optimism,
two-fisted exploration and groundbreaking research. As I've said
many times, I'd have wrapped my submersible, the DEEPSEA
CHALLENGER, in bacon if it would have lured the elusive giant squid
from the depths. In Below the Edge of Darkness, Edie tells you how
she did it' JAMES CAMERON
The life and influential career of neurologist Robert J. Joynt, MD,
PhD., who in 1996 became the first chair of the Department of
Neurology at the University of Rochester. In this stirring
collection of essays, author Nancy Bolger leads the reader through
the extraordinary life of Robert J. Joynt, MD, PhD, one of the most
influential neurologists of the last half century. The story begins
on the small-town streets of Iowa and takes us through military
service and medical school, down the wedding aisle, and ultimately
to a long and successful career at the University of Rochester,
where Dr. Joynt became the first chair of thenewly created
Department of Neurology in 1966. Along the way, we accompany Dr.
Joynt on his travels to India, Canada, Ireland, London and
Cambridge in England, and many other places, including a much-loved
lakeside retreat in Minnesota where the family vacationed year
after year. These pages tell of not only Dr. Joynt's life but also
of those who inspired him, and how he in turn became a remarkable
inspiration to others. Nancy W. Bolger is a writer and editor for
the University of Rochester Medical Center. In 1992 she received
the Robert G. Fenley Award of Distinction for Medical Science
Writing from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Join Air Force veteran Dr. W. Lee Warren as he chronicles his
fascinating, heartbreaking, and enlightening experience as a
neurosurgeon in an Iraq War combat hospital. Warren's life as a
neurosurgeon in a trauma center began to unravel long before he
shipped off to serve the U.S. Air Force in Iraq in 2004. When he
traded a comfortable, if demanding, practice in San Antonio, Texas,
for a ride on a C-130 into the combat zone, he was already reeling
from months of personal struggle. At the 332nd Air Force Theater
Hospital at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, Warren realized his experience
with trauma was just beginning. In his 120 days in a tent hospital,
he was trained in a different specialty--surviving over a hundred
mortar attacks and trying desperately to repair the damages of a
war that raged around every detail of every day. No place was safe,
and the constant barrage wore down every possible defense, physical
or psychological. One day, clad only in a T-shirt, gym shorts, and
running shoes, Warren was caught in the open while round after
round of mortars shook the earth and shattered the air with their
explosions, stripping him of everything he had been trying so
desperately to hold on to. In No Place to Hide, Warren tells his
story in a brand-new light, sharing how you can: Discover who you
are under pressure Lean on faith in your darkest days Find the
strength to carry on, no matter what you're facing Whether you are
in the midst of your own struggles with faith, relationships,
finances, or illness, No Place to Hide will teach you that how you
respond in moments of crisis can determine your chances of
survival. Praise for No Place to Hide: "No Place to Hide captures
simply, eloquently, and passionately what it means to be a
physician in time of war. Over ten years of war, we safely air
evacuated more than ninety thousand injured and ill from Iraq and
Afghanistan--five thousand were the sickest of the sick. This very
personal story captures the essence of what it takes to be a
military physician and the challenge for our nation to reintegrate
all who deploy to war." --Lt. Gen. (ret.) C. Bruce Green, MD, 20th
AF Surgeon General "Through Warren's eyes we observe not only the
delicate mechanics of brain surgery but also its lifelong effects
on real people and their families, both when the surgery succeeds
and when it fails. Thank you, Lee Warren, for letting us see the
world through your own unique vantage point. Thank you for the
lives you saved, for the compassion you showed, for the faith you
rediscovered, for reminding us of the precious gift of life."
--Philip Yancey, bestselling author of The Jesus I Never Knew
The inspiring memoir of the superstar astronaut and TikTok
sensation - now on her biggest space mission yet 'Today I woke up
on Earth. And I will fall asleep in space' In space the sun rises
and sets 16 times a day. You fly over every sea, every mountain and
desert, every city and every port. The most ordinary things --
eating, sleeping, brushing your teeth or cutting your hair -- have
to be relearned, until they become familiar again. This is the
story of Samantha Cristoforetti's incredible journey to becoming an
astronaut, and her journey beyond Earth. Her voyage as an
apprentice astronaut began when she was in her early thirties: five
years of intense training around the world, from Houston to Japan
to the legendary Star City in Russia. Countless hours spent in
centrifuges, spaceship simulators and under water for spacewalk
practice. Then, one day, a rocket was waiting for her on the launch
pad. And after eight minutes of wild ascent, she was on orbit,
crunched up with her two crewmates in a tiny spaceship that took
them to the International Space Station. With honesty and warmth,
Cristoforetti chronicles the two hundred days she spent on the ISS,
the joys and challenges of being in an extraordinary place, from
the sublime sight of seeing Earth for the first time to more
unusual concerns, such as mastering the art of floating. How do you
find your bearings when there is no up and down? What is it like to
run in weightlessness? And how do you cook in space? This is an
enthralling, inspiring and surprisingly down-to-earth story about
what it really takes to pursue your dreams.
This book examines the myriad identities and portrayals of Edith
Cavell, as they have been constructed and handed down by
propagandists, biographers and artists. Cavell was first introduced
to the British public through a series of Foreign Office statements
which claimed to establish the "facts" of her case. Her own voice,
along with those of her family, colleagues and friends, were muted,
as a monolithic image of a national heroine and martyr emerged. The
book identifies two main areas of tension in her commemoration:
firstly, the contrast between complexity of her own behaviour and
motivations and the simplicity of the "Cavell Legend" that was
constructed around her; and, secondly, the mismatch between the
attempts of individuals and professional organisations to
commemorate her life and work, and the public construction of a
"heroine" who could be of value to the nation state.
Alexander von Humboldt was the most admired scientist of his day.
But the achievements for which he was most celebrated in his
lifetime always fell short of perfection. When he climbed the
Chimborazo, then believed to be the highest mountain in the world,
he did not quite reach the top; he established the existence of the
Casiquiare canal, between the great water systems of the Orinoco
and the Amazon, but this had been well known to local people; and
his magisterial work, Cosmos, was left unfinished. This was no
coincidence. Humboldt's pursuit of an all-encompassing, immersive
approach to science was a way of finding limits: of nature and of
the scientist's own self. A Longing for Wide and Unknown Things
portrays a scientific life lived in the era of German Romanticism
-- a time of radical change, where the focus on the individual
placed a new value on feeling, and the pursuit of personal desires.
As Humboldt himself admitted, he 'would have sailed to the remotest
South Seas, even if it hadn't fulfilled any scientific purpose
whatever'.
Marylebone has been home to its fair share of rogues, villains and
eccentrics, and their stories are told here. The authors also want
to remind the reader that alongside the glamour of Society, there
has also been hardship and squalor in the parish, as was
graphically illustrated in Charles Booth's poverty maps of London
in 1889. Over the past 10 years the Marylebone Journal has printed
historical essays on the people, places, and events that have
helped shape the character of the area. Some are commemorated with
a blue plaque, but many are not. This is not a check-list of the
grandees of Marylebone, though plenty appear in these pages. The
essays have been grouped into themes of: history, politicians and
warriors, culture and sport (from pop music and television to high
art), love and marriage (stories from romance to acrimonious
divorce), criminals, science and medicine, buildings and places,
and the mad bad and dangerous to know - those whose stories don't
fit a convenient box but are too good not to tell.
The first account of the role Britain played in Einstein's life―first by inspiring his teenage passion for physics, then by providing refuge from the Nazis
In autumn 1933, Albert Einstein found himself living alone in an isolated holiday hut in rural England. There, he toiled peacefully at mathematics while occasionally stepping out for walks or to play his violin. But how had Einstein come to abandon his Berlin home and go ‘"on the run"?
In this lively account, Andrew Robinson tells the story of the world’s greatest scientist and Britain for the first time, showing why Britain was the perfect refuge for Einstein from rumored assassination by Nazi agents. Young Einstein’s passion for British physics, epitomized by Newton, had sparked his scientific development around 1900. British astronomers had confirmed his general theory of relativity, making him internationally famous in 1919. Welcomed by the British people, who helped him campaign against Nazi anti-Semitism, he even intended to become a British citizen. So why did Einstein then leave Britain, never to return to Europe?
When Dr David Hosack tilled the America's first botanical garden in
the Manhattan soil more than two hundred years ago, he didn't just
dramatically alter the New York landscape; he left a monumental
legacy of advocacy for public health and wide-ranging support for
the sciences. A charismatic dreamer admired by the likes of
Jefferson, Madison and Humboldt, and intimate friends with both
Hamilton and Burr, the Columbia professor devoted his life to
inspiring Americans to pursue medicine and botany with a rigour to
rival Europe's. Though he was shoulder-to-shoulder with the
founding fathers Hosack and his story remain unknown. Now, in
melodic prose, Victoria Johnson eloquently chronicles Hosack's
tireless career to reveal the breadth of his impact.
The Microwave Delusion tells how one highly successful UK business
leader's experience of the damaging health effects of microwave
radiation has become part of an international campaign to hold the
mobile phone industry to account for its defective safety
practices. This book charts industry and government collusion
versus the rise of independent science, leading to campaigns and
legal judgements in many countries. It proposes that the roll out
of 5G in its present form endangers hundreds of millions of people
of all ages. As one independent scientist says: 'We are taking
risks that no rational society on earth should take.'
Impressive stories of women using geospatial technology to create
sustainable solutions for problems the world faces. The third
volume in the Women and GIS series shows how 31 diverse women in
various STEAM fields discovered their passion, broke down barriers,
and used maps, analysis, imagery, and geographic information
systems (GIS) to advance their fields and improve the world.
Sharing their experiences from childhood and throughout their
careers, each woman reveals her journey in an inspiring
recollection of the obstacles she has overcome, the knowledge she
has gained along the way, and how tenacity and determination have
helped her succeed. Each woman shares tips and words of wisdom that
she's gained along the way, including: Priscilla Mbama Abasi:
"Think big! Think about going to space, think about building things
no one has seen before." Arianna Armelli: "If you are like me and
crave the freedom to explore a path of the unknown, aka
entrepreneurship, a career in STEM will foster the technical
foundation to achieve those goals." Gabi Fleury: "The best advice I
was given starting out was 'forge your own path.' Conservation
isn't a structured, straight-line career, you can get into it in
many ways. This is exciting, but it also can be really challenging,
because you have to be flexible, innovative, and always on the
lookout for the next opportunity." Healy Hamilton: "Success, to me,
is a daily feeling that you are living true to your values, that
you are meaningfully contributing to the world you want to create."
Katharine Hayhoe: "While it's important to have people you respect
and trust give you feedback at key points in your career, when it
all comes down to it, you have to make the decisions that feel
right for you, not the ones that necessarily look best on paper.
You're the one who has to live with them." Featuring strong,
persevering women from around the globe, the stories found in Women
and GIS, Volume 3: Champions of a Sustainable World will inspire
readers who are developing their own life stories to strive for
success and achieve amazing accomplishments.
Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1965, Richard Feynman was also a man who fell, often jumped, into adventure - as artist, safe-cracker, practical joker and storyteller. This self-portrait has been compiled from taped conversations with his friend Ralph Leighton.
A RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK 'With poignancy, humour and
compassion, Jones invites us into "the invigorating chaos of
pre-hospital care" . . . a panorama of experiences: the mundane,
the ridiculous, the heartbreaking and the tragic' - The Guardian
'This beautifully written book, punctuated with wry humour, is a
sobering portrayal of the ailing, the distressed and the lonely...
Yet it's also an uplifting read which will make you thankful that
should your hour of need arrive, so will someone like Jones' -
Daily Express A memoir of the chaos, intensity and occasional
beauty of life as a paramedic. A young man has stopped breathing in
a supermarket toilet. A pedestrian with a nasty head injury won't
let the crew near him on a busy road. A newborn baby is worryingly
silent. An addict urinates on the ambulance floor when denied a
fix. This is the life of an ambulance paramedic. Jake Jones has
worked in the UK ambulance service for ten years: every day, he
sees a dozen of the scenes we hope to see only once in a lifetime.
Can You Hear Me? - the first thing he says when he arrives on the
scene - is a memoir of the chaos, intensity and occasional beauty
of life on the front-lines of medicine in the UK. As well as a look
into dozens of extraordinary scenes - the hoarder who won't move
his collection to let his ailing father leave the house, the
blood-soaked man who tries to escape from the ambulance, the life
saved by a lucky crew who had been called to see someone else
entirely - Can You Hear Me? is an honest examination of the strains
and challenges of one of the most demanding and important jobs
anyone can do.
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