Science Corner: Best Sci-Tech Books of 2010

Big science is the term given to those global, high-tech, multi­laboratory, billion-dollar research enterprises that tackle the very frontiers of scientific knowledge. Two of the largest Big Science initiatives ever undertaken are the Human Genome Project and the construction of the CERN nuclear research particle ­accelerator. While the advanced research flows from these projects into scientific journals and technical papers, the basic concepts and practical implications are finding their way into popular science literature, as [this] list...proves.
~Gregg Sapp, "Best Sci-Tech Books 2010"

AGRICULTURE

The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century by Dickson Despommier

ANTHROPOLOGY

Pandora's Seed: The Unforseen Cost of Civilization by Spencer Wells

BIOGRAPHY

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

CHEMISTRY

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean

COSMOLOGY

The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow

EARTH SCIENCES

How to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the Audacious Quest to Fix Earth's Climate by Jeff Goodell

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

The Story of Stuff: How our Obsession with Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health--and a Vision for Change by Annie Leonard with Ariane Conrad

HEALTH SCIENCE

The Language of Life: DNA and the Revolution in Personalized Medicine by Francis S. Collins

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

HISTORY OF SCIENCE

The Science of Liberty by Timothy Ferris

MATHEMATICS

Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception by Charles Seife

NATURAL HISTORY

The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant

OCEANOGRAPHY

Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food by Paul Greenberg

PSYCHOLOGY

How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like by Paul Bloom

SPACE SCIENCES

Voyager: Seeking Newer Worlds in the Third Great Age of Discovery by Stephen J. Pyne

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach

ZOOLOGY

Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives by Thomas French

Americans in Paris 1903-1939 by George Wickes

If you are interested in Paris: The Luminous Years, but not sure what that period entails, this is the book for you. Americans in Paris, written in 1969, is a wonderfully informative guide to the people, the places, & the artistic movements of this era, although it might well be subtitled Who Gertrude Stein Knew (the author is either a big fan or just got a lot of his stories from her writings).

The book is split into sections, including "E. E. Cummings & the Great War" & "Man Ray, Dada & Surrealism". Each section begins with a brief timeline. The section "Ernest Hemingway in Montparnasse" includes a lot of details of the "little magazines" that were so influential during this period. "Virgil Thomson & Other Musical Saints" has a lot of information about Les Six, Nadia Boulanger, & Stravinsky. I was also thrilled to find out from "Henry Miller Down & Out in Paris" that he arrived in Paris in early 1930, so now I can include Henry Miller in my reading challenge books this year!

I did question that the book contains a chapter about George Antheil, a young composer whose early promise never really came to fruition, but only briefly mentions Isadora Duncan, one of the most famous American expatriates from that time, but that was really my only caveat. I'm not sure who George Wickes is (I found George Wickes, professor in the department of English at the University of Oregon in Eugene, listed online-however, this book was not in his bibliography), but he's penned a really interesting study of the arts in Paris from 1903-1939. Sometimes literary criticism, sometimes historical, sometimes a little bit gossipy, Americans in Paris was an entertaining read.

Meet Some Amazing Women in March!

Sometimes you have the time to savor a novel or a juicy non-fiction title, but other times you just want something that you can devour in quick bites whenever you have a few free minutes. Collective biographies are great if you enjoy meeting a variety of fascinating people. In honor of Women’s History Month, here are some books that contain collections of short sketches about interesting women. And if any of these women pique your interest and you want to learn more about them, check to see if we have a full length biography. Some of these books may be shelved in the children’s section, but don’t let that dissuade you. You won’t want to miss out on meeting these outrageous, uppity women.

If you want to meet some of the most famous and influential women who have ever lived, check out Herstory: Women Who Changed the World or Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels (and What the Neighbors Thought).

Perhaps you would like to meet some of the lesser known, more eccentric women of history. Then you should check out a book in the “Uppity Women” series or the “Outrageous Women” series. The “Uppity Women” books are written for adults and include Uppity Women of Ancient Times, Uppity Women of Medieval Times, Uppity Women of the Renaissance and Uppity Women of the New World. The “Outrageous Women” books are written for a younger audience (but still well worth a look for grownups) and include Outrageous Women of Ancient Times, Outrageous Women of the Middle Ages, Outrageous Women of Colonial America and Outrageous Women of Civil War Times.

If you are in the mood for tales of adventure and daring, check out these tales of explorers and trail blazers: No Place For a Lady: Tales of Adventurous Women Travelers; Women of the World: Women Travelers and Explorers; Off the Beaten Track: Three Centuries of Women Travelers; Women Explorers of the Mountains; Women Explorers of the Air and Women Explorers of the World.

And if you would like a tale of a brave and innovative woman to share with a child this month, check out one of these excellent picture book biographies: Uncommon Traveler: Mary Kingsley in Africa; Alice Ramsey’s Grand Adventure; Mother to Tigers; Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World’s Fastest Woman and Brave Harriet: The First Woman to Fly the English Channel.

You won’t regret taking a few minutes to meet these amazing women.


Written by Laura of the Erna Fergusson Library staff.

A Brave New World: Dystopian Fiction and Film

Perhaps you may have noticed the tremendous amount of post-apocalyptic books, movies, and video games available. Why the upsurge in these depressing views of the future? Theories range from the inundation of information in our lives, 24 hours a day from around the globe, to our increasingly public digital lives, now available to anyone, including the government, on the internet. Pessimistically, the world is going to implode, explode, or become a mass experiment by some government or another.

Whatever the cause for these views, the end result of this media trend is not necessarily negative. Teens report feeling more aware of how good they really have it: iPods, Facebook, and family, but also medicine, law, and SHOWERS. Another upside to any apocalypse paranoia is an excuse to start learning old fashioned skills like sewing, canning, and survivalism.

The name for this genre, Dystopia, comes from Thomas More's use of Utopia, meaning nowhere in Latin, and the Latin prefix dys, meaning bad. If you want to escape the relative calm and stability of the present, check out these dystopian offerings:


Books
1984,by George Orwell
Anthem, by Ayn Rand
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell
The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan
The Giver, by Lois Lowry
The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
The Maze Runner, by James Dashner
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
Shades of Gray, by Jasper Fforde

Movies
Blade Runner
Children of Men
A Clockwork Orange
I am Legend
Mad Max
Minority Report
WALL-E

ABC Libraries' International Collection

In 2009, voters approved a City GO Bond to fund library materials for the International District, thanks to a campaign spearheaded by Rey Garduño, Albuquerque's City Councilor for District 6. In February, Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Libraries unveiled the new collection of materials printed in several international languages.

ABC Libraries is proud to launch this fabulous new collection, featuring materials for both adults and children, written in Spanish, French, Arabic, Vietnamese and Mandarin Chinese languages. The collection was unveiled at San Pedro Library, but they will float to other branches. If you don't see the materials at your branch, check the catalog & place holds! Look for the blue globe on the spine.

E-book readers--what are your rights?

Do E-Book Users Need a Bill of Rights? (Librarians Think So) -- from the New York Times

HarperCollins, a large publisher, has placed new restrictions on e-book lending--a library that has licensed a title may only loan it 26 times before the file ceases to operate, and the library must buy the title again. This has caused an explosion of conversation about the nature of the medium, the rights of buyers, and the rights of the copyright holders.

On the side of the borrowers, e-books cost roughly the same--to us--as hardcovers, plus some maintenance fees. The only limit on a hardcover is how many circulations it can take before it falls apart (generally more than twenty-six). Is it fair or reasonable to charge several times for an electronic copy? And what about the DRM (Digital Rights Management) software, which is already limiting ownership on the part of the buyer? People have already put money down on their readers, and their tax money has already bought the book once. Shouldn't that be the property of the stakeholders, and not a capriciously loaned item, to be recalled at the previous owner's whim... possibly before the hold list has even been exhausted?

On the side of the creators and publishers, digital formats are far easier to copy and distribute widely--with no loss of quality--than traditional paper formats, which makes piracy inevitable. Futher, paper copies are often bought in bulk, which means paying for several copies, anyway, and some, due to accidents or malice, won't make even close to twenty-six circulations before a replacement becomes necessary--not a danger with e-books. Publishers are already in financial trouble... if they can't have some way to bring in profits, how can they stay in business and pay their authors? (Not every author gets Stephen King sized advances; most can't give up their day jobs.) If intellectual property can't be held in some manner--never mind the draconian measures being proposed in some quarters; this is a matter of any control at all--then how can creators be fairly compensated for their work?

Where do you stand? What are your thoughts on this subject? The library would very much like to know!

Ask Us!

If you've been to the ABC Libraries' home page or one of the branch library pages, you've probably seen a box like the ones pictured above. Perhaps you've wondered how to use them, or why. The Need something today? box will do a keyword search limited to the branch page you're searching from, but you can ask pretty much any question using the Ask Us! box. It's like having a reference librarian on call!

In case you haven’t had a chance to take advantage of Ask Us! yet, here’s how it works. As you type in a question, you will see a menu of similar questions that have already been answered. Click on one of the menu questions and you will get the answer right away. This is great for the basic questions like “What do I do if I lose my library card?” or “What does error message OXC00D2711 mean?”

If the question hasn’t been asked yet, you can provide your email address and submit the question, and you will get an email when as soon as a librarian finds the answer. Or, text a question to 505-819-3563 and we'll send you an answer via SMS! (If you want to call us, use 505-768-5141, or call 311.) Currently, 40% of questions are answered within an hour. Over 90% are answered within a day. Once the question is answered, it becomes part of the public database, so the next person to ask it will find the answer instantly-unless it is a question about a specific account, request for an obituary, or other inquiries of a sensitive nature.

What kind of questions have we answered? Here’s a sample of recent ones:

--Can I transfer books to a closer library?
--What is the average temperature for the month of March?
--Can my child read to a dog at Griegos or North Valley?
--Does the History of Bedford,etc, counties PA [974.8/History] contain an account of the group from Lewistown who migrated to Everett about 1860-1870.
--Do you have old Albuquerque phone directories?
--How can I reach Doctor Oz TV online?