Inyo County Free Library - New Acquisitions
September 2022 - October 2022
These are books and media new to the library and cataloged by the Inyo County Free Library.
Additional information about each title can be found in the catalog (click on the title). For older acquisition lists choose from Select another list. To request any of these titles please contact your local library branch.
| Non-Fiction | Computer science, information & general worksPhilosophy & psychologyReligionSocial sciencesLanguage Science TechnologyArts & recreationLiteratureHistory & geography |
1 to 10 of 10
Arctic dreams: imagination and desire in a northern landscape By Lopez, Barry Holstun Publishing Date: [2001] Classification: 500 Call Number: 508.98 LOP This book is an account of the history, ecology, and mystique of the arctic region. The author offers a thorough examination of this obscure world, its terrain, its wildlife, its history of Eskimo natives and intrepid explorers who have arrived on their icy shores. But what turns this marvelous work of natural history into a breathtaking study of profound originality is his unique meditation on how the landscape can shape our imagination, desires, and dreams. Its prose as hauntingly pure as the land it describes, and is nothing less than an indelible classic of modern literature. |
NEW RELEASE The man from the future: the visionary life of John von Neumann By Bhattacharya, Ananyo Publishing Date: 2022 Classification: 500 Call Number: 510.92 BHA The smartphones in our pockets and computers like brains. The vagaries of game theory and evolutionary biology. Nuclear weapons and self-replicating spacecrafts. All bear the fingerprints of one remarkable, yet largely overlooked, man: John von Neumann. Born in Budapest at the turn of the century, von Neumann is one of the most influential scientists to have ever lived. A child prodigy, he mastered calculus by the age of eight, and in high school made lasting contributions to mathematics. In Germany, where he helped lay the foundations of quantum mechanics, and later at Princeton, von Neumann's colleagues believed he had the fastest brain on the planet-bar none. He was instrumental in the Manhattan Project and the design of the atom bomb; he helped formulate the bedrock of Cold War geopolitics and modern economic theory; he created the first ever programmable digital computer; he prophesized the potential of nanotechnology; and, from his deathbed, he expounded on the limits of brains and computers - and how they might be overcome. Taking readers on a winding journey, this book explores how a combination of genius and unique historical circumstance allowed a single man to sweep through a stunningly diverse array of fields, sparking revolutions wherever he went. This is an insightful and thrilling biography of a visionary thinker who shaped our century. -- |
By Berry, Richard Publishing Date: 1987 Classification: 500 Call Number: 520 BER A guide to constellations, stars, and other celestial objects reveals the mythology surrounding the star groups and the star movement through the sky - (Baker & Taylor) |
By Reston, James Publishing Date: [1994] Classification: 500 Call Number: 520.92 RES Well-researched, suspenseful narrative with vigorous portraits of Galileo's opponents and supporters. |
By Harrington, Philip S. Publishing Date: 2003 Classification: 500 Call Number: 522 HAR An introduction to the universe that provides information on locating, observing, and understanding the celestial objects in the night sky. |
By Albert, David Z. Publishing Date: 2015 Classification: 500 Call Number: 530.01 ALB After Physics presents ambitious new essays about some of the deepest questions at the foundations of physics, by the physicist and philosopher David Albert. The book's title alludes to the close connections between physics and metaphysics, much in evidence throughout these essays. It also alludes to the work of imagining what it would be like for the project of physical science - considered as an investigation into the fundamental laws of nature - to be complete. Albert argues that the difference between the past and the future - traditionally regarded as a matter for metaphysical or conceptual or linguistic or phenomenological analysis - can be understood as a mechanical phenomenon of nature. In another essay he contends that all versions of quantum mechanics that are compatible with the special theory of relativity make it impossible, even in principle, to present the entirety of what can be said about the world as a narrative sequence of "befores" and "afters." Any sensible and realistic way of solving the quantum-mechanical measurement problem, Albert claims in yet another essay, is ultimately going to force us to think of particles and fields, and even the very space of the standard scientific conception of the world, as approximate and emergent. Novel discussions of the problem of deriving principled limits on what can be known, measured, or communicated from our fundamental physical theories, along with a sweeping critique of the main attempts at making sense of probabilities in many-worlds interpretations of quantum mechanics, round out the collection. -- from back cover. |
NEW RELEASE Existential physics: a scientist's guide to life's biggest questions By Hossenfelder, Sabine Publishing Date: [2022] Classification: 500 Call Number: 530.01 HOS "A contrarian scientist wrestles with the big questions that modern physics raises, and what physics says about the human condition Not only can we not currently explain the origin of the universe, it is questionable we will ever be able to explain it. The notion that there are universes within particles, or that particles are conscious, is ascientific, as is the hypothesis that our universe is a computer simulation. On the other hand, the idea that the universe itself is conscious is difficult to rule out entirely. According to Sabine Hossenfelder, it is not a coincidence that quantum entanglement and vacuum energy have become the go-to explanations of alternative healers, or that people believe their deceased grandmother is still alive because of quantum mechanics. Science and religion have the same roots, and they still tackle some of the same questions: Where do we come from? Where do we go to? How much can we know? The area of science that is closest to answering these questions is physics. Over the last century, physicists have learned a lot about which spiritual ideas are still compatible with the laws of nature. Not always, though, have they stayed on the scientific side of the debate. In this lively, thought-provoking book, Hossenfelder takes on the biggest questions in physics: Does the past still exist? Do particles think? Was the universe made for us? Has physics ruled out free will? Will we ever have a theory of everything? She lays out how far physicists are on the way to answering these questions, where the current limits are, and what questions might well remain unanswerable forever. Her book offers a no-nonsense yet entertaining take on some of the toughest riddles in existence, and will give the reader a solid grasp on what we know-and what we don't know"-- |
The boundless sea: a human history of the oceans By Abulafia, David Publishing Date: [2019] Classification: 500 Call Number: 551.46 ABU "David Abulafia's new book guides readers along the world's greatest bodies of water to reveal their primary role in human history. The main protagonists are the three major oceans-the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian-which together comprise the majority of the earth's water and cover over half of its surface. Over time, as passage through them gradually extended and expanded, linking first islands and then continents, maritime networks developed, evolving from local exploration to lines of regional communication and commerce and eventually to major arteries. These waterways carried goods, plants, livestock, and of course people-free and enslaved-across vast expanses, transforming and ultimately linking irrevocably the economies and cultures of Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas"-- |
Fifty animals that changed the course of history By Chaline, Eric Publishing Date: 2011 Classification: 500 Call Number: 590 CHA The 50 animals include the horse, dog, rat, whale, reindeer, beaver, flea, leech, dodo, falcon, oyster and shark. These creatures, great and small, have played central roles in the evolution of humankind, but they have remained at the periphery of our understanding of history. Whether it is an advancement in scientific knowledge, a trade war, disease and death, battles won and lost, or encounters with explorers in unknown lands, these animals have changed the course of history. |
By Preston, Claire Publishing Date: 2006 Classification: 500 Call Number: 595.799 PRE "This book opens up the natural and cultural world of the bee, relating its complex role in the art, politics and social thought of human cultures, and drawing on the large body of literature consequent on man's age-old search for honey. It is noteworthy that one recent shift - the traditional image of the beehive as the home of civic virtue now demonized into one of destruction, exemplified by the swarms of killer bees in Hollywood horror films - has happened just at a time when science warms us to consider our own technologies of obstruction. With so many fascinating facts, fables and arcana from art, science, literature and apiculture, Bee offers a compelling meditation on the fortunes of nature's workaholic." -- |
1 to 10 of 10