NEW RELEASE

On the origin of time: Stephen Hawking's final theory

By Hertog, Thomas

Publishing Date: [2023]

Classification: 500

Call Number: 523.12 HER

"Stephen Hawking's closest collaborator offers the intellectual superstar's final thoughts on the cosmos--a dramatic revision of the theory that made him the heir to Einstein's legacy. Perhaps the biggest question Stephen Hawking tried to answer in his extraordinary life was how the universe could have created conditions so perfectly hospitable to life. Pondering this mystery led Hawking to study the big bang origin of the universe, but his early work ran into a crisis when the math predicted many big bangs producing a multiverse--countless different universes, most far too bizarre to harbor life. Holed up in the theoretical physics department at Cambridge, Stephen Hawking and his friend and collaborator Thomas Hertog worked shoulder to shoulder for twenty years on a new quantum theory of the cosmos. As their journey took them deeper into the big bang, they were startled to find a deeper level of evolution in which the physical laws themselves transform and simplify until particles, forces, and even time itself fades away. Once upon a time, perhaps, there was no time. This led them to a revolutionary idea: the laws of physics are not set in stone but are born and co-evolve as the universe they govern takes shape. On the Origin of Time takes the reader on a quest to understand questions bigger than our universe, peering into the extreme quantum physics of black holes and the big bang and drawing on the latest developments in string theory. As Hawking's final days drew near, the two collaborators developed a final theory proposing their radical new Darwinian perspective on the origins of our universe. Hertog offers a striking new vision that ties together more deeply than ever the nature of the universe's birth with our existence. This new theory profoundly transforms the way we think about our place in the order of the cosmos and may ultimately prove Hawking's biggest legacy"--

The story of Earth: the first 4.5 billion years, from stardust to living planet

By Hazen, Robert M

Publishing Date: 2012

Classification: 500

Call Number: 550 HAZ

In this radical new approach to Earth's biography, senior Carnegie Institution researcher and national bestselling author Robert M. Hazen reveals how the co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphere--of rocks and living matter--has shaped our planet into the only one of its kind in the Solar System, if not the entire cosmos.

NEW RELEASE

The heat will kill you first: life and death on a scorched planet

By Goodell, Jeff

Publishing Date: 2023

Classification: 500

Call Number: 551.5 GOO

"The Heat Will Kill You First is about the extreme ways in which our planet is already changing. It is about why spring is coming a few weeks earlier and fall is coming a few weeks later and the impact that will have on everything from our food supply to disease outbreaks. It is about what will happen to our lives and our communities when typical summer days in Chicago or Boston go from 90F to 110F. A heatwave, Goodell explains, is a predatory event--one that culls out the most vulnerable people. But that is changing. As heatwaves become more intense and more common, they will become more democratic. As an award-winning journalist who has been at the forefront of environmental journalism for decades, Goodell's new book may be his most provocative yet, explaining how extreme heat will dramatically change the world as we know it"--

NEW RELEASE

The power of trees: how ancient forests can save us if we let them

By Wohlleben, Peter

Publishing Date: 2023

Classification: 500

Call Number: 577.3 WOH

"From the international bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Trees. An illuminating manifesto on ancient forests: how they adapt to climate change by passing their wisdom through generations, and why our future lies in protecting them. In his beloved book The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben revealed astonishing discoveries about the social networks of trees and how they communicate. Now, in The Power of Trees, he turns to their future, with a searing critique of forestry management, tree planting, and the exploitation of old growth forests. As human-caused climate change devastates the planet, forests play a critical role in keeping it habitable. While politicians and business leaders would have us believe that cutting down forests can be offset by mass tree planting, Wohlleben offers a warning: many tree planting campaigns lead to ecological disaster. Not only are these trees more susceptible to disease, flooding, fires, and landslides, we need to understand that forests are more than simply a collection of trees. Instead, they are ecosystems that consist of thousands of species, from animals to fungi and bacteria. The way to save trees, and ourselves? Step aside and let forests--which are naturally better equipped to face environmental challenges--heal themselves. With the warmth and wonder familiar to readers from his previous books, Wohlleben also shares emerging scientific research about how forests shape climates both locally and across continents; that trees adapt to changing environmental conditions through passing knowledge down to their offspring; and how old growth may in fact have the most survival strategies for climate change. At the heart of The Power of Trees lies Wohlleben's passionate plea: that our survival is dependent on trusting ancient forests, and allowing them to thrive."--

The forests of California

By Kaufmann, Obi

Publishing Date: [2020]

Classification: 500

Call Number: 577.3097 KAU

"From the author of The California Field Atlas comes a major work that not only guides readers through the Golden State's forested lands, but also presents a profoundly original vision of nature in the twenty-first century. The Forests of California features an abundance of Obi Kaufmann's signature watercolor maps and trail paintings, weaving them into an expansive and accessible exploration of the biodiversity that defines California in the global imagination. Expanding on the style of the Field Atlas, Kaufmann tells an epic story that spans millions of years, nearly one hundred species of trees, and an astonishing richness of ecosystems. Kaufmann seeks to create nothing less than a new understanding of the more-than-human world, and the lessons in this book extend well beyond California's borders"--

NEW RELEASE

Brave the wild river: the untold story of two women who mapped the botany of the Grand Canyon

By Sevigny, Melissa L.

Publishing Date: [2023]

Classification: 500

Call Number: 578.0979 SEV

"The riveting tale of two pioneering botanists and their historic boat trip down the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon. In the summer of 1938, botanists Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter set off to run the Colorado River, accompanied by an ambitious and entrepreneurial expedition leader, a zoologist, and two amateur boatmen. With its churning waters and treacherous boulders, the Colorado was famed as the most dangerous river in the world. Journalists and veteran river runners boldly proclaimed that the motley crew would never make it out alive. But for Clover and Jotter, the expedition held a tantalizing appeal: no one had yet surveyed the plant life of the Grand Canyon, and they were determined to be the first. Through the vibrant letters and diaries of the two women, science journalist Melissa L. Sevigny traces their daring forty-three-day journey down the river, during which they meticulously cataloged the thorny plants that thrived in the Grand Canyon's secret nooks and crannies. Along the way, they chased a runaway boat, ran the river's most fearsome rapids, and turned the harshest critic of female river runners into an ally. Clover and Jotter's plant list, including four new cactus species, would one day become vital for efforts to protect and restore the river ecosystem. Brave the Wild River is a spellbinding adventure of two women who risked their lives to make an unprecedented botanical survey of a defining landscape in the American West, at a time when human influences had begun to change it forever"--

NEW RELEASE

The good virus: the amazing story and forgotten promise of the phage

By Ireland, Tom

Publishing Date: 2023

Classification: 500

Call Number: 579.26 IRE

How a mysterious, super-powerful--yet long-neglected--microbe rules our world and can rescue our health in the age of antibiotic resistance.

Around the world in 80 trees

By Drori, Jonathan

Publishing Date: 2018

Classification: 500

Call Number: 582.16 DRO

Trees are one of humanity's most constant and most varied companions. From India's sacred banyan tree to the fragrant cedar of Lebanon, they offer us sanctuary and inspiration--not to mention the raw materials for everything from aspirin and silk to space shuttles and telephone lines. In Around the World in 80 Trees, Jonathan Drori uses plant science to illuminate how trees play a role in every part of human life, from the romantic to the regrettable. Stops on the trip include the lime trees of Berlin's Unter den Linden boulevard, which intoxicate amorous Germans and hungry bees alike, the swankiest streets in nineteenth-century London, which were paved with Australian eucalyptus wood, and the redwood forests of California, where the secret to the trees' soaring heights can be found in the properties of the tiniest drops of water. Each of these strange and true tales--populated by self-mummifying monks, tree-climbing goats and ever-so-slightly radioactive nuts--is illustrated by Lucille Clerc, taking the reader on a journey that is as informative as it is beautiful. --amazon.com.

Close to shore: a true story of terror in an age of innocence

By Capuzzo, Mike

Publishing Date: ©2001

Classification: 500

Call Number: 597.3516 CAP

Describes how, in the summer of 1916, a lone great white shark headed for the New Jersey shoreline and a farming community eleven miles inland, attacking five people and igniting the most extensive shark hunt in history.

Life list: a woman's quest for the world's most amazing birds

By Gentile, Olivia

Publishing Date: 2009

Classification: 500

Call Number: 598.072 GEN

Features the saga of Phoebe Snetsinger, a wife, mother, and birdwatcher.

Hansen's field guide to the birds of the Sierra Nevada

By Hansen, Keith

Publishing Date: [2021]

Classification: 500

Call Number: 598.0979 HAN

"Identify and learn about over two hundred and fifty birds of the Sierra Nevada"--