History of Bees - Maja Lunde

Lab girl - Hope Jahren

Gulp - Mary Roach

Gulp: adventures on the alimentary canal:  - Roach, Mary

Summary: Few of us realize what strange wet miracles of science operate inside us after every meal. In her trademark style, Mary Roach investigates the beginning, and end, of our food, addressing such questions as why crunchy food is so appealing, how much we can eat before our stomachs burst, and whether constipation killed Elvis.



Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* In her latest rollicking foray into taboo, icky, and underappreciated aspects of the human body, best-selling science writer Roach takes readers on a wild ride down the alimentary canal. Not that the author of Stiff (2003), Bonk (2008), and Packing for Mars (2010) ever takes a direct route anywhere. No, voraciously curious and intrepid Roach zips off in whatever direction her ardor for research and irrepressible instinct for the wonderfully weird lead her. She begins this hilarious, mind-expanding inquiry into eating, digestion, and elimination with the symbiosis between smell and taste, guided by an olfactorily gifted "sensory analyst," then profiles Horace Fletcher, proponent of a rigorous chewing routine known as "Fletcherizing" practiced by Henry James and Franz Kafka. We learn more than one can imagine about saliva and our passion for crispy and crunchy foods. Given Roach's fascination with what we find disgusting, scientific obsessions and bizarre experiments, and horrifying things we do to ourselves, the stories get stranger as she proceeds down the body. Roach interviews a prison inmate about "rectal smuggling" (including cell phones), tells tales of flatulence, and reveals the truth about Elvis Presley's fatal megacolon. For all her irreverence, Roach marvels over the fine-tuned workings and "wisdom" of the human body, and readers will delight in her exuberant energy, audacity, and wit. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

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Bonk - Mary Roach

Bonk - Roach, Mary

Summary: Roach shows how and why sexual arousal and orgasm can be so hard to achieve and what science is doing to make the bedroom a more satisfying place.



Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* The New Yorker dubbed Roach "the funniest science writer in the country." OK, maybe there's not a lot of competition. But even if there were thousands of science-humor writers, she would be the sidesplitting favorite. Of course, she chooses good subjects: cadavers in Stiff (2003), ghosts in Spook (2005), and now a genuinely fertile topic in Bonk. As Roach points out, scientists studying sex are often treated with disdain, as though there is something inherently suspicious about the enterprise. Yet through understanding the anatomy, physiology, and psychology of sexual response, scientists can help us toward greater marital and nonmarital happiness. Such altruistic intentions, which the book shares, aren't the wellspring of its appeal, however. That lies in the breezy tone in which Roach describes erectile dysfunction among polygamists, penis cameras, relative organ sizes and enhancement devices, and dozens of other titillating subjects. Not to be missed: the martial art of yin diao gung ("genitals hanging kung fu"), monkey sex athletes, and the licensing of porn stars' genitals for blow-up reproductions. To stay on the ethical side of human-subjects experimentation, Roach offers herself as research subject several times, resulting in some of her best writing. Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews.

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When the killing's done - T.C. Boyle

When the killing's done - Boyle, T.C.

Summary: Traces an incrementally violent confrontation between a National Park Service biologist who would eradicate invasive wildlife on the Channel Islands and two locals who are fiercely opposed to the killing of any creatures. By the PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author of World's End. 75,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)


Staff Review:
Lyrical from the start, Mr. Boyle's new novel is irresistible in it's pull for Santa Barbara residents, naturalists, and anyone wanting a good suspenseful read. He weaves fact and fiction, past and present into a gripping story.

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Darwin, his daughter, and human evolution - Randal Keynes

Darwin, his daughter, and human evolution - Keynes, Randal

Summary: A glimpse into the life of the man who changed the world's way of comprehending the origins of human nature tells the story of Darwin's home life, his inner turmoil, and his relationships with his wife and daughter. - (Baker & Taylor)

BookPage Reviews
The evolution of Darwin's thought

Charles Darwin died in 1882, but his theory of evolution lives on, debated by generation after generation. As for the evolution of the theory itself, author Randal Keynes, great-great grandson of Darwin and a descendant of economist John Maynard Keynes, gives us some unique insights in Darwin, His Daughter, and Human Evolution. Keynes believes Darwin's life and science were intertwined and offers a fascinating, detailed look at Darwin's family life and the impact the death of his beloved 10-year-old daughter Annie had on his work.

In a chest of drawers he inherited from his grandmother, Keynes found Annie's writing case. Among her mementos were the notes Darwin kept throughout Annie's illness and a "memorial" of her, in which he describes her character and joyful spirit. We sense Darwin's profound loss, even at a time when the death of a child was not uncommon.

Unlike his wife Emma, who was a devout Christian, Darwin, an agnostic, could find no solace in religion for dealing with Annie's death. Religious belief at the time held that humankind was on a higher level than animals. Suffering and illness were meant for man's moral improvement. In contrast, Darwin believed that death was simply a natural process. Humans were on the same plane as the rest of life and subject to the same evolutionary forces.

Based on his work as a naturalist, Darwin first developed his species theory in 1838, three years before Annie was born. It was 21 years and many re-workings later that he published The Origin of the Species. In The Descent of Man, published in 1871, Darwin dealt with the animal ancestry of mankind. Both of these works were brought into sharper focus, according to Keynes, as Darwin reflected on Annie's life and death.

Drawing on a wealth of previously unseen material, including personal diaries and family photographs, Keynes gives the reader a thorough understanding of Darwin's life and times. Interweaving religion, medicine, science, poetry and philosophy, he offers a thought-provoking portrait of a grieving father who became a ground-breaking scientist.

Ellen R. Marsden writes from Ashburn, Virginia. Copyright 2002 BookPage Reviews

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The biology of belief: unleashing the power of consciousness, matter, and miracles - Bruce H. Lipton

The biology of belief: unleashing the power of consciousness, matter, and miracles - Lipton, Bruce H.

Summary: Author Lipton is a former medical school professor and research scientist. His experiments, and those of other leading-edge scientists, have examined in great detail the processes by which cells receive information. The implications of this research radically change our understanding of life. It shows that genes and DNA do not control our biology; that instead DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our positive and negative thoughts. Dr. Lipton's profoundly hopeful synthesis of the latest and best research in cell biology and quantum physics is being hailed as a breakthrough, showing that our bodies can be changed as we retrain our thinking.--From publisher description. - (Baker & Taylor)

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