You probably don’t get nature like I do.<\/p>\n
And by that I don’t mean “get nature” but rather, “get Nature, the magazine.” I do get Nature, which is very expensive, so maybe you don’t have to. A recent newsletter from the Mother Mag includes a list of great new science books, and I was pretty impressed with the books, so I’m giving you the list*. Take the money you saved on not subscribing to Nature and get one! <\/p>\n
Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism<\/a> by Mariana Mazzucato. <\/strong><\/p>\n Capitalism is in crisis. The rich have gotten richer\u2014the 1 percent, those with more than $1 million, own 44 percent of the world’s wealth\u2014while climate change is transforming\u2014and in some cases wiping out\u2014life on the planet. We are plagued by crises threatening our lives, and this situation is unsustainable. But how do we fix these problems decades in the making?<\/p>\n Mission Economy looks at the grand challenges facing us in a radically new way. Global warming, pollution, dementia, obesity, gun violence, mobility\u2014these environmental, health, and social dilemmas are huge, complex, and have no simple solutions. Mariana Mazzucato argues we need to think bigger and mobilize our resources in a way that is as bold as inspirational as the moon landing\u2014this time to the most \u2018wicked\u2019 social problems of our time.. We can only begin to find answers if we fundamentally restructure capitalism to make it inclusive, sustainable, and driven by innovation that tackles concrete problems from the digital divide, to health pandemics, to our polluted cities. That means changing government tools and culture, creating new markers of corporate governance, and ensuring that corporations, society, and the government coalesce to share a common goal.<\/p>\n We did it to go to the moon. We can do it again to fix our problems and improve the lives of every one of us. We simply can no longer afford not to.<\/p>\n Naomi Oreskes’ Science on a Mission: How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Don\u2019t Know about the Ocean<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n What difference does it make who pays for science?<\/p>\n Some might say none. If scientists seek to discover fundamental truths about the world, and they do so in an objective manner using well-established methods, then how could it matter who\u2019s footing the bill? History, however, suggests otherwise. In science, as elsewhere, money is power. Tracing the recent history of oceanography, Naomi Oreskes discloses dramatic changes in American ocean science since the Cold War, uncovering how and why it changed. Much of it has to do with who pays.<\/p>\n After World War II, the US military turned to a new, uncharted theater of warfare: the deep sea. The earth sciences\u2014particularly physical oceanography and marine geophysics\u2014became essential to the US Navy, who poured unprecedented money and logistical support into their study. Science on a Mission brings to light how this influx of military funding was both enabling and constricting: it resulted in the creation of important domains of knowledge but also significant, lasting, and consequential domains of ignorance.<\/p>\n As Oreskes delves into the role of patronage in the history of science, what emerges is a vivid portrait of how naval oversight transformed what we know about the sea. It is a detailed, sweeping history that illuminates the ways funding shapes the subject, scope, and tenor of scientific work, and it raises profound questions about the purpose and character of American science. What difference does it make who pays? The short answer is: a lot.<\/p>\n Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest<\/a> by Suzanne Simard.<\/strong><\/p>\n Suzanne Simard is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; she’s been compared to Rachel Carson, hailed as a scientist who conveys complex, technical ideas in a way that is dazzling and profound. Her work has influenced filmmakers (the Tree of Souls of James Cameron’s Avatar) and her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide.<\/p>\n Now, in her first book, Simard brings us into her world, the intimate world of the trees, in which she brilliantly illuminates the fascinating and vital truths–that trees are not simply the source of timber or pulp, but are a complicated, interdependent circle of life; that forests are social, cooperative creatures connected through underground networks by which trees communicate their vitality and vulnerabilities with communal lives not that different from our own.<\/p>\n Simard writes–in inspiring, illuminating, and accessible ways\u2014how trees, living side by side for hundreds of years, have evolved, how they perceive one another, learn and adapt their behaviors, recognize neighbors, and remember the past; how they have agency about the future; elicit warnings and mount defenses, compete and cooperate with one another with sophistication, characteristics ascribed to human intelligence, traits that are the essence of civil societies–and at the center of it all, the Mother Trees: the mysterious, powerful forces that connect and sustain the others that surround them.<\/p>\n Simard writes of her own life, born and raised into a logging world in the rainforests of British Columbia, of her days as a child spent cataloging the trees from the forest and how she came to love and respect them\u2014embarking on a journey of discovery, and struggle. And as she writes of her scientific quest, she writes of her own journey–of love and loss, of observation and change, of risk and reward, making us understand how deeply human scientific inquiry exists beyond data and technology, that it is about understanding who we are and our place in the world, and, in writing of her own life, we come to see the true connectedness of the Mother Tree that nurtures the forest in the profound ways that families and human societies do, and how these inseparable bonds enable all our survival.<\/p>\n My Remarkable Journey: A Memoir<\/a> by Katherine Johnson.<\/strong><\/p>\n In 2015, at the age of 97, Katherine Johnson became a global celebrity. President Barack Obama awarded her the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom\u2014the nation\u2019s highest civilian honor\u2014for her pioneering work as a mathematician on NASA\u2019s first flights into space. Her contributions to America\u2019s space program were celebrated in a blockbuster and Academy-award nominated movie.<\/p>\n In this memoir, Katherine shares her personal journey from child prodigy in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia to NASA human computer. In her life after retirement, she served as a beacon of light for her family and community alike. Her story is centered around the basic tenets of her life\u2014no one is better than you, education is paramount, and asking questions can break barriers. The memoir captures the many facets of this unique woman: the curious \u201cdaddy\u2019s girl,\u201d pioneering professional, and sage elder.<\/p>\n This multidimensional portrait is also the record of a century of racial history that reveals the influential role educators at segregated schools and Historically Black Colleges and Universities played in nurturing the dreams of trailblazers like Katherine. The author pays homage to her mentor\u2014the African American professor who inspired her to become a research mathematician despite having his own dream crushed by racism.<\/p>\n Infused with the uplifting wisdom of a woman who handled great fame with genuine humility and great tragedy with enduring hope, My Remarkable Journey ultimately brings into focus a determined woman who navigated tough racial terrain with soft-spoken grace\u2014and the unrelenting grit required to make history and inspire future generations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You probably don’t get nature like I do. And by that I don’t mean “get nature” but rather, “get Nature, the magazine.” I do get Nature, which is very expensive, so maybe you don’t have to. A recent newsletter from the Mother Mag includes a list of great new science books, and I was pretty … Continue reading Amazing science books<\/span>