Friday, September 27, 2013

Some interesting new books recently added to the Rhodes Library collection

Remember that you can find newly arrived books 
ordered by / relevant to your Dept on the Library's LibGuides

_____________________________________________________________________________

Cover Art

“A wonderful primer on geology, and a clear explanation of how the science is done.”
(Rob Hardy Columbus Dispatch 2012-07-02)

“MacDougall has given us a gem, a book that removes emotion and apocalyptic hyperbole from the equation and provides a sober analysis of why most scientists have come to the conclusion they have about how human activity has started to play a role in the Earth’s climate.”  (Jim Trageser North County Times 2011-06-19)





 This timely summary of the state of Antarctic ecological science provides a springboard for an exciting future of Antarctic research." ("The Quarterly Review of Biology", 1 June 2013)





                               
                       Biomimicry : innovation inspired by nature / Janine M. Benyus.

Cover Art
This profound and accessible book details how science is studying nature’s best ideas to solve our toughest 21st-century problems.
If chaos theory transformed our view of the universe, biomimicry is transforming our life on Earth. Biomimicry is innovation inspired by nature – taking advantage of evolution’s 3.8 billion years of R&D since the first bacteria. Biomimics study nature’s best ideas: photosynthesis, brain power, and shells – and adapt them for human use. They are revolutionising how we invent, compute, heal ourselves, harness energy, repair the environment, and feed the world. 


Intelligent nanomaterials : processes, properties, and applications / edited by Ashutosh Tiwari ... [et al.].

Cover Art

 “I would like to congratulate the Editors for this impressive  collection of contributions on the front line of nanomaterial  research . . . Intelligent Nanomaterials,...  is an exceptionally valuable reference book for many researchers and students in materials science, nano- and biotechnology.”  (Advanced Materials Letters, 2012)





Networks of outrage and hope : social movements in the Internet age / Manuel Castells.

Cover Art
In this timely and important book, Manuel Castells – the leading scholar of our contemporary networked society – examines the social, cultural and political roots of these new social movements, studies their innovative forms of self-organization, assesses the precise role of technology in the dynamics of the movements, suggests the reasons for the support they have found in large segments of society, and probes their capacity to induce political change by influencing people’s minds.
Based on original fieldwork by the author and his collaborators as well as secondary sources, this book provides a path-breaking analysis of the new forms of social movements, and offers an analytical template for advancing the debates triggered by them concerning the new forms of social change and political democracy in the global network society.


Cover Art
   "...a completely unexpected piece of natural history. ...Mycio displays only the best and most consistent journalistic instincts..." -- Providence Journal, September 25, 2005
"The new Chernobyl wilderness -- radioactive, yet greenly blooming -- has one of the strangest stories in the modern world." -- Bruce Sterling, author of Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years

"Mary Mycio takes the reader on a fascinating personal journey through a contaminated landscape that paradoxically thrives with wildlife." -- David Holley,  Los Angeles Times



 Cover Art A century after the 1913 Natives' Land Act, there remains a land crisis in South Africa. How are we to understand the many dimensions of this crisis so that we can realistically move beyond the current inertia? The starting point for this book is that the current land reform policies in the country fail to take this colonial context of division and exclusion into account. As a result, there is an abiding land crisis in South Africa. The book examines the many dimensions of this crisis in urban areas, commercial farming areas and communal areas. It argues for a fundamental change in approach to move beyond the impasse in both policy and thinking about land.


Cover Art


  
Specifically tailored to life science students, this textbook outlines the important physical ideas, equations and examples at the heart of contemporary physiology, along with the organization necessary to understand that knowledge. The equations are designed to help students understand biological principles, with a particular emphasis on human biology.




Cover Art   
A scientific and management guide to the St Lucia estuary, the world's first protected, and Africa's largest, estuarine ecosystem. It provides an essential reference for researchers and students in marine, estuarine and inland water sciences, and a unique source of information and insight for environmental managers, resource planners and ecotourists.





Cover Art
Fractal geometry : mathematical foundations and applications / Kenneth Falconer.

Since its original publication in 1990, Kenneth Falconer's Fractal Geometry: Mathematical Foundations and Applications has become a seminal text on the mathematics of fractals. It introduces the general mathematical theory and applications of fractals in a way that is accessible to students from a wide range of disciplines. This new edition has been extensively revised and updated. It features much new material, many additional exercises, notes and references, and an extended bibliography that reflects the development of the subject since the first edition.



Cover Art
This fascinating book explores the hidden world of viruses—a world that we all inhabit. Here Carl Zimmer, popular science writer and author of Discover magazine’s award-winning blog The Loom, presents the latest research on how viruses hold sway over our lives and our biosphere, how viruses helped give rise to the first life-forms, how viruses are producing new diseases, how we can harness viruses for our own ends, and how viruses will continue to control our fate for years to come. In this eye-opening tour of the frontiers of biology, where scientists are expanding our understanding of life as we know it, we learn that some treatments for the common cold do more harm than good; that the world’s oceans are home to an astonishing number of viruses; and that the evolution of HIV is now in overdrive, spawning more mutated strains than we care to imagine.

Cover Art
The hunt for the Higgs particle has involved the biggest, most expensive experiment ever. So exactly what is this particle? Why does it matter so much? What does it tell us about the Universe? Did the discovery announced on 4 July 2012 finish the search? And was finding it really worth all the effort?

The short answer is yes. The Higgs field is proposed as the way in which particles gain mass - a fundamental property of matter. It's the strongest indicator yet that the Standard Model of physics really does reflect the basic building blocks of our Universe. Little wonder the hunt and discovery of this new particle produced such intense media interest.

Here, Jim Baggott explains the science behind the discovery, looking at how the concept of a Higgs field was invented, how the vast experiment was carried out, and its implications on our understanding of all mass in the Universe. 

 Cover Art
(author)... We come from life, and we are the conduit into other life. We come from and return to incomparably amazing plants and animals. Even while we are alive, our wastes are recycled directly into beetles, grass, and trees, which are recycled further into bees and butterflies and on to flycatchers, finches, and hawks, and back into grass and on into deer, cows, goats, and us.
   I do not claim originality in examining the key role of the specialized undertakers that ease all organisms to their resurrection into others’ lives. I do believe, however, that many readers are willing to examine taboos and to bring this topic into the open as something relevant to our own species. Our role as hominids evolving from largely herbivorous animals to hunting and scavenging carnivores is especially relevant to this topic; our imprint has changed the world.
   The truism that life comes from other life and that individual death is a necessity for continuing life hides or detracts from the ways in which these transformations happen. The devil, as they say, is in the details....

No comments:

Post a Comment