New Biology Books
Islands of Abandonment by
A beautiful, lyrical exploration of the places where nature is flourishing in our absence Some of the only truly feral cattle in the world wander a long-abandoned island off the northernmost tip of Scotland. A variety of wildlife not seen in many lifetimes has rebounded on the irradiated grounds of Chernobyl. A lush forest supports thousands of species that are extinct or endangered everywhere else on earth in the Korean peninsula's narrow DMZ.Cal Flyn, an investigative journalist, exceptional nature writer, and promising new literary voice visits the eeriest and most desolate places on Earth that due to war, disaster, disease, or economic decay, have been abandoned by humans. What she finds every time is an "island" of teeming new life: nature has rushed in to fill the void faster and more thoroughly than even the most hopeful projections of scientists.Islands of Abandonment is a tour through these new ecosystems, in all their glory, as sites of unexpected environmental significance, where the natural world has reasserted its wild power and promise. And while it doesn't let us off the hook for addressing environmental degradation and climate change, it is a case that hope is far from lost, and it is ultimately a story of redemption: the most polluted spots on Earth can be rehabilitated through ecological processes and, in fact, they already are.
ISBN: 9781984878199Publication Date: 2021-06-01
The Secret Language of Cells by
Your cells are talking about you. Right now, both your inner and outer worlds are abuzz with chatter among living cells of every possible kind--from those in your body and brain to those in the environment around you. From electrical alerts to chemical codes, the greatest secret of modern biology, hiding in plain sight, is that all of life's activity boils down to one thing: conversation. While cells are commonly considered the building block of living things, it is actually the communication between cells that brings us to life, controlling our bodies and brains, determining whether we are healthy or sick, and directly influencing how we think, feel, and behave. In The Secret Language of Cells, doctor and neuroscientist Jon Lieff lets us listen in on these conversations, and reveals their significance for everything from mental health to cancer. He explains the surprising science of how very different cells--bacteria and brain cells, blood cells and viruses--all speak the same language. This overarching principle has been long overlooked because scientific journals use impenetrable jargon that makes it hard to be understood across disciplines, much less by the general public. Lieff presents a fascinating and accessible look into cellular communication science--a groundbreaking and comprehensive exploration of this biological phenomenon. In these pages, discover the intriguing lives of cells as they ask questions, get answers, give feedback, gather information, call for each other, and make complex decisions. During infections, immune T-cells tell brain cells that we should "feel sick" and lie down. Cancer cells warn their community about immune and microbe attacks. Gut cells talk with microbes to determine which are friends and which are enemies, and microbes talk with each other and with much more complicated human cells in ways that determine which medicines work and which will fail. With applications for immunity, chronic pain, weight loss, depression, cancer treatment, and virtually every aspect of health and biology, cellular communication is revolutionizing our understanding not just of disease, but of life itself. The Secret Language of Cells is required reading for anyone interested in following the conversation.
ISBN: 9781948836043Publication Date: 2020-09-22
Transcendence by
In the tradition of Guns, Germs, and Steel and Sapiens, a winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books shows how four tools enabled has us humans to control the destiny of our species "A wondrous, visionary work." --Tim Flannery, scientist and author of the bestselling The Weather Makers What enabled us to go from simple stone tools to smartphones? How did bands of hunter-gatherers evolve into multinational empires? Readers of Sapiens will say a cognitive revolution -- a dramatic evolutionary change that altered our brains, turning primitive humans into modern ones -- caused a cultural explosion. In Transcendence, Gaia Vince argues instead that modern humans are the product of a nuanced coevolution of our genes, environment, and culture that goes back into deep time. She explains how, through four key elements -- fire, language, beauty, and time -- our species diverged from the evolutionary path of all other animals, unleashing a compounding process that launched us into the Space Age and beyond. Provocative and poetic, Transcendence shows how a primate took dominion over nature and turned itself into something marvelous.
ISBN: 9780465094905Publication Date: 2020-01-21
Find Biology Books
Search our books and ebooks, as well as some of our most popular full-text article databases.
Request Materials from Other Libraries
Request books or articles the library does not have access to via Interlibrary Loan (ILL). About 90% of article requests are filled within 24 hours Monday-Friday.
- Request Materials from Other LibrariesLearn how to use our Interlibrary Loan service to place requests, retrieve articles, and renew items.
- Submit an Interlibrary Loan RequestCreate a new request by manual entry.
- Access Your ILL RequestsCheck on the status of outstanding requests and retrieve received articles
Find Biology Articles
- Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Articles from scholarly and professional journals, magazines, and newspapers on a wide range of subjects, many full text.
- MEDLINE (through EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowPartially full text database of authoritative journals in biology, genetics, physiology, medicine and nursing.
- PLOS BiologyPLOS Biology is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of biology.
- ProQuest Biological Science Database This link opens in a new window
Provides access to scholarly journals in the biological sciences fields, including animal behavior, aquatic life and fisheries, chemoreception, biochemistry, ecology, plant science, toxicology, virology, microbiology, immunology genetics, health and safety science, oncogenes, entomology, and endocrinology neuroscience. This database also includes access to MEDLINE. - PubMed Central This link opens in a new window
U.S. National Library of Medicine's Open Access digital archive of life sciences journal literature. - In Context: Science This link opens in a new window
Contextual information on hundreds of today's most significant science topics. Includes reference content along with full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, experiments, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites.
Biology Audios and Videos
- Films on Demand Biology Video Collection
Educational films and documentaries covering animal biology, ecology, human anatomy & physiology, microbiology, and more. - Macaulay Library: Sound and Video CatalogThe Macaulay Library is the world’s premier scientific archive of natural history audio, video, and photographs.
Citation Help
Learn when to cite, find helpful tools and get quick guidance for MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian and APSA styles.
Need Help?
Contact Us
802.485.2176 - Service Desk