National Network for Equitable Library Service

Beth A. Robertson resurrects the story of a group of men and women who sought to transform the seance into a laboratory of the spirits and a transnational empirical project. Her findings cast new light on how science, metaphysics, and the senses collided to inform gendered norms in the 1920s and ’30s.

Our true origins are not just human, or even terrestrial, but in fact cosmic. Drawing on scientific breakthroughs and the current cross-pollination among geology, biology, astrophysics, and cosmology, Origins explains the soul-stirring leaps in our understanding of the cosmos.

Adam Rogers reveals alcohol as a miracle of science, going deep into the pleasures of making and drinking booze--and the effects of the latter. He also brings to life the motley characters and evolving science behind the latest developments in boozy technology.

Alan Lightman explores the emotional and philosophical questions raised by discoveries in science, focusing on the human condition and the needs of mankind. He suggests that, perhaps, what we see and understand of the world is only a tiny piece of the extraordinary whole.

When the International Astronomical Union voted Pluto out of planethood, Americans rallied behind this extraterrestrial underdog. Pluto is entrenched in our cultural, patriotic view of the cosmos, and Tyson is on a quest to discover why.

This collection of essays on the cosmos from the nation's best-known astrophysicist covers everything from astral life at the frontiers of astrobiology to the movie industry's feeble efforts to get its night skies right.

Surveyor, cartographer, fur trader, adventurer, naturalist and entrepreneur, David Thompson is now recognized as one of the greatest explorers and geographers of all time. By 1812, he had surveyed almost four million square kilometres of the North American wilderness and become the first European to navigate the entire length of the Columbia River.

It is said that the sparkle from Canadian diamonds mimics the awesome and seductive radiance of the northern lights. Yet until 1991, no one thought diamonds could even be found in Canada—no one except Chuck Fipke and Stu Blusson, who uncovered diamond-rich kimberlite in the Barrens at Point Lake, near Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Their spectacular find caused great excitement in international diamond circles and sparked the largest claim-staking rush in Canada since the 1896 Klondike gold rush. Today, Canada is the world’s third-largest producer, by value, of rough stones.

Building transportation routes through the Rockies is dangerous. It always has been. It is also expensive, labour-intensive, and highly political. But railway and highway construction through the western cordillera succeeded thanks to scientific innovation and sheer human grit. In the nineteenth century, steam locomotives, railways, tunnels, trestles, and telegraphy represented the hi-tech advances of the day.

"Merve Wilkinson and Wildwood, his small patch of forest, provide powerful evidence that a forest can be logged while its integrity is maintained in perpetuity. In speaking out against current industrial clear-cut logging practices, Merve has become a genuine Canadian hero. Uncompromising, tough, fearless and with a wonderful sense of humour, he is now an elder who inspires young people, who refer to his home as "Mervana." This is a story that should be read by all who care about the future and seek alternatives to our destructive ways." -David Suzuki.