National Network for Equitable Library Service

Why is red meat red? How do they decaffeinate coffee? Do you wish you understood the science of food but don't want to plow through dry, technical books? In What Einstein Told His Cook, University of Pittsburgh chemistry professor emeritus and award-winning Washington Post food columnist Robert L. Wolke provides reliable and witty explanations for your most burning food questions, while debunking misconceptions and helping you interpret confusing advertising and labeling.

This is a hauntingly moving memoir of the relationship between a cadaver named Eve and the first-year medical student who cuts her open.Christine Montross was a nervous first-year medical student, standing outside the anatomy lab on her first day of class, preparing herself for what was to come. Entering a room with stainless-steel tables topped by corpses in body bags is shocking no matter how long you've prepared yourself, but a strange thing happened when Montross met her cadaver.

Documents the efforts of a French Jesuit priest to confront the struggle between science and religion upon his 1929 discovery of the Peking Man pre-human skull that represented a missing link between erect hunting apes and the human race's Cro-Magnon ancestors.

In The Distracted Mind leading psychologist Larry Rosen, and pioneering neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley, explain why our minds have become addicted to email, text messages, virtual worlds and social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Through compelling true stories and scientific research, they show how digital distractions affect every aspect of life - from work, safety and communication to our relationships and health. The way our brains work mean we're all too easily hijacked by 'weapons of mass distraction', but there are countermeasures we can take.

In a scientific detective story, the author, along with a reporter, investigates more than 30 child prodigies, all of whom had extraordinary memories and a keen eye for detail, and discovers a genetic link between prodigy and autism, confirming her long-held hunch and an important piece of the puzzle.

For many with a background in humanities, the thought of exploring the sciences can seem to be daunting at best. This can be especially true with regard to physics which often incorporates complex mathematical formulas as well. But that doesn't have to be the case. In fact, many of the most significant principles of physics can be broken down and understood in very easy-to-understand terms. That is exactly the manner in which Professor Richard Kouzes handles the subject in this engaging series of lectures.

The "Ask a Physicist" columnist for io9.com explains how space, time, and everything in between are shaped by hidden symmetries that have driven recent discoveries about the universe.

Professor Susan A. Johnstone of the George Washington University applied an archaeological perspective to the bigger myths and mysteries in world history, using the scientific method to suggest the most likely scenarios for interpreting our shared past in a way that is true to the evidence and highlights the accomplishments of our ancient human ancestors.

From the man behind the popular Wired series "Absurd Creature of the Week," a fun, fascinating collection of unique animals and the unbelievable evolutionary traits they use to survive the most extreme scenarios From Wired columnist Matt Simon, The Wasp that Brainwashed the Caterpillar is an absurdist, comical romp through evolution's weirdest solutions to - appropriately enough - the hazards that evolution itself produces.

Bertrand Russell wrote that mathematics can exalt "as surely as poetry." This is especially true of one equation: ei(pi) + 1 = 0, the brainchild of Leonhard Euler, the Mozart of mathematics. More than two centuries after Euler's death, it is still regarded as a conceptual diamond of unsurpassed beauty. Called Euler's identity or God's equation, it includes just five numbers but represents an astonishing revelation of hidden connections. It ties together everything from basic arithmetic to compound interest, the circumference of a circle, trigonometry, calculus, and even infinity.