Advance Copy: Backstories on books by NASW members

Dennis Meredith—Earthbound: The Obstacles to Human Space Exploration and the Promise of Artificial Intelligence

The human cost of prolonged space travel urgently needs attention, Dennis Meredith asserts in Earthbound: The Obstacles to Human Space Exploration & the Promise of Artificial Intelligence. Astronauts experience bone loss & problems with vision, digestion, heart and immune system functions, cognition, & more. Using AI robotic space probes instead of humans, Meredith says, offers an ethical option.

Carl Zimmer—Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe

“The Covid-19 pandemic was not a fluke,” Carl Zimmer writes in Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe. Public health authorities initially said close personal contact spread the disease via droplets and fomites on surfaces. It took months for them to recognize Covid-19’s airborne transmission. “The Covid-19 pandemic,” Zimmer notes, “made the ocean of gases surrounding us visible.”

Leigh Ann Henion—Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark

Shut down your screens. Go outside at night. As your eyes adjust, revel in the darkness. Tag along as Leigh Ann Henion attends a bat outing and a moth festival. Look for wondrous nightlife that may include synchronous fireflies, hooting owls, glowing fungi, and other creatures and plants that Henion describes in Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark.

Mary-Frances O’Connor—The Grieving Body: How the Stress of Loss Can Be an Opportunity for Healing

“We really can die of a broken heart,” Mary-Frances O'Connor reports in The Grieving Body: How the Stress of Loss Can Be an Opportunity for Healing. The brain/body connection is real, she says, though poorly understood. When death, chronic illness, or other major losses disrupt one’s equilibrium, she suggests, improved self-awareness, habit-change, and reconnection with others may help restore it.

Marie Zhuikov —The Path of Totality: Stories & A Novella

A lonely teenaged girl leading a birding tour in a northern Minnesota peat-moss bog finds a mummified Viking boy. A college biology student loses his way on a biosphere tour, finds he is locked in, and faces a creepy night. In The Path of Totality: Stories & A Novella, Marie Zhuikov draws on her experience as a science writer to craft stories that slip from real-world settings to science fiction.

Jessica Fries-Gaither—Wild Wonderings: Scientists and Their Questions

“Questions aren’t just for scientists,” Jessica Fries-Gaither tells readers aged 3-5 in Wild Wonderings: Scientists and Their Questions She describes in short verses the studies Mary Leakey, Stephen Hawking, Adriana Ocampo, and six other scientists conducted. She also gives children advice on how to turn observations into questions, decide how to pursue answers, and conduct simple research.

Ellen Prager and Dave Jones—Megalodons, Mermaids, and Climate Change: Answers to Your Ocean and Atmosphere Questions

Do huge sharks, bigger than a school bus, still exist? Thanks (No thanks!) to fake news, some people think so. Ditto for mermaids, NASW Member Ellen Prager & Dave Jones note in Megalodons, Mermaids, and Climate Change: Answers to Your Ocean and Atmosphere Questions. The authors use cartoons, a conversational tone, & 16 photos to answer often-asked & zany questions on marine life and weather.

Carlos Hoyt (NASW Member) with Minna Han—Diversity Without Divisiveness: A Guide to DEI Practice for K-12 Educators

Principles of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity (DEI) are as American as apple pie, NASW Member Carlos Hoyt and Minna Ham assert in Diversity Without Divisiveness: A Guide to DEI Practice for K-12 Educators. While some label DEI as “reverse discrimination,” Hoyt and Ham show how DEI can boost student engagement, prepare students to live in a global society, and encourage critical thinking.

Olivia Campbell—Sisters in Science: How Four Women Physicists Escaped Nazi Germany and Made Scientific History

When the Nazis took control of Germany in the 1930s, they stripped Jewish citizens and women of their academic positions. In Sisters in Science: How Four Women Physicists Escaped Nazi Germany and Made Scientific History, Olivia Campbell describes the women’s harrowing journeys to freedom and later success in Sweden and the US, flourishing, she notes, “in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.”

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