In 1940s Germany, Nobel laureate Otto Warburg found cancer cells consume 10 times as much glucose as healthy cells. “Like shipwrecked sailors, they were ravenous,” Sam Apple notes. Warburg’s metabolic studies excite new interest today, as does the story of his survival as a Jew protected by Hitler, Apple reports in Ravenous: Otto Warburg, the Nazis, and the Search for the Cancer-Diet Connection.
Millions of people saw a dress in a 2015 internet photo as blue, millions more as white. “The way people see color, with their eyes and with their mind, was the biggest news story of the day,” Adam Rogers says. We all process the physics of light and chemistry of pigments differently to create billions of individual palettes, he reports in Full Spectrum: How the Science of Color Made Us Modern.
Kids can gain insight into neurons & neural networks by making pipe cleaner models. They can swab doorknobs & grow bacteria and fungi on agar plates. In The Kitchen Pantry Scientist: Biology for Kids, Liz Heinecke introduces young readers to 25 biologists & provides step-by-step photo-illustrated guides to home experiments based on each biologist’s work plus facts on the biology behind the fun.
“When you are growing a family and a career at the same time, you live moment to moment, life fast-forwarding with no-stop action,” Margie Patlak asserts. Illness or death of someone close may upend plans. Immersion in the sights, sounds, and smells of the natural world as seasons change can be restorative, Patlak writes in More than Meets the Eye: Exploring Nature and Loss on the Coast of Maine.
Picasso’s fractured faces defined the cubist movement. His mismatched eyes, elevated ears, and sideways lips force us to see ourselves and our world anew, Claudia Kalb says. In Spark: How Genius Ignites, from Child Prodigies to Late Bloomers, Kalb profiles 13 high achievers, exploring the nature/nurture debate and role of intelligence, creativity, perseverance, and, yes, luck in their success.
In 2018, an orca mother in Puget Sound triggered news stories worldwide, carrying her 6-foot-long dead newborn on her back 17 days, traveling 1000 miles before letting go. Her loss highlights present-day concerns and efforts to clean and restore an environment where humans and other species have long co-existed, David Williams reports in Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound.
A science education can provide a competitive edge for aspiring science writers, Sheeva Azma contends. After earning an MS in neuroscience, Azma began exploring job options outside the lab. In How to Get Started in Freelance Science Writing, she provides tactics to help students and scientists apply their skills to marketing, ghost and grant writing, producing website content, and consulting.
Humans produce about 100 lbs. of poop and 140 gallons of pee each year. Two billion people worldwide lack a minimally adequate toilet. Hundreds of millions don’t use a toilet at all, promoting spread of preventable diseases. In Pipe Dreams: The Urgent Global Quest to Transform the Toilet, Chelsea Wald explores efforts to make healthy toilets—and necessary infrastructure—accessible to all.
In 2017, Jeff Weld, then head of STEM Education for Iowa, was tapped to be a senior policy advisor for STEM education at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. His mission: to develop a nationwide STEM education policy within one year. In Charting a Course for American Education from out on a limb at the executive branch, Weld tells how he and colleagues met that goal.
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