Encounters with snakes serve as a metaphor for challenges faced by people struggling with untreated mental illness, homelessness, and substance abuse while also seeking love and support in Ginger Pinholster’s novel Snakes of St. Augustine. Pinholster also explores the intersection of mental illness and community policing that sometimes has tragic consequences.
Louisiana law empowers state schools to teach the biblical account of creation in science classes as an alternative to evolution. In Explaining Life Through Evolution, evolutionary biologist/science writer Prosanta Chakrabarty exposes the legislation’s flaws. He tells general readers how evolution works & why understanding it matters. He even includes graphics for a proposed Darwin movie.
The success of mRNA vaccines, diagnostic tests, and therapies for Covid-19 starting in 2020 became “synthetic biology’s moment,” Ted Anton notes in Programmable Planet: The Synthetic Biology Revolution. Changing life by changing DNA, he asserts, holds the promise of yielding more effective medications as well as sustainable foods, fuels, clothing, building materials, furniture, and more.
How effective are yoga and meditation in reducing stress? What benefits can they offer people with multiple sclerosis, stroke, pain, and other medical conditions? In The Neuroscience of Yoga and Meditation, Brittany Fair explains findings and limitations of scientific research on these topics. She also illustrates different poses and provides text for self-guided meditative practices.
If one medication for an illness doesn’t help, maybe adding another will. That philosophy has prompted simultaneous use of multiple prescribed medications for one or more disorders by millions of Americans. In Crash: A Memoir of Overmedication and Recovery, Ann Bracken explores the adverse impact of polypharmacy on her migraines and depression and describes her self-directed path to recovery.
Bioluminescent fish like “stars gone mad.” A “marine monster,” 20 ft long, with no eyes or fins. In the 1930s, William Beebe documented never-seen-before ocean life from his bathysphere, a submersible steel ball with oxygen tanks and 8” windows that allowed him to explore ½ mile below the surface. In The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths, Brad Fox chronicles Beebe’s life and times.
A magazine article on a little-known sleep disorder Quinn Eastman wrote for Emory U. in 2012 spurred requests from readers seeking information and treatment. In The Woman Who Couldn’t Wake Up: Hypersomnia and the Science of Sleepiness, Eastman reports advances in understanding that disorder, idiopathic hypersomnia, and describes difficulties people with orphan diseases face in getting proper care.
After decades of clinical research, and both legal and illegal use, MDMA (short for methylenedioxymethamphetamine) also known as Molly, formerly as Ecstasy, is nearing FDA approval for the treatment of PTSD in veterans. In I Feel Love: MDMA and the Quest for Connection in a Fractured World, Rachel Nuwer details MDMA’s complex history, potential medical uses, and battle for legalization.
“Infectious fungi and fungus-like pathogens are the most devastating disease agents known on the planet,” Emily Monosson asserts. While most of the six million different species of fungi are harmless, some kill their host plants and animals, including humans. In Blight: Fungi and the Coming Pandemic, Monosson offers examples of fungal spread & details scientists’ efforts to stop fungal invasions.
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