Washoe County Library System

"A unique and elegant blend of science, memoir, travel writing, history, and medicine, How to Change Your Mind is a triumph of participatory journalism. By turns dazzling and edifying, it is the gripping account of a journey to an exciting and unexpectednew frontier in our understanding of the mind, the self, and our place in the world. The true subject of Pollan's "mental travelogue" is not just psychedelic drugs but also the eternal puzzle of human...

"There are few industrialists in history who could match Elon Musk's relentless drive and ingenious vision. A modern alloy of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs, Musk is the man behind PayPal, Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and SolarCity, each of which has sent shock waves throughout American business and industry. More than any other executive today, Musk has dedicated his energies and his own vast fortune to inventing a future that...

Explores the life of scientific maverick Luca Turin, a man whose remarkable powers of smell and obsession with perfume led to the discovery of how the nose works and how scents are detected. For as long as anyone can remember, a man named Luca Turin has had an uncanny relationship with smells. He has been compared to the hero of Patrick SUskind's novel Perfume, but his story is in fact stranger, because it is true. It concerns how he made use of...

"Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) was perhaps the most famous naturalist in the world by the end of his life-- explorer extraordinaire, co-discoverer with Darwin of the principle of natural selection, collector of thousands of species new to science, andbest-selling author. Wallace had fallen into obscurity in the 20th century, largely eclipsed by Darwin, but the 2013 centennial of his death led to renewed interest and Wallace is likely to garner...

"AWESOME ACCIDENTS is a tribute to human trial and error. Microwave oven, Super Glue, X-rays, fireworks, and potato chips -- all of these clever creations were the result of an awesome accident. Discover the fantastic stories of the creative geniuses who transformed their mistakes, miscalculations, and mix-ups into these and many other outstanding inventions that improved our world -- and saved lives."--

"Revered biographer Ray Monk solves the enigma of Robert Oppenheimer's life and personality and brilliantly illuminates his contribution to the revolution in twentieth-century physics. In Robert Oppenheimer, Ray Monk delves into the rich and complex intellectual life of America's most fascinating and elusive scientist, the father of the atomic bomb. As a young professor at Berkeley, the wealthy, cultured Oppenheimer finally came into his own...

Traces the inspiring life and career of the late founder of Apple, covering topics ranging from his struggles as an adopted child and a college dropout to his Buddhist faith and friendship with Steve Wozniak, in a portrait framed around his inspirational Stanford University commencement speech.

"Originally published in 1978, The Starship and the Canoe is the remarkable story of a father and son: Freeman Dyson is a world-renowned astrophysicist who dreams of exploring the heavens and has designed a spaceship to take him there; his son George, abrilliant high school dropout, lives in a treehouse and is designing a giant kayak to explore the icy coastal wilderness of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Author Kenneth Brower describes with stunning...