Washoe County Library System

"We spend an average of just 47 seconds on any screen before shifting our attention. It takes 25 minutes to bring our attention back to a task after an interruption. And we interrupt ourselves more than we're interrupted by others. In Attention Span, psychologist Gloria Mark reveals these and more surprising results from her decades of research into how technology affects our attention. She shows how much of what we think we know is wrong, including...

"The Candy House opens with the staggeringly brilliant Bix Bouton, whose company, Mandala, is so successful that he is "one of those tech demi-gods with whom we're all on a first name basis." Bix is 40, with four kids, restless, desperate for a new idea, when he stumbles into a conversation group, mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or "externalizing" memory. It's 2010. Within a decade, Bix's new technology, "Own...

"An essential analysis of the modern science and technology that makes our twenty-first century lives possible--a scientist's investigation into what science really does, and does not, accomplish. We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don't know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our...

Explores the origins and effects of those inventions that shape our modern world. "This humorous and upbeat science series show that history is filled with seemingly unrelated discoveries that are actually connected in the most surprising ways. Host James Burke continues to delight viewers as he explores the effects and origins of inventions and events that shape the modern world"--Container cover insert.

Photographs and text explore such inventions as the wheel, gears, levers, clocks, telephones, and rocket engines.

"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...

Reveals the origins of today's modern marvels, from air travel to genetic engineering, and shows how they have changed our everyday life.

Summary: The Invent To Learn Guide to Fun features an assortment of insanely clever classroom-tested "maker" projects for learners of all ages. Josh Burker kicks classroom learning-by-making up a notch with step-by-step instructions, full-color photos, open-ended challenges, and sample code. Learn to paint with light, make your own "Operation Game," sew interactive stuffed creatures, build "Rube Goldberg" machines, design artbots, produce mathematically...

Examining the medical technologies taking shape at the nexus of computing, microelectronics, engineering, nanotechnology, cellular and gene therapies and robotics, an in-depth look at how scientific breakthroughs and technology can help us overcome our failings, while still allowing us to hold onto our humanity.

Examines marketing strategies for high-tech products, with advice for techology companies on how to increase their market share more rapidly when new technologies are introduced to consumers.