Science & Technology

Agriculture | Health & Medicine | Home Economics | Sciences | Technology

Agriculture

Camp, creator of the famous canine icon Benji, knows the world of dogs, but here he tells the story of his journey into the realm of horse ownership. In his quest for knowledge on the subject, Camp began to question the logic behind traditional horse-management practices such as stabling, blanketing, and shoeing as well as how these practices affect horse behaviors, health, and well-being. He eventually became both a follower and a promoter of natural horsemanship methods. Though he primarily focuses on the Monty Roberts "Join Up" method for training, he also includes references and an appendix to other well-known natural-method horse trainers. Hundreds of other books about horses, training, and equine management have been published, but Camp's easy-to-read prose, humor, and enlightening tales bring readers to question what truly is best for the horse. Suitable for all public and large academic libraries.—Kyrille Goldbeck, Virginia Tech Lib., Blacksburg

"My goal is to convince owners to treat their dogs like dogs, not people," writes pet behaviorist Duno (Bad Dog!: A Quick-Fix A–Z Problem Solver for Your Dog's Bad Behavior) in this, his latest book. "Treat a dog like a coddled toddler and you get a troubled pariah; connect with him on his own level and you discover what being a dog really means." Duno explains seven "secrets" to becoming a natural dog owner, which require learning to view the world as the dog perceives it and communicating on the dog's own terms. The first secret involves analyzing one's own lifestyle and selecting a dog to fit it. Other principles include keeping the dog safe and healthy, understanding pack mentality and drives, teaching basic obedience and tricks, enriching the environment, and giving the dog a purpose based on his breed-specific tendencies. This comprehensive guide explains complex concepts in simple terms so that even the first-time dog owner can develop "effective canine empathy" and raise a happy, well-mannered dog. Similar in scope and content to Tamar Geller's The Loved Dog: The Playful, Nonaggressive Way To Teach Your Dog Good Behavior; for public libraries.—Florence Scarinci, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, NY

Is there any flower that rivals the romance and beauty of old roses? They survive as heirlooms predating the last century's hybrids. Their evocative names like Adelaide D'Orleans and Sombreuil are as enchanting as the roses themselves. Author Molly Glentzer (lifestyle editor, Houston Chronicle) profiles 50 old roses and the figures they are named for. Five thematic chapters present "Artful Personalities," including such painters, writers, and musicians as Pierre-Joseph Redouté and Excellenz von Schubert; "Heroes and Heroines" features Jeanne d'Arc and Archduke Charles. Royals and aristocrats like Duchesse de Brabant and Mme. Isaac Pereire are the focus of "Nobles and Notables." The literary figures in "Storied Characters" include Ophelia and Don Juan. And, finally, a chapter titled "Well Bred Ladies and Gents" includes roses named after influential plantsmen and plantswomen like Graham Thomas and Gertrude Jekyll. The profiles give lyrical accounts of the colorful figures who inspired the rose names as well as depictions of the flowers. The photographs, by the author's husband, Don Glentzer, are exquisite and fashioned after the rose illustrations of Redouté. There is a resource list of nurseries where you can buy the roses. This lovely book is recommended for public libraries.—Phillip Oliver, Univ. of North Alabama, Florence

The most ecologically balanced way to increase crop yield and decrease the environmental impact of food production is to use both organic farming and genetic engineering (GE). So argue Ronald, a plant geneticist at the University of California, Davis, and her husband, Adamchak, an organic farmer who serves as the market coordinator at the university's organic farm. Using an eclectic mix of writing styles including instruction, personal story, reflection, and recipes, the authors make their case, explaining genetic modification from traditional plant breeding to laboratory gene splicing in clear prose that general readers can understand. Their personal stories illustrate the workings of an organic farm and the ethical morass consumers face when buying groceries. The authors create nostalgia and empathy by reflecting on private moments in their lives, but the recipes (culinary and laboratory) interspersed throughout the book are an odd and somewhat distracting addition. While not a comprehensive review of GE, this book offers a compelling portrait of how GE and organic farming can coexist for the future betterment. A good addition to any public library.—Joshua Lambert, Missouri State Univ. Lib., Springfield
back to the top

In 2006, it was estimated that approximately 11,000 Americans sustained traumatic spinal-cord injuries (SCI) each year; that number is much higher now with injured soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Physiatrist Alpert (associate medical director, Fairlawn Rehabilitation Hosp.) has compiled a timely and basic guide for SCI patients and their families, covering a multitude of important issues from basic spine anatomy, how injuries occur, and the impact of the injury's location to the first days after an injury, the emotional turmoil of the patient and family, and adjusting to work or school. Relationship issues, including dating, sex, fertility and pregnancy, and parenting, are painted in reassuring terms. Children with spinal cord injuries garner a separate chapter, as do the medical complications and challenges of SCI. This excellent overview with an emphasis on the physical effects of SCI will be invaluable to a growing, currently underserved audience. Highly recommended.—Janet M. Schneider, James A. Haley Veterans' Hosp., Tampa, FL

The medical profession is constantly learning more about the mind-body connection, i.e., how our emotions and attitudes can impact our physical health. Freston, author of the best-selling The One and habitué of Oprah and The Early Show, extends that concept, arguing that making small attitude adjustments and changing thinking patterns can have a beneficial effect on one's health, looks, and life. She outlines eight "Pillars of Wellness"—Meditation, Visualization, Fun Activities, Conscious Eating, Exercise, Self-Work, Spiritual Practice, and Service—and explains how they contribute to a healthy existence. She emphasizes, for example, the spiritual component of eating foods that have been prepared humanely (the more this reviewer hears about factory-farmed livestock, the less appetizing steak and chicken breast seem) and points out the studies that show that such foods are, in fact, more healthful. Essentially, this is a well-argued and clearly explained demonstration of Socrates's contention that the unexamined life is not worth living. Recommended wherever Freston's other books were popular.—Susan B. Hagloch, formerly with Tuscarawas Cty. P.L., New Philadelphia, OH

Leader, a British psychoanalyst, and Corfield, a researcher in the department of Biological Cybernetics at the Max Planck Institute, Leipzig, Germany, offer a Freudian interpretation of the powerful influence of the mind on physical health. Though Americans may attribute the occasional headache or upset stomach to stress or anxiety, the authors outline a more expansive and nuanced portrayal of the mind-body connection. While discussing conditions commonly considered wholly or partially psychosomatic, they also illustrate through numerous case studies how memories and emotions may contribute in complex and elusive ways to illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, and susceptibility to infections. Conversely, they describe how a physician's sympathetic listening skills or a course of psychotherapy may be a significant asset to healing. In a health-care system that rewards physicians for assembly-line patient care and prescribes medications for every depression or anxiety, the authors' message is of critical importance. Although popular authors such as Deepak Chopra and Andrew Weil have well explored the mind-body connection, Leader and Corfield present a scholarly alternative for serious readers. Recommended for larger public and academic libraries.—Kathy Arsenault, Univ. of South Florida at St. Petersburg Lib.

As the costs of U.S. health care continue to surge and quality remains both highly variable and unevenly distributed, Zelicoff and Bellomo (coauthors, Microbe) attempt to pinpoint the problems and offer some solutions. They identify four key issues: consumers know too little about the most common health problems; doctors often treat more by habit than by applying evidence; evidence is often inadequate for good decision making; and the financing of health care and the lack of electronic records lead to excessive costs and less-than-optimum care. They cite such examples as the inappropriate use of some screening tests, which lead to the overtreatment of prostate cancer and cardiovascular disease. Better understanding of statistics and evidence by physicians and a national electronic database of treatment records would provide a stronger evidence base and, in turn, result in a reduction of costs and inappropriate treatment, their argument goes. Clearly written and well documented, this book covers the same ground as Shannon Brownlee's Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer but with more emphasis on the need for better use of evidence. Recommended for all public libraries.—Dick Maxwell, Porter Adventist Hosp. Lib., Denver
back to the top

Bhumichitr (Big Book of Thai Curries) and Bharadwaj (Indian in 6) each create a cookbook on their native food. Both use recipes that are quick, offering basic directions that are easy to follow for most cooks. Recipes are highlighted with colorful pictures, and cultural tidbits are sprinkled throughout the text. Both authors offer over 100 recipes that give one a taste of each cuisine (including appetizers, main dishes, desserts, and drinks), with such tempting dishes as Bharadwaj's Lamb in Cashew Sauce and Bhumichitr's Green Beef Curry. In the introduction of each book, the author talks about ingredients and techniques that are specific to each culture. Bharadwaj arranges her recipes by ingredient (e.g., eggs, lentils, lamb), while Bhumichitr arranges his recipes by dish (e.g., curries, noodles, rice). Bharadwaj's recipes require a few more trips to specialty food stores, but overall the ingredients in each are fairly common in most of the United States. Both titles are highly recommended for most public libraries.—Ginny Wolter, Toledo-Lucas Cty. P.L., OH

Cuvelier, president of the 200-year-old French chocolate company Debauve & Gallais, presents an attractive overview of the world of chocolate, with a strong focus on his company. Volume 1, The History of Chocolate, contains a brief history, an overview of the cultivation and manufacturing process, and a history of the Debauve & Gallais company. Volume 2, The Taste of Chocolate, describes varieties of chocolates, includes rules for tasting, and offers recipes for chocolate candies—adapted for the home cook to re-create the company's signature (and expensive) chocolates—as well as desserts. The decadent dessert recipes contain brief instructions and could have been translated better for the North American audience, as some readers may find a few of the measurements baffling (e.g., 30 spoon cookies, one glass of coffee). This elegant boxed set is attractive and beautifully illustrated yet lightweight and by no means exhaustive. Because of the packaging of this title, libraries may wish to catalog each volume separately. For exhaustive collections only.—Pauline Baughman, Multnomah Cty. Lib., Portland, OR

Johnson (Three Black Skirts: All You Need To Survive) has written a delightful book for the fashion-oriented, health-conscious, "deliciously disruptive" mother, addressing pregnancy (which she describes as a woman's "first opportunity to feel the power of occupying the body from the inside out"), sexuality, breast-feeding, and maintaining one's sanity with a newborn in the picture. At turns hilarious, thoughtful, and insightful—e.g., when writing of how many new mothers feel "pale, tired, and shaped like an eggplant"—Johnson is in touch with today's mothers, greatly appreciates the art of the feminine, and clearly adores the relationship between mother and baby. Her book's only weaknesses are the food recommendations, which assume that everyone has access (or the motivation) to blend cacao nibs and spirulina for a morning smoothie, and the chapter on choosing names, which is far too personal an area in which to be making suggestions, especially if you're recommending Heloise for girls and Adonis for boys. Otherwise, this fabulously written and informative book has much to recommend it, and the author's artful illustrations add to the design. Enthusiastically recommended for larger collections.—Julianne J. Smith, Ypsilanti Dist. Lib., MI
back to the top

Whaling is a fascinating and disturbing part of world history. Picking up more or less where Eric Jay Dolin's Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America left off, Darby, an environmental reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald, looks primarily at modern commercial whaling, including the changing focus of the International Whaling Commission from managing an industry to permanently putting an end to whaling and promoting the recovery of species hunted to near extinction. Originally published in Australia in 2007, this book provides an excellent portrait of the whales themselves, historical whaling procedures, the current high-tech methods of the "scientific" factory-ship whalers, and the efforts of groups such as Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd Society to interfere with the hunt. Readers of Peter Heller's The Whale Warriors: The Battle at the Bottom of the World To Save the Planet's Largest Mammals would be well advised to read Harpoon to get a broader perspective on the issues. With possibly a few too many statistics and reports of meetings for the high school crowd, this is highly recommended for academic and public libraries, especially those that bought Leviathan.—Margaret Rioux, MBLWHOI Lib., Woods Hole, MA

Lamenting that the "most beautiful fish in the world is literally being eaten out of existence," prominent marine writer and artist Ellis (The Empty Ocean; Encyclopedia of the Sea) eloquently describes the threats to the majestic, fast-swimming, highly coveted bluefin tuna, target of the insatiable sushi market. In contrast to Tuna: Physiology, Ecology, and Evolution, edited by Barbara A. Block and E. Donald Stevens and written for the scientific community, Ellis is writing for a broad general audience concerned with species conservation. The author's drawings and photographs of the bluefin, yellowfin, albacore, skipjack, and blue-eye tunas enhance his text, which examines tuna physiology, behavior, and migration patterns and traces the history of tuna fishing. Ellis also draws an appalling picture of tuna ranches in the world's oceans, tuna slaughtering methods, disregard for internationally set catch quotas, and the mercury content of the various tuna species, all of which should put a damper on consumption. He interviewed fishers in many ports all over the world and has compiled a 26-page bibliography. This timely, balanced, and passionate work is recommended for all public and academic libraries.—Judith B. Barnett, Pell Marine Lib., Univ. of Rhode Island, Kingston

This unique work, edited by two Harvard Medical School physicians, explores the symbiotic relationship among the planet's species and how animals, insects, and plants on land and water have provided enormous health benefits through the natural products they produce. Our quest for natural products to treat and cure diseases is dependent upon this biodiversity of flora and fauna for the long term. Alterations that result in pollution, habitat destruction, climate change, exploitation, radiation, war, and conflict threaten the survival of many of the organisms that have been so vital to human health. The editors illustrate this relationship by focusing on amphibians, bears, primates, gymnosperms, cone snails, sharks, and horseshoe crabs whose contributions to human well-being are critical and the tragedy that would ensue if these organisms disappeared. They offer strategies to change the way we eat, farm, travel, live, work, and use energy to sustain the ecological complexity that allows all species to thrive. A powerhouse of information on a topic that concerns us all. Highly recommended.—Irwin Weintraub, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., NY
back to the top

The FIRST Robotics competition (www.usfirst.org) partners school students with engineering and design mentors to explore science, technology, and themselves through robotics. The challenge for each team is to develop a robot capable of outperforming other entries in a game that changes annually. Here, Wilczynski (mechanical engineering, U.S. Coast Guard Acad.), a FIRST Robotics Foundation board member, and Slezycki, an engineering student and FIRST competitor, document through photographs, drawings, and text the 2007 FIRST competition: Rack 'n' Roll. Thirty profiles of award-winning robots and their developers are presented. Robots were judged based on their performance in the many rounds of the game and the entries' creativity, design excellence, quality, and control system automation. Teams are given design specifications and a basic kit of parts and components, and from there they select strategies to play the game, develop functional requirements, conceptualize a robot, source and fabricate parts and assemblies, test materials, and develop control code. The 45-day design cycle is a learning process and is delightfully revealed, without repetition, through the profiles. Visually stunning, a mix of narrative and design details, this volume is the perfect coffee-table book for gear heads, tinkerers, and electromechanical developers of all ages. For public library and college engineering and technology collections.—James A. Buczynski, Seneca Coll. of Applied Arts & Technology, Toronto
back to the top