Yuma Public Library

Learn how living cells withstand freezing.

Nonpareil science writer David Quammen explains how recent discoveries in molecular biology can change our understanding of evolution and life’s history, with powerful implications for human health and even our own human nature.

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer and viruses; helped lead to in vitro...

"Throughout history, thinkers from mathematicians to theologians have pondered the mysterious relationship between numbers and the nature of reality. In this fascinating book, Mario Livio tells the tale of a number at the heart of that mystery: phi, or 1.6180339887...This curious mathematical relationship, widely known as "The Golden Ratio," was discovered by Euclid more than two thousand years ago because of its crucial role in the construction of...

Photographs and text explain how scientist Stephen Kramer has been using microscopes to study the world.

A creationist's critique of the evolutionary ideas found in the three most popular biology textbooks used in public schools: [1.] Glencoe science biology : the dynamics of life / Alton Biggs [et al.]. Florida ed. (New York : Glencoe/McGraw Hill, c2006) -- [2.] Biology : exploring life / Neil A. Campbell, Brad Williamson, Robin J. Heyden. Florida teacher's ed. (Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2006) -- [3.] Biology / George B. Johnson,...

In this book a master scientist tells the story of how life on earth evolved. Edward O. Wilson eloquently describes how the species of the world became diverse and why that diversity is threatened today as never before. A great spasm of extinction - the disappearance of whole species - is occurring now, caused this time entirely by humans. Unlike the deterioration of the physical environment, which can be halted, the loss of biodiversity is a far...

"For thousands of centuries, humans lived near the ocean, wandered right up to its edge, and turned back to the relative safety of the known land. Even when we invented ships and the very bravest among us sailed out, our fears and imaginations took over. What creatures could be living in the unknowable darkness, the bottomless depths? Giant worms, microorganisms that eat metal, faceless fish, giant sea spiders? Marine life is even more otherworldly...