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Unsavory truth : how food companies skew the science of what we eat / by Nestle, Marion,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Is chocolate heart-healthy? Does yogurt prevent type 2 diabetes? Do pomegranates help cheat death? News accounts bombard us with such amazing claims, report them as science, and influence what we eat. Yet, as Marion Nestle explains, these studies are more about marketing than science; they are often paid for by companies that sell those foods. Whether it's a Coca-Cola-backed study hailing light exercise as a calorie neutralizer, or blueberry-sponsored investigators proclaiming that this fruit prevents erectile dysfunction, every corner of the food industry knows how to turn conflicted research into big profit. As Nestle argues, it's time to put public health first. Written with unmatched rigor and insight, Unsavory Truth reveals how the food industry manipulates nutrition science--and suggests what we can do about it"--
Subjects: Food industry and trade; Food; Nutrition policy; Food;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Land of milk and honey / by Zhang, C Pam,author.;
"About a Chinese American chef who, lured to a decadent, enigmatic colony of the superrich in a near future in which food is disappearing, discovers the meaning of pleasure and the ethics of who gets to enjoy it, altering her life and, indirectly, the world"--
Subjects: Dystopian fiction.; Novels.; Chinese Americans; Cooks; Dystopias; Elite (Social sciences); Food supply; Social classes;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Mercies in disguise : a story of hope, a family's genetic destiny, and the science that rescued them / by Kolata, Gina Bari,1948-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The phone rings. The doctor from California is on the line. "Are you ready Amanda?" The two people Amanda Baxley loves the most had begged her not to be tested-at least, not now. But she had to find out. If your family carried a mutated gene that foretold a brutal illness and you were offered the chance to find out if you'd inherited it, would you do it? Would you walk toward the problem, bravely accepting whatever answer came your way? Or would you avoid the potential bad news as long as possible? In Mercies in Disguise, acclaimed New York Times science reporter and bestselling author Gina Kolata tells the story of the Baxleys, an almost archetypal family in a small town in South Carolina. A proud and determined clan, many of them doctors, they are struck one by one with an inscrutable illness. They finally discover the cause of the disease after a remarkable sequence of events that many saw as providential. Meanwhile, science, progressing for a half a century along a parallel track, had handed the Baxleys a resolution-not a cure, but a blood test that would reveal who had the gene for the disease and who did not. And science would offer another dilemma-fertility specialists had created a way to spare the children through an expensive process. A work of narrative nonfiction in the tradition of the The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Mercies in Disguise is the story of a family that took matters into its own hands when the medical world abandoned them. It's a story of a family that had to deal with unspeakable tragedy and yet did not allow it to tear them apart. And it is the story of a young woman-Amanda Baxley-who faced the future head on, determined to find a way to disrupt her family's destiny."--
Subjects: Medical genetics.; Genetic disorders.; Genetic screening;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Life 3.0 : being human in the age of artificial intelligence / by Tegmark, Max,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."What jobs should be automated? How should our legal systems handle autonomous systems? How likely is the emergence of suprahuman intelligence? A.I. is the future of science, technology, and business--and there is no person better qualified or situated to explore that future than Max Tegmark. What has A.I. brought us? Where will it lead us? The story of A.I. is the story of intelligence--of life processes as they evolve from bacteria (1.0) to humans (2.0), where life processes define their own software, to technology (3.0), where life processes design both their hardware and software. We know that A.I. is transforming work, laws, and weapons, as well as the dark side of computing (hacking and viral sabotage), raising questions that we all need to address: What jobs should be automated? How should our legal systems handle autonomous systems? How likely is the emergence of suprahuman intelligence? Is it possible to control suprahuman intelligence? How do we ensure that the uses of A.I. remain beneficial? These are the issues at the heart of this book and its unique perspective, which seeks a ground apart from techno-skepticism and digital utopia"--
Subjects: Artificial intelligence; Artificial intelligence; Automation; Artificial intelligence; Automation; Technological forecasting.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The four horsemen : the conversation that sparked an atheist revolution / by Hitchens, Christopher,author.; Dawkins, Richard,1941-author.; Harris, Sam,1967-author.; Dennett, D. C.(Daniel Clement),author.; Fry, Stephen,1957-writer of foreword.;
"At the dawn of the new atheist movement, the thinkers who became known as "the four horsemen," the heralds of religion's unravelling--Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett--sat down over cocktails for a filmed discussion. The video of the enthralling, path breaking evening that followed was released on YouTube and soon went viral. This is intellectual inquiry at its best: sincere and probing, funny and unpredictable, reminding us just how varied and colorful the threads of modern atheism are. Now, this landmark event is being published for the first time. The living participants, Dawkins, Harris, and Dennett, have all contributed new material to mark the evolution of their own thinking and highlight particularly resonant aspects of this epic exchange. Each of these men contends with the most fundamental questions of human existence as they challenge each other to articulate their own stance on god and religion, cultural criticism, spirituality without religion, debate with people of faith, and living an ethical life"--
Subjects: Hitchens, Christopher.; Dawkins, Richard, 1941-; Harris, Sam, 1967-; Dennett, D. C. (Daniel Clement); Atheism.;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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The sacred balance : rediscovering our place in nature / by Suzuki, David,1936-author.; Hanington, Ian,contributor.; Kimmerer, Robin Wall,writer of foreword.; Mason, Adrienne,contributor.; McConnell, Amanda,contributor.; McKibben, Bill,writer of afterword.; David Suzuki Institute,issuing body.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."This special 25th anniversary edition of a beloved bestseller invites readers to see ourselves as part of nature, not separate. The world is changing at a relentless pace. How can we slow down and act from a place of respect for all living things? The Sacred Balance shows us how. In this extensively updated new edition, David Suzuki reflects on the increasingly radical changes in science and nature-from the climate crisis to peak oil and the rise in clean energy-and examines what they mean for humankind. He also reflects on what we have learned by listening to Indigenous leaders, whose knowledge of the natural world is profound, and whose peoples are on the frontlines of protecting land and water around the world. Drawing on his own experiences and those of others who have put their beliefs into action, The Sacred Balance combines science, philosophy, spirituality, and Indigenous knowledge to offer concrete suggestions for creating an ecologically sustainable future by rediscovering and addressing humanity's basic needs. Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute."--
Subjects: Environmental ethics.; Human ecology.; Social ecology.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Owning the sun : a people's history of monopoly medicine from aspirin to COVID-19 vaccines / by Zaitchik, Alexander,1974-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Owning the Sun tells the story of one of the most contentious fights in human history: the legal right to control the production of lifesaving medicines. Medical science began as a discipline geared toward the betterment of all human life, but the merging of research with intellectual property and the rise of the pharmaceutical industry warped and eventually undermined its ethical foundations. Since the Second World War, federally funded research has facilitated most major medical breakthroughs, yet these drugs are often wholly controlled by price-gouging corporations with growing international ambitions. Why does the U.S. government fund the development of medical science in the name of the public, only to relinquish exclusive rights to drug companies, and how does such a system impoverish us, weaken our responses to global crises, and, as in the case of AIDS and COVID-19, put the world at risk? Outlining how generations of public health and science advocates have attempted to hold the line against Big Pharma and their allies in government, Alexander Zaitchik's first-in-kind history documents the rise of medical monopoly in the United States and its subsequent globalization. From the controversial arrival of patent-wielding German drug firms in the late nineteenth century, to present-day coordination between industry and philanthropic organizations-including the influential Gates Foundation-that stymie international efforts to vaccinate the world against COVID-19, Owning the Sun tells one of the most important and least understood histories of our time"--
Subjects: Medical care, Cost of; Medicine;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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A matter of taste : a farmers' market devotee's semi-reluctant argument for inviting scientific innovation to the dinner table / by Tucker, Rebecca,1986-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."How did farmers' markets, nose-to-tail, locavorism, organic eating, CSAs, whole foods, and Whole Foods become synonymous with 'good food'? And are these practices really producing food that is morally, environmentally, or economically sustainable? Rebecca Tucker's compelling, reported argument shows that we must work to undo the moral coding that we use to interpret how we come by what we put on our plates. She investigates not only the danger of the accepted rhetoric, but the innovative work happening on farms and university campuses to create a future where nutritious food is climate-change resilient, hardy enough to grow season after season, and, most importantly, available to all ? not just those willing or able to fork over the small fortune required for a perfect heirloom tomato. Tucker argues that arriving at that future will require a broad cognitive shift away from the idea that farmer's markets, community gardens, and organic food production is the only sustainable way forward; more than that, it will require the commitment of research firms, governments, corporations, and postsecondary institutions to develop and implement agri-science innovations that do more than improve the bottom line. A Matter of Taste asks us to rethink what good food really is."--
Subjects: Food supply.; Food industry and trade; Food industry and trade; Sustainable agriculture; Sustainable agriculture; Agricultural innovations.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Survival of the richest : escape fantasies of the tech billionaires / by Rushkoff, Douglas,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The tech elite have a plan to survive the apocalypse: they want to leave us all behind. Five mysterious billionaires summoned theorist Douglas Rushkoff to a desert resort for a private talk. The topic? How to survive the "Event": the societal catastrophe they know is coming. Rushkoff came to understand that these men were under the influence of The Mindset, a Silicon Valley-style certainty that they and their cohort can break the laws of physics, economics, and morality to escape a disaster of their own making-as long as they have enough money and the right technology. In Survival of the Richest, Rushkoff traces the origins of The Mindset in science and technology through its current expression in missions to Mars, island bunkers, AI futurism, and the metaverse. In a dozen urgent, electrifying chapters, he confronts tech utopianism, the datafication of all human interaction, and the exploitation of that data by corporations. Through fascinating characters-master programmers who want to remake the world from scratch as if redesigning a video game and bankers who return from Burning Man convinced that incentivized capitalism is the solution to environmental disasters-Rushkoff explains why those with the most power to change our current trajectory have no interest in doing so. And he shows how recent forms of anti-mainstream rebellion-QAnon, for example, or meme stocks-reinforce the same destructive order. This mind-blowing work of social analysis shows us how to transcend the landscape The Mindset created-a world alive with algorithms and intelligences actively rewarding our most selfish tendencies-and rediscover community, mutual aid, and human interdependency. In a thundering conclusion, Survival of the Richest argues that the only way to survive the coming catastrophe is to ensure it doesn't happen in the first place"--
Subjects: Billionaires; Survivalism; Technology and civilization;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Empire of AI : dreams and nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI / by Hao, Karen,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From a brilliant longtime AI Insider with intimate access to the world of Sam Altman's OpenAI, an eye-opening account of arguably the most fateful tech arms race in history, reshaping the planet in real time, from the cockpit of the company that is driving the frenzy"--Dust jacket.
Subjects: Biographies.; Case studies.; Personal narratives.; Altman, Sam, 1985-; OpenAI (Firm); Artificial intelligence; Artificial intelligence; Artificial intelligence.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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