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Summary of Mary Roach's Grunt examines technological and medical research in the military. Each chapter focuses on a different topic-for example, diarrhea among soldiers-and then presents historical background, interviews with scientists and affected military personnel, and possible solutions to the problem.
Military research in both news accounts and films is usually presented as a matter of technology and combat equipment, such as faster airplanes,...
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Summary of Stephen Hawking's Brief Answers to the Big Questions presents the thoughts of theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking on 10 major scientific and philosophical debates, including whether a deity exists, whether intelligent life exists in space, and whether humans should seek out a new home outside of Earth. Hawking, who spent his life studying how black holes could help scientists better understand the universe's beginnings,...
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Summary of Frans de Waal's Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? provides an overview of the history of animal cognition research and the most recent discoveries about animal intelligence. As researchers continue to improve methods for testing animals' cognitive abilities, they are discovering that animals process, respond to, and act on stimuli in ways previously assumed to be exclusively human…
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Summary of Scott Kelly's Endurance is the memoir of a retired American astronaut who spent nearly a year on the International Space Station (ISS) starting in 2015. Alternating between scenes from the ISS and the story of his life, Scott describes the emotional and physical demands as well as the many rewards of being an astronaut…
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Summary of Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire examines the intricate evolutionary relationship between plant cultivation and human desire. Author Michael Pollan explores this relationship by recounting the history of four plants that have been cultivated to meet four distinct human longings…
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Buy now to get the main key ideas from Nicholas Kardaras's Glow Kids
A pandemic is overtaking kids today - but it's not Covid. It's the glowing screens they carry everywhere. In Glow Kids (2016), addiction expert Nicholas Kardaras explores how technology, especially interactive media such as video games, affects human development. Glowing screens can change the structure and composition of the brain by offering high amounts of satisfaction for long...
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Summary of Richard Rhodes's The Making of the Atomic Bomb narrates the years preceding the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. It focuses on how a group of international physicists uncovered nature's potential for destruction through advances in nuclear physics and quantum theory. They harnessed the power of physics to develop the first atomic bombs...
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Summary of Irene Pepperberg's Alex & Me is an account of Irene Pepperberg's relationship with her African grey parrot, Alex, whom she studied in order to demonstrate that birds have sophisticated cognitive abilities. Pepperberg traces her childhood and the many hurdles she scaled in the scientific community...
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Buy now to get the key takeaways from Eric Berger's Liftoff.
Sample Key Takeaways:
1) Despite being one of PayPal's original founders, a disagreement with its board members led Elon Musk to leave the company. As a result, he began his search for what his next startup company would be after PayPal.
2) The fact that NASA had no plans for going to Mars compelled Musk to fill this gap in the aerospace world. He believed that for humanity to have a long-term...
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Buy now to get the key takeaways from Bill Gates's How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.
Sample Key Takeaways:
1) When it comes to global warming and climate change, there are two key numbers to keep in mind: fifty-one billion, and zero.
2) Fifty-one billion tons is the amount of greenhouse gases that are being pumped into our atmosphere every single year, on average. To avoid a devastating climate disaster, we need to get to zero greenhouse gases released....
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Buy now to get the main key ideas from Carlo Rovelli's The Order of Time
Time is one of life's biggest mysteries. In The Order of Time (2017), physicist Carlo Rovelli dives into both simple and complex aspects of time. It is a concept that has been long studied by philosophers, artists, and scientists alike, and our understanding of it has gone through many phases. He explains the basic laws of physics, Einstein's relativity, quantum theory, and...
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Buy now to get the main key ideas from Sean Cannell & Benji Travis's Youtube Secrets
In YouTube Secrets (2018), Benji Travis and Sean Cannell explain how to build a YouTube channel and become an influencer. They base their advice on their personal experience on the platform as well as the stories of other creators including Gary Vaynerchuk, Casey Neistat, Melanie Ham, and many others. Travis and Cannell guide aspiring YouTube creators through the...
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Buy now to get the main key ideas from David Christian's Origin Story
Humans now know much more of the history of the universe. Our brains allow us to understand what is going on today and what was happening billions of years ago, as well as build the necessary technology in order to find out more. In Origin Story (2018), David Christian goes over the entire 13.8 billion-year history of the universe. He starts with the big bang and ends with a tiny...
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Summary of Hope Jahren's Lab Girl, Hope Jahren describes the life she's lived and the knowledge she's learned as a scientist trying to find her way in the world. Focusing mostly on a period of professional development that stretches from 1997 to 2008, the bulk of the narrative follows Jahren from her first appointment as a professor in Atlanta to her current job at the University of Hawaii…
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Summary of Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind explores the benefits that psychedelics can provide, both for those suffering from mental illness and for those trying to cultivate new perspectives and habits. Before these drugs were prohibited, there was an extensive history of research into their effects in North America and Europe, and studies that utilize lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and magic mushrooms continue today.
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Buy now to get the main key ideas from David Attenborough's A Life on Our Planet
Humans have long ruled the natural world, bending it to our will and desires. But all actions have consequences, and we've only just begun to see the destruction our actions have caused on our planet.
In A Life on Our Planet, David Attenborough discusses how we as a species arrived at this crucial juncture in our planet's history, and what we must do in order to return...
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Summary of Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Gene describes the history of genetic research, the impact of genetic inheritance on his family, and the potential for future applications of gene science. Mukherjee's father and uncles struggled with disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, both of which are linked to genetic mutations.
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Buy now to get the main key ideas from Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang's An Ugly Truth
In An Ugly Truth (2021), Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang document Facebook's ongoing battles and fight for domination. They reveal how the biggest social media network worldwide played a role in the Myanmar genocide and other horrific events, facilitated foreign interference in the 2016 US election, allowed access to private data without users' consent, and shared...
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Buy now to get the main key ideas from Jason Schreier's Press Reset
For many of us, video games offer entertainment and leisure away from the worries of life and its obligations. But what happens behind the scenes of the video game industry? It's not all fun and games. Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry (2021) offers a deep dive into the world of the video game industry and the people of who work in it.
Jason Schreier, a veteran...
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