Life's Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive

Carl Zimmer
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FINALIST FOR THE PEN/E.O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD***A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2021***A SCIENCE NEWS FAVORITE BOOK OF 2021***A SMITHSONIAN TOP TEN SCIENCE BOOK OF 2021

“Stories that both dazzle and edify… This book is not just about life, but about discovery itself.” —Siddhartha Mukherjee, New York Times Book Review

We all assume we know what life is, but the more scientists learn about the living world—from protocells to brains, from zygotes to pandemic viruses—the harder they find it is to locate life’s edge.

Carl Zimmer investigates one of the biggest questions of all: What is life? The answer seems obvious until you try to seriously answer it. Is the apple sitting on your kitchen counter alive, or is only the apple tree it came from deserving of the word? If we can’t answer that question here on earth, how will we know when and if we discover alien life on other worlds? The question hangs over some of society’s most charged conflicts—whether a fertilized egg is a living person, for example, and when we ought to declare a person legally dead.

Life's Edge is an utterly fascinating investigation that no one but one of the most celebrated science writers of our generation could craft. Zimmer journeys through the strange experiments that have attempted to re-create life. Literally hundreds of definitions of what that should look like now exist, but none has yet emerged as an obvious winner. Lists of what living things have in common do not add up to a theory of life. It's never clear why some items on the list are essential and others not. Coronaviruses have altered the course of history, and yet many scientists maintain they are not alive. Chemists are creating droplets that can swarm, sense their environment, and multiply. Have they made life in the lab?

Whether he is handling pythons in Alabama or searching for hibernating bats in the Adirondacks, Zimmer revels in astounding examples of life at its most bizarre. He tries his own hand at evolving life in a test tube with unnerving results. Charting the obsession with Dr. Frankenstein's monster and how the world briefly believed radium was the source of all life, Zimmer leads us all the way into the labs and minds of researchers engineering life from scratch.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

大人學選擇：成熟大人的獨立思考術

張國洋, 姚詩豪
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學選擇、學思考，
將人生後續的機會最大化
大人學經典作品暢銷增訂版

人生不難，只要會選！
累積一個個正確的選擇，就會提高人生成功的機率
「大人學」、「大人的small talk」生涯策略教練Joe與Bryan獨立思考的精華之作

本書兩位作者整合多年來專案管理顧問經驗，運用理性的邏輯思維，打破「對與錯」、「好與壞」等二元思維，不盲目跟隨社會主流價值觀，以獨立思考為核心，告訴讀者「做選擇的思維方法」──面對各種選擇難題時，以獨立的思考方式與脈絡，看懂整體的大局、選擇適合的策略、累積長期籌碼。

本書特色

打造屬於自己的大人思考脈絡與選擇術
1.重建思考的邏輯：以實際故事帶領讀者一一看見問題背後的問題，突破思考框架，打造出一套有系統邏輯的選擇路徑。
2.控制人生的風險：把悲觀狀況思考一輪，做足規劃，讓自己在看走眼時不會死透。
3.跳脫二元對立的框架：解決問題，並非一味地仰賴道德與正義，看懂大局的脈絡，才能避免盲目跟風，或一味地憑感覺做出非理性選擇。
4.實現未來的幸福：不被當下的情境困住，理性思考每個選項的長遠影響，問自己：「這個選擇在時間積累後，能讓未來生活更有餘裕嗎？」

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)

The Memory Thief: And the Secrets Behind What We Remember — A Medical Mystery

Lauren Aguirre
online access from EBSCOhost Ebooks
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FINALIST FOR THE 2022 PEN/E.O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD

"Aguirre writes clearly, concisely, and often cinematically. The book succeeds in providing an accessible yet substantive look at memory science and offering glimpses of the often-challenging process of biomedical investigation.”—Science

Sometimes, it’s not the discovery that’s hard – it’s convincing others that you’re right. The Memory Thief chronicles an investigation into a rare and devastating amnesia first identified in a cluster of fentanyl overdose survivors. When a handful of doctors embark on a quest to find out exactly what happened to these marginalized victims, they encounter indifference and skepticism from the medical establishment.

But after many blind alleys and occasional strokes of good luck, they go on to prove that opioids can damage the hippocampus, a tiny brain region responsible for forming new memories. This discovery may have implications for millions of people around the world.

Through the prism of this fascinating story, Aguirre recounts the obstacles researchers so often confront when new ideas bump up against conventional wisdom. She explains the elegant tricks scientists use to tease out the fundamental mechanisms of memory. And finally, she reveals why researchers now believe that a treatment for Alzheimer’s is within reach.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

圖說香港歷史建築, 1946-1997

黃棣才
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本書是繼《圖說香港歷史建築1841-1896》、《圖說香港歷史建築1897-1919》和《圖說香港歷史建築1920-1945》後，同系列的第四冊，展現了1946至1997年間香港的建築物，載有建築線圖360幅，是前三冊的總和。

從1946年到1997年之間的五十多年，香港社會急速發展，戰後的復甦、八十年代的輝煌時期，建築面貌亦有轉變。建築物由各具特色風格而轉為標準化模樣，反映社會發展由個人影響而轉為公司化的集體影響，尤以學校建築可見一斑。

《圖說香港歷史建築》是這座城市的一部發展紀錄，透過新舊照片、文獻和線圖，一筆一筆把城市每一個角落記認清楚，理解前因後果，也是向過去為香港發展作出貢獻的人表達的一番敬意。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)

The Candy House: A Novel

Jennifer Egan
online access from ProQuest Ebook Central Perpetual Titles
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One of Barack Obama’s Summer Favorites!
An NPR Top Pick for 2022!

Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by Time, Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, Good Housekeeping, Oprah Daily, Glamour, USA TODAY, Parade, Bustle, San Francisco Chronicle, The Seattle Times, The Boston Globe, Tampa Bay Times, BuzzFeed, and Vulture

“A compelling read that showcases Egan’s masterful storytelling.” —Time
“Dazzling.” —Vogue
“Radiant, exhilarating.” —Slate
“Mesmerizing…A thought-provoking examination of how and why we change.” —People

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 forty, with four kids, restless, and 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. Within a decade, Bix’s new technology, “Own Your Unconscious”—which allows you access to every memory you’ve ever had, and to share your memories in exchange for access to the memories of others—has seduced multitudes.

In the world of Egan’s spectacular imagination, there are “counters” who track and exploit desires and there are “eluders,” those who understand the price of taking a bite of the Candy House. Egan introduces these characters in an astonishing array of narrative styles—from omniscient to first person plural to a duet of voices, an epistolary chapter, and a chapter of tweets. Intellectually dazzling, The Candy House is also a moving testament to the tenacity and transcendence of human longing for connection, family, privacy, and love.

“A beautiful exploration of loss, memory, and history” (San Francisco Chronicle), “this is minimalist maximalism. It’s as if Egan compressed a big 19th-century novel onto a flash drive” (The New York Times).

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

逆向工程, 你我都能變優秀的祕訣:全球頂尖創新者、運動員、藝術家共同實證 (Decoding Greatness)

朗恩‧傅利曼(Ron Friedman)
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比爾‧蓋茲、賈伯斯、麥爾坎‧葛拉威爾、費德勒等人成功的祕密
我們都以為，邁向成功只有兩條路：靠天資，要不就是靠努力練習。
其實，你還有第三條成功之道──逆向工程！

反過來學，就會了！
大量收集成功範例，解構找到成功配方，加上自己的詮釋，
就能打造屬於你自身版本的成就！

★Amazon、《今日美國報》全美年度暢銷書！
★亞馬遜編輯精選2021年6月最佳書籍！未出版即售出十多國版權！

成功人士的逆向工程完全解密──
一種改變局勢的方法，
即將反轉你學習新技能、發想創意點子，以及思考成功的方式！

從頂尖創新者、企業家、運動員，到藝術家、作家與廚師，許多不同領域的人都在悄悄實踐「逆向工程」。這些業界頂尖人士如果不是先解構了別人的成果，絕對不可能達成他們現在擁有的成就。

想成功做到逆向工程，就必須看穿潛藏在顯眼表面下的關鍵結構，例如品嘗一道菜餚就能推敲出烹調方法、聆聽一首美妙歌曲就能分辨和弦排序、看一部驚悚片就能掌握敘事脈絡。

本書分享並逆向解構賈伯斯、阿嘉莎‧克莉絲蒂、梵谷、安迪‧沃荷、歐巴馬和費德勒等多位傑出人士的精采故事，以及關於模式辨識、技能習得和創意天賦的開創性研究，揭發逆向工程的驚人威力，教你如何掌握並善用這項重要技能。

如果你想從努力工作提升到實際產出重要成果，請務必閱讀這本書。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)