Notice Board

September 19 to 25 is Science Literacy Week, a nationwide celebration of everything science. Science Literacy Week conveys the excitement and influences that science has on our everyday lives. We have highlighted a few books we have found interesting. Some, like Gene Machine and The Code Breaker, discuss famous breakthroughs in history and the people that helped discover and shape them. Other titles not as well known but about people who have contributed to some of the most significant scientific discoveries include The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Women in Science, as well as titles like The Rise of Yeast and Immune that describe how things like yeast and the immune system contributed to our health and world. 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
By Rebecca Skloot

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor, Black tobacco farmer whose cells — taken without her knowledge in 1951— became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping and more. Henrietta's cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown and her family can't afford health insurance. This phenomenal New York Times bestseller tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew.

Gene Machine: The Race to Decipher the Secrets of the Ribosome
By Venki Ramakrishnan

Everyone has heard of DNA. But by itself, DNA is just an inert blueprint for life. It is the ribosome — an enormous molecular machine made up of a million atoms — that makes DNA come to life, turning our genetic code into proteins and therefore into us. Gene Machine is an insider account of the race for the structure of the ribosome, a fundamental discovery that both advances our knowledge of all life and could lead to the development of better antibiotics against life-threatening diseases. But this is also a human story of Ramakrishnan's unlikely journey, from his first fumbling experiments in a biology lab to being the dark horse in a fierce competition with some of the world's best scientists. In the end, Gene Machine is a frank insider's account of the pursuit of high-stakes science. 

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
By Walter Isaacson 

The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a “compelling” (The Washington Post) account of how Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues launched a revolution that will allow us to cure diseases, fend off viruses and have healthier babies.

Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System that Keeps you Alive
By Philipp Dettmer

A gorgeously illustrated deep dive into the immune system that will forever change how you think about your body, from the creator of the popular science YouTube channel Kurzgesagt — In a Nutshell.

The Rise of Yeast: How the sugar fungus shaped civilization
By Nicholas P. Money

The great Victorian biologist Thomas Huxley once wrote — "I know of no familiar substance forming part of our every-day knowledge and experience, the examination of which, with a little care, tends to open up such very considerable issues as does yeast." Huxley was right. Beneath the very foundations of human civilization lies yeast — also known as the sugar fungus. Yeast is responsible for fermenting our alcohol and providing us with bread — the very staples of life. Moreover, it has proven instrumental in helping cell biologists and geneticists understand how living things work, manufacturing life-saving drugs, and producing biofuels that could help save the planet from global warming.

Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World
By Rachel Ignotofsky

Women in Science celebrates the achievements of the intrepid women who have paved the way for the next generation of female engineers, biologists, mathematicians, doctors, astronauts, physicists and more!