Category Archives: Technology & Science

Thinking 101

Flatiron Books
Paperback
288 pages • $18.99
ISBN: 9781250805973

How to Reason Better to Live Better

Woo-kyoung Ahn

“Thinking 101 provides evidence-based advice that has real potential to improve lives.”

—Science

Psychologist Woo-kyoung Ahn devised a course at Yale called “Thinking” to help students examine the biases that cause so many problems in their daily lives. It quickly became one of the university’s most popular courses. Now, for the first time, Ahn presents key insights from her years of teaching and research in a book for everyone. She shows how “thinking problems” stand behind a wide range of challenges, from common, self-inflicted daily aggravations to our most pressing societal issues and inequities. Throughout, Ahn draws on decades of research from other cognitive psychologists, as well as from her own groundbreaking studies. And she presents it all in a compellingly readable style that uses fun examples from pop culture, anecdotes from her own life, and illuminating stories from history and the headlines. Thinking 101 is a book that goes far beyond other books on thinking, showing how we can improve not just our own daily lives through better awareness of our biases but also the lives of everyone around us. It is, quite simply, required reading for everyone who wants to think—and live—better.

Woo-kyoung Ahn is is the John Hay Whitney Professor of Psychology at Yale University. After receiving her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, she was assistant professor at Yale University and associate professor at Vanderbilt University. In 2022, she received Yale’s Lex Hixon Prize for Teaching Excellence in the Social Sciences. Her research on thinking biases has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, and she is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science.

Accountable

Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Hardcover
496 pages • $20.99
ISBN: 9780374314347

The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed

Dashka Slater

“This is a compelling and contemporary cautionary tale that should be required reading for any teen before they create, comment, or even like a media post.”

—Booklist, starred review

When a high school student started a private Instagram account that used racist and sexist memes to make his friends laugh, he thought of it as “edgy” humor. Over time, the edge got sharper. Then a few other kids found out about the account. Pretty soon, everyone knew. Ultimately no one in the small town of Albany, California, was safe from the repercussions of the account’s discovery. Not the girls targeted by the posts. Not the boy who created the account. Not the group of kids who followed it. Not the adults—educators and parents—whose attempts to fix things too often made them worse. In the end, no one was laughing. And everyone was left asking: Where does accountability end for online speech that harms? And what does accountability even mean? Award-winning and New York Times–bestselling author Dashka Slater has written a must-read book for our era that explores the real-world consequences of online choices.

Dashka Slater is an Award-winning journalist, she has written for such publications as The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Salon, and Mother Jones. Her New York Times-bestselling young-adult true crime narrative, The 57 Bus, has received numerous accolades, including the Stonewall Book Award, the California Book Award, and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor. It was a YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist and an LA Times Book Award Finalist, in addition to receiving four starred reviews and being named to more than 20 separate lists of the year’s best books, including ones compiled by The Washington Post, the New York Public Library, and School Library Journal. In 2021, The 57 Bus was named to TIME magazine’s list of the 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time. The author of fifteen books of fiction and nonfiction for children and adults, Dashka teaches in Hamline University’s MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults program. She lives and writes in Oakland, California.

Factfulness

Flatiron Books
Paperback
352 pages • $17.99
ISBN: 9781250123824

Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World—and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

Hans Rosling
with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund

“This magnificent book ends with a plea for a factual world view. Rosling was optimistic that this outlook will spread, because it is a useful navigational tool in a complex world,
and a genuine antidote to negativity and hopelessness.”

—Nature

When asked simple questions about global trends—what percentage of the world’s population live in poverty; why the world’s population is increasing; how many girls finish school—we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers. In Factfulness, Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective—from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse). Our problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know, and even our guesses are informed by unconscious and predictable biases. It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. That doesn’t mean there aren’t real concerns. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most. Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world and empower you to respond to the crises and opportunities of the future.

Hans Rosling was a medical doctor, professor of international health and renowned public educator. He was an adviser to the World Health Organization and UNICEF, and co-founded Médecins sans Frontières in Sweden and the Gapminder Foundation. His TED talks have been viewed more than 35 million times, and he was listed as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. Hans died in 2017.

Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund, Hans’s son and daughter-in-law, are co-founders of the Gapminder Foundation. They have both received international awards for their work.

Factfulness has been adopted for 13 First-Year Experience programs:

Bellarmine University (KY); Elon University (NC); Fresno State University (CA); James Madison University’s Honors College (VA); North Central Texas College; Otterbein University (OH); Pennsylvania State University – New Kensington; Saddleback College (CA); Skidmore College (NY); Stockton University (NJ); the University of California at Riverside; the University of South Carolina; the University of Texas at Tyler

The Viral Underclass

Celadon Books
Paperback
384 pages • $19.99
ISBN: 9781250796646

The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide

Steven W. Thrasher

“The pandemic brought America’s health inequities into stark relief, but The Viral Underclass illustrates that the problem isn’t new, and that it is embedded more deeply than many of us realize . . . Thrasher, a gay Black man, brings figures from the viral underclass to life in this engaging, enraging read.”

—Jennifer Latson, The Boston Globe

Having spent a groundbreaking career studying the racialization, policing, and criminalization of HIV, Dr. Steven W. Thrasher has come to understand a deeper truth at the heart of our society: there are vast inequalities in who is able to survive viruses and the ways in which viruses spread, kill, and take their toll are much more dependent on social structures than they are on biology alone. Told through the heartrending stories of friends, activists, and teachers navigating the novel coronavirus, HIV, and other viruses, Dr. Thrasher brings the reader with him as he delves into the viral underclass and lays bare its inner workings. In the tradition of Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste and Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, The Viral Underclass helps us understand the world more deeply by showing the fraught relationship between privilege and survival.

Steven W. Thrasher, Ph.D., is the inaugural Daniel H. Renberg chair at Northwestern University’s Medill School, the first journalism professorship in the world created to focus on LGBTQ research. He is also a faculty member of Northwestern University’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing. His writing has been widely published by The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, The Journal of American History, BuzzFeed News, The Village Voice, and Scientific American. A recipient of grants from the Ford and Sloan foundations, Dr. Thrasher was named one of the hundred most influential and impactful people of 2019 by Out magazine for his research on HIV/AIDS.

Starry Messenger

Henry Holt & Co.
Paperback
288 pages • $18.99
ISBN: 9781250861511

Paperback available in Fall 2022

Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization

Neil deGrasse Tyson

“[Tyson| meditates on what a life studying the majesty of the stars and the planets can teach us about how to deal with all the messy social and political conflicts bedeviling us here on Earth . . . He is lucidly down-to-earth and charmingly enthusiastic in describing the rigors of the scientific method, explaining the elegance of classic equations such as Newton’s second law of motion and Einstein’s theory of relativity, and cataloguing all the neat technology we fast-tracked by sending people into space.”

—Mark Whitaker, The Washington Post

In a time when our political and cultural views feel more polarized than ever, Neil deGrasse Tyson provides a much-needed antidote to so much of what divides us, while making a passionate case for the twin chariots of enlightenment—a cosmic perspective and the rationality of science. After thinking deeply about how science sees the world and about Earth as a planet, the human brain has the capacity to reset and recalibrate life’s priorities, shaping the actions we might take. No outlook on culture, society, or civilization remains untouched. With crystalline prose, Starry Messenger walks us through the scientific palette that sees and paints the world differently. From insights on resolving global conflict to reminders of how precious it is to be alive, Tyson reveals, with warmth and eloquence, an array of brilliant and beautiful truths that apply to us all, informed and enlightened by knowledge of our place in the universe.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist and the author of the #1 bestselling Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, among other books. He is the Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History as well as the host and cofounder of the Emmy-nominated podcast StarTalk and its spinoff StarTalk Sports Edition. He lives in New York City.

The Worlds I See

Flatiron Books: A Moment of Lift Book
Hardcover
336 pages • $29.99
ISBN: 9781250897930

Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI

Dr. Fei-Fei Li

“An inspiring personal journey from immigrant childhood to trailblazing scientist, The Worlds I See advocates for overcoming societal barriers and makes a compelling case for a human-centric, ethical approach to AI.”

―Jennifer Doudna, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and coauthor of A Crack in Creation

Known to the world as the creator of ImageNet, a key catalyst of modern artificial intelligence, Dr. Fei-Fei Li has spent more than two decades at the forefront of the field. But her career in science was improbable from the start. As immigrants, her family faced a difficult transition from China’s middle class to American poverty. And their lives were made all the harder as they struggled to care for her ailing mother, who was working tirelessly to help them all gain a foothold in their new land. Fei-Fei’s adolescent knack for physics endured, however, and positioned her to make a crucial contribution to the breakthrough we now call AI, placing her at the center of a global transformation. Over the last decades, her work has brought her face-to-face with the extraordinary possibilities—and the extraordinary dangers—of the technology she loves. The Worlds I See is a story of science in the first person, documenting one of the century’s defining moments from the inside. It provides a riveting story of a scientist at work and a thrillingly clear explanation of what artificial intelligence actually is—and how it came to be. This book is a testament not only to the passion required for even the most technical scholarship but also to the curiosity forever at its heart.

Dr. Fei-Fei Li is a computer science professor at Stanford University and founding director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI as well as a founder and chairperson of the board of the nonprofit AI4ALL. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Spare Parts

Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Paperback
240 pages • $15.00
ISBN: 9780374534981

Teaching Guide
•
Los Inventores
Spanish Language Edition
Paperback
224 pages • $14.00
ISBN: 9780374284503

Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream

Joshua Davis

Finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize

“Spare Parts illuminates the human side of two polarizing political issues: immigration and education.”

—The Washington Post

In 2004, four undocumented Latino teenagers arrived at the Marine Advanced Technology Education Robotics Competition at the University of California, Santa Barbara. No one had ever suggested to Oscar, Cristian, Luis, or Lorenzo that they might amount to much—but two inspiring science teachers had convinced these kids from the desert who had never even seen the ocean that they should try to build an underwater robot. They were going up against some of the best collegiate engineers in the country, including a team from MIT. This was never a level competition, and yet, against all odds . . . they won! But this is just the beginning for these four, whose story will go on to include first-generation college graduations, deportation, bean-picking in Mexico, and service in Afghanistan. Joshua Davis’s Spare Parts is a story about overcoming insurmountable odds and four young men who proved they were among the most patriotic and talented Americans in this country—even as the country tried to kick them out.

“Spare Parts is an unforgettable tale of hope and human ingenuity. Joshua Davis offers a moving testament to how teamwork, perseverance, and a few good teachers can lift up and empower even the humblest among us.”—Héctor Tobar, author of Deep Down Dark

“It’s the most American of stories: how determination and ingenuity can bring triumph over long odds. There are too few stories like these written about Latino students. Poignant and beautifully told, Spare Parts makes you feel their frustration at the obstacles and indignities faced by Cristian, Lorenzo, Luis, and Oscar—and to cheer as they rise to overcome each one of them.”—Sonia Nazario, author of Enrique’s Journey

“This is important reading . . . Young adults will benefit from from reading and discussing this realistic, eye-opening chronicle . . . Davis pulls no punches as he describes the grim sociopolitical atmosphere that allows the oppression of talented people for no morally acceptable reason. The four young inventors and their struggles helped spur the DREAMers movement.”—Donna Chavez, Booklist (starred review)

“A gratifying human interest story that calls attention to the plight and promise of America’s undocumented youth.”—Library Journal

“Davis takes what could have been another feel-good story of triumphant underdogs and raises the stakes by examining the difficulties of these young immigrants in the context of the societal systems that they briefly and temporarily overcame.”—Publishers Weekly

Joshua Davis is a contributing editor at Wired, co-founder of Epic magazine, and the author of The Underdog, a memoir about his experiences as an arm wrestler, backward runner, and matador. He has also written for The New Yorker, and his writing is anthologized in The Best American Science and Nature Writing and The Best Technology Writing. He lives in San Francisco, California.

Spare Parts has been adopted for over fifty-four First-Year Experience programs:

Alamo Heights High School (TX); Broward College (FL); The Browning School (NY); California State University – Los Angeles; California State University – Maritime; Cedar Valley College (TX); Chemeketa Community College (OR); Concordia University (TX); Crafton Hills College (CA); Des Moines Area Community College (IA); Eastfield College (TX); Greenville Technical College (SC); Hesston College (KS); Hood College (MD); Johns Hopkins University (MD); Kansas State University; Lafayette Public Library and School District (LA); Lewis University (IL); Metropolitan Community College – Maple Woods (MO); Miami University (OH); Monroe Community College (NY); Naugatuck Valley Community College (CT); Nash Community College (NC); North Iowa Area Community College; North Lake College (TX); Norwalk Community College (CT); Oakland University, The Honors College (MI); Pasadena City College (CA); Providence College (RI); Queensborough Community College (NY); Rensselear Polytechnic University (NY); Rutgers University, Honors College (NJ); Sacramento State University (CA); Salem State University (MA); Santa Ana College; San Jose State University (CA); Stevens Institute of Technology (NJ); Stony Brook University (NY); Texas A&M University; Texas A&M University Commerce; Texas Lutheran University; Towson University’s Honors College; University of Alaska – Southeast; University of Houston – Clear Lake (TX); University of North Carolina – Charlotte; University of South Alabama; University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science; University of Michigan College of Engineering; Washington State University, Vancouver; Winthrop University (SC)

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How Do We Know Ourselves?

Picador
Paperback
272 pages • $19.00
ISBN: 9781250872203

Curiosities and Marvels of the Human Mind

David G. Myers

“Myers’ writing is often humorous, but his sense of humor is wise and gentle rather than sarcastic and biting. His wisdom, humility, and ability to help us laugh at our own limitations are on full display in his latest work. The book contains 40 brief and thought-provoking essays about research findings Myers believes contain insights general readers should know about.”

—Douglas T. Kenrick, Ph.D, Psychology Today

Over the past three decades, millions of students have learned about psychology from textbooks by David G. Myers. To create these books and to satisfy his own endless curiosity about the human mind, Myers monitors the leading journals to discover the most extraordinary developments in psychological science. How Do We Know Ourselves? is a compendium of the most wondrous verities that Myers has found, revealing thought-provoking insights into our everyday lives. His astute observations and sharp-witted wisdom enable readers to think smarter and live happier. Myers’s subjects range from why we so often fear the wrong things to how simply going for a walk with someone can increase rapport and empathy. Myers also explores the powers and perils of our intuition, explaining why anything can seem obvious once it happens. These forty essays offer fresh insight into our sometimes bewildering but ever-fascinating lives. Myers is engaging and intellectually provocative, and he brings a wealth of knowledge from more than fifty years of teaching and writing about psychology to this lively and informative collection. He inspires us to ponder timeless questions, including what might be the most intriguing one of all: How do we know ourselves?

David G. Myers is a social psychologist and a professor of psychology at Hope College. His articles have appeared in dozens of scientific periodicals and magazines, from Science to Scientific American. He is also the author of seventeen books, including psychology’s most widely read textbook, which has sold more than eight million copies worldwide. Myers resides in Holland, Michigan.

The Sixth Extinction (10th Anniversary Edition)

Henry Holt Paperbacks
Paperback
352 pages • $19.99
ISBN: 9781250887313

An Unnatural History

Elizabeth Kolbert

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize

“In her timely, meticulously researched and well-written book, Kolbert combines scientific analysis and personal narratives to explain it to us. The result is a clear and comprehensive history of earth’s previous mass extinctions—and the species we’ve lost—and an engaging description of the extraordinarily complex nature of life. Most important, Kolbert delivers a compelling call to action.”

—Al Gore, The New York Times Book Review

Over the last half-billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. In prose that is at once frank, entertaining, and deeply informed, New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert tells us why and how human beings have altered life on the planet in a way no species has before. Interweaving research in half a dozen disciplines, descriptions of the fascinating species that have already been lost, and the history of extinction as a concept, Kolbert provides a moving and comprehensive account of the disappearances occurring before our very eyes. She shows that the sixth extinction is likely to be mankind’s most lasting legacy, compelling us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.

Elizabeth Kolbert is a staff writer at The New Yorker. She is the author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe. She lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts, with her husband and children.

The Sixth Extinction has been adopted for 21 First-Year Experience programs at:

American University (DC); Colgate University (NY); Lafayette College (PA); Linfield College (OR); Occidental College (CA); Feather River College (CA); Millsaps College (MS); Montclair State University’s Presidential Scholars Program (NJ); Montana State University; NYU-Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development; Piedmont Virginia Community College; Rowan University (NJ); Saint Francis High School (CA); Stanford University (CA); Stevens Institute of Technology (NJ); Sweet Briar College (PA); University of Michigan – Flint; University of Vermont; Villanova University (PA); Williams College (MA)

Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

Picador
Paperback
176 pages • $13.00
ISBN: 9781250239082

Jaron Lanier

With a New Afterword

“Lanier shows the tactical value of appealing to the conscience of the individual. In the face of his earnest argument, I felt a piercing shame about my own presence on Facebook. I heeded his plea and deleted my account.”

—The New York Times Book Review

You might have trouble imagining life without your social media accounts, but virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier insists that we’re better off without them. Part manifesto, part toolbox for liberation, Lanier’s important new book offers ten powerful and personal reasons for everyone to leave these dangerous online platforms behind before it’s too late. Social media’s poisonous grip brings out the worst in us, makes politics terrifying, tricks us with illusions of popularity and success, twists our relationship with the truth, disconnects us from other people even as we are more “connected” than ever, and robs us of our free will with relentless targeted ads. How can we remain autonomous in a world where we are under continual surveillance? How could the “benefits” of social media possibly outweigh the catastrophic losses to our personal dignity, happiness, and freedom? Yet Lanier remains a technology optimist. While demonstrating the evil that rules social media business models today, he also envisions a humanistic setting for social networking that can direct us toward a richer and fuller way of living and connecting with our world.

Jaron Lanier is a scientist, musician, and writer best known for his work in virtual reality and his advocacy of humanism and sustainable economics in a digital context. His 1980s start-up VPL Research created the first commercial VR products and introduced avatars, multiperson virtual world experiences, and prototypes of major VR applications such as surgical simulation. His books Who Owns the Future? and You Are Not a Gadget were international bestsellers, and Dawn of the New Everything was named a 2017 best book of the year by The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and Vox.

Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now has been adopted for First-Year Experience programs at:

Drake University (IA); North Central Texas College (two consecutive years); University of St. Joseph (CT)