Earth democracy: justice, sustainability and peace

Author: Vandana Shiva

Boldly confronting the neoconservative Project for the New American Century, world-renowned physicist/activist Vandana Shiva responds with Earth Democracy, or, as she prophetically names it, "The People's Project for a New Planetary Millennium." A leading voice in the struggle for global justice and sustainability, here Shiva describes what earth democracy could look like, outlining the bedrock principles for building living economies, living cultures, and living democracies.
Starting from the initial enclosure of the commons-the privatization of 6 million acres of public land in 18th-century Britain—Shiva goes on to reveal how the "commons" continue to shrink as more and more natural resources are patented and fenced. Accompanying this displacement from formerly accessible territory, she argues, is a growing attitude of disposability that erodes our natural resources, ecological sustainability, and cultural diversity. Worse, human beings are by no means safe from this assignment of disposability. Through the forces of neoliberal globalization, economic and social exclusion work in deadly synergy to perpetrate violence on vulnerable groups, extinguishing the lives of millions.
Yet these brutal extinctions are not the only trend shaping human history. Forthright and energetic, Vandana Shiva updates readers on the movements, issues, and struggles she helped bring to international attention—the genetic engineering of food, the theft of culture, and the privatization of natural resources—and deftly analyzes the successes and new challenges the global resistance now faces. From struggles on the streets of Seattle and Cancún and in homes and farms across the world has grown a set of principles based on inclusion, nonviolence, reclaiming the commons, and freely sharing the earth's resources. These ideals, which Shiva calls Earth Democracy, will serve as unifying points in our current movements, an urgent call to peace, and the basis for a just and sustainable future.

THE DEPARTMENT OF MAD SCIENTISTS-How DARPA Is Remaking Our World, From the Internet to Artificial Limbs

Author: Michael Belfiore
The first-ever inside look at DARPA—the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency—the maverick and controversial group whose futuristic work has had amazing civilian and military applications, from the Internet to GPS to driverless cars
America's greatest idea factory isn't Bell Labs, Silicon Valley, or MIT's Media Lab. It's the secretive, Pentagon-led agency known as DARPA. Founded by Eisenhower in response to Sputnik and the Soviet space program, DARPA mixes military officers with sneaker-wearing scientists, seeking paradigm-shifting ideas in varied fields—from energy, robotics, and rockets to peopleless operating rooms, driverless cars, and planes that can fly halfway around the world in just hours. DARPA gave birth to the Internet, GPS, and mind-controlled robotic arms. Its geniuses define future technology for the military and the rest of us.
Michael Belfiore was given unprecedented access to write this first-ever popular account of DARPA. Visiting research sites across the country, he watched scientists in action and talked to the creative, fearlessly ambitious visionaries working for and with DARPA. Much of DARPA's work is classified, and this book is full of material that has barely been reported in the general media. In fact, DARPA estimates that only 2 percent of Americans know much of anything about the agency. This fascinating read demonstrates that DARPA isn't so much frightening as it is inspiring—it is our future.

Diabetes Rising: How a Rare Disease Became a Modern Pandemic, and What to Do About It

Author: Dan Hurley
Nearly 90 years after the discovery of insulin, with an estimated $116 billion spent annually on the medical treatment of diabetes in the United States, why is diabetes the one major cause of death that’s been relentlessly rising for a century? Diabetes Rising investigates why the nearly two dozen medications approved for type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes, and all the high-tech treatments for type 1 (juvenile-onset) diabetes, are failing to slow this modern pandemic of Western civilization. The book also profiles promising new approaches that are making significant strides toward preventing, curing, or dramatically improving treatment of the disease. Written by Dan Hurley, a regular contributor to the science section of the New York Times (and himself a type 1 diabetic for over 30 years), Diabetes Rising breaks medical news by revealing:

• The wealthiest town in Massachusetts, where an outbreak of type 1 diabetes among the children has parents up in arms, and a state investigation underway.
• The county in West Virginia with the highest rate of type 2 diabetes in the country (where Hurley spent an evening with a family of 10 siblings, all of whom have the disease, and the local Wal-Mart proudly announces that it sells more Little Debbie snack cakes than any other Wal-Mart in the world). 
• Why the rate of type 1 diabetes has been rising just as fast and just as long as the rate of type 2, transforming a childhood disease that was once exceedingly rare into one that now affects most elementary school systems in the country. 
• How the “artificial pancreas,” long considered a holy grail that would take decades to develop, has now reached the final stages of testing—the book describes Hurley’s extraordinary experience participating in one of the world’s first clinical trials of the device, and profiles the colorful mavericks pushing the technology forward. 
• Why international diabetes experts believe that three simple, little-known approaches—avoiding cow’s milk in baby formulas, getting adequate amounts of vitamin D, and simply playing in the dirt—could prevent many cases of diabetes.
• Innovative public-health strategies in New York City, Los Angeles and elsewhere that are seeking to attack diabetes today just as campaigns of a century ago defeated communicable diseases—with public-health laws regulating fast-food restaurants.

The Three Cultures: Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and the Humanities in the 21st Century

Author: Jerome Kagan
A half century ago, British scientist and novelist C.P. Snow lamented the divisions between natural scientists and humanities scholars of his day in his lecture The Two Cultures. In Kagan’s latest book, the Harvard psychologist expounds on Snow’s analysis with an insightful description of the strengths, shortcomings and potential of 21st century academic culture.

The Three Cultures revisits the natural sciences and humanities but also considers the place of social sciences in the modern academy. Kagan begins by examining differences among the cultures, right down to their vocabularies. The word fear, for instance, means one thing to a biologist, another to a psychologist and holds still another meaning for the poet, Kagan explains.
The book next examines how those differences play out. Kagan contrasts the veneration earlier natural scientists enjoyed with the increasing skepticism of today, explaining how political and historical events contributed to this decline in stature. He describes social scientists’ struggle to differentiate their scholarship from that of natural scientists. In perhaps the most polemic section of the book, he calls on economists to relinquish their claims of exactitude.
Snow argued 50 years ago that rivalries between natural scientists and humanists prevented scholars from tackling the world’s most pressing problems. The same gulf exists today among the three cultures, Kagan argues convincingly. With Kagan’s evenhanded assessment, the reader is led to one important conclusion: Scholars in each branch cannot afford to exist in isolated ivory towers.

Here Be Dragons: How the Study of Animal and Plant Distributions Revolutionized Our Views of Life and Earth

Author: Dennis McCarthy

Why do we find polar bears only in the Arctic and penguins only in the Antarctic? Why do oceanic islands often have many types of birds but no large native mammals? As Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace travelled across distant lands studying the wildlife they both noticed that the distribution of plants and animals formed striking patterns - patterns that held strong clues to the past of the planet. The study of the spatial distribution of living things is known as biogeography. It is a field that could be said to have begun with Darwin and Wallace. In this lively book, Denis McCarthy tells the story of biogeography, from the 19th century to its growth into a major field of interdisciplinary research in the present day. It is a story that encompasses two great, insightful theories that were to provide the explanations to the strange patterns of life across the world - evolution, and plate tectonics. We find animals and plants where we do because, over time, the continents have moved, separating and coalescing in a long, slow dance; because sea levels have risen, cutting off one bit of land from another, and fallen, creating land bridges; because new and barren volcanic islands have risen up from the sea; and because animals and plants vary greatly in their ability to travel, and separation has caused the formation of new species. The story of biogeography is the story of how life has responded and has in turn altered the ever changing Earth. It is a narrative that includes many fascinating tales - of pygmy mammoths and elephant birds; of changing landscapes; of radical ideas by bold young scientists first dismissed and later, with vastly growing evidence, widely accepted. The story is not yet done: there are still questions to be answered and biogeography is a lively area of research and debate. But our view of the planet has been changed profoundly by biogeography and its related fields: the emerging understanding is of a deeply interconnected system in which life and physical forces interact dynamically in space and time.

Books Recommended by Scientific American for 2009

Secrets of the Universe: How We Discovered the Cosmos
by Paul Murdin. University of Chicago Press, 2009
Astronomer Paul Murdin traces the history of astronomical discoveries—from the shape of Earth to the cosmic microwave background to the origin of the elements. Pictured at the right is the N49 supernova remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Supernovae play a key role in distributing the elements made in stars.
A Year on the Wing: Four Seasons in a Life with Birds
by Tim Dee. Free Press, 2009
In this lyrical memoir, radio producer and writer Tim Dee draws on 40 years of avian observation to compose an account of a year in the lives of birds. Along the way he explores humanity’s fascination with these creatures and their journeys on the wing.
This Will Change Everything: Ideas That Will Shape the Future
edited by John Brockman. Harper Perennial, 2009
John Brockman, literary agent and founder of the online science salon Edge.org, has rounded up more than 150 luminaries to reflect on ideas that are poised to change the world in their lifetimes. Among the contributors are Nobel laureate physicist Frank Wilczek on the quantum world, biologist Paul Ewald on infectious disease and psychologist Sherry Turkle on robot companions.
Department of Mad Scientists: How DARPA Is Remaking Our World, from the Internet to Artificial Limbs
by Michael Belfiore. Smithsonian, 2009
The Lives of the Brain: Human Evolution and the Organ of Mind
by John S. Allen. Belknap Press, 2009