Other books that might interest you

• 

  Death to Beauty - The...

  Eugene M. Helveston

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  In the 1970s, Dr. Alan Scott sought to selectively weaken eye muscles to treat strabismus (when one or both eyes are misaligned) without surgery. After failed attempts with other agents, Scott developed a method to stabilize the bacteria that causes botulism, culminating in a drug that eventually became known as Botox. 
   
   
   
  In Death to Beauty, Eugene M. Helveston, MD, follows the unlikely story of botulism's 1817 discovery in contaminated German sausages, to its use in military and research facilities, to Scott, an ophthalmologist who aimed to safely use the drug in humans. Scott struggled alone as an unknown in the pharmaceutical industry, searching for clinical trial financing and FDA approval, which he achieved at a fraction of the billions big pharma usually spends to bring a drug to market. Eventually, the company Allergan bought him out, capitalizing on the possibilities for cosmetic uses. Scott's formula was renamed "Botox" and reached annual sales in the billions. After the sale, Scott received no further compensation from Botox sales and remained the same unassuming man. 
   
   
   
  A fascinating walk through the intricate history of how the world's deadliest toxin starting as a treatment for crossed eyes became a routine tool for the cosmetic industry, Death to Beauty will make you rethink success, beauty, and deadly bacteria.

  Show book

• 

  Crash Test Girl - An Unlikely...

  Kari Byron

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Kari Byron—former host of the wildly popular, iconic cult classic MythBusters—shows how to crash test your way through life, no lab coat required.  
  Kari Byron’s story hasn’t been a straight line. She started out as a broke artist living in San Francisco, writing poems on a crowded bus on the way to one of her three jobs. Many curve balls, unexpected twists, and yes, literal and figurative explosions later, and she’s one of the world’s most respected women in science entertainment, blowing stuff up on national television and getting paid for it! In Crash Test Girl, Kari reveals her fascinating life story on the set of MythBusters and beyond. With her signature gusto and roll-up-your-sleeves enthusiasm, she invites listeners behind the duct tape and the dynamite, to the unlikely friendships and low-budget sets that turned a crazy idea into a famously inventive show with a rabid fanbase. 
  The truth is, Mythbusters was never meant to be a science show. But attaching a rocket to a car, riding a motorcycle on water, or lighting 500 pounds of coffee creamer on fire requires a decent understanding of chemistry, physics, and engineering. Thus, the cast and crew brought in the scientific method to work through each problem: Question. Hypothesize. Analyze. Experiment. Conclude. And as Kari came to learn in her own life, not only is the scientific method the best approach for busting myths, it’s also the perfect tool for solving everyday issues, including: 
  Career · Love · Creativity · Setbacks · Money · Sexuality · Depression · Bravery 
  Crash Test Girl reminds us that science is for everyone, as long as you’re willing to strap in, put on your safety goggles, hit a few walls, and learn from the results. Using a combination of methodical experimentation and unconventional creativity, you’ll come to the most important conclusion of all: In life, sometimes you crash and burn, but you can always crash and learn.

  Show book

• 

  The Resilient Garden - Simple...

  Charles Featherstone

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Think you can't garden because your soil is poor, your water is scarce, and your space is limited? Think again. Drawn from the popular columns of Grocott's Mail, this handbook is packed with proven, hard-won wisdom from South Africa's Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.  
  This collection of bite-sized columns and stories is a practical guide to creating life and community from barren ground. Learn how to compost, drought-proof your beds, build parks from dumps, and harness ferments for richer soil, the secrets of xerophytes, the art of fermentation for plant health, and how to build a thriving garden from tyres, pallets, and recycled "graywater." 
  More than just a gardening manual, it's a testament to the power of a seed and a shovel to change not only a landscape but a community. This collection chronicles the ingenious, low-cost, and utterly organic methods locals use to coax life from the earth. 
  Filled with heartfelt stories like Cecil's transformation of a Currie Street dumping ground and practical advice for every season, this book is an essential companion for any gardener fighting their own odds. From the "Garden of the Week" at the Hayton Complex to the determined schoolchildren of the Feeding The Self project, these stories prove that a garden is more than food—it's a classroom, a community centre, and a beacon of hope. Packed with actionable advice on everything from graywater systems and winter warming to natural pest control, The Resilient Garden is a powerful call to pick up a trowel and start growing, no matter your circumstances. 
  Whether you're nurturing seedlings on a windowsill or mobilizing a community to turn a dump into a park, this book shows you how to grow against the odds. Your toughest growing conditions are about to become your greatest advantage.

  Show book

• 

  Human Rights Robot Wrongs -...

  Susie Alegre

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  No longer an uncertain technology of the distant future, artificial intelligence is starting to shape every aspect of our daily lives, from how we think to who we love. 
   
  In this urgent polemic, leading barrister Susie Alegre explores the ways in which artificial intelligence threatens our fundamental human rights - including the rights to life, liberty and fair trial; the right to private and family life; and the right to free expression - and how we protect those rights. 
   
  Touching on the many profound ethical dilemmas posed by emerging technologies, and full of fascinating case studies, Human Rights, Robot Wrongs is a rallying cry for humanity in the age of AI.

  Show book

• 

  Building Memory for AI Systems...

  Dr. Priya Sharma

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice.  
  Your AI assistant loses all context the moment you close the chat. Your project history, codebase knowledge, and business data? Gone. You're stuck manually rebuilding context in every conversation, turning powerful AI into an expensive notepad. 
  Model Context Protocol (MCP) changes everything. 
  Building Memory for AI Systems with MCP shows developers, technical founders, and product builders how to integrate Claude AI with persistent memory systems to maintain context across sessions, access real data, and learn from experience over time. 
  What You'll Master: 
  • MCP Architecture & Setup: Configure Claude Desktop with filesystem, database, and cloud storage integrations using standardized protocols that prevent vendor lock-in 
  • Persistent Data Integration: Connect PostgreSQL, SQLite, Google Drive, GitHub, Slack, and 15+ other systems through practical, security-first implementations 
  • Vector Databases & Semantic Search: Build retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems with Pinecone, Chroma, and Weaviate for intelligent document discovery 
  • AI Agent Development: Design specialized agents with bounded context, robust error handling, and multi-agent orchestration patterns 
  • Production Deployment: Implement authentication, audit logging, rate limiting, and monitoring for enterprise-grade AI memory systems

  Show book

• 

  The Oak and the Larch - A Forest...

  Sophie Pinkham

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Russia's forests account for nearly one-fifth of the world's wooded lands. The Oak and the Larch is the first-ever English-language exploration of this vast expanse—a dazzling environmental history of Russia that offers an urgent new understanding of the nature of Russian power, and of Russia's ideas of itself. 
  Award-winning scholar Sophie Pinkham's magisterial account spans centuries, revealing how forests have nourished ancient Siberian indigenous societies, defended medieval Slavic settlements from Mongol invasion, and served as both an essential natural resource and a potent cultural symbol for Russia in all its incarnations. By examining the country from the forest's perspective, Pinkham pushes far beyond the contemporary political environment in Russia. She draws on literature, history, and art to connect the expanse of the Russian wilderness and the nature of Russian culture, with indelible portraits of the diverse figures who have inhabited and celebrated these forests. She confronts the forest's role in Russia's long history of imperial conquest, and in resistance to this conquest. 
  The Oak and the Larch offers a vision of Russia rarely seen in the west, as a land defined by its wilderness, shaped by its encounters with the frontier, and—much like our own—ultimately beholden to nature's whim.

  Show book