Dr. Wright, an orthopedist, has created a medical program specifically designed to target the fitness and performance needs of mature athletes. "No matter how fit we may have been at 20, we're very different people after 40. You have to understand your body and approach exercise and injury in a new way," according to Wright. "The good news is that not only can we retain the vigor of our youth, we can actually perform as well, if not better." Wright practices at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Sports Medicine. She's also the team physician for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

This book contains more than 1,600 A to Z entries from acid to wine. While demystifying the complexities of cooking, it describes the confounding phenomena of everyday eating such as why artichokes make certain foods taste sweeter and what causes some people to think cilantro tastes like soap. Topics on cooking ingredients discuss the basic molecular make-up of meats, poultry, game, fish, and other foodstuffs, as well as how these foods react to heat.

Why doesn't stomach acid dissolve the stomach itself? Why are there more tornados in the Midwest than on the coast? This volume answers these questions and over 200 more, shedding light on the science behind them. As informative as it is entertaining, it addresses every major branch of science, including physics, chemistry, biology, geology, meteorology, astronomy, and cosmology. It highlights some of the big ideas that helped shape science as we know it, and discusses the future of science with regards to nanotechnology, genetic modification, molecular medicine, and string theory.

One NASW member is included in this anthology: Carl Zimmer, a freelance from Guilford, Conn., for "Evolved for Cancer?" (Scientific American, January 2007). He wrote that natural selection is not natural perfection. "Living creatures have evolved some remarkably complex adaptations, but we are still very vulnerable to disease. Among the most tragic of those ills — and perhaps most enigmatic — is cancer."