Frank Carlson Library

James Owen Weatherall's bestselling book, The Physics of Wall Street, was named one of Physics Today's five most intriguing books of 2013. In this work, he takes on a fundamental concept of modern physics: nothing. The physics of stuff-protons, neutrons, electrons, and even quarks and gluons-is at least somewhat familiar to most of us. But what about the physics of nothing? Isaac Newton thought of empty space as nothingness extended in all directions,...

The Garbage Gang discovers a beehive in a stinky situation and they wonder, Do Bees Poop? With the help of a little bee friend, they get an answer to their burning question. By the end, they'll be knee deep in knowledge about living and nonliving things.

You probably know that electricity powers your computer and other electronics. But what is electricity? How does it work and where does it come from? Scientists have been asking questions about electricity for centuries. Does it come from frog muscles? Can magnets create electricity? How could people harness the energy from gas or wind to power devices far away? Scientists have asked all these questions and more, and they've conducted countless experiments...

Forces and motion are at work all around you when you kick a ball, ride a bike, or drop a book. But what exactly are forces? And how do they make things move? For thousands of years, scientists have been testing hypotheses about forces and motion and learning from the results of their experiments. These lead to more questions: Why do you speed up when you're biking down a hill? Why are heavier objects harder to pull? Why doesn't the moon float off...

Much of what you experience from the things you see to the sounds you hear travels to you in waves. But how do sound and light waves work? For thousands of years, scientists have been testing hypotheses about waves and learning from the results of observations and experiments. These tests ultimately lead to more questions: How can we see colors? Why can light travel in a vacuum while sound can't? How does the pitch of a sound change as it gets closer...

While the Garbage Gang is out exploring the trash dump, they meet a bear named Otto. When Otto explains that bears hibernate, the gang wonders, "What's with the long naps, bears?" But the gang learns that bears aren't the only animals that hibernate, and their question is soon answered.