Originally perceived as a cheap and plentiful source of power, the commercial use of nuclear energy has been controversial for decades. Worries about the dangers that nuclear plants and their radioactive waste posed to nearby communities grew over time, and plant construction in the United States virtually died after the early 1980s. The 1986 disaster at Chernobyl only reinforced nuclear power's negative image. Yet in the decade prior to the Japanese...

"From HIV to H1N1, pandemics pose one of the greatest threats to global health in the twenty-first century. Defined as epidemics of infectious disease across large geographic areas, pandemics can disseminate globally with incredible speed as humans and goods move faster than ever before. While restricted travel, quarantine, vaccines, drugs, and education can reduce the severity of many outbreaks, factors such as global warming, population density,...

"The Arab Uprisings: What Everyone Needs to Know answers readers' questions about the history and current state of the Arab world and addresses all aspects of the uprisings of 2010 to 2011, including their causes, the role of social media, the diverse paths they have taken, the role of the United States and the uprisings' impact on the United States, and possible outcomes"--

"Should we legalize marijuana? If we legalize, what in particular should be legal? Just possessing marijuana and growing your own? Selling and advertising? If selling becomes legal, who gets to sell? Corporations? Co-ops? The government? What regulations should apply? How high should taxes be? Different forms of legalization could bring very different results. This second edition of Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know® discusses what...

"The essential primer on what will be the defining issue of our time, Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know is a clear-eyed overview of the science, conflicts, and implications of our warming planet. From Joseph Romm, Chief Science Advisor for National Geographic's Years of Living Dangerously series and one of Rolling Stone's "100 people who are changing America," Climate Change offers user-friendly, scientifically rigorous answers to the most...

"From gluten-free to pile-on-the-meat Paleo, GMOs to grass-fed beef, our newsfeeds abound with nutrition advice. Whether headlines from the latest scientific study or anecdotes from celebrities and food bloggers promulgating today's diet du jour, we are bombarded by "superfoods" and "best ever" diets promising to help us be healthier, smarter, happier, fight disease, lose weight, or live longer. At the same time, we live in an over-crowded food environment...

December 17, 2016 marked the sixth anniversary of the outbreak of the Arab uprisings. In the six years since Muhammad Bouazizi set himself on fire in Tunisia, igniting the uprisings which continue today, the entire Middle East landscape has changed in ways that were unimaginable before. In spite of the early hype about the "Arab Spring" and the prominence observers gave to calls for the downfall of regimes and an end to their abuses, most of the protests...