June 2009 Archives

Here are some new titles that have recently been added to our e-book collection that may be of interest to Civil Engineers.




Engineering Against Fracture
Edited by Spiros Pantelakis and Chris Rodopoulos
Link to Full Text

A Unified Statistical Methodology for Modeling Fatigue Damage By Enrique Castillo and Alfonso Fernandez-Canteli
Link to Full Text

Here are some news on tools that may help you in your academic research.

Science Browser Search
Deep Web Technologies has written a blog post about new science search portals that you can add to your browsers search bar.

Now along with Google and Wikipedia you can harness the power of multiple science search portals. The blog links to search plug-ins for the following resources:

• World Wide Science Alliance


• Science.gov


• ScienceResearch.com


• Mednar


• E-Print Network


• Scitopia.org


• Scirus

Public Speaking Tutorials
The National Science Foundation funded these instructional videos "to improve the oral communication skills of undergraduate mathematics and related STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) students."

The videos are broken up into three main areas

1. Preparation


2. Delivery


3. Visual Aids

The first video illustrates a public speaking error and the second video shows a more polished product.

EndNote X3

For EndNote users out there, Thomson Scientific recently announced that EndNote X3 will be released soon. If you want to see what's changing you can view this informational video.

Are you looking for some thought-provoking reads to while away the summer hours? Would you like to have an opportunity for an informal discussion of science related topics?
You may be interested in the Big Bang Book Club it's co-sponsored by Magers & Quinn Booksellers; Secrets of the City; Center for Science, Technology and Public Policy; and Grumpy's.
They meet the fourth Tuesday of every month at Grumpy's Bar & Grill (1111 Washington Av. S. Minneapolis) from 7-9.

This month (June 23) they're reading Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Stephen Johnson.

UM TC Wilson Library (RC133.G6 J64 2006)

Here are the books they've got coming up in the near future:

July 28: My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor 

August 25: Black Hole War: My Battle With Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics by Leonard Susskind

UM TC Walter Sci/Eng Library Books (Level F) (QC174.12 .S896 2008)

September 22: 13 Things That Don't Make Sense: The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time by Michael Brooks

October 27: Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life by Carl Zimmer

UM TC Magrath (QR82.E6 Z56 2008)


I think it sounds like an interesting list of books...