The Mercury Fountain takes place at the turn of the 20th century in a remote stretch of desert, West Texas. Owen Scraperton, a passionate Yankee, sets out to atone for his misspent youth by starting a utopian paradise in the wilderness. He begins to attract a following within the local population and further afield. Owen founds the economics of this new society upon Mercury mining, lauding its fluidity, beauty and usefulness and disregarding its darker properties. But it isn't long before Owen's utopia begins to unravel...

An interdisciplinary analysis of human interactions with mercury through history that sheds light on efforts to promote and achieve sustainability. In Mercury Stories, Henrik Selin and Noelle Eckley Selin examine sustainability through analyzing human interactions with mercury over thousands of years. They explore how people have made beneficial use of this volatile element, how they have been harmed by its toxic properties, and how they have tried to protect themselves and the environment from its damaging effects. Taking a systems approach, they develop and apply an analytical framework that can inform other efforts to evaluate and promote sustainability. After introducing the framework, which uses the lens of a human-technical environmental system and a matrix-based approach to analyze mercury use and exposure, the authors examine five topical mercury systems that each illustrate important issues in mercury science and governance: global cycling of mercury through the atmosphere, land, oceans, and societies; mercury's dangers to human health, including from occupational, medical, and dietary exposure; mercury emissions to the atmosphere from industrial sources; mercury in commercial products and production processes; and mercury use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining. Finally, looking across the five mercury systems, they distill insights for sustainability analysis more broadly, and draw lessons for researchers, decision-makers, and concerned citizens.

Acclaimed oral health expert and wellness pioneer, Dr. Gerry Curatola, explores the bi-directional relationship between the health of your mouth and your body, and provides a groundbreaking program for creating a healthy mouth that will help maintain a healthy body. The mouth acts as mirror and a gateway and reflects what is happening in the rest of your body and the health of your mouth appears to have a profound impact on the rest of your body. Chronic, low-grade oral disease is a major source of inflammation throughout your body, which can sometimes result in serious systemic problems, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and premature birth. The Mouth-Body Connection educates the reader on the natural ecology of the mouth. The oral microbiome consists of communities of 20 billion microorganisms of more than six hundred types-keeping these communities balanced is the key to well-being. Dr. Curatola's program, thirty years in the making, helps to restore microbiome balance and reduce health-destroying inflammation. The Curatola Care Program fosters a healthy oral microbiome by means of diet, supplements, exercise, and stress reduction. Four weeks of meal plans and fifty delicious recipes will convince you that eating for balance can be a treat. There are supplement schedules for each stage, two high-intensity band workouts that take only 15 minutes twice a week, relaxation techniques, and yoga postures to fight inflammation. In just four weeks, you will reboot your body and begin to take control of your health. Best of all, your brilliant smile will prove that you have never felt better.