Ten Thousand Birds provides a thoroughly engaging and authoritative history of modern ornithology, tracing how the study of birds has been shaped by a succession of visionary and often-controversial personalities, and by the unique social and scientific contexts in which these extraordinary individuals worked.
A critical examination of James Lovelock's controversial Gaia hypothesisOne of the enduring questions about our planet is how it has remained continuously habitable over vast stretches of geological time despite the fact that its atmosphere and climate are potentially unstable.
The remarkable and unique ways that male and female animals play out gender roles in natureWhile we joke that men are from Mars and women are from Venus, our gender differences can't compare to those of many other animals.
How our brains have evolved so that we control how we think and behaveThe Unpredictable Species argues that the human brain evolved in a way that enhances our cognitive flexibility and capacity for innovation and imitation.
How the new brain sciences are transforming our understanding of what it means to be humanThe brain sciences are influencing our understanding of human behavior as never before, from neuropsychiatry and neuroeconomics to neurotheology and neuroaesthetics.
Intended for all readers--including magicians, detectives, musicians, orthopedic surgeons, and anthropologists--this book offers a thorough account of that most intriguing and most human of appendages: the hand.
The amazing science behind the search for Earth-like planetsEver since Carl Sagan first predicted that extraterrestrial civilizations must number in the millions, the search for life on other planets has gripped our imagination.
Harnessing evolution for more sustainable agricultureAs human populations grow and resources are depleted, agriculture will need to use land, water, and other resources more efficiently and without sacrificing long-term sustainability.
The first book to address nutrition's complex role in biologyNutrition has long been considered more the domain of medicine and agriculture than of the biological sciences, yet it touches and shapes all aspects of the natural world.
The mysterious and remarkable ways that animals navigateWe know that animals cross miles of water, land, and sky with pinpoint precision on a daily basis.
The science of change from cells to cultureCells to Civilizations is the first unified account of how life transforms itself-from the production of bacteria to the emergence of complex civilizations.
How our stone-age brains made modern society, and why it matters for relationships between men and womenAs countless love songs, movies, and self-help books attest, men and women have long sought different things.
Opticsa field of physics focusing on the study of lightis also central to many areas of biology, including vision, ecology, botany, animal behavior, neurobiology, and molecular biology.
A complete illustrated guide to these enigmatic seabirdsPetrels, albatrosses, and storm-petrels are among the most beautiful yet least known of all the world's birds, living their lives at sea far from the sight of most people.
A comprehensive introduction to tropical ecologyThis full-color illustrated textbook offers the first comprehensive introduction to all major aspects of tropical ecology.
Pollination and Floral Ecology is the most comprehensive single-volume reference to all aspects of pollination biology--and the first fully up-to-date resource of its kind to appear in decades.
Phase transitions--changes between different states of organization in a complex system--have long helped to explain physics concepts, such as why water freezes into a solid or boils to become a gas.
A new approach to understanding animal and human cognitionWhen a chimpanzee stockpiles rocks as weapons or when a frog sends out mating calls, we might easily assume these animals know their own motivations--that they use the same psychological mechanisms that we do.
An illustrated guide to how birds design and build their nestsBirds are the most consistently inventive builders, and their nests set the bar for functional design in nature.
In Enhancing Evolution, leading bioethicist John Harris dismantles objections to genetic engineering, stem-cell research, designer babies, and cloning and makes an ethical case for biotechnology that is both forthright and rigorous.
The world's parrots in one convenient field guideFrom the macaws of South America to the cockatoos of Australia, parrots are among the most beautiful and exotic birds in the world-and among the most endangered.
How honeybees make collective decisions-and what we can learn from this amazing democratic processHoneybees make decisions collectively-and democratically.
Millions of years ago in the Cretaceous period, the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex--with its dagger-like teeth for tearing its prey to ribbons--was undoubtedly the fiercest carnivore to roam the Earth.
Seeds of Amazonian Plants is the first field guide to treat the extraordinary diversity of seeds and diaspores of plants commonly encountered in the Amazon and other lowland moist forests of the American tropics.
Darwin's Origin of Species and Dobzhansky's Genetics and the Origin of Species have been the cornerstones of modern evolutionary and population genetic theory for the past hundred years, but in the twenty-first century, biologists will face graver problems of extinction.
John Tyler Bonner makes a new attack on an old problem: the question of how progressive increase in the size and complexity of animals and plants has occurred.
A stunningly illustrated look at the mating and parenting lives of the world's birdsBird Love looks at the extraordinary range of mating systems in the avian world, exploring all the stages from courtship and nest-building to protecting eggs and raising chicks.
The first ethnographic exploration of the contentious debate over whether nonhuman primates are capable of cultureIn the 1950s, Japanese zoologists took note when a number of macaques invented and passed on new food-washing behaviors within their troop.
Hailed by the Washington Post as "e;a sure-footed and witty guide to slippery ethical terrain,"e; a philosophical exploration of AI and the future of the mind that Astronomer Royal Martin Rees calls "e;profound and entertaining"e;Humans may not be Earth's most intelligent beings for much longer: the world champions of chess, Go, and Jeopardy!
How birds have evolved and adapted to survive winterBirds in Winter is the first book devoted to the ecology and behavior of birds during this most challenging season.
Leading ecologists discuss some of the most compelling open questions in the field todayUnsolved Problems in Ecology brings together many of the world's leading ecologists to discuss the most fundamental research questions confronting the field today.
