But, despite appearances, these are not dogs—they are foxes. They are the result of the most astonishing experiment in breeding ever undertaken—imagine speeding up thousands of years of evolution into a few decades. In 1959, biologists Dmitri Belyaev and Lyudmila Trut set out to do just that, by starting with a few dozen silver foxes from fox farms in the USSR and attempting to recreate the evolution of wolves into dogs in real time in order to witness the process of domestication. This is the extraordinary, untold story of this remarkable undertaking. Most accounts of the natural evolution of wolves place it over a span of about 15,000 years, but within a decade, Belyaev and Trut’s fox breeding experiments had resulted in puppy-like foxes with floppy ears, piebald spots, and curly tails. Along with these physical changes came genetic and behavioral changes, as well. The foxes were bred using selection criteria for tameness, and with each generation, they became increasingly interested in human companionship. Trut has been there the whole time, and has been the lead scientist on this work since Belyaev’s death in 1985, and with Lee Dugatkin, biologist and science writer, she tells the story of the adventure, science, politics, and love behind it all.  In How to Tame a Fox, Dugatkin and Trut take us inside this path-breaking experiment in the midst of the brutal winters of Siberia to reveal how scientific history is made and continues to be made today. To date, fifty-six generations of foxes have been domesticated, and we continue to learn significant lessons from them about the genetic and behavioral evolution of domesticated animals. How to Tame a Fox offers an incredible tale of scientists at work, while also celebrating the deep attachments that have brought humans and animals together throughout time.

    Join our characters as they visit outer space, watch the Earth go through its earliest stages, and gaze in wonder at the earliest forms of life. Young readers will gain a basic understanding of evolution, and perhaps more importantly, what we can learn from it: to be kind to one another, as we are all related in the same family tree.

    Many were fantastic, bizarre creatures that still capture our imagination: the super-predator Tyrannosaurus, the plate-backed Stegosaurus, and the long-necked, long-tailed Diplodocus. Dinosaurs: The Ultimate Guide to How They Lived taps into our enduring interest in dinosaurs, shedding new light on different dinosaur groups. Leading paleontology experts Darren Naish and Paul Barrett trace the evolution, anatomy, biology, ecology, behavior, and lifestyle of a variety of dinosaurs. They also remind us that dinosaurs are far from extinct: they present evidence supporting the evolution of dinosaurs to birds that exist today as approximately ten thousand different species. Throughout their narrative Naish and Barrett reveal state-of-the-art new findings shaping our understanding of dinosaurs. Readers will discover, for example, how the use of CT-scanning enables scientists to look inside dinosaur skulls, thus gaining new insight into their brains and sense organs. Dinosaurs is a must-have for all those wanting to keep up to date about these dynamic, complicated creatures.

    And the most surprising revelation about the rules that regulate life at such different scales is that they are remarkably similar--there is a common underlying logic of life. Carroll recounts how our deep knowledge of the rules and logic of the human body has spurred the advent of revolutionary life-saving medicines, and makes the compelling case that it is now time to use the Serengeti Rules to heal our ailing planet.A bold and inspiring synthesis by one of our most accomplished biologists and gifted storytellers, "The Serengeti Rules" is the first book to illuminate how life works at vastly different scales. Read it and you will never look at the world the same way again.

    But what most people don't know is that the more thoroughly researchers investigate the history of our planet, the more astonishing the story of our existence becomes. The number and complexity of the astronomical, geological, chemical, and biological features recognized as essential to human existence have expanded explosively within the past decade. An understanding of what is required to make possible a large human population and advanced civilizations has raised profound questions about life, our purpose, and our destiny. Are we really just the result of innumerable coincidences? Or is there a more reasonable explanation?This fascinating book helps nonscientists understand the countless miracles that undergird the exquisitely fine-tuned planet we call home--as if Someone had us in mind all along.

    It is the history of who you are and how you came to be. It is unique to you, as it is to each of the 100 billion modern humans who have ever drawn breath. But it is also our collective story, because in every one of our genomes we each carry the history of our species births, deaths, disease, war, famine, migration, and a lot of sex. Since scientists first read the human genome in 2001, it has been subject to all sorts of claims, counterclaims, and myths. In fact, as Adam Rutherford explains, our genomes should be read not as instruction manuals, but as epic poems. DNA determines far less than we have been led to believe about us as individuals, but vastly more about us as a species. In this captivating journey through the expanding landscape of genetics, Adam Rutherford reveals what our genes now tell us about history, and what history tells us about our genes. From Neanderthals to murder, from redheads to race, dead kings to plague, evolution to epigenetics, this is a demystifying and illuminating new portrait of who we are and how we came to be."

    In addition to fieldwork and traditional methods, paleoanthropologists and archaeologists now draw upon genetics and other cutting-edge scientific techniques. In fifty chapters, Prehistoric Investigations tells the story of the many thought-provoking discoveries that have transformed our understanding of the distant past.

    Science writer and biologist Hanne Strager brings Darwin to life while offering the essential elements of evolution and how they affect us today.Much has been written on Darwin's life, his groundbreaking work, and the influence he has had on modern scientific thought and advancements, but most books assume a certain level of scientific knowledge. A Modest Genius changes that, offering an accessible, easy-to-understand discussion of Darwin's work.Readers follow Darwin from his early years through his travels. Hanne Strager explains how Darwin assembled the pieces of a fascinating puzzle while also describing the fundamental principles of evolution.Darwin's theory, by necessity, was incomplete when he proposed it. He lacked modern knowledge of the fossil record, DNA, and genetics. Strager explains how advances in these and other scientific areas expanded on Darwin's original work. She also discusses the ongoing conflict between religion and evolution, including the famous Scopes Monkey Trial and the battle Darwin himself fought between faith and intellect.Bold, exciting, and easily understood, A Modest Genius offers an opportunity to understand one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of the modern age.

    Through 200 revelatory images, award-winning photographer Robert Clark makes one of the most important foundations of science clear and exciting to everyone. Evolution: A Visual Record transports readers from the near-mystical(human ancestors) to the historic (the famous 'finches' Darwin collected on the Galapagos Islands that spurred his theory); the recently understood (the link between dinosaurs and modern birds) to the simply astonishing.

    Based on extensive experimental data comparing great apes and human children, Michael Tomasello reconstructs how early humans gradually became an ultra-cooperative and, eventually, a moral species.There were two key evolutionary steps, each founded on a new way that individuals could act together as a plural agent “we”. The first step occurred as ecological challenges forced early humans to forage together collaboratively or die. To coordinate these collaborative activities, humans evolved cognitive skills of joint intentionality, ensuring that both partners knew together the normative standards governing each role. To reduce risk, individuals could make an explicit joint commitment that “we” forage together and share the spoils together as equally deserving partners, based on shared senses of trust, respect, and responsibility. The second step occurred as human populations grew and the division of labor became more complex. Distinct cultural groups emerged that demanded from members loyalty, conformity, and cultural identity. In becoming members of a new cultural “we”, modern humans evolved cognitive skills of collective intentionality, resulting in culturally created and objectified norms of right and wrong that everyone in the group saw as legitimate morals for anyone who would be one of “us”.As a result of this two-stage process, contemporary humans possess both a second-personal morality for face-to-face engagement with individuals and a group-minded “objective” morality that obliges them to the moral community as a whole.

    More than any rituals or doctrines, it is this experience that anchors religious faith, yet it has been largely ignored in the scientific literature on religion.Starting with a vivid narrative account of the life-threatening hike that triggered his own mystical experience, biologist John Wathey takes the reader on a scientific journey to find the sources of religious feeling and the illusion of God's presence. His book delves into the biological origins of this compelling feeling, attributing it to innate neural circuitry that evolved to promote the mother-child bond. Dr. Wathey, a veteran neuroscientist, argues that evolution has programmed the infant brain to expect the presence of a loving being who responds to the child's needs. As the infant grows into adulthood, this innate feeling is eventually transferred to the realm of religion, where it is reactivated through the symbols, imagery, and rituals of worship. The author interprets our various conceptions of God in biological terms as illusory supernormal stimuli that fill an emotional and cognitive vacuum left over from infancy. These insights shed new light on some of the most vexing puzzles of religion, like the popular belief in a god who is judgmental and punishing, yet also unconditionally loving; the extraordinary tenacity of faith; the greater religiosity of women relative to men; religious obsessions with sex; the mysterious compulsion to pray; the seemingly irrepressible feminine attributes of God, even in traditionally patriarchal religions; and the strange allure of cults. Finally, Dr. Wathey considers the hypothesis that religion evolved to foster reproductive success, arguing that, in an age of potentially ruinous overpopulation, magical thinking has become a luxury we can no longer afford, one that distracts us from urgent threats to our planet.Deeply researched yet elegantly written in a jargon-free and accessible style, this book presents a compelling interpretation of the evolutionary origins of spirituality and religion.From the Hardcover edition.

    Bethell presents a concise yet wide-ranging tour of the flash points of modern evolutionary theory, investigating controversies over common descent, natural selection, the fossil record, biogeography, information theory, evolutionary psychology, artificial intelligence, and the growing intelligent design movement. Bethell's account is enriched by his own personal encounters with of some of our era's leading scientists and thinkers, including Harvard biologists Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin; British paleontologist Colin Patterson; and renowned philosopher of science Karl Popper.

    He argues that there remains “an irresistible consilience of evidence for rejecting Darwinian cumulative selection as the major driving force of evolution.” From the origin of life to the origin of human language, the great divisions in the natural order are still as profound as ever, and they are still unsupported by the series of adaptive transitional forms predicted by Darwin. In addition, Denton makes a provocative new argument about the pervasiveness of non-adaptive order throughout biology, order that cannot be explained by the Darwinian mechanism.

    All that would change when he was allowed to be a part of a worldwide expedition to faraway lands. He was able to collect specimens and keep notes on all he experienced. Inside you will read about... ✓ Early Life and Education ✓ Round the World Aboard the Beagle ✓ Darwin's Evolutionary Theory ✓ Life Leading Up to Marriage ✓ Evolutionary Research ✓ The Theory of Natural Selection ✓ Darwin's Post-Publication Life And much more! This eBook takes a closer look at who Charles Darwin was, how he lived his everyday life and how influential he became; not just in his own day but into the modern world as well. Find out what interested his incredible mind and how Darwin presented his theories to a yet unsuspecting world. From beetles to butterflies, coral reefs and tropical islands, from apes to humans, learn how Charles Darwin's evidence speaks even to the world today.

    Combining geology, geochemistry, biochemistry, microbiology, evolution and statistical physics to create an inclusive picture of the living state, the authors develop the argument that the emergence of life was a necessary cascade of non-equilibrium phase transitions that opened new channels for chemical energy flow on Earth. This full colour and logically structured book introduces the main areas of significance and provides a well-ordered and accessible introduction to multiple literatures outside the confines of disciplinary specializations, as well as including an extensive bibliography to provide context and further reading. For researchers, professionals entering the field or specialists looking for a coherent overview, this text brings together diverse perspectives to form a unified picture of the origin of life and the ongoing organization of the biosphere.

    Now, he presents his conclusions in this brave and pioneering book. Axe argues that the key to understanding our origin is the “design intuition”—the innate belief held by all humans that tasks we would need knowledge to accomplish can only be accomplished by someone who has that knowledge. For the ingenious task of inventing life, this knower can only be God.Starting with the hallowed halls of academic science, Axe dismantles the widespread belief that Darwin’s theory of evolution is indisputably true, showing instead that a gaping hole has been at its center from the beginning. He then explains in plain English the science that proves our design intuition scientifically valid. Lastly, he uses everyday experience to empower ordinary people to defend their design intuition, giving them the confidence and courage to explain why it has to be true and the vision to imagine what biology will become when people stand up for this truth.Armed with that confidence, readers will affirm what once seemed obvious to all of us—that living creatures, from single-celled cyanobacteria to orca whales and human beings, are brilliantly conceived, utterly beyond the reach of accident.Our intuition was right all along.

    How these selfish genes work together to construct the organism, however, remained a mystery. Standing atop a wealth of new research, "The Society of Genes" now provides a vision of how genes cooperate and compete in the struggle for life.Pioneers in the nascent field of systems biology, Itai Yanai and Martin Lercher present a compelling new framework to understand how the human genome evolved and why understanding the interactions among our genes shifts the basic paradigm of modern biology. Contrary to what Dawkins s popular metaphor seems to imply, the genome is not made of individual genes that focus solely on their own survival. Instead, our genomes comprise a society of genes which, like human societies, is composed of members that form alliances and rivalries.In language accessible to lay readers, "The Society of Genes" uncovers genetic strategies of cooperation and competition at biological scales ranging from individual cells to entire species. It captures the way the genome works in cancer cells and Neanderthals, in sexual reproduction and the origin of life, always underscoring one critical point: that only by putting the interactions among genes at center stage can we appreciate the logic of life."

    This first fully integrated visual reference on Big History for general readers places humans in the context of our universe, from the Big Bang to virtual reality.Why does the universe work the way it does? Why are stars so big? Why are humans so small? What does it mean to be human? Big History blends geology, biology, physics, anthropology, sociology, and so much more to tell one coherent story, taking us right back to our origins and exploring how a unique series of events led to and then impacted human existence: how everything came to be, where we fit in, and even where we are going. Graphics, artworks, timelines, and at-a-glance overviews make the causes and effects of pivotal events and major thresholds in Big History instantly accessible, and evidence features explain how we know what we know. An additional 64-page reference section provides a more conventional account of events in human history.Placing humans in the context of our universe and revealing how and why we got to where we are today, Big History covers 13.8 billion years of history, from the formation of the universe and the dawn of time to the present day.

     THOUGH there are a growing number of books out on Adam, this one is unique with its multi-author combination of biblical, historical, theological, scientific, archaeological, and ethical arguments in support of believing in a literal Adam and the Fall. A growing number of professing evangelical leaders and scholars are doubting or denying a literal Adam and a literal Fall, which thereby undermines the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Last Adam, who came to undo the damaging consequences of Adam’s sin and restore us to a right relationship with our Creator. This book will increase your confidence in the truth of Genesis 1–11 and the gospel: - Enhance your understanding pertaining to the biblical evidence for taking Genesis as literal history - Discover the scientific evidence from genetics, fossils, and human anatomy for the Bible’s teaching about Adam - Understand the moral, spiritual, and gospel reasons why belief in a literal Adam and Fall are essential for Christian orthodoxy

    Wilson in his 1998 book, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. Wilson's original thesis contained two parts: that nature forms a unitary order of causal forces, hierarchically organized, and that scientific knowledge, because it delineates nature, also forms a unitary order, promising consensus among diverse fields.Bringing together cutting-edge scientists and scholars across this range, Darwin's Bridge gives an expert account of consilience and makes it possible to see how far we have come toward unifying knowledge about the human species, what major issues are still in contention, and which areas of research are likely to produce further progress. Readers will be delighted as they, along with the work's contributing authors, explore the deeper meaning of consilience and consider the harmony of human evolution, human nature, social dynamics, art, and narrative.

    Those with a sympathetic ear often fail to critically examine these creationist claims, leading to an ill-informed public and, perhaps more troubling, ill-advised public policy. As Aron Ra makes clear, however, every single argument deployed by creationists in their attacks on evolution is founded on fundamental scientific, religious, and historical falsehoods–all of them. Among their most popular claims is that evolution is a religion, that there are no transitional species, that there are no beneficial mutations, and that supposedly sacred scripture is the infallible word of God. Yet, as the evidence and data plainly show, each of these claims is demonstrably and unequivocally false. There is simply no truth to creationism whatsoever, and the entire enterprise rests on a foundation of falsehoods. This book explains and exposes the worst of these lies, and should be read by all who honestly care about following the evidence no matter where it might lead in pursuit of the truth.

    The first commentary series to do so, SGBC offers a clear and compelling exposition of biblical texts, guiding readers in how to creatively and faithfully live out the Bible in their own contexts. Its story-centric approach is idea for pastors, students, Sunday school teachers, and all who want to understand the Bible in today’s world.SGBC is organized into three easy-to-use sections, designed to help readers live out God’s story: Listen to the Story; Explain the Story; and Live the Story.Praise for SGBC:“The easy-to-use format and practical guidance brings God’s grand story to modern-day life so anyone can understand how it applies today.”—Andy Stanley“Opens up the biblical story in ways that move us to act.”—Darrell L. Bock“It makes the text sing and helps us hear the story afresh.”—John Ortberg“This commentary breaks new ground.”—Craig L. Blomberg

    He created the Theory of Evolution, wrote the revolutionary "On the Origin of Species", and went on a five-year voyage of scientific discovery. Enjoy the surprising and entertaining true story of Charles Darwin and rediscover one of history's most prolific figures...

    50 Great Myths of Human Evolution uses common misconceptions to explore basic theory and research in human evolution and strengthen critical thinking skills for lay readers and students.Examines intriguing--yet widely misunderstood--topics, from general ideas about evolution and human origins to the evolution of modern humans and recent trends in the field Describes what fossils, archaeology, and genetics can tell us about human origins Demonstrates the ways in which science adapts and changes over time to incorporate new evidence and better explanations Includes myths such as "Humans lived at the same time as dinosaurs;" "Lucy was so small because she was a child;" "Our ancestors have always made fire;" and "There is a strong relationship between brain size and intelligence" Comprised of stand-alone essays that are perfect for casual reading, as well as footnotes and references that allow readers to delve more deeply into topics

     "Faster, Better, Cheaper" in the History of Manufacturing shows how the ability to make products faster, better, and cheaper has evolved from the stone age to modern times. It explains how different developments over time have raised efficiency and allowed the production of more and better products with less effort and materials, and hence faster, better, and cheaper. In addition, it describes the stories of inventors, entrepreneurs, and industrialists and looks at the intersection between technology, society, machines, materials, management, and - most of all - humans. "Faster, Better, Cheaper" in the History of Manufacturing follows this development throughout the ages. This book covers not only the technical aspects (mechanization, power sources, new materials, interchangeable parts, electricity, automation), but organizational innovations (division of labor, Fordism, Talyorism, Lean). Most of all, it is a story of the people that invented, manufactured, and marketed the products.The book shows how different developments over time raised efficiency and allowed production of more with less effort and materials, which brought us a large part of the wealth and prosperity we enjoy today. The stories of real inventors and industrialists are told, which includes not only their successes but also their problems and failures. The effect of good or bad management on manufacturing is a recurring theme in many chapters, as is the fight for intellectual property through thrilling tales of espionage. This is a story of successes and failures. It is not only about technology but also about social aspects. Ultimately, it is not a book about machines but about people!

    He then investigates the world “after humans” and how the coevolution of humans and a range of other key species has transformed the planet over the last twelve thousand years. In the process, he identifies the hundred most influential species that have ever lived--with candidates as diverse as slime, sea scorpions, dragonflies, potatoes, ants, tulips, sheep, and grapes--and reveals those that have most changed life on Earth.This beautifully illustrated, wide-ranging book provides entertaining and eye-opening insight into the story of our world, mankind's place in nature, and our pivotal relationship with the Earth itself: past, present, and future.

    Anthony M. Criniti IV’s remarkable follow-up to his acclaimed book, The Necessity of Finance. Exploring in greater depth how the sciences of economics and finance are necessary for their respective entities to survive, this book integrates some of the hardest concepts of several very important fields of scientific inquiry.Deriving serious conclusions on the future of humanity, this provocative work is divided into five parts that discuss the science of survival, survivalism’s connection to economics and finance, the relationship of biology and various reformed natural selection processes to wealth, and the role of humans as the ultimate universal manager.Dr. Criniti provides a comprehensive overview of survival; clarifies the proper order of prosperity; shows that being wealthier increases your probability of continuously surviving and prospering by providing you the greatest options to obtaining survival essentials; indicates that wealthier entities have the option to help other economic or financial entities (including nonhuman ones) survive and prosper, particularly through the concepts of the survival and the prosperity by a third party; demonstrates the inevitable relationship between biology, economics, finance, and survivalism; demonstrates that both individuals and populations of species evolve; summarizes, reforms, and adds to existing evolutionary selection processes; confirms that the management of money, and the technology that it can buy, is an advanced, necessary stage in the process of evolution—that is, the evolution of evolution; demonstrates that the survival of the richest is a more accurate concept than the survival of the fittest; and shows that all humanity should have the united goal of maximizing our wealth for our survival on this planet and beyond. This seminal work delivers a powerful analysis of the current human predicament as well as a call to people around the world, urging them to begin making better decisions. In the vein of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species and Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel, this book is designed for the well-educated—though it is equally valuable for the layperson interested in helping to protect the planet.

    Not surprisingly, then, in subsequent years there has been a growing, persistent clamour among his numerous fans worldwide for him to prepare a new, updated edition. Now, at last, he has done so -- and what an update it is!At over 600 pages long, with a word count of almost 260,000 and more than 300 colour and b/w illustrations, this is both a massively-expanded new edition of the original volume and a valid stand-alone book in its own right, because it contains many entirely new cryptids as well as updates for all of those previously included here. The result is the most comprehensive documentation and analysis ever published of those diverse mystery beasts that at one time or another have been postulated to be bona fide prehistoric survivors.But if these elusive beasts do indeed exist, could they really be creatures that time forgot? From sea serpents and lake monsters to living dinosaurs and surviving pterodactyls, from bunyips and behemoths to Nandi bears, devil-pigs, thunderbirds, and many, many more, read Dr Shuker's meticulous, objective, and always scrupulously scientific assessments of each and every cryptozoological case presented in this fascinating book, and judge for yourself.Visit CoachwhipBooks.com for more cryptozoology titles.

    What can camera lenses tell us about the eyes of marine reptiles? How does understanding what prevents a coffee mug from spilling help us understand the posture of dinosaurs? The answers to these and other intriguing questions illustrate how scientists have pieced together the history of vertebrates from their bare bones. With its engaging and informative text, plus more than 200 illustrative diagrams created by the author, The Bare Bones is an unconventional and reader-friendly introduction to the skeleton as an evolving machine.

    Army combat medic Steven Ronson, a man who escapes the constant inundation and threat of death in World War Two after he discovers an immortality formula designed for Adolf Hitler during the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp in April of 1945. Steven begins consuming the immortality formula and, after realizing that aging and death no longer control his life, travels to Manhattan to realize his childhood dream of becoming a jazz saxophonist on 52nd Street. The immortality formula gives him supernatural powers and fantastic musical abilities. His performance catches the attention of a disgraced British missionary and his adopted niece who knew the Buddhist monks in China that have guarded the original formula for thousands of years. After a series of disturbing and prophetic visions, Steven accepts an invitation from the ex-missionary to journey to Xian. In a mountain monastery outside of the city, Steven discovers the incredible truth about the formula and the monks, and the interstellar origins of Jesus Christ and the human race. But time is running out−the German occultists who helped bring Hitler to power in the 1930s have selected another Aryan messiah, and this time he has the formula. Steven cannot allow the nightmare he experienced in Germany to happen again.

    Rana also shows how traces of dinosaur blood—claimed by some as evidence for a young earth—instead strengthen the case for an old earth and, thus, for the reliability of Scripture. When dinosaur blood was first recovered, a believe-it-or-not story turned out to be true, and it changed a scientific paradigm. Rana urges readers to investigate all the facts prior to forming hard conclusions. If a Creator is responsible for providing humans with reliable information about himself and his creation, then Christians need not worry about surprising discoveries in any area of scientific inquiry.

    Evolution controversy from a scientific and biblical perspective, undergirded with psychological and philosophical understanding. With over 600 citations from peer-reviewed scientific journals, books, and university literature, he objectively and exhaustively investigates the evidence for not only an ancient earth but for the reality of evolution. With humility, humor, and wit, Yilmaz presents a surprising harmony between science and God, far more satisfying than Creationism or Intelligent Design. This fast-paced and engaging book powerfully demonstrates how science and faith, when properly understood, do not conflict and on the contrary lead to a deeper appreciation of God and a more intellectually fulfilling and spiritually rewarding life. Aaron R. Yilmaz holds an M.S. in Biology from the University of Saint Joseph, West Hartford, Connecticut (2015), and a B.S. in Biology with departmental honors from Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan (2013). He has formally studied evolution at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, performed research leading to peer-reviewed published scientific literature, and has taught biology at the college level.

    There is a simple, compelling answer: most homicides are the denouements of competitive interactions between men. Relatively speaking, where desired goods are distributed inequitably and competition for those goods is severe, dangerous tactics of competition are appealing and a high homicide rate is just one of many unfortunate consequences. Killing the Competition is about this relationship between economic inequality and lethal interpersonal violence.Suggesting that economic inequality is a cause of social problems and violence elicits fierce opposition from inequality's beneficiaries. Three main arguments have been presented by those who would acquit inequality of the charges against it: that "absolute" poverty is the real problem and inequality is just an incidental correlate; that "primitive" egalitarian societies have surprisingly high homicide rates, and that inequality and homicide rates do not change in synchrony and are therefore mutually irrelevant. With detailed but accessible data analyses and thorough reviews of relevant research, Martin Daly dispels all three arguments.Killing the Competition applies basic principles of behavioural biology to explain why killers are usually men, not women, and counters the view that attitudes and values prevailing in "cultures of violence" make change impossible.

    Consequently, researchers have begun to address the psychological, interpersonal, and broader societalcosts of excessive egoicism and to investigate alternatives to a me and mine first mindset.For centuries, scholars, spiritual leaders, and social activists have advocated a hypo-egoic way of being that is characterized by less self-concern in favor of a more inclusive we first mode of functioning. In recent years, investigations of hypo-egoic functioning have been examined by psychologists, cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, and philosophers. Edited by Kirk Warren Brown and Mark R. Leary, The Oxford Handbook of Hypo-egoic Phenomena brings together an expert group of contributors to examine these groundbreaking lines ofinquiry, distilling current knowledge about hypo-egoicism into an exceptional resource.In this volume, readers will fi nd theoretical perspectives from philosophy and several major branches of psychology to inform our understanding of the nature of hypo-egoicism and its expressions in various domains of life. Further, readers will encounter psychological research discoveries about particular phenomena in which hypo-egoicism is a prominent feature, demonstrating its implications for well-being, regulation of emotion, adaptive decision-making, positive social relations, and other markers of human happiness, well-being, and health. This Handbook offers the most comprehensive and thoughtful analyses of hypo-egoicism to date.

    Popular terms-like intelligence, planning, complexity or cognitive- have a habit of sprawling out to include everyone's favourite interpretation, and end up with such vague meanings that each new writer has to redefine themfor use. Insight remains in everyday usage: as a down-to-earth, lay term for a deep, shrewd or discerning kind of understanding. Insight is a good thing to have, so it's important to find out how it evolved, and that's what this book is about.Coming 30 years after publication of Richard Byrne's seminal book The Thinking Ape, Evolving Insight develops a new theory of the evolutionary origins of human abilities to understand the world of objects and other people. Defining mental representation and computation as 'insight', it reviews theevidence for insight in the cognition of animals.The book proposes that the understanding of causality and intentionality evolved twice in human ancestry: the pretty good understanding given by behaviour parsing, shared with other apes and related to cerebellar expansion; and the deeper understanding which requires language to model and isunique to humans. However, Ape-type insight may underlie non-verbal tests of intentionality and causal understanding, and much everyday human action.Accessible to those with little background in the topic, Evolving Insight is an important new work for anyone with an interest in psychology and the biological sciences.

    But beneath the quest for order lies the uneasy dread of fundamental disorder. True chaos is hard to imagine and even harder to represent. In this book, Martin Meisel considers the long effort to conjure, depict, and rationalize extreme disorder, with all the passion, excitement, and compromises the act provokes.Meisel builds a rough history from major social, psychological, and cosmological turning points in the imagining of chaos. He uses examples from literature, philosophy, painting, graphic art, science, linguistics, music, and film, particularly exploring the remarkable shift in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries from conceiving of chaos as disruptive to celebrating its liberating and energizing potential. Discussions of Sophocles, Plato, Lucretius, Calderon, Milton, Haydn, Blake, Faraday, Chekhov, Faulkner, Wells, and Beckett, among others, are matched with incisive readings of art by Brueghel, Rubens, Goya, Turner, Dix, Dada, and the futurists. Meisel addresses the revolution in mapping energy and entropy and the manifold effect of thermodynamics. He then uses this chaotic frame to elaborate on purpose, mortality, meaning, and mind.

    They yield insights into human evolution that are difficult, if not impossible, to achieve through other sources of fossil or archaeological data. Integrating dental findings with current debates and issues in palaeoanthropology, this book shows how fossil hominin teeth shed light on the origins and evolution of our dietary diversity, extended childhoods, long lifespans, and other fundamental features of human biology. It assesses methods to interpret different lines of dental evidence, providing a critical, practical approach that will appeal to students and researchers in biological anthropology and related fields such as dental science, oral biology, evolutionary biology, and palaeontology.

    Several well known species have been bred for decades as feeder insects for reptiles and other exotic pets, but there has only been a handful of dedicated blatticulturists keeping and breeding a wider range of species for sheer enjoyment. As exotic cockroaches receive more attention, more and more people are trying their hand at them, but with very little attention given to these creatures in the popular literature. That changes now, as Orin McMonigle shares his enthusiasm and wealth of knowledge in this new book, For the Love of Cockroaches. Orin provides experienced instruction for proper housing, feeding, and breeding cockroach species, followed by details on the many species available to enthusiasts (illustrated in full color). At 350 pages, this is the definitive cockroach manual for anyone branching out into these fascinating insects.

    Follow the stories of the half-emrys, immortal children who harness the powers of light and darkness. The Emrys Chronicles are romantic fantasy.Half-Emrys: Master of LiesLost to the lies. Consumed by revenge.Unaware of her immortal heritage, Ahnalyn learns she's a child of two worlds—a half-emrys with the ability to wield the light and the dark power. As Ahnalyn is thrown on a journey beyond her control, she must sift through the lies to uncover her true self and true potential, before the darkness consumes her. Half-Emrys: The Two MastersChoose the light or choose the darkness, but you cannot have both.Einion is fearful of the dark power inside that could lead to his corruption. Rhianu, a ruthless Dark Emrys, stumbles into his life, challenging everything that was once always so black and white. As despairs over Einion's heart increase his uncertainty, he is thrust on a path where he must face his worst fears to save who he truly loves. Meanwhile Rhianu is torn between power and love, between the past and the future. Knowing betrayal, she must follow her master's plan—no matter what her heart tells her.Half-Emrys: Master of TimeTime is only one enemy.A malicious shadow trails Catrin and Meuric after they find themselves thrown back in time. Only Meuric knows the enormity of this evil that wants to claim Catrin. Meuric's light could save her, but using it will diminish his dark power, hindering his ability to pass through the ether to their own time. Discovering the way home has just become the least of his problems . . . if there's a way home at all.When you're done with the series, don't forget to read Fallen Emrys: Niawen's Story, book 0 in The Emrys Chronicles.Romantic fantasy is for you if you like a light, character driven, more traditional fantasy plot, which includes two characters who find themselves drawn to each other, even if they start out as enemies. During a character's journey to develop powers and overcome trials, romance will ensue with bits of tension. The hero or heroine will undoubtedly be fighting some inner battle that makes them bulk at the chemistry with the other character until they slay their inner demons, save the world, and realize there is room in their heart to love.Romantic fantasy might not be for you if you prefer paranormal fantasy or epic fantasy. Romantic fantasy doesn't have the usual tropes of vampires and werewolves. Usually romantic fantasy novels are set in a high fantasy world, and an ultimate goal, besides love, is sought. Love is just the icing to the cupcake.

    It also provides evolutionary rationales for why and how sex differences in intelligence evolved to begin with; and it does so without concern for what is or is not politically correct. With the "acceptable" narrative abandoned, it openly and honestly explores the differences between the genders. Roderick Kaine is an American who has a degree in biochemistry, and he has done professional research in both Biology and Neuroscience. After moving on from this work, he has focused on writing and independent scholarship. He has been active in the neoreactionary movement, where he writes under the name Atavisionary (www.atavisionary.com).

    Our brains are gigantic, seven times larger than they should be for the size of our bodies. The human brain uses 25% of all the energy the body requires each day. And it became enormous in a very short amount of time in evolution, allowing us to leave our cousins, the great apes, behind. So the human brain is special, right? Wrong, according to Suzana Herculano-Houzel. Humans have developed cognitive abilities that outstrip those of all other animals, but not because we are evolutionary outliers. The human brain was not singled out to become amazing in its own exclusive way, and it never stopped being a primate brain. If we are not an exception to the rules of evolution, then what is the source of the human advantage?Herculano-Houzel shows that it is not the size of our brain that matters but the fact that we have more neurons in the cerebral cortex than any other animal, thanks to our ancestors' invention, some 1.5 million years ago, of a more efficient way to obtain calories: cooking. Because we are primates, ingesting more calories in less time made possible the rapid acquisition of a huge number of neurons in the still fairly small cerebral cortex--the part of the brain responsible for finding patterns, reasoning, developing technology, and passing it on through culture.Herculano-Houzel shows us how she came to these conclusions--making "brain soup" to determine the number of neurons in the brain, for example, and bringing animal brains in a suitcase through customs. The Human Advantage is an engaging and original look at how we became remarkable without ever being special.

    In this essential primer, mathematician Michael Frame—a close collaborator with Benoit Mandelbrot, the founder of fractal geometry—and poet Amelia Urry explore the amazing world of fractals as they appear in nature, art, medicine, and technology. Frame and Urry offer new insights into such familiar topics as measuring fractal complexity by dimension and the life and work of Mandelbrot. In addition, they delve into less-known areas: fractals with memory, the Mandelbrot set in four dimensions, fractals in literature, and more. An inviting introduction to an enthralling subject, this comprehensive volume is ideal for learning and teaching.

    This organismal bias has led to an incomplete and often erroneous understanding of evolutionary theory. Because plants grow and reproduce differently than animals, they have evolved differently, and generally accepted evolutionary views—as, for example, the standard models of speciation—often fail to hold when applied to them. Tapping such wide-ranging topics as genetics, gene regulatory networks, phenotype mapping, and multicellularity, as well as paleobotany, Karl J. Niklas’s Plant Evolution offers fresh insight into these differences. Following up on his landmark book The Evolutionary Biology of Plants—in which he drew on cutting-edge computer simulations that used plants as models to illuminate key evolutionary theories—Niklas incorporates data from more than a decade of new research in the flourishing field of molecular biology, conveying not only why the study of evolution is so important, but also why the study of plants is essential to our understanding of evolutionary processes. Niklas shows us that investigating the intricacies of plant development, the diversification of early vascular land plants, and larger patterns in plant evolution is not just a botanical pursuit: it is vital to our comprehension of the history of all life on this green planet.

    Straight and perpendicular lines are not found in nature, so where did they come from? What shift in consciousness occurred around the globe that triggered the start of rectangular building methods and linear organization as well as written language, pyramid construction, mathematics, and art?Offering a detailed answer to this question, Carl Calleman explores the quantum evolution of the global mind and its holographic resonance with the human mind. He examines how our brains are not thinking machines but individual receivers of consciousness from the global mind, which creates holographic downloads to adjust human consciousness to new cosmological circumstances. He explains how the Mayan Calendar provides a blueprint for these downloads throughout history and how the global mind, rather than the individual, has the power to make civilizations rise and fall. He shows how, at the beginning of the Mayan 6th Wave (Long Count) in 3115 BCE, the global mind gave human beings the capacity to conceptualize spatial relations in terms of straight and perpendicular lines, initiating the building of pyramids and megaliths around the world and leading to the rise of modern civilization. He examines the symbolism within the Great Pyramid of Giza and the pyramid at Chichén Itzá and looks at the differences between humans of the 6th Wave in ancient Egypt, Sumer, South America, and Asia and the cave painters of the 5th Wave. He reveals how the global mind is always connected to the inner core of the Earth and discusses how the two halves of the brain parallel the civilizations of the East and West.Outlining the historical, psychological, geophysical, and neurological roots of the modern human mind, Calleman shows how studying early civilizations offers a means of understanding the evolution of consciousness.