Book picks similar to
Plasticity, Robustness, Development and Evolution by Patrick Bateson
nonfiction
evolution
science
getting-your-head-around-the-brain
Faster: Demystifying the Science of Triathlon Speed
Jim Gourley - 2013
The gear you select and how you use it can mean big results—or bigger disappointment.FASTER takes a scientific look at triathlon to see what truly makes you faster—and busts the myths and doublespeak that waste your money and race times. In this fascinating exploration of the forces at play in the swim-bike-run sport, astronautical engineer and triathlete Jim Gourley shows where to find free speed, speed on a budget, and the gear upgrades that are worth it.FASTER offers specific, science-based guidance on the fastest techniques and the most effective gear, answering questions like: • Which wetsuit is best for me? • What’s the best way to draft a swimmer? • Should I buy a lighter bike? • Deep dish or disc wheels? • Are lighter shoes faster? • Who’s right about running technique? Gourley reviews published studies in peer-reviewed journals to show what scientists have learned about swim drafting, pacing the bike leg, race strategy for short and long-course racing, and the fastest ways to handle transitions.FASTER will change how you think about your body, your gear, and the world around you. With science on your side, you'll make the smart calls that will make you a better, faster triathlete.
Microbiology: A Systems Approach
Marjorie Kelly Cowan - 2000
It has become known for its engaging writing style, instructional art program and focus on active learning. We are so excited to offer a robust learning program with student-focused learning activities, allowing the student to manage their learning while you easily manage their assessment. Detailed reports show how your assignments measure various learning objectives from the book (or input your own!), levels of Bloom's Taxonomy or other categories, and how your students are doing. The Cowan Learning program will save you time and improve your student's success in this course.
Mammoth: The Resurrection Of An Ice Age Giant
Richard Stone - 2001
Cave paintings of the giant beasts hint at the profound role they played in early human culture-our Ice Age ancestors built igloo-shaped huts out of mammoth bones and even feasted on mammoth tongues. Eager to uncover more clues to this mystical prehistoric age, explorers since the time of Peter the Great have scoured Siberia for mammoth remains. Now a new generation of explorers has taken to the tundra. Armed with GPS, ground-penetrating radar, and Soviet-era military helicopters, they seek an elusive prize: a mammoth carcass that will help determine how the creature lived, how it died-and how it might be brought back to life.In this adventure-filled narrative, science writer Richard Stone follows two teams of explorers-one Russian/Japanese, the other a French-led consortium-as they battle bitter cold, high winds, supply shortages, and the deeply rooted superstitions of indigenous peoples who fear the consequences of awakening the "rat beneath the ice." Stone travels from St. Petersburg to the Arctic Circle, from the North Sea to high-tech Japanese laboratories, as he traces the sometimes-surreal quest of these intrepid scientists, whose work could well rewrite our planet's evolutionary history. A riveting tale of high-stakes adventure and scientific hubris, Mammoth is also an intellectual voyage through uncharted moral terrain, as we confront the promise and peril of resurrecting creatures from the deep past.
Evolution Impossible: 12 Reasons Why Evolution Cannot Explain Life on Earth
John F. Ashton - 2012
In Evolution Impossible, Dr. John Ashton uses discoveries in genetics, biochemistry, geology, radiometric dating, and other scientific disciplines to explain why the theory of evolution is a myth. Regardless of your level of scientific education, you will finish this book able to cite 12 reasons why evolution cannot explain the origin of life.
Coping with Sorrow on the Loss of Your Pet
Moira Anderson Allen - 1987
Treats this serious subject with sympathetic feelings. An excellent guide allowing us to understand that we are not alone with our grief. Anyone who has a pet should read it. -Dog Week Written with compassion and understanding; truly required reading for any pet owner. -Dog World Coping with Sorrow addresses every aspect of pet loss and grief. Written in a clear, friendly style. It takes a pet owner by the hand and walks him through the stages of bereavement, offering explanations and coping strategies at every step. -Canine Concepts A small gem of a book. Anderson's book fills the need for a comprehensive, yet easily read, publication on pet loss and owner bereavement. The message is one of love, common sense, and practical information. -The Delta Society This book has been needed for a long time-like forever! The wealth of information given by pet owners makes the book come alive. It's a lovely thing, beautifully and generously written from the bottom of a superb writer's heart. -Dog Writers Association of America It gets right to the heart of the issue of pet loss, right to where people are hurting. [Its] warm, down-to-earth language reaches out to a pet owner on the level of friend to friend. -Bloodlines
Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet
John Bradshaw - 2013
Today there are three cats for every dog on the planet, and yet cats remain more mysterious, even to their most adoring owners. Unlike dogs, cats evolved as solitary hunters, and, while many have learned to live alongside humans and even feel affection for us, they still don’t quite get us” the way dogs do, and perhaps they never will. But cats have rich emotional lives that we need to respect and understand if they are to thrive in our company.In Cat Sense, renowned anthrozoologist John Bradshaw takes us further into the mind of the domestic cat than ever before, using cutting-edge scientific research to dispel the myths and explain the true nature of our feline friends. Tracing the cat’s evolution from lone predator to domesticated companion, Bradshaw shows that although cats and humans have been living together for at least eight thousand years, cats remain independent, predatory, and wary of contact with their own kind, qualities that often clash with our modern lifestyles. Cats still have three out of four paws firmly planted in the wild, and within only a few generations can easily revert back to the independent way of life that was the exclusive preserve of their predecessors some 10,000 years ago. Cats are astonishingly flexible, and given the right environment they can adapt to a life of domesticity with their owners—but to continue do so, they will increasingly need our help. If we’re to live in harmony with our cats, Bradshaw explains, we first need to understand their inherited quirks: understanding their body language, keeping their environments—however small—sufficiently interesting, and becoming more proactive in managing both their natural hunting instincts and their relationships with other cats.A must-read for any cat lover, Cat Sense offers humane, penetrating insights about the domestic cat that challenge our most basic assumptions and promise to dramatically improve our pets’ lives—and ours.
Addicted?: How Addiction Affects Every One of Us and What We Can Do About It
Matt Noffs - 2018
Addictions to smartphones, sex, games, social media, gambling, money, but most of all to alcohol and drugs. The words 'addict' and 'addiction' are loaded with baggage. Not just in Australia, but the world over, addicts are considered to be sub-human, if not alien. This book aims to reclaim their dignity. It aims to rescue the word 'addiction' from its kidnappers and restore its humanity. It offers personal accounts from inspirational people who have found themselves in the grips of such addictions, and their amazing stories of survival. At the Ted Noffs Foundation, Matt Noffs and Kieran Palmer spend their lives working with young people who have serious and often debilitating drug addictions. This book shares the tools they use every day. It offers insights into why addiction takes place and why it's a natural part of being human. It journeys across the spectrum of addictive behaviors, from social media to drugs like heroin. It questions the assumptions and begins to debunk the myth that all addiction is identical and predictable. Addiction is something that could affect any of us. This is a book that everyone should read.
Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language
Robin I.M. Dunbar - 1997
It's an evolutionary riddle that at long last makes sense in this intriguing book about what gossip has done for our talkative species. Psychologist Robin Dunbar looks at gossip as an instrument of social order and cohesion--much like the endless grooming with which our primate cousins tend to their social relationships.Apes and monkeys, humanity's closest kin, differ from other animals in the intensity of these relationships. All their grooming is not so much about hygiene as it is about cementing bonds, making friends, and influencing fellow primates. But for early humans, grooming as a way to social success posed a problem: given their large social groups of 150 or so, our earliest ancestors would have had to spend almost half their time grooming one another--an impossible burden. What Dunbar suggests--and his research, whether in the realm of primatology or in that of gossip, confirms--is that humans developed language to serve the same purpose, but far more efficiently. It seems there is nothing idle about chatter, which holds together a diverse, dynamic group--whether of hunter-gatherers, soldiers, or workmates.Anthropologists have long assumed that language developed in relationships among males during activities such as hunting. Dunbar's original and extremely interesting studies suggest otherwise: that language in fact evolved in response to our need to keep up to date with friends and family. We needed conversation to stay in touch, and we still need it in ways that will not be satisfied by teleconferencing, email, or any other communication technology. As Dunbar shows, the impersonal world of cyberspace will not fulfill our primordial need for face-to-face contact.From the nit-picking of chimpanzees to our chats at coffee break, from neuroscience to paleoanthropology, Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language offers a provocative view of what makes us human, what holds us together, and what sets us apart.
Understanding the Highly Sensitive Child: Seeing an Overwhelming World through Their Eyes
James Williams - 2014
Nor is it always easy to raise, care for, guide and teach a highly sensitive child. Because the highly sensitive child experiences the world a little differently, and that can be difficult to understand. This book aims to help you experience the world from the child’s perspective, so that you can better understand them and help them to grow and thrive. In this simple, concise guide I distil the reams of information available on the highly sensitive child so that you can get the knowledge you need quickly and easily. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: ‘And those who were seen dancing were thought to be crazy by those who could not hear the music.’ The highly sensitive child isn’t crazy. Nor are they slow, or weak, or just ‘not tough enough’. They simply dance to a tune that not everyone can hear. This book helps you hear the music to which the highly sensitive child dances. Once you know the tune exists, and you listen for it carefully, you’ll find it’s beautiful, moving, powerful music.This is what Elaine N. Aron, Ph.D. thought of the book. Elaine is the author of the worldwide bestsellers The Highly Sensitive Person and The Highly Sensitive Child she has pioneered the research into Highly Sensitive People.“As the author of this truly brilliant little book, Jamie Williamson explains that he is not an academic or a psychologist. I am simply a man who feels very passionately about the subject. He is highly sensitive and so is one of his daughters, and he writes about sensitivity with both simplicity and depth. His sensitivity also shows in his book’s briefness. Caregivers of children need an author to get to the point so they can go get groceries, pick up the kids etc. Jamie’s book can be read in an hour, yet it has charming examples as well as great suggestions and a full, scientifically accurate description of the trait. Jamie is reaching out to all parents, carers and teachers of sensitive children and whether through this book or on his website, he is a wonderful resource.” – Elaine N. Aron.
Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition
Patricia S. Churchland - 2019
Churchland, the distinguished founder of neurophilosophy, drew from scientific research on the brain to understand its philosophical and ethical implications for identity, consciousness, free will, and memory. In Conscience, she explores how moral systems arise from our physical selves in combination with environmental demands.All social groups have ideals for behavior, even though ethics vary among different cultures and among individuals within each culture. In trying to understand why, Churchland brings together an understanding of the influences of nature and nurture. She looks to evolution to elucidate how, from birth, our brains are configured to form bonds, to cooperate, and to care. She shows how children grow up in society to learn, through repetition and rewards, the norms, values, and behavior that their parents embrace.Conscience delves into scientific studies, particularly the fascinating work on twins, to deepen our understanding of whether people have a predisposition to embrace specific ethical stands. Research on psychopaths illuminates the knowledge about those who abide by no moral system and the explanations science gives for these disturbing individuals.Churchland then turns to philosophy—that of Socrates, Aquinas, and contemporary thinkers like Owen Flanagan—to explore why morality is central to all societies, how it is transmitted through the generations, and why different cultures live by different morals. Her unparalleled ability to join ideas rarely put into dialogue brings light to a subject that speaks to the meaning of being human.
Measuring Behaviour: An Introductory Guide
Paul R. Martin - 1986
Largely rewritten, updated and reorganised, this third edition is, as before, a guide to the principles and methods of quantitative studies of behaviour, with an emphasis on techniques of observation, recording and analysis. It provides the basic knowledge needed to measure behaviour, doing so in a succinct and easily understood form. The sections on research design and the interpretation and presentation of data have been greatly expanded. Written with brevity and clarity, Measuring Behaviour is, above all, a practical guide book. Aimed primarily at undergraduate and graduate students in biology and psychology who are about to embark upon quantitative studies of animal and human behaviour, this book provides a concise review of methodology that will be of great value to scientists of all disciplines in which behaviour is measured, including biological anthropology, the social sciences and medicine.
Evolutionaries: Unlocking the Spiritual and Cultural Potential of Science's Greatest Idea
Carter Phipps - 2012
But the idea of evolution is far more profound—and far-reaching. Today, a movement of visionary scientists, philosophers, and spiritual thinkers is forging a new understanding of evolution that honors science, reframes culture, and radically updates spirituality. Carter Phipps calls them Evolutionaries. His groundbreaking book provides the first popular guide to these exciting minds who are illuminating the secrets of our past and expanding the vistas of our future.What They're Saying:“Carter Phipps brilliantly expands our understanding of evolution by showing us that a new science is emerging—one that will holistically integrate our understanding of consciousness, cosmology, and evolution.” -Deepak Chopra, Author of How to Know God“This beautifully written book is a splendid survey of evolutionary thought and a significant contribution to the increasingly important conversation between the natural sciences and our spiritual traditions.” -John F. Haught, Senior Fellow at Georgetown’s Woodstock Theological Center“As we search for a new orientation that will serve us for the next millennium, it would be hard to find a better guide than Carter Phipps.” -Brian Swimme Ph.D., California Institute of Integral Studies, author of The Universe Story“A profound and profoundly important new work… absolutely indispensable for lay and professional. The very highest recommendation!” -Ken Wilber, Author of The Integral Vision“Essential reading for anyone who cares about humanity’s future and our role in creating a better one. Evolutionaries, is a brilliant, accessibly written, and eye-opening book.” -Barbara Marx Hubbard, Author of Heal Your Life“A rare book, equally delightful and deep, Phipps explores how our growing knowledge about the evolutionary process catalyzes nothing less than a revolutionary understanding of our selves.” -Elizabeth Debold, Author of Mother Daughter Revolution: From Good Girls to Great Women
Human Instinct: How Our Primeval Impulses Shape Our Modern Lives
Robert Winston - 2002
But how well do these instincts, our most basic modes of interacting with the world, equip us for modern life? We are driven to pursue material wealth and status. We have an innate impulse to find a mate, to fight to protect our young, and to find food and shelter. In Human Instinct, which accompanies a BBC1 television series, Robert Winston takes us to the forefront of modern science, exploring our instincts and gaining a deeper insight into the wonderful complexity of human nature.
The Darwin Myth: The Life and Lies Charles Darwin
Benjamin Wiker - 2009
Instructive and illuminating, The Darwin Myth casts aside Darwinism's politically correct veneer and offers a critical, scientific analysis of Darwin's life and his history–changing theory.