Book picks similar to
Primates of the World: The Amazing Diversity of Our Closest Relatives by Ian Redmond
natural-history
the-planet-earth
veganism
00-inbox
When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson - 1994
Not since Darwin's The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals has a book so thoroughly and effectively explored the full range of emotions that exist throughout the animal kingdom.From dancing squirrels to bashful gorillas to spiteful killer whales, Masson and coauthor Susan McCarthy bring forth fascinating anecdotes and illuminating insights that offer powerful proof of the existence of animal emotion. Chapters on love, joy, anger, fear, shame, compassion, and loneliness are framed by a provocative re-evaluation of how we treat animals, from hunting and eating them to scientific experimentation. Forming a complete and compelling picture of the inner lives of animals, When Elephants Weep assures that we will never look at animals in the same way again.
Mind, Life, and Universe: Conversations with Great Scientists of Our Time
Lynn Margulis - 2007
Co-editor Eduardo Punset--one of Spain's most loved personages for his popularization of the sciences--interviews an impressive collection of characters drawing out the seldom seen personalities of the world's most important men and woman of science. In Mind, Life and Universe they describe in their own words the most important and fascinating aspects of their research. Frank and often irreverent, these interviews will keep even the most casual reader of science books rapt for hours.Can brain science explain feelings of happiness and despair? Is it true that chimpanzees are just like us when it comes to sexual innuendo? Is there any hard evidence that life exists anywhere other than on the Earth? Through Punset's skillful questioning, readers will meet one scientist who is passionate about the genetic control of everything and another who spends her every waking hour making sure African ecosystems stay intact. The men and women assembled here by Lynn Margulis and Eduardo Punset will provide a source of endless interest.In captivating conversations with such science luminaries as Jane Goodall, James E. Lovelock, Oliver Sachs, and E. O. Wilson, Punset reveals a hidden world of intellectual interests, verve, and humor. Science enthusiasts and general readers alike will devour Mind, Life and Universe, breathless and enchanted by its truths.
Fragile Species
Lewis Thomas - 1992
The author of The Lives of a Cell and The Medusa and the Snail now raises challenging questions about some of the major issues of our time—AIDS, drug abuse, and aging.With extraordinary perception, author Lewis Thomas discusses topics such as evolutionary biology, the development of language, the therapeutic aspects of medicine, and his love for his profession.
Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals
Hal Herzog - 2010
Herzog’s groundbreaking research on animal rights activists, cockfighters, professional dog-show handlers, veterinary students, and biomedical researchers. Blending anthropology, behavioral economics, evolutionary psychology, and philosophy, Herzog carefully crafts a seamless narrative enriched with real-life anecdotes, scientific research, and his own sense of moral ambivalence.Alternately poignant, challenging, and laugh-out-loud funny, this enlightening and provocative book will forever change the way we look at our relationships with other creatures and, ultimately, how we see ourselves.
The Unexpected Universe
Loren Eiseley - 1969
Scrupulous scholarship and magical prose are brought to bear on such diverse topics as seeds, the hieroglyphs on shells, lost tombs, the goddess Circe, city dumps, and Neanderthal man.
Tom Brown's Field Guide to City and Suburban Survival
Tom Brown Jr. - 1986
Few of us realize how close we are to the elemental struggle for survival, until disaster strikes. Yet it is possible to be prepared. In this uniquely practical handbook, Tom Brown, Jr. gives you the specific skills and detailed knowledge you need to protect yourself and those you love in almost any emergency.* Alternative heat and light sources* Preventing and coping with electrical failure* Automobile survival techniques* Protecting your home from intruders* Unconventional food sources for the city dweller* Surviving earthquakes, floods, blizzards, hurricanes, and more* Guarding against urban crime
What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins
Jonathan Balcombe - 2016
Although there are more than thirty thousand species of fish—more than all mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians combined—we rarely consider how individual fishes think, feel, and behave. Balcombe upends our assumptions about fishes, portraying them not as unfeeling, dead-eyed feeding machines but as sentient, aware, social, and even Machiavellian—in other words, much like us. What a Fish Knows draws on the latest science to present a fresh look at these remarkable creatures in all their breathtaking diversity and beauty. Fishes conduct elaborate courtship rituals and develop lifelong bonds with shoalmates. They also plan, hunt cooperatively, use tools, curry favor, deceive one another, and punish wrongdoers. We may imagine that fishes lead simple, fleeting lives—a mode of existence that boils down to a place on the food chain, rote spawning, and lots of aimless swimming. But, as Balcombe demonstrates, the truth is far richer and more complex, worthy of the grandest social novel. Highlighting breakthrough discoveries from fish enthusiasts and scientists around the world and pondering his own encounters with fishes, Balcombe examines the fascinating means by which fishes gain knowledge of the places they inhabit, from shallow tide pools to the deepest reaches of the ocean. Teeming with insights and exciting discoveries, What a Fish Knows offers a thoughtful appraisal of our relationships with fishes and inspires us to take a more enlightened view of the planet’s increasingly imperiled marine life. What a Fish Knows will forever change how we see our aquatic cousins—the pet goldfish included.
Stories
D. Rus - 2015
This is a story about the legions of Inferno invading the Earth. If we can enter AlterWorld, why can’t AlterWorld enter our home? Do you like to watch Chaos unfold? Beware, for one day you will feel its gaze upon you…- Call of Duty. Doc’s long awaited story. Did Doc make his dream a reality and save the doomed children? And what will the authorities do once they see the empty beds and the overfilled freezers in the hospice morgue?
Lords Of The Harvest: Biotech, Big Money, And The Future Of Food
Daniel Charles - 2001
Giant corporations are creating designer crops with strange powers-from cholesterol-reducing soybeans to plants that act as miniature drug factories, churning out everything from vaccines to insulin. They promise great benefits: better health for consumers, more productive agriculture-even an end to world hunger. But the vision has a dark side, one of profit-driven tampering with life and the possible destruction of entire ecosystems. In Lords of the Harvest, Daniel Charles takes us deep inside research labs, farm sheds, and corporate boardrooms to reveal the hidden story behind this agricultural revolution. He tells how a handful of scientists at Monsanto drove biotechnology from the lab into the field, and how the company's opponents are fighting back with every tool available to them, including the cynical manipulation of public fears. A dramatic account of boundless ambition, political intrigue, and the quest for knowledge, Lords of the Harvest is ultimately a story of idealism and of conflicting dreams about the shape of a better world.
Faith in a Seed: The Dispersion of Seeds & Other Late Natural History Writings
Henry David Thoreau - 1993
This major literary event contains a hitherto unpublished work--The Dispersion of Seeds--one of Thoreau's last important research and writing projects, and places him among the first American scientists to understand the significance of Darwin's theory of Natural Selection.
The Wife of the Kenite
Agatha Christie - 1923
Unusually for Agatha Christie it was a horror short story which is not normally associated with the Great Author. The story was retrieved from the Italian Magazine on the 19th June 2013 and is only 9 pages in length. In normal circumstances, nine pages is not enough to justify a printed version of this little known and recently discovered Agatha Christie work. This book attempts to celebrate the fact that a 'new' work by the Great Author has been discovered and the fact that it can be classified as a horror short story adds to what we know about the Great Lady. The book gives some background to the story in addition to faithfully reproducing the actual Italian translation from the magazine. The English translation follows and the ends with further reference to ensure a full understanding of the story.
Earth Then and Now: Amazing Images of Our Changing World
Fred Pearce - 2007
On one page is a specific part of the world as it was 5, 20, 50 or even 100 years ago. On the facing page is the same place as it looks today. Each stark visual comparison tells a compelling story -- a melting glacier, an expanding desert, an encroaching cityscape, a natural disaster.Earth Then and Now reminds us that nothing is without a cost. Highly topical and thought provoking chapters in this book include:Environmental change Bearing witness to the effects of global warmingIndustrialization Revealing the hidden costs of "progress"Urbanization Showing the effects of our spreading citiesNatural disasters Reminding us of the power of natureWar Using comparisons to show the impact of armed conflictTravel and tourism Illustrating the predatory nature of development. Concise captions explain the facts and then allow the reader to draw personal conclusions. Anyone concerned about the environment will enjoy and appreciate Earth Then and Now.
The Wild God of the World: An Anthology of Robinson Jeffers
Robinson Jeffers - 2003
This anthology serves as an introduction to Jeffers's work for the general reader and for students in courses on American poetry. Jeffers composed each volume of his verse around one or two long narrative or dramatic poems. The Wild God of the World follows this practice: in it, Cawdor, one of Jeffers's most powerful narratives, is surrounded by a representative selection of shorter poems. At the end of the book, the editor has provided revealing statements about Jeffers's poetry and poetics, and about his philosophy of nature and human nature.
The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs: Respecting and Caring for All God's Creation
Joel Salatin - 2016
. . a heartfelt plea to heed the Bible's guidance . . . .It's an important and thought-provoking explanation of how by simply appreciating the marvelous pigness of pigs, we are celebrating the Glory of God. As a man of deep faith and student of the Bible, and as a respected and successful ecological family farmer, Joel Salatin knows that God created heaven and earth and meant for all living organisms to be true to their nature and their endowed holy purpose. He intended for us to respect and care for His gift of creation, not to ravage and mistreat it for our own pleasure or wealth. The example that inspires the book's title explains what Salatin means: when huge corporate farms confine pigs in cramped and dark pens, inject them with antibiotics and feed them herbicide-saturated food simply to increase profits, they are not respecting them as a creation of God or allowing them to express even their most rudimentary uniqueness - that special role that is part of His design. Every living organism has a God-given uniqueness to its life that must be honored and respected, and too often that is not happening today. Salatin shows us the long overlooked ethics and instructions in the Bible for how to eat, how to shop, how to think about how we farm and feed the world. Through scripture and Biblical stories, he shows us why it's more vital than ever to look to the good book rather than corporate America when feeding the country and your family. Salatin makes a compelling case for Christian stewardship of the earth and how it relates to every action we take regarding our food. He also opens our eyes to a common misconception many Christians may have about environmentalism: it's not a bad thing, and definitely not just the province of secular liberals; it's really a very good thing, part of heeding God's Word. With warmth and with humor, but with no less piercing criticism of the industrial food complex, Salatin brings readers on a fascinating journey of farming, food and faith. Readers will not say grace over their plates the same way ever again.
East Coast Australia
Lonely PlanetPenny Watson - 2002
Regis St. Louis, Lonely Planet Writer Our Promise You can trust our travel information because Lonely Planet authors visit the places we write about, each and every edition. We never accept freebies for positive coverage, and you can rely on us to tell it like we see it. Inside This Book 8 authors94 maps1 Big Banana18,000 km of coastlineInspirational photosClear, easy-to-use mapsAt-a-glance practical infoYour Reef Trip planning featureComprehensive planning toolsIn-depth background