Author : John Townsend
Publisher : Capstone Classroom
Page : 42 pages
File Size : 17,52 MB
Release : 2007
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 9781410923813
Describes biological theories that have been proposed throughout history, some of which have proven true, others false, and a few of which are just strange.
Author : John Townsend
Publisher : Heinemann-Raintree Library
Page : 60 pages
File Size : 48,55 MB
Release : 2007
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 9781410923769
Describes biological theories that have been proposed throughout history, some of which have proven true, others false, and a few of which are just strange.
Author : David Toomey
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 246 pages
File Size : 21,78 MB
Release : 2013-02-26
Category : Science
ISBN : 0393089940
“Weird indeed, and not a little wonderful.”—Nature In the 1980s and 1990s, in places where no one thought it possible, scientists found organisms they called extremophiles: lovers of extremes. There were bacteria in volcanic hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, single-celled algae in Antarctic ice floes, and fungi in the cooling pools of nuclear reactors. But might there be life stranger than the most extreme extremophile? Might there be, somewhere, another kind of life entirely? In fact, scientists have hypothesized life that uses ammonia instead of water, life based not in carbon but in silicon, life driven by nuclear chemistry, and life whose very atoms are unlike those in life we know. In recent years some scientists have begun to look for the tamer versions of such life on rock surfaces in the American Southwest, in a “shadow biosphere” that might impinge on the known biosphere, and even deep within human tissue. They have also hypothesized more radical versions that might survive in Martian permafrost, in the cold ethylene lakes on Saturn’s moon Titan, and in the hydrogen-rich atmospheres of giant planets in other solar systems. And they have imagined it in places off those worlds: the exotic ices in comets, the vast spaces between the stars, and—strangest of all—parallel universes. Distilling complex science in clear and lively prose, David Toomey illuminates the research of the biological avant-garde and describes the workings of weird organisms in riveting detail. His chapters feature an unforgettable cast of brilliant scientists and cover everything from problems with our definitions of life to the possibility of intelligent weird life. With wit and understanding that will delight scientists and lay readers alike, Toomey reveals how our current knowledge of life forms may account for only a tiny fraction of what’s really out there.
Author : One R. Pagan
Publisher : BenBella Books
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 45,78 MB
Release : 2018-02-27
Category : Science
ISBN : 1944648593
Life is beautiful, ruthless, and very, very strange. In the evolutionary arms race that has raged on since life began, organisms have developed an endless variety of survival strategies. From sharp claws to brute strength, camouflage to venom—all these tools and abilities share one purpose: to keep their bearer alive long enough to reproduce, helping the species avoid extinction. Every living thing on this planet has developed a time-tested arsenal of weapons and defenses. Some of these weapons and defenses, however, are decidedly more unusual than others. In Strange Survivors, biologist Oné R. Pagán takes us on a tour of the improbable, the ingenious, and the just plain bizarre ways that creatures fight for life. Inside this funny, fascinating field guide to nature’s most colorful characters, you’ll meet killer snails, social bacteria, and an animal with toxic elbows. But Strange Survivors is more than a collection of curiosities—it is a love letter to science and an argument for the continuing relevance of this evolutionary battle as we face the threat of resistant bacteria and the need for novel medical therapies. Whether discussing blood-thinning bats and electric fish or pondering the power of cooperation, Pagán reveals the surprising lessons found in some of life’s natural oddities and how the tactics they employ to live might aid our own survival.
Author : Caleb Compton
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 17,99 MB
Release : 2019
Category :
ISBN : 9781528944656
Author : Joseph Henrich
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Page : 420 pages
File Size : 40,16 MB
Release : 2020-09-08
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 0374710457
A New York Times Notable Book of 2020 A Bloomberg Best Non-Fiction Book of 2020 A Behavioral Scientist Notable Book of 2020 A Human Behavior & Evolution Society Must-Read Popular Evolution Book of 2020 A bold, epic account of how the co-evolution of psychology and culture created the peculiar Western mind that has profoundly shaped the modern world. Perhaps you are WEIRD: raised in a society that is Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. If so, you’re rather psychologically peculiar. Unlike much of the world today, and most people who have ever lived, WEIRD people are highly individualistic, self-obsessed, control-oriented, nonconformist, and analytical. They focus on themselves—their attributes, accomplishments, and aspirations—over their relationships and social roles. How did WEIRD populations become so psychologically distinct? What role did these psychological differences play in the industrial revolution and the global expansion of Europe during the last few centuries? In The WEIRDest People in the World, Joseph Henrich draws on cutting-edge research in anthropology, psychology, economics, and evolutionary biology to explore these questions and more. He illuminates the origins and evolution of family structures, marriage, and religion, and the profound impact these cultural transformations had on human psychology. Mapping these shifts through ancient history and late antiquity, Henrich reveals that the most fundamental institutions of kinship and marriage changed dramatically under pressure from the Roman Catholic Church. It was these changes that gave rise to the WEIRD psychology that would coevolve with impersonal markets, occupational specialization, and free competition—laying the foundation for the modern world. Provocative and engaging in both its broad scope and its surprising details, The WEIRDest People in the World explores how culture, institutions, and psychology shape one another, and explains what this means for both our most personal sense of who we are as individuals and also the large-scale social, political, and economic forces that drive human history. Includes black-and-white illustrations.
Author : Marty Crump
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 213 pages
File Size : 40,41 MB
Release : 2008-11-15
Category : Nature
ISBN : 0226122085
The natural world is filled with diverse—not to mention quirky and odd—animal behaviors. Consider the male praying mantis that continues to mate after being beheaded; the spiders, insects, and birds that offer gifts of food in return for sex; the male hip-pocket frog that carries his own tadpoles; the baby spiders that dine on their mother; the beetle that craves excrement; or the starfish that sheds an arm or two to escape a predator's grasp. Headless Males Make Great Lovers and Other Unusual Natural Histories celebrates the extraordinary world of animals with essays on curious creatures and their amazing behaviors. In five thematic chapters, Marty Crump—a tropical field biologist well known for her work with the reproductive behavior of amphibians—examines the bizarre conduct of animals as they mate, parent, feed, defend themselves, and communicate. Crump's enthusiasm for the unusual behaviors she describes-from sex change and free love in sponges to aphrodisiac concoctions in bats-is visible on every page, thanks to her skilled storytelling, which makes even sea slugs, dung beetles, ticks, and tapeworms fascinating and appealing. Steeped in biology, Headless Males Make Great Lovers points out that diverse and unrelated animals often share seemingly bizarre behaviors—evidence, Crump argues, that these natural histories, though outwardly weird, are successful ways of living. Illustrated throughout, and filled with vignettes of personal and scientific interest, Headless Males Make Great Lovers will enchant the general reader with its tales of blood-squirting horned lizards and intestine-ejecting sea cucumbers—all in the service of a greater appreciation of the diversity of the natural histories of animals.
Author : Karen Romano Young
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 40,30 MB
Release : 2015
Category : Biology
ISBN : 9781426323799
"Discover what makes biology fun in this engaging book, filled with exciting science and kid-friendly experiments, from detecting phony smiles to making a cast out of a muddy footprint! Making use of materials easily found at home or at school and featuring a unique approach to each project, this book not only helps answer questions, it also encourages you to ask more! Try again! And never give up!" -- provided by publisher.
Author : Roy Bainton
Publisher : Robinson
Page : 486 pages
File Size : 20,80 MB
Release : 2013-01-17
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 1780337965
New mysteries, as well as variations on recurring ones, continue to surface on a weekly basis around the globe, from showers of frogs over Hungary to birds falling to earth in Arkansas. This compendious round-up of unexplained phenomena examines everything from the experiments being done with the Large Hadron Collider to classic maritime mysteries involving inexplicably missing crews, via UFOs, mediums, cryptozoology, panics, paranoia and a universe proving stranger in fact than we'd imagined.
Author : Teisha J. Rowland
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 39,42 MB
Release : 2013-08-31
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781304368621
In Biology Bytes: Digestible Essays on Animals Both Commonplace and Bizarre, author Dr. Teisha J. Rowland discusses the critters that are all around us. From ones close to us, such as our pets, to distant considerations, like the insects that make our silk fabrics, or unfamiliar amphibians facing extinction, a range of creatures are explored in essays that can be easily digested: complex science is broken down into key points, jargon is clearly explained, and, where applicable, how the reader can take action is summed up. This book covers a wide range of topics, including "unusual" creatures (such as monotremes and photosynthetic sea slugs), everyday critters (like pesky garden snails and captivating monarch butterflies), the evolution of our species and the Neanderthals (who our ancestors bred with as recently as 37,000 years ago), the recent decline of honey bees, coral reefs, and others, and explanations for stories of encounters with fictional "monsters," like vampires and zombies.
