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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorScatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction
Annalee Newitz · 305 pages
"In this brilliantly speculative work of popular science, Annalee Newitz, editor of io9.com, explains that although global disaster is all but inevitable, our chances of long-term species survival are better than ever. 'Scatter, Adapt, and Remember' explores how scientific breakthroughs today will help us avoid disasters tomorrow, from simulating tsunamis or studying central Turkey's ancient under
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
Elizabeth Kolbert · 336 pages
From the author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe, a powerful and important work about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a compelling account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes.
I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life
Ed Yong · 368 pages
Joining the ranks of popular science classics like The Botany of Desire and The Selfish Gene, a groundbreaking, wondrously informative, and vastly entertaining examination of the most significant revolution in biology since Darwin—a “microbe’s-eye view” of the world that reveals a marvelous, radically reconceived picture of life on earth. Every animal, whether human, squid, or wasp, is home to
The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal
Jared Diamond · 407 pages
Explores the question of what in the less than two percent of genes has made humans different from apes.
The Song Of The Dodo: Island Biogeography In An Age Of Extinctions
David Quammen · 702 pages
David Quammen's book, The Song of the Dodo, is a brilliant, stirring work, breathtaking in its scope, far-reaching in its message -- a crucial book in precarious times, which radically alters the way in which we understand the natural world and our place in that world. It's also a book full of entertainment and wonders. In The Song of the Dodo, we follow Quammen's keen intellect through the ide
Life: An Unauthorised Biography: A Natural History of the First Four Thousand Million Years of Life on Earth
Richard Fortey · 416 pages
Richard Fortey guides us from the barren globe spinning in space, through the very earliest signs of life in the sulphurous hot springs and volcanic vents of the young planet, the appearance of cells, the slow creation of an atmosphere and the evolution of myriad forms of plants and animals that could then be sustained, including the magnificent era of the dinosaurs, and on to the last moment befo
The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
Michael Pollan · 304 pages
Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—s
When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time
Michael J. Benton · 336 pages
The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems
Fritjof Capra · 333 pages
In The Web of Life Capra offers a radical synthesis of such recent scientific breakthroughs as the theory of complexity, Gaia theory, chaos theory and other explanations of the properties of organisms, social systems and ecosystems.
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
Steven Pinker · 528 pages
In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker, one of the world's leading experts on language and the mind, explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. With characteristic wit, lucidity, and insight, Pinker argues that the dogma that the mind has no innate traits-a doctrine held by many intellectuals during the past century-denies our common humanity and our individual
Why We Run: A Natural History
Bernd Heinrich · 304 pages
In Why We Run, biologist, award-winning nature writer, and ultramarathoner Bernd Heinrich explores a new perspective on human evolution by examining the phenomenon of ultraendurance and makes surprising discoveries about the physical, spiritual -- and primal -- drive to win. At once lyrical and scientific, Why We Run shows Heinrich's signature blend of biology, anthropology, psychology, and philos
Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness
Peter Godfrey-Smith · 272 pages
"Peter Godfrey-Smith is a leading philosopher of science. He is also a scuba diver whose underwater videos of warring octopuses have attracted wide notice. In this book, he brings his parallel careers together to tell a bold new story of how nature became aware of itself. Mammals and birds are widely seen as the smartest creatures on earth. But one other branch of the tree of life has also sproute
Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence
Richard W. Wrangham, Dale Peterson · 350 pages
Whatever their virtues, men are more violent than women. Why do men kill, rape, and wage war, and what can we do about it? Drawing on the latest discoveries about human evolution and about our closest living relatives, the great apes, Demonic Males offers some startling new answers. Dramatic, vivid, and firmly grounded in meticulous research, this book will change the way you see the world.
My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs
Brian Switek · 264 pages
Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins
Steve Olson · 298 pages
Mapping Human History is a comprehensive guide to the evolution of humans. The book is carefully chaptered into specific sections which focus on explaining both the geographical causes of human evolution (for example, isolation); the nature of which human characteristics are transferred to future generations by genetic processes; and the effects this has had on the distribution of humans across th
Sperm Wars: Infidelity, Sexual Conflict, and Other Bedroom Battles
Robin Baker · 358 pages
"Using a series of fictional scenes involving some form of sexual contact, followed by an interpretation of the behavior from the viewpoint of an evolutionary biologist," the author explains how the "old programming [prompts] sexual behavior that is often in conflict with ... rational plans."--Jackets.
Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life
Nick Lane · 368 pages
"Today, mitochondria are central to research into human prehistory, genetic diseases, cell suicide, fertility, ageing, bioenergetics, sex, and the eukaryotic cell. Piecing together puzzles from the forefront of research, this book paints a sweeping canvas that will thrill all who are interested in biology, while also contributing to evolutionary thinking and debate. This is a book full of insights
The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey
Spencer Wells · 224 pages
"Showing how the secrets about our ancestors are hidden in our genetic code, Spencer Wells reveals how developments in the cutting-edge science of population genetics have made it possible to create a family tree for the whole of humanity. We now know not only where our ancestors lived but who they fought, loved, and influenced.". "Informed by this new science, The Journey of Man is replete with
Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts
Terry Burnham, Jay Phelan · 272 pages
The Wild Life of Our Bodies: Predators, Parasites, and Partners That Shape Who We Are Today
Rob Dunn · 304 pages