Life sciences: general issues

Practice radical mycology and learn mushroom loreDiscover the glorious world of mushrooms, lichens, and micro fungi, as described by Peter McCoy, one of today's foremost experts in the field. Covering the essential information and skills for...

A groundbreaking look at Gaia theory's intersections with neocybernetic systems theory Often seen as an outlier in science, Gaia has run a long and varied course since its formulation in the 1970s by atmospheric chemist James Lovelock and microbiologist...

Veer Ecology is a groundbreaking guide for the twenty-first century, with theeditors asking thirty brilliant thinkers to each propose one verb that stressesthe forceful potential of inquiry, weather, biomes, apprehensions, and desiresto swerve...

A comprehensive guide to understanding how memory works, how memory forms, the mind-body connection, and more! In the busy, information-filled world in which we live, it's often easy to forget things and hard to keep track of how details get stored in...

A fascinating look at the world's most numerous inhabitants, illustrated with stunning images from the American Museum of Natural History's Rare Book Collection. To date, we have discovered and described or named around 1.1 million insect...

Following the format of the first volume, 100 Bulbophyllum species are described and illustrated by line drawings and in colour.

In many ecosystems dung beetles play a crucial role--both ecologically and economically--in the decomposition of large herbivore dung. Their activities provide scientists with an excellent opportunity to explore biological community dynamics. This...

The extraordinary life story of the celebrated naturalist who transformed our understanding of evolution.Enchanted by Daphne is legendary ecologist Peter Grant's personal account of his remarkable life and career. In this revelatory book, Grant takes...

You can tell a lot about a tree from the company it keeps. James Nardi guides you through the innermost unseen world that trees share with a wondrous array of creatures. With their elaborate immune responses, trees recruit a host of allies as predators...

A richly illustrated introduction to the incredible world of beetles.With some 400,000 species, beetles are among the largest and most successful groups of organisms on earth, making up one-fifth of all plant and animal species. No other animals exhibit...

A marvellously illustrated A-to-Z compendium of bird names from around the globe.The Bird Name Book is an alphabetical reference book on the origins and meanings of common group bird names, from 'accentor' to...

A major new biography of the brilliant naturalist, traveller, humanitarian, and codiscoverer of natural selectionAlfred Russel Wallace (18231913) was perhaps the most famed naturalist of the Victorian age. His expeditions to remote Amazonia and southeast...

A powerful framework for understanding how natural selection shapes adaptation and biological design.Design and diversity are the two great challenges in the study of life. Microbial Life History draws on the latest advances in microbiology to describe...

A fascinating and richly illustrated exploration of the natural history of fungiWe know fungi are important, for us as well as the environment. But how they live, and what they can do, remains mysterious and surprising. Filled with stunning photographs,...

The ocean teems with life that thrives under difficult situations in unusual environments. The Extreme Life of the Sea takes readers to the absolute limits of the ocean world - the fastest and deepest, the hottest and oldest creatures of the oceans. It...

Seaweeds are astoundingly diverse. They're found along the shallows of beaches and have been recorded living at depths of more than 800 feet; they can be microscopic or grow into giants many meters long. They're incredibly efficient at using the...

A richly illustrated natural history of ants, covering their diversity, ecology, anatomy, behaviour, and morePlentiful and familiar, ants make up an estimated one-third of the world's insect biomass and can be found in virtually every part of the globe,...

A comprehensive photographic guide to the gull species of the Western PalearcticGulls occupy a particularly important place in the world of birds. But because they are notoriously difficult to identify, they have been relatively neglected in the...

From famed zoologist Anthony Sinclair, an account of his decades-long quest to understand one of Earth's most spectacular ecosystems.With its rich biodiversity, astounding wildlife, and breathtaking animal migrations, Serengeti is like no other...

The revolution in science that is transforming our understanding of extinct life.We used to think of fossils as being composed of nothing but rock and minerals, all molecular traces of life having vanished long ago. We were wrong. Remnants of Ancient...

The first annotated edition of the scientific papers that created the foundation of modern neuroscience and physiology The origin of everything known about how neurons and muscles generate electrical signals can be traced back to five revolutionary...

An authoritative introduction to the latest comparative methods in evolutionary biologyPhylogenetic comparative methods are a suite of statistical approaches that enable biologists to analyze and better understand the evolutionary tree of life, and shed...

The first modern scholarly synthesis of animal domesticationAcross the globe and at different times in the past millennia, the evolutionary history of domesticated animals has been greatly affected by the myriad, complex, and diverse interactions humans...

A fun and fact-filled AZ treasury for anyone with a head on their shoulders.Neuropedia journeys into the mysteries and marvels of the three pounds of tissue between your ears - the brain. Eric Chudler takes you on a breathtaking tour of the nervous...

A revolutionary new framework that draws on insights from ecology for the design and analysis of long-duration robots.Robots are increasingly leaving the confines of laboratories, warehouses, and manufacturing facilities, venturing into agriculture and...

By the time a baby is born, its brain is equipped with billions of intricately crafted neurons wired together through trillions of interconnections to form a compact and breathtakingly efficient supercomputer. Zero to Birth takes you on an extraordinary...

Seabirds evoke the spirit of the earth's wildest places. They spend large portions of their lives at sea, often far from land, and nest on remote islands that humans rarely visit. Thanks to increasingly sophisticated and miniaturised devices that can...

A uniquely personal meditation on Britain's gulls by one of today's leading wildlife writers From a distance, gulls are beautiful symbols of freedom over the oceanic wilderness. Up close, however, they can be loud, aggressive and even violent...

An exciting look at the essential roles that parasites play in Earth's ecosystems.This book looks at the weird and wonderful world of parasites, the most abundant form of life on Earth. Parasites come in all forms and sizes and inhabit every free-living...

Honey bees are marvellously charismatic organisms with a long history of interaction with humans. They are vital to agriculture and serve as a model system for many basic questions in biology. This authoritative book provides an essential overview of...

An engaging journey into the biological principles underpinning a beloved science-fiction franchiseIn Star Trek, crew members travel to unusual planets, meet diverse beings, and encounter unique civilizations. In these remarkable space adventures, does...

An enticing illustrated look at pollination, one of the most astonishing marvels of the natural worldPollination is essential to the survival of most plants on Earth. Some plants rely on the wind to transport pollen from one flower to another. Others...

Longlisted for thePEN America Literary Awards 2021:PEN/E.O Wilson Literary Science Writing AwardWaterstone's Best Books of 2020: Popular ScienceAmerican Scientist's 2020 Science Book Gift GuideWhy is the world the way it is? How did we...

A richly illustrated natural history of the world's crabs that examines their diversity, ecology, anatomy, behavior, and moreThis lavishly illustrated book offers a remarkable look at the world's crabs. More than 7,000 crab species, in 100...

The form and function of a sprinting cheetah are quite unlike those of a rooted tree. A human being is very different from a bacterium or a zebra. The living world is a realm of dazzling variety, yet a shared set of physical principles shapes the forms...

There are some 10,000 bird species in existence today, occupying every continent and virtually every habitat on Earth. The variety of bird species is truly astounding, from the tiny bee hummingbird to the large flightless ostrich, making birds one of the...

A savoury account of how the pursuit of delicious foods shaped human evolutionNature, it has been said, invites us to eat by appetite and rewards by flavour. But what exactly are flavours? Why are some so pleasing while others are not? Delicious is a...

Corals are among the most varied lifeforms on Earth, ranging from mushroom corals and leather corals to button polyps, sea fans, anemones, and pulse corals. Bridging the gap between plant and animal, these marine invertebrates serve as homes to reef fish...

A natural history of cheating from selfish genes to lying politiciansNature is rife with cheating. Possums play possum, feigning death to cheat predators. Crows cry wolf to scare off rivals. Amphibians and reptiles are inveterate impostors. Even genes...

The epic story of human evolution, from our primate beginnings more than five million years ago to the agricultural eraOver the course of five million years, our primate ancestors evolved from a modest population of sub-Saharan apes into the globally...

From two of the world's leading authorities on dogs, an imaginative journey into a future of dogs without peopleWhat would happen to dogs if humans simply disappeared? Would dogs be able to survive on their own without us? A Dog's World imagines a...

The story of a neural impulse and what it reveals about how our brains workWe see the last cookie in the box and think, can I take that? We reach a hand out. In the 2.1 seconds that this impulse travels through our brain, billions of neurons communicate...

Menstruation is something half the world does for a week at a time, for months and years on end, yet it remains largely misunderstood. Scientists once thought of an individual's period as useless, and some doctors still believe it's unsafe for a...

Leading scholars take stock of Darwin's ideas about human evolution in the light of modern science In 1871, Charles Darwin published The Descent of Man, a companion to Origin of Species in which he attempted to explain human evolution, a topic...

A provocative and timely case for how the science of genetics can help create a more just and equal societyIn recent years, scientists like Kathryn Paige Harden have shown that DNA makes us different, in our personalities and in our health - and in ways...

Biological evolution is a fact-but the many conflicting theories of evolution remain controversial even today. When Adaptation and Natural Selection was first published in 1966, it struck a powerful blow against those who argued for the concept of group...

How Birds Evolve explores how evolution has shaped the distinctive characteristics and behaviours we observe in birds today. Douglas Futuyma describes how evolutionary science illuminates the wonders of birds, ranging over topics such as the meaning and...

What neurobiology and artificial intelligence tell us about how the brain builds itselfHow does a neural network become a brain? While neurobiologists investigate how nature accomplishes this feat, computer scientists interested in artificial...