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When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance by Riley BlackFossil plants allow us to touch the lost worlds from billions of years of evolutionary backstory. Each petrified leaf and root shows us that dinosaurs, saber-toothed cats, and even humans would not exist without the evolutionary efforts of their leafy counterparts. It has been the constant growth of plants that has allowed so many of our favorite, fascinating prehistoric creatures to evolve, oxygenating the atmosphere, coaxing animals onto land, and forming the forests that shaped our ancestors' anatomy. Using the same scientifically-informed narrative technique from his award-winning The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, ... Riley Black brings readers back in time to prehistoric seas, swamps, forests, and savannas where critical moments in plant evolution unfolded.
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Headwaters: The Adventures, Obsession and Evolution of a Fly Fisherman
by Dylan Tomine
Dylan Tomine takes us to the far reaches of the planet in search of fish and adventure, with keen insight, a strong stomach and plenty of laughs along the way. Closer to home, he wades deeper into his beloved steelhead rivers of the Pacific Northwest and the politics of saving them. Tomine celebrates the joy--and pain--of exploration, fatherhood and the comforts of home waters from a vantage point well off the beaten path. Headwaters traces the evolution of a lifelong angler's priorities from fishing to the survival of the fish themselves. It is a book of remarkable obsession, environmental awareness shaped by experience, and hope for the future.
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The Story of Astrophysics in Five Revolutions by Ersilia VaudoWhen Neil Armstrong first set foot in the lunar dust, the Earth held its breath. That one small step forever changed our view of what was possible, sparking a dramatic expansion of humankind's cosmic awareness. When we gain a new perspective, a transformation begins, profoundly altering the understanding of the world our human experience had previously granted us. In The Story of Astrophysics in Five Revolutions, astrophysicist Ersilia Vaudo explores five such turning points in the history of cosmology: Newton's realization that gravity governs the celestial world; Einstein's dual theories of relativity, linking space with time and gravity with acceleration; Hubble's revelation of an expanding, rather than static, universe; and the emergence of antiparticles from a mathematical equation and their implications for our cosmic evolution. In poetic prose, Vaudo illuminates the key insights that have led us to where we stand now.
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The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze That Captured Turn-Of-The-Century America by David BaronThere is Life on the Planet Mars --New York Times, December 9, 1906 This New York Times headline was no joke. In the early 1900s, many Americans actually believed we had discovered intelligent life on Mars, as best-selling science writer David Baron chronicles in The Martians, his truly bizarre tale of a nation swept up in Mars mania. At the center of Baron's historical drama is Percival Lowell, the Boston Brahmin and Harvard scion, who observed canals etched into the surface of Mars. The public fell in love with the ambitious amateur astronomer who shared his findings in speeches and wildly popular books. Many see Mars as civilization's destiny--the first step toward our becoming an interplanetary species--but, as David Baron demonstrates, this tendency to project our hopes onto the world next door is hardly new. The Martians is a scintillating and necessary reminder that while we look to Mars for answers, what we often find are mirrors of ourselves.
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The Mind of a Bee
by Lars Chittka
Most of us are aware of the hive mind--the power of bees as an amazing collective. But do we know how uniquely intelligent bees are as individuals? In The Mind of a Bee, Lars Chittka draws from decades of research, including his own pioneering work, to argue that bees have remarkable cognitive abilities. He shows that they are profoundly smart, have distinct personalities, can recognize flowers and human faces, exhibit basic emotions, count, use simple tools, solve problems, and learn by observing others. Chittka illustrates how bee brains are unparalleled in the animal kingdom in terms of how much sophisticated material is packed into their tiny nervous systems. He looks at their innate behaviors and the ways their evolution as foragers may have contributed to their keen spatial memory. Chittka also examines the psychological differences between bees and the ethical dilemmas that arise in conservation and laboratory settings because bees feel and think. Throughout, he touches on the fascinating history behind the study of bee behavior.
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Extraordinary Insects: The Fabulous, Indispensable Creatures Who Run Our World by Anne Sverdrup-ThygesonWith ecologist Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson as our intrepid guide, Extraordinary Insects is an enthusiastic, witty, and fascinating introduction to the world of insects and why we -- and the planet we inhabit -- could not survive without them. Insects comprise roughly half of the animal kingdom. They live everywhere -- deep inside caves, high in the Himalayas, inside computers, in Yellowstone's hot springs, and in the ears and nostrils of much larger creatures. There are insects that have ears on their knee, eyes on their penises, and tongues under their feet. Many people think life would be better without bugs. In fact, life would be impossible without them. Insects turn dead plants and animals into soil. They pollinate flowers, including crops that we depend on. They provide food for other animals and control pests that are harmful to humans. Life as we know it depends on these small creatures. But recent years have brought disturbing reports of extensive declines in insect numbers and diversity, which could have serious consequences for us and the planet.
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Super Fly: The Unexpected Lives of the World's Most Successful Insects by Jonathan BalcombeAfter reading Super Fly, you will never take a fly for granted again. From an expert in animal consciousness, a book that will turn the fly on the wall into the elephant in the room. For most of us, the only thing we know about flies is that they're annoying, and our usual reaction is to try to kill them. In Super Fly, the myth-busting biologist Jonathan Balcombe shows the order Diptera in all of its diversity, illustrating the essential role that flies play in every ecosystem in the world as pollinators, waste-disposers, predators, and food source; and how flies continue to reshape our understanding of evolution. Along the way, he reintroduces us to familiar foes like the fruit fly and mosquito, and gives us the chance to meet their lesser-known cousins like the Petroleum Fly (the only animal in the world that breeds in crude oil) and the Chocolate Midge (the sole pollinator of the Cacao tree). No matter your outlook on our tiny buzzing neighbors, Super Fly will change the way you look at flies forever.
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| Tales from the Ant World by Edward O. WilsonAnts are not only fascinating but an easy insect to observe -- take it from the foremost ant expert, Pulitzer Prize winner Edward O. Wilson, whose obsession with ants began as a child in his backyard and never stopped. Readers will be captivated by Wilson’s explanation of ants’ complex social behavior, and how thousands of individuals can communicate and act cooperatively in service to the colony -- a trait all species of ant have in common. For fans of: The Jewel Box: How Moths Illuminate Nature’s Hidden Rules by Tim Blackburn. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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