|
|
Nature and Science June 2025 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Slither : How Nature's Most Maligned Creatures Illuminate Our World
by Stephen S. Hall
From the foundational deities of ancient Egypt to the reactions of squeamish schoolchildren today, it is a historically commonplace belief that snakes are devious, dangerous, and even evil. Science writer Stephen S. Hall presents a naturalistic, cultural, ecological, and scientific meditation on these loathed yet magnetic creatures. He explores not only what neurologically triggers our wary fascination with these limbless creatures, but also how the current generation of snake scientists is using cutting-edge technologies to discover new truths about these evolutionarily ancient creatures--truths that may ultimately affect and enhance human health.
|
|
| The Ocean's Menagerie: How Earth's Strangest Creatures Reshape the Rules of Life by Drew HarvellMarine biologist Drew Harvell amazes with a rich and descriptive catalog of ocean invertebrates, a group that outnumbers backboned species 30 to one and includes octopuses, jellies, crustaceans, and sea stars. Harvell details these creatures' superpowers, hardly an exaggeration given their potential benefits to the environment and human life. Those curious about exotic marine life should also check out The World Beneath by Richard Smith. |
|
| White Light: The Elemental Role of Phosphorus -- in Our Cells, in Our Food, and in Our World by Jack LohmannIn this debut scientific history, Jack Lohmann explores civilization’s interaction with phosphorus, from before humans were even aware of the element. Once people understood its use as a fertilizer, we unfortunately began to mine and then overuse it, leading to pollution, reduced biodiversity, and less nutritive crops, errors we are only now beginning to correct. Try this next: Carbon: The Book of Life by Paul Hawken. |
|
| The Age of Diagnosis: How Our Obsession with Medical Labels Is Making Us Sicker by Suzanne O'SullivanAccording to neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan, a combination of expanding disease definitions and advances in medical screening is causing diagnoses to increase drastically, which taxes healthcare systems, feeds health anxiety in patients, and gives rise to the “nocebo effect,” where giving a patient a disease label can actually produce symptoms. Readers looking for other interesting books about physician-patient communication should try How Medicine Works and When It Doesn’t by F. Perry Wilson. |
|
| Valley of Forgetting: Alzheimer's Families and the Search for a Cure by Jennie Erin SmithWhile researchers had long been aware of the alarmingly high rates of early-onset Alzheimer’s in one remote region of Colombia, the discovery that many of the patients were related sparked the search for a genetic cause. Journalist Jennie Erin Smith tells the moving story of how an inherited gene was eventually isolated, igniting hope for a cure. For other emotional narratives about genetics and disease, try My Father’s Brain by Sandeep Jauhar or A Fatal Inheritance by Lawrence Ingrassia. |
|
| The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue: A Story of Climate and Hope on One American Street by Mike TidwellTravel writer Mike Tidwell examines the impacts of climate change in his own Maryland suburb. Telling the story through interactions with his neighbors, all of whom had a stake in the die-off of their street’s stately old oaks, Tidwell inspires while sharing various neighborhood responses to problems both local and global. Other accessible reads about climate threats and activism include Adventures in the Anthropocene by Gaia Vince and California Against the Sea by Rosanna Xia. |
|
| Why Animals Talk: The New Science of Animal Communication by Arik KershenbaumUniversity of Cambridge zoologist Arik Kershenbaum has been in the field of animal communication for decades. His study of the speech-like sounds and songs emitted by creatures including wolves, parrots, dolphins, and chimpanzees runs afoul of the idea that humans are Earth’s sole language users, and posits that “animals have much to say to each other -- but also to us” (Kirkus Reviews). |
|
| The Voices of Nature: How and Why Animals Communicate by Nicolas Mathevon; illustrations by Bernard MathevonIn Nicolas Mathevon’s “exceptional” (Library Journal) debut, the biologist and neuroscientist looks at how different animal species decode the sounds made by creatures around them and respond (sometimes with sounds of their own) to aid in their survival. The result is a technical yet accessible panorama of ecological dynamics and cross-species interaction. |
|
|
|
How to Speak Whale: A Voyage into the Future of Animal Communication
by Tom Mustill
A near-death experience: In 2015, a breaching humpback whale landed on the kayak of nature documentarian Tom Mustill, who subsequently became interested in human-cetacean encounters.
A quest for answers: To better understand his subject, Mustill dove into our shared history with whales, from the bloody past to the more hopeful present, in which scientists use hydrophones, oscilloscopes, and artificial intelligence to decode whale communication.
Did you know? Biologist Roger Payne's 1970 album Songs of the Humpback Whale, a collection of whale song recordings, galvanized the "Save the Whales" movement and helped end commercial whaling?
|
|
|
|
Nature Is Never Silent
by Madlen Ziege
In forests, fields, and even gardens, there is a constant exchange of information going on. Animals and plants must communicate with one another to survive, but they also tell lies, set traps, talk to themselves, and speak to each other in a variety of unexpected ways.
Here, behavioral biologist Madlen Ziege reveals the fascinating world of nonhuman communication. In charming, humorous, and accessible prose, she reveals the hidden world of nature's language, and how it can help us to understand our own place in the natural world.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|