The Subtle Beast: Snakes, from Myth to Medicine introduces you to the complex and absorbing world of these mysterious creatures. Each of the fourteen chapters in this volume can be read independently, but read together they trace a fascinating journey from the macroscopic features of snakes to the molecular description of their venom components.
The first three chapters detail how snakes inspired fear and worship, served as sources of medicine, and represented good and evil throughout the ages. The remaining sections describe much of the scientific work that has eroded these supernatural...

Genetics and its related technologies are revolutionizing the world. The media is regularly dominated by controversy over the latest genetically modified (GM) food, human gene therapy or cancer chip technology. Maverick scientists are in the process of cloning humans, and the human genome sequence is available on the Internet. Fifty years ago we did not know what a gene was; today the awesome power of genetics is being released on an unsuspecting public, and with it a whole series of ethical dilemmas undreamt of even ten years ago. The question now has become not "can we?" but "should we?" By...

Some atmospheric disturbances produce the kind of extreme weather events making the national and international new headlines on a regular basis. Just about everyone is interested in knowing more about hurricanes, typhoons and tornadoes. There is often confusion about whether or not they are the same thing and whether, for example, we can control these extremely violent phenomena. Thunder and lightning affect many people but how many of us understand what generates such massive electrical discharges and why they occur more at some times of year than at others?
A popular addition to the...