Kategoria BISAC: Science >> Life Sciences - Evolution

50 Great Myths of Human Evolution uses common misconceptions to explore basic theory and research in human evolution and strengthen critical thinking skills for lay readers and students.

• Examines intriguing--yet widely misunderstood--topics, from general ideas about evolution and human origins to the evolution of modern humans and recent trends in the field
• Describes what fossils, archaeology, and genetics can tell us about human origins
• Demonstrates the ways in which science adapts and changes over time to incorporate new evidence and better...

A thrilling tale of encounters with nature's masters of biochemistry

"A fitting tribute to one of nature's most sinister creations of all." --Carl Zimmer, author of Parasite Rex

In Venomous, the molecular biologist Christie Wilcox investigates venoms and the animals that use them, revealing how they work, what they do to the human body, and how they can revolutionize biochemistry and medicine today.

Wilcox takes us from the coast of Indonesia to the rain forests of Peru in search of the secrets of these mysterious animals. We encounter...

The Darwinian theory of evolution is itself evolving and this book presents the details of the core of modern Darwinism and its latest developmental directions. The authors present current scientific work addressing theoretical problems and challenges in four sections, beginning with the concepts of evolution theory, its processes of variation, heredity, selection, adaptation and function, and its patterns of character, species, descent and life.

The second part of this book scrutinizes Darwinism in the philosophy of science and its usefulness in understanding ecosystems, whilst the...

This book presents a new, detailed examination that explains how elegant brains have been shaped in evolution. It consists of 19 chapters written by academic professionals in neuroscience, opening with the origin of single-celled creatures and then introducing primordial types in invertebrates with the great abundance of the brains of vertebrates. Important topics are provided in a timely manner, because novel techniques emerged rapidly as seen, for examples, in the next-generation sequencers and omics approaches. With the explosion of big data, neural-related genes and molecules is now on...

"McGinn is an ingenious philosopher who thinks like a laser and writes like a dream."--Steven Pinker

This book is a hymn to the hand. In Prehension, Colin McGinn links questions from science to philosophical concerns to consider something that we take for granted: the importance of the hand in everything we do. Drawing on evolutionary biology, anatomy, archaeology, linguistics, psychology, and philosophy, among other disciplines, McGinn examines the role of the hand in shaping human evolution. He finds that the development of our capacity to grasp, to grip, to take hold...

The Princeton Guide to Evolution is a comprehensive, concise, and authoritative reference to the major subjects and key concepts in evolutionary biology, from genes to mass extinctions. Edited by a distinguished team of evolutionary biologists, with contributions from leading researchers, the guide contains some 100 clear, accurate, and up-to-date articles on the most important topics in seven major areas: phylogenetics and the history of life; selection and adaptation; evolutionary processes; genes, genomes, and phenotypes; speciation and macroevolution; evolution of behavior,...

It's in Your DNA: From Discovery to Structure, Function and Role in Evolution, Cancer and Aging describes, in a clear, approachable manner, the progression of the experiments that eventually led to our current understanding of DNA. This fascinating work tells the whole story from the discovery of DNA and its structure, how it replicates, codes for proteins, and our current ability to analyze and manipulate it in genetic engineering to begin to understand the central role of DNA in evolution, cancer, and aging.

While telling the scientific story of DNA, this captivating...

The partulid tree-snails of the Pacific Islands are today best known for their tragic recent history. Following the introduction of predatory snails a third of partulid species are now extinct and almost all others threatened with extinction. As most of these extinctions took place in a 20 year period this is one of the most dramatic rates of extinction ever recorded. Before Partula became icons of extinction, they were central to the development of our understanding of evolutionary biology. This started with the pioneering field studies of evolution by Henry Crampton in 1908 and...

The partulid tree-snails of the Pacific Islands are today best known for their tragic recent history. Following the introduction of predatory snails a third of partulid species are now extinct and almost all others threatened with extinction. As most of these extinctions took place in a 20 year period this is one of the most dramatic rates of extinction ever recorded. Before Partula became icons of extinction, they were central to the development of our understanding of evolutionary biology. This started with the pioneering field studies of evolution by Henry Crampton in 1908 and...

Large Trade Paperback Edition of the Original and Unabridged Version of The Origin of Species.

Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species transformed the western world. Published in 1859, Darwin's book is considered the foundation of modern evolutionary biology. Although many of the theories contained in his work were previously explored by other authors, Darwin, for the first time, constructed a comprehensive theory on the subject of natural selection and its effect on the world's species. The book was written for non-specialized audiences which made it a wide spread success. Mr....

A Times Higher Education Book of the Week

Approximately 200,000 years ago, as modern humans began to radiate out from their evolutionary birthplace in Africa, Neanderthals were already thriving in Europe--descendants of a much earlier migration of the African genus Homo. But when modern humans eventually made their way to Europe 45,000 years ago, Neanderthals suddenly vanished. Ever since the first Neanderthal bones were identified in 1856, scientists have been vexed by the question, why did modern humans survive while their closest known relatives went...