Showing titles in Biology

Brought to you by Penguin. Preventable uses the spellbinding story of the COVID-19 pandemic to show how global politics shape our health. Professor Devi Sridhar has risen to prominence for her vital roles in communicating science to the public and speaking truth to power. In Preventable she...

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. They may even possess consciousness. 

Beneath our feet lies a world of farmers, builders, soldiers, nurses, and explorers. In Life Among the Ants, Vance Randolph offers an engaging introduction to the remarkable biology and social organization of one of nature’s most successful insects. Beginning with the ant’s anatomy, senses...

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Elephant's on Acid comes a collection of the wackiest theories from science and history. What if we’re living inside a black hole? What if we’ve already found extraterrestrial life? What if the dinosaurs died in a nuclear war? What if Jesus Christ...

'Endlessly fascinating. Cram's story sizzles with adventure.' Giles Milton, Sunday Times A genuinely new Second World War story, The 21 Escapes of Lt Alastair Cram is a riveting account of the wartime exploits of Alastair Cram, brilliantly told by the American author, David Guss. Cram was taken...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 'Elegantly written, wittily constructed . . . My science book of the year.' Robin McKie, Observer, 'Best Books of 2018' She Has Her Mother’s Laugh presents a profoundly original perspective on what we pass along from generation to...

'Profound, lyrical, and fascinating, Life’s Edge will give you a newfound appreciation for life itself. It is the work of a master science writer at the height of his skills.' – Ed Yong, author of An Immense World We all assume we know what life is, but the more scientists learn about the...

Enticingly read by the author, Philip Ball. 'An essential primer on humanity’s ongoing quest to understand the secrets of life . . . Excellent . . . Ball is a terrific writer.' – Adam Rutherford, The Guardian A cutting-edge new vision of biology that proposes to revise our concept of what...

'A glorious paean to our living world, full of achingly beautiful passages, mind-bending conceptual twists, and wonderful characters. Ferris Jabr reveals how Earth not only gave rise to life, and now teems with it, but has also been profoundly, miraculously shaped by it.' – Ed Yong, author of...

Brought to you by Penguin. WINNER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY INSIGHT INVESTMENT SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2020 Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder at the age of eight, Dr Camilla Pang struggled to understand the world around her. Desperate for a solution, Camilla asked her mother if there was an...

In what he says is the most important piece of environmental writing in his long and award-winning career, Mark Kurlansky, best-selling author of Salt and Cod, The Big Oyster, 1968, and Milk, among many others, employs his signature multi-century storytelling and compelling attention to...

Sharks are ruthlessly efficient predators, the apex of 450 million years of evolution. They are older than trees, have survived five extinction events and are essential to maintaining balanced ocean ecosystems, but how much do we really know about their lives? The first book to reveal the hidden...

'Profound, lyrical, and fascinating, Life’s Edge will give you a newfound appreciation for life itself. It is the work of a master science writer at the height of his skills.' – Ed Yong, author of An Immense World We all assume we know what life is, but the more scientists learn about the...

When Charles Darwin finished The Origin of Species, he thought that he had explained every clue, but one. Though his theory could explain many facts, Darwin knew that there was a significant event in the history of life that his theory did not explain. During this event, the “Cambrian...

We live in an age of anxiety. Like an omnipresent yet invisible odour you've grown used to, anxiety has become a constant condition, a fact of life, and a distraction that undermines our quality of life. Dr Wendy Suzuki's groundbreaking research shows us that science tells us a very different story: yes, anxiety is unpleasant - it's meant to be - and in the debilitating extreme, what Wendy will call 'bad anxiety', it's destructive. But most of the anxiety that humans feel is essential.

Brought to you by Penguin. Why do women live longer than men? Why do women have menopause? Why are women more likely to get Alzheimer's? Why do girls score better at every academic subject than boys until puberty, when suddenly their scores plummet? And does the female brain really exist? In Eve...

Coyote America is both an environmental and a deep natural history of the coyote. It traces both the five-million-year-long biological story of an animal that has become the "wolf" in our backyards and its cultural evolution from a preeminent spot in Native American religions to the hapless foil of the Road Runner. A deeply American tale, the story of the coyote in the American West and beyond is a sort of Manifest Destiny in reverse.

A total of 175 species are heard on this download, ranging from the familiar tawny owl to the very rare call of the bittern. The authoritative guide to all British birds likely to be encountered by the average birdwatcher and the ideal gift for anyone wishing to learn the sounds of the great variety of birds that can be seen and heard throughout the seasons. A perennial best seller.

The microbiome is the missing link in modern medicine: a vast genetic universe of bacteria, yeasts, viruses and parasites that live inside us, influencing every aspect of our health, even the way we think and feel. In this mindblowing book, scientist and surgeon James Kinross explains how the organisms that live within us have helped us evolve, shaped our biology and defined the success of our species. With dazzling science and fascinating stories, this pioneering book will change the way you think about human health forever.

Life is the most extraordinary phenomenon in the known universe; but how does it work? Even in this age of cloning and synthetic biology, the remarkable truth remains: nobody has ever made anything living entirely out of dead material. Life remains the only way to make life. Are we missing a vital ingredient in its creation? Like Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, which provided a new perspective on how evolution works, Life on the Edge alters our understanding of life's dynamics.