The Deep History of Ourselves

The Deep History of Ourselves
Author: Joseph LeDoux
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2020-08-25
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0735223858

Longlisted for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award A leading neuroscientist offers a history of the evolution of the brain from unicellular organisms to the complexity of animals and human beings today Renowned neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux digs into the natural history of life on earth to provide a new perspective on the similarities between us and our ancestors in deep time. This page-turning survey of the whole of terrestrial evolution sheds new light on how nervous systems evolved in animals, how the brain developed, and what it means to be human. In The Deep History of Ourselves, LeDoux argues that the key to understanding human behavior lies in viewing evolution through the prism of the first living organisms. By tracking the chain of the evolutionary timeline he shows how even the earliest single-cell organisms had to solve the same problems we and our cells have to solve each day. Along the way, LeDoux explores our place in nature, how the evolution of nervous systems enhanced the ability of organisms to survive and thrive, and how the emergence of what we humans understand as consciousness made our greatest and most horrendous achievements as a species possible.

A Natural History of the Future

A Natural History of the Future
Author: Rob Dunn
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2022-01-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1399800159

Over the past century, our species has made unprecedented technological innovations with which we have sought to control nature. In A Natural History of the Future, biologist Rob Dunn argues that such efforts are futile. We may see ourselves as life's overlords, but we are instead at its mercy. In the evolution of antibiotic resistance, the power of natural selection to create biodiversity, and even the surprising life of the London Underground, Dunn finds laws of life that no human activity can annul. When we create artificial islands of crops, dump toxic waste, or build communities, we provide new materials for old laws to shape. Life's future flourishing is not in question. Ours is. A Natural History of the Future sets a new standard for understanding the diversity and destiny of life itself.

Deep Things Out of Darkness

Deep Things Out of Darkness
Author: John G. T. Anderson
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2013
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0520273761

Natural history, the deliberate observation of the environment, is arguably the oldest science. From purely practical beginnings as a way of finding food and shelter, natural history evolved into the holistic, systematic study of plants, animals, and the landscape. This book chronicles the rise, decline, and ultimate revival of natural history within the realms of science and public discourse. It charts the journey of the naturalist's endeavour from prehistory to the present, underscoring the need for natural history in an era of dynamic environmental change.

Skin

Skin
Author: Nina G. Jablonski
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2013-02-20
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 0520275896

"Our intimate connection with the world, skin protects us while advertising our health, our identity, and our individuality. This synthetic overview, written with a poetic touch and taking many intriguing side excursions, is a guidebook to the pliable covering that makes us who we are. This book celebrates the evolution of three unique attributes of human skin: its naked sweatiness, its distinctive sepia rainbow of colors, and its remarkable range of decorations. Author Jablonski begins with a look at skin's structure and functions and then tours its three-hundred-million-year evolution, delving into such topics as the importance of touch and how the skin reflects and affects emotions. She examines the modern human obsession with age-related changes in skin, especially wrinkles, then turns to skin as a canvas for self-expression, exploring our use of cosmetics, body paint, tattooing, and scarification"--Publisher's description.

A Natural History of Homosexuality

A Natural History of Homosexuality
Author: Francis Mark Mondimore
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 386
Release: 1996-10-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0801853494

And he focuses on the process by which individuals come to identify themselves as homosexual, the sensitivity of children to their own sexual identities, and the psychological effects of the stigmatization of homosexuality on adolescents.

A Natural History of Ourselves

A Natural History of Ourselves
Author: Hannah Holmes
Publisher:
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2010-07
Genre: Animal behavior
ISBN: 9781848870406

In this fascinating explication of the animal behaviour of the human species, Hannah Holmes explores our plumage, our mating habits, our social lives and our development.

A Natural History of the Senses

A Natural History of the Senses
Author: Diane Ackerman
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2011-12-07
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0307763315

Diane Ackerman's lusciously written grand tour of the realm of the senses includes conversations with an iceberg in Antarctica and a professional nose in New York, along with dissertations on kisses and tattoos, sadistic cuisine and the music played by the planet Earth. “Delightful . . . gives the reader the richest possible feeling of the worlds the senses take in.” —The New York Times

Ourselves Unborn

Ourselves Unborn
Author: Sara Dubow
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2010-12-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199779767

During the past several decades, the fetus has been diversely represented in political debates, medical textbooks and journals, personal memoirs and autobiographies, museum exhibits and mass media, and civil and criminal law. Ourselves Unborn argues that the meanings people attribute to the fetus are not based simply on biological fact or theological truth, but are in fact strongly influenced by competing definitions of personhood and identity, beliefs about knowledge and authority, and assumptions about gender roles and sexuality. In addition, these meanings can be shaped by dramatic historical change: over the course of the twentieth century, medical and technological changes made fetal development more comprehensible, while political and social changes made the fetus a subject of public controversy. Moreover, since the late nineteenth century, questions about how fetal life develops and should be valued have frequently intersected with debates about the authority of science and religion, and the relationship between the individual and society. In examining the contested history of fetal meanings, Sara Dubow brings a fresh perspective to these vital debates.

Archetype Revisited

Archetype Revisited
Author: Anthony Stevens
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2004-07-31
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1135454248

Archetype: A Natural History of the Self, first published in 1982 was a ground-breaking book; the first to explore the connections between Jung's archetypes and evolutionary disciplines such as ethology and sociobiology, and an excellent introduction to the archetypes in theory and practical application as well. C.G. Jung's 'archetypes of the collective unconscious' have traditionally remained the property of analytical psychology, and have commonly been dismissed as 'mystical' by scientists. But Jung himself described them as biological entities, which, if they exist at all, must be amenable to empirical study. In the work of Bowlby and Lorenz, and in recent studies of the bilateral brain, Dr Anthony Stevens has discovered the key to opening up this long-ignored scientific approach to the archetypes, originally envisaged by Jung himself. At last, in a creative leap made possible by the cross-fertilisation of several specialist disciplines, psychiatry can be integrated with psychology, with ethology and biology. The result is an immensely enriched science of human behaviour. In this revised, updated edition, Anthony Stevens considers the enormous cultural, social and intellectual changes that have taken place in the past 20 years, and includes: * An updated chapter on The Archetypal Masculine and Feminine, reflecting recent research findings and developments in the thinking of feminists * Commentary on the intrusion of neo-Darwinian thinking into psychology and psychiatry * Analysis of what has happened to the archetype in the past 20 years in terms of our understanding of it and our responses to it

Natural Histories

Natural Histories
Author: American Museum of Natural History
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014
Genre: Illustrated books
ISBN: 9781454912149

Highlights 40 masterworks of illustrated scientific art from the Rare Book Collection of the American Museum of Natural History.