""In Spider Silk, Leslie Brunetta and Catherine Craig offer a history of this marvelous stuff that readers will find surprisingly compelling---not only for the astonishing complexity of spider silk itself but also for the many uses for it that spiders have created over the ages. It is, in other words, the epitome of evolutionary innovation."---Carl Zimmer, author of Parasite Rex and The Tangled Bank: An Introduction to Evolution" ""This wonderful...

Imagine a world without bees, butterflies, and flowering plants. That was Earth 125 million years ago. Turn back the clock 400 million years, and there were no trees. At 450 million years in the past, even the earliest insects had not yet developed. And looking back 500 million years, the land was devoid of life, which at that time flourished in a profusion of strange forms in the oceans. These and other major turning points are the amazing story...

Over the last forty years the philosophy of biology has emerged as an important sub-discipline of the philosophy of science. Covering some of science's most divisive topics, such as philosophical issues in genetics, it also encompasses areas where modern biology has increasingly impinged on traditional philosophical questions, such as free will, essentialism, and nature vs nurture. In this Very Short Introduction Samir Okasha outlines the core issues...

"From professor of psychology at U. C. Berkeley and one of the foremost experts on the science of emotions comes a groundbreaking and essential exploration into the history, science, and understanding of awe, and a guide for how we might all cultivate a deeper sense of awe and transform our lives and our world Awe, one of the most elusive emotions, is hard to pin down. How do we begin to measure the goosebumps we feel when we first see the Grand Canyon,...

"The award-winning Caltech physicist and author of The Particle at the End of the Universe shares sweeping perspectives into how human purpose and meaning naturally fit into a scientific worldview,"--Amazon.com. "Sean Carroll is emerging as one of the greatest humanist thinkers of his generation as he brings his extraordinary intellect to bear not only on Higgs bosons and extra dimensions but now also on our deepest personal questions. Where are...

Join an award-winning anthropologist for an exploration of the evolution of the human diet and its relationship to our bodies.

"Intellectually rich, intensely personal, and beautifully written, Tracks and Shadows is both an absorbing autobiography of a celebrated field biologist and a celebration of beauty in nature. Harry W. Greene, award-winning author of Snakes: The Evolution of Mystery in Nature delves into the poetry of field biology, showing how nature eases our existential quandaries. More than a memoir, the book is about the wonder of snakes, the beauty of studying...

"How will artificial intelligence affect crime, war, justice, jobs, society and our very sense of being human? The rise of AI has the potential to transform our future more than any other technology--and there's nobody better qualified or situated to explore that future than Max Tegmark, an MIT professor who's helped mainstream research on how to keep AI beneficial. How can we grow our prosperity through automation without leaving people lacking income...

An action-thriller that tracks a woman accidentally caught in a dark deal who turns the tables on her captors. Altered by a dangerous new drug allowing her to use 100% of her brain capacity, Lucy transforms into a merciless warrior evolved beyond human logic.