Easily the most influential book published in the nineteenthcentury, Darwin’s The Origin of Species is also that mostunusual phenomenon, an altogether readable discussion of ascientific subject. On its appearance in 1859 it was immediatelyrecognized by enthusiasts and detractors alike as a work of thegreatest importance: the revolutionary theory of evolution by meansof natural selection that it presented provoked a furious reactionthat continues to this day. The Origin of Species is here published together withDarwin’s earlier Voyage of the ‘Beagle’. This 1839 accountof the journeys to South America and the Pacific islands that firstput Darwin on the track of his remarkable theories derives an addedcharm from his vivid de*ion of his travels in exotic placesand his eye for the piquant detail.
The authors trace the formation and breakup of the planets,asteroids, and comets where meteorites originated, their longjourney through space, their fall to Earth, their recovery, andwhat scientists are learning from them. The book contains a greatdeal of material about the “84001 Martian meteorite,” which hasraised provocative new questions about life on the red planet.Looking forward, the authors chart the exciting new era ofplanetary, asteroidal, and cometary exploration planned for thiscentury.
The ecological literature on marsupials is dominated byde*ive natural history, and there has hitherto been littleattempt at either synthesis or evolutionary interpretation. Thisbook attempts to provide such a synthesis, by drawing on both thede*ive data base and predictions from the burgeoningliterature on behavioural and evolutionary ecology. It documentsthe excellent potential the study of marsupials provides forresolution of theoretical questions of general importance inbiology. It does this in three ways. First, by describing theimpressive diversity of marsupial life history strategies andtrophic roles. Second, by careful comparison with the eutherians,the scope of the marsupial radiation is used to analyse the role ofdevelopmental constraints and adaptive radiation in determining thediversification of higher taxa. Lastly, it is suggested that theaccessibility of marsupial young during their obligatory pouch lifefacilitates measurement, manipulation and assessment of kinship notpossible in other mammalia
From one of the most significant neuroscientists at worktoday, a pathbreaking investigation of a question that hasconfounded philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists forcenturies: how is consciousness created? Antonio Damasio has spent the past thirty years studying andwriting about how the brain operates, and his work has garneredacclaim for its singular melding of the scientific and thehumanistic. In Self Comes to Mind, he goes against thelong-standing idea that consciousness is somehow separate from thebody, presenting compelling new scientific evidence thatconsciousness—what we think of as a mind with a self—is to beginwith a biological process created by a living organism. Besides thethree traditional perspectives used to study the mind (theintrospective, the behavioral, and the neurological), Damasiointroduces an evolutionary perspective that entails a radicalchange in the way the history of conscious minds is viewed andtold. He also advances a radical hypothesis regarding the o
Controversial in nature, this book demonstrates that the UnitedStates did not need to use the atomic bomb against Japan.Alperovitz criticizes one of the most hotly debated precursoryevents to the Cold War, an event that was largely responsible forthe evolution of post-World War II American politics andculture.
