This highly interdisciplinary book highlights many of the waysin which chemistry plays a crucial role in making life anevolutionary possibility in the universe. Cosmologists and particlephysicists have often explored how the observed laws and constantsof nature lie within a narrow range that allows complexity and lifeto evolve and adapt. Here, these anthropic considerations arediversified in a host of new ways to identify the most sensitivefeatures of biochemistry and astrobiology. Celebrating the classic1913 work of Lawrence J. Henderson, The Fitness of the Environmentfor Life, this book looks at the delicate balance between chemistryand the ambient conditions in the universe that permit complexchemical networks and structures to exist. It will appeal to abroad range of scientists, academics, and others interested in theorigin and existence of life in our universe.
Steven Pinker's riveting, myth-destroying new book reveals how,contrary to popular belief, humankind has become progressively lessviolent, over millenia and decades. Given the images of conflict we see daily on our screens, canviolence really have declined? And wasn't the twentiethcentury the most devastatingly brutal in history? Extraordinarily,however, as Steven Pinker shows, violence within and between societies - both murder and warfare - really has declined fromprehistory to today. We are much less likely to die at someoneelse's hands than ever before. Debunking both the idea of the 'noble savage' and aHobbesian notion of a 'nasty, brutish and short' life, StevenPinker argues that modernity and its cultural institutions aremaking us better people. He ranges over everything from art toreligion, international trade to individual table manners, andshows how life has changed across the centuries and around theworld - not simply through the huge benefits of organizedgovernment, but also because of the ex
The first collection of essays from renowned scientist andbest-selling author Richard Dawkins is an enthusiastic declaration,a testament to the power of rigorous scientific examination toreveal the wonders of the world. In these essays Dawkins revisitsthe meme, the unit of cultural information that he named and wroteabout in his groundbreaking work The Selfish Gene. Here also aremoving tributes to friends and colleagues, including a eulogy fornovelist Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to theGalaxy; correspondence with the evolutionary biologist Stephen JayGould; and visits with the famed paleoanthropologists Richard andMaeve Leakey at their African wildlife preserve. The collectionends with a vivid note to Dawkins's ten-year-old daughter,reminding her to remain curious, to ask questions, and to live theexamined life.
In July 1845, Henry David Thoreau built a small cottage in thewoods near Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. During the twoyears and two months he spent there, he began to write Walden, achronicle of his communion with nature that became one of the mostinfluential and compelling books in American literature. Since itsfirst publication on August 9, 1854, by Ticknor and Fields, thework has become a classic, beloved for its message of living simplyand in harmony with nature. This edition of Walden featuresexquisite wood engravings by Michel McCurdy, one of America'sleading engravers and woodblock artists. McCurdy's engravings bringthe text to life--and illuminate the spirit of Thoreau's prose.Also included is a foreword by noted author, environmentalist, andnaturalist Terry Tempest Williams who reflects upon Thoreau'smessage that as we explore our world and ourselves, we draw evercloser to the truth of our connectedness.
