Showing titles in Biological Sciences

Meadowland gives a unique and intimate account of an English meadow’s life from January to December, together with its biography. In exquisite prose, John Lewis-Stempel records the passage of the seasons from cowslips in spring to the hay-cutting of summer and grazing in autumn, and includes the biographies of the animals that inhabit the grass and the soil beneath: the badger clan, the fox family, the rabbit warren, the skylark brood and the curlew pair, among others.

Not long ago, it was thought that the brain you were born with was the brain you would die with, and that the brain cells you had at birth were the most you would ever possess. Your brain was thought to be hardwired to function in predetermined ways. It turns out that's not true. Your brain is not hardwired; it's "softwired" by experience. This book shows you how you can rewire parts of the brain to feel more positive about your life, remain calm during stressful times, and improve your social relationships.

Animal scientists have long considered domestic livestock to be too dumb to know how to eat right, but the lifetime research of animal behaviorist Fred Provenza and his colleagues has debunked this myth. Their work shows that when given a choice of natural foods, livestock have an astoundingly refined palate, nibbling through the day on as many as fifty kinds of grasses, forbs, and shrubs to meet their nutritional needs with remarkable precision.

For as long as we've studied the mind, we've believed that information flowing from our senses determines what our mind perceives. But as our understanding of neuroscience and psychology has advanced in the last few decades, a provocative and hugely powerful new view has flipped this assumption on its head. The brain is not a passive receiver, but an ever-active predictor. At the forefront of this cognitive revolution is widely acclaimed philosopher and cognitive scientist Andy Clark, who has synthesized his ground-breaking work on the predictive brain.

Why can your foot move halfway to the brake pedal before you're consciously aware of danger? Why do you notice when your name is mentioned in a conversation that you didn't think you were listening to? Why are people whose name begins with J more likely to marry other people whose name begins...

Gerald Durrell's last book, The Aye-Aye and I, records his final animal-collecting expedition, a trip to Madagascar in 1990, and his efforts to save the elusive and mythical lemuroid known as the Aye-Aye. Prompted by the country's radical deforestation and slash-and-burn agriculture, Durrell, his wife, and their team of zoologists embark on a mission to capture and conserve the species - distinguished by its "giant, chisel-like teeth", "round, hypnotic eyes", and large "spoon-like ears".

THE DEFINITIVE WOOD-CUTTER'S BIBLE - THE BESTSELLING, YEAR-ROUND GUIDE TO CHOPPING, STACKING AND DRYING WOOD "The book has spread like wildfire" Daily Mail "A how-to book with poetry at its heart" T.L.S. "A step-by-step guide to preparing your wood store" Independent Whether you're a seasoned...

In The Greatest Show on Earth, Richard Dawkins takes on creationists, including followers of 'Intelligent Design' and all those who question the fact of evolution through natural selection. Like a detective arriving on the scene of a crime, he sifts through fascinating layers of scientific facts and disciplines to build a cast-iron case: from the living examples of natural selection in birds and insects.

Two New York Times best-selling authors unveil new research showing what meditation can really do for the brain. In the last 20 years, meditation and mindfulness have gone from being kind of cool to becoming an omnipresent Band-Aid for fixing everything from your weight to your relationship to your achievement level. Unveiling here the kind of cutting-edge research that has made them giants in their fields, Daniel Goleman and Richard J Davidson show us the truth about what meditation can really do for us.

Neuroscientist Camilla Nord reveals how the small things we do to lift our mood during the course of a day - a piece of chocolate, a coffee, chatting to a friend - often work on the same pathways in our brain as the latest pharmacological treatments for mental health disorders. Whether they help us to manage pain, learn from experience or expend energy on the things that are important for our survival, these conscious actions are part of a complex self-regulating process that is unique to each individual and the constant backdrop to our everyday lives.

Bloomsbury presents One Garden Against the World written and read by Kate Bradbury. 'If you ever doubted that you can help change the world, READ THIS BOOK.' CAROLINE LUCAS 'The greatest existential crisis we face distilled into the crucible of a tiny piece of paradise.' CHRIS PACKHAM Five years...

World renowned scientist Carl Sagan and acclaimed author Ann Druyan have written a Roots for the human species, a lucid and riveting account of how humans got to be the way we are. It shows with humor and drama that many of our key traits - self-awareness, technology, family ties, submission to authority, hatred for those a little different from ourselves, reason, and ethics - are rooted in the deep past, and illuminated by our kinship with other animals.

The idea of a missing link between humanity and our animal ancestors predates evolution and popular science and actually has religious roots in the deist concept of the Great Chain of Being. Yet, the metaphor has lodged itself in the contemporary imagination, and new fossil discoveries are often hailed in headlines as revealing the elusive transitional step, the moment when we stopped being "animal" and started being "human". In The Accidental Species, Henry Gee, longtime paleontology editor at Nature, takes aim at this misleading notion.

Explore human evolution one story at a time. This award-winning show combines storytelling with science that will change your understanding of yourself and the world around you.

'Packed with insight and anecdote, his story brings the Tower ravens to vivid life, each bird with a personality of its own. I've been fortunate enough to tour the Tower and meet the ravens a few times in years past; after reading this book, I cannot wait to go back' George R. R. Martin For...

Over the past five hundred years, human exploration, settlement, and commerce have carried countless plants and animals far from their original homes, where they sometimes go on to transform familiar landscapes, cause large-scale agricultural damage, and endanger precious native species. But the...

Welcome to An Ocean Warrior, a podcast exploring marine conservation, sustainable seafood, and UK commercial fisheries through honest conversations and practical knowledge.Hosted by Becki Jarvis, a marine biologist, commercial fisheries consultant and marine science communicator, An Ocean Warrior Podcast draws on years of experience working in marine conservation, fisheries management, and environmental consultancy. Becki aims to make complex topics clear, engaging and accessible.Future episodes will explore:Sustainable seafood and seafood labellingCommercial fishing and the UK fishing ...

Mosquitos, cucarachas, ratas, chinches, termitas… Todos hemos oído hablar de ellas, pero ¿sabemos realmente qué hay detrás de una plaga? En Desinfestados, abrimos la conversación sobre sanidad ambiental de una forma sencilla, cercana y divulgativa. De la mano de Susana Burgos, periodista especializada en información económica y empresarial con más de dos décadas de trayectoria profesional. Susana es en la actualidad analista económica en medios como El Debate, Telemadrid, Telecinco u Onda Cero, hablaremos con expertos, descubriremos historias reales y resolveremos dudas sobre cómo...

HVAD DER SKER MED EN VERDEN, SOM ALDRIG SLUKKER FOR LYSET. For at sikre en lys fremtid, skal vi omfavne mørket. Verdens flora og fauna har siden tidernes morgen levet i en naturlig cyklus mellem nat og dag. Det har opfindelsen af elpæren ændret radikalt ved. Den konstante kunstige belysning...

Engang var jagten på et længere liv domineret af eventyrere, alkymister og kvaksalvere, men nu har videnskaben overtaget stafetten. Det betyder, at vi for første gang nogensinde står på tærsklen til at knække aldringens kode og besvare det ældgamle spørgsmål: Hvordan får jeg et langt...