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Human Errors

A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes

by Nathan H. Lents ...

A biology professor's "funny, fascinating" tour of the physical imperfections—from faulty knees to junk DNA—that make us human (Discover).We humans like to think of ourselves as highly evolved creatures. But if we are supposedly evolution's greatest creation, why do we have such bad knees? Why do we catch head colds so often—two hundred times more often than a dog does? How come our wrists have so ... Read more

$1.99 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

A biology professor's "funny, fascinating" tour of the physical imperfections—from faulty knees to junk DNA—that make us human (Discover).We humans like to think of ourselves as highly evolved creatures. But if we are supposedly evolution's greatest creation, why do we have such bad knees? Why do we catch head colds so often—two hundred times more often than a dog does? How come our wrists have so
... Read more
The Language Puzzle

Piecing Together the Six-Million-Year Story of How Words Evolved

by Steven Mithen ...

**A top scholar reveals the most complete picture to date of how early human speech led to the languages we use today **The emergence of language began with the apelike calls of our earliest ancestors. Today, the world is home to thousands of complex languages. Yet exactly how, when, and why this evolution occurred has been one of the most enduring—and contentiously debated—questions in science. ... Read more

Was $19.99 USD Now $1.99 USD

**A top scholar reveals the most complete picture to date of how early human speech led to the languages we use today **The emergence of language began with the apelike calls of our earliest ancestors. Today, the world is home to thousands of complex languages. Yet exactly how, when, and why this evolution occurred has been one of the most enduring—and contentiously debated—questions in science.
... Read more
The Story of the Human Body

Evolution, Health, and Disease

by Daniel E. Lieberman ...

In this landmark book of popular science, Daniel E. Lieberman—chair of the department of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and a leader in the field—gives us a lucid and engaging account of how the human body evolved over millions of years, even as it shows how the increasing disparity between the jumble of adaptations in our Stone Age bodies and advancements in the modern world is ... Read more

$13.99 USD

In this landmark book of popular science, Daniel E. Lieberman—chair of the department of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and a leader in the field—gives us a lucid and engaging account of how the human body evolved over millions of years, even as it shows how the increasing disparity between the jumble of adaptations in our Stone Age bodies and advancements in the modern world is
... Read more
The Explorer's Gene

Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map

by Alex Hutchinson ...

New York Times-bestselling author of Endure Alex Hutchinson returns with a fresh, provocative investigation into how exploration, uncertainty, and risk shape our behavior and help us find meaning.Off the beaten path, following unmarked trails, we are wired to explore. More than just a need to get outside, the search for the unknown is a primal urge that has shaped the history of our species and ... Read more

$16.99 USD

New York Times-bestselling author of Endure Alex Hutchinson returns with a fresh, provocative investigation into how exploration, uncertainty, and risk shape our behavior and help us find meaning.Off the beaten path, following unmarked trails, we are wired to explore. More than just a need to get outside, the search for the unknown is a primal urge that has shaped the history of our species and
... Read more
Free Agents

How Evolution Gave Us Free Will

by Kevin Mitchell ...

An evolutionary case for the existence of free willScientists are learning more and more about how brain activity controls behavior and how neural circuits weigh alternatives and initiate actions. As we probe ever deeper into the mechanics of decision making, many conclude that agency—or free will—is an illusion. In Free Agents, leading neuroscientist Kevin Mitchell presents a wealth of evidence ... Read more

$23.09 USD

An evolutionary case for the existence of free willScientists are learning more and more about how brain activity controls behavior and how neural circuits weigh alternatives and initiate actions. As we probe ever deeper into the mechanics of decision making, many conclude that agency—or free will—is an illusion. In Free Agents, leading neuroscientist Kevin Mitchell presents a wealth of evidence
... Read more
A Natural History of the Future

What the Laws of Biology Tell Us about the Destiny of the Human Species

by Rob Dunn ...

“An arresting vision of this relentless natural world” (New York Times) by a leading ecologist, who urges us to heed nature’s iron lawsOur species has amassed unprecedented knowledge of nature, which we have tried to use to seize control of life and bend the planet to our will. In  A Natural History of the Future, biologist Rob Dunn argues that such efforts are futile. We may see ourselves as life ... Read more

Was $12.99 USD Now $1.99 USD

“An arresting vision of this relentless natural world” (New York Times) by a leading ecologist, who urges us to heed nature’s iron lawsOur species has amassed unprecedented knowledge of nature, which we have tried to use to seize control of life and bend the planet to our will. In  A Natural History of the Future, biologist Rob Dunn argues that such efforts are futile. We may see ourselves as life
... Read more
Sapiens [Tenth Anniversary Edition]

A Brief History of Humankind

by Yuval Noah Harari ...

New York Times Readers’ Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21**st** CenturyThe tenth anniversary edition of the internationally bestselling phenomenon that cemented Yuval Noah Harari as one of the most prominent historians of our time—featuring a new afterword from the author.One hundred thousand years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo s... ... Read more

$16.99 USD

New York Times Readers’ Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21**st** CenturyThe tenth anniversary edition of the internationally bestselling phenomenon that cemented Yuval Noah Harari as one of the most prominent historians of our time—featuring a new afterword from the author.One hundred thousand years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo s...
... Read more
Humans

How our Bodies Shaped our Story of Survival

by DK ...

Humans – who are we?Physically, Homo sapiens is unremarkable in the animal world – a hairless ape. But somehow, in combination, our characteristics make us remarkable. With our dexterity and brain power, we discovered ways of finding food and beating the elements not only in our home on the African savanna, but in every habitat from jungle to Arctic waste. Humans tells the story of our evolution ... Read more

$14.99 USD

Humans – who are we?Physically, Homo sapiens is unremarkable in the animal world – a hairless ape. But somehow, in combination, our characteristics make us remarkable. With our dexterity and brain power, we discovered ways of finding food and beating the elements not only in our home on the African savanna, but in every habitat from jungle to Arctic waste. Humans tells the story of our evolution
... Read more
Darwin's Doubt

The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design

by Stephen C. Meyer ...

When Charles Darwin finished The Origin of Species, he thought that he had explained every clue, but one. Though his theory could explain many facts, Darwin knew that there was a significant event in the history of life that his theory did not explain. During this event, the “Cambrian explosion,” many animals suddenly appeared in the fossil record without apparent ancestors in earlier layers of ... Read more

$2.99 USD

When Charles Darwin finished The Origin of Species, he thought that he had explained every clue, but one. Though his theory could explain many facts, Darwin knew that there was a significant event in the history of life that his theory did not explain. During this event, the “Cambrian explosion,” many animals suddenly appeared in the fossil record without apparent ancestors in earlier layers of
... Read more
Kindred

Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art

by Rebecca Wragg Sykes ...

** WINNER OF THE PEN HESSELL-TILTMAN PRIZE 2021 **'Beautiful, evocative, authoritative.' Professor Brian Cox'Important reading not just for anyone interested in these ancient cousins of ours, but also for anyone interested in humanity.' Yuval Noah HarariKindred is the definitive guide to the Neanderthals. Since their discovery more than 160 years ago, Neanderthals have metamorphosed from th... ... Read more

$13.59 USD

** WINNER OF THE PEN HESSELL-TILTMAN PRIZE 2021 **'Beautiful, evocative, authoritative.' Professor Brian Cox'Important reading not just for anyone interested in these ancient cousins of ours, but also for anyone interested in humanity.' Yuval Noah HarariKindred is the definitive guide to the Neanderthals. Since their discovery more than 160 years ago, Neanderthals have metamorphosed from th...
... Read more
Adam's Tongue

How Humans Made Language, How Language Made Humans

by Derek Bickerton ...

How language evolved has been called "the hardest problem in science." In Adam's Tongue, Derek Bickerton—long a leading authority in this field—shows how and why previous attempts to solve that problem have fallen short. Taking cues from topics as diverse as the foraging strategies of ants, the distribution of large prehistoric herbivores, and the construction of ecological niches, Bickerton ... Read more

$17.99 USD

How language evolved has been called "the hardest problem in science." In Adam's Tongue, Derek Bickerton—long a leading authority in this field—shows how and why previous attempts to solve that problem have fallen short. Taking cues from topics as diverse as the foraging strategies of ants, the distribution of large prehistoric herbivores, and the construction of ecological niches, Bickerton
... Read more
Togetherness

Symbiosis and the Hidden Story of Life's Greatest Collaborations

by Rowan Hooper ...

**A wondrous, eye-opening exploration of the surprising ways life is interconnected—and why it matters"Absolutely enthralling. I was hooked from the first sentence." —Bill Bryson, author of A Short History of Nearly Everything and The Body**From evolution to capitalism, our belief in the “survival of the fittest” has shaped our view of the world. But we got it wrong—and our mistake has brought us ... Read more

$14.99 USD

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**A wondrous, eye-opening exploration of the surprising ways life is interconnected—and why it matters"Absolutely enthralling. I was hooked from the first sentence." —Bill Bryson, author of A Short History of Nearly Everything and The Body**From evolution to capitalism, our belief in the “survival of the fittest” has shaped our view of the world. But we got it wrong—and our mistake has brought us
... Read more
The Social Origins of Language

by Robert Seyfarth, Dorothy Cheney ...

Series series Duke Institute for Brain Sciences Series
How human language evolved from the need for social communicationThe origins of human language remain hotly debated. Despite growing appreciation of cognitive and neural continuity between humans and other animals, an evolutionary account of human language—in its modern form—remains as elusive as ever. The Social Origins of Language provides a novel perspective on this question and charts a new ... Read more

$31.69 USD

How human language evolved from the need for social communicationThe origins of human language remain hotly debated. Despite growing appreciation of cognitive and neural continuity between humans and other animals, an evolutionary account of human language—in its modern form—remains as elusive as ever. The Social Origins of Language provides a novel perspective on this question and charts a new
... Read more
A Brief History of Earth

Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters

by Andrew H. Knoll ...

Harvard’s acclaimed geologist “charts Earth’s history in accessible style” (AP)“A sublime chronicle of our planet." –Booklist, STARRED reviewHow well do you know the ground beneath your feet?Odds are, where you’re standing was once cooking under a roiling sea of lava, crushed by a towering sheet of ice, rocked by a nearby meteor strike, or perhaps choked by poison gases, drowned beneath ocean, ... Read more

Was $11.99 USD Now $4.99 USD

Harvard’s acclaimed geologist “charts Earth’s history in accessible style” (AP)“A sublime chronicle of our planet." –Booklist, STARRED reviewHow well do you know the ground beneath your feet?Odds are, where you’re standing was once cooking under a roiling sea of lava, crushed by a towering sheet of ice, rocked by a nearby meteor strike, or perhaps choked by poison gases, drowned beneath ocean,
... Read more
Sex, Time, and Power

How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution

by Leonard Shlain ...

As in the bestselling The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, Leonard Shlain’s provocative new book promises to change the way readers view themselves and where they came from.Sex, Time, and Power offers a tantalizing answer to an age-old question: Why did big-brained Homo sapiens suddenly emerge some 150,000 years ago? The key, according to Shlain, is female sexuality. Drawing on an awesome breadth of ... Read more

Was $8.99 USD Now $4.99 USD

As in the bestselling The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, Leonard Shlain’s provocative new book promises to change the way readers view themselves and where they came from.Sex, Time, and Power offers a tantalizing answer to an age-old question: Why did big-brained Homo sapiens suddenly emerge some 150,000 years ago? The key, according to Shlain, is female sexuality. Drawing on an awesome breadth of
... Read more
The Human Swarm

How Our Societies Arise, Thrive, and Fall

by Mark W. Moffett ...

The epic story and ultimate big history of how human society evolved from intimate chimp communities into the sprawling civilizations of a world-dominating speciesIf a chimpanzee ventures into the territory of a different group, it will almost certainly be killed. But a New Yorker can fly to Los Angeles--or Borneo--with very little fear. Psychologists have done little to explain this: for years, ... Read more

Was $19.99 USD Now $1.99 USD

The epic story and ultimate big history of how human society evolved from intimate chimp communities into the sprawling civilizations of a world-dominating speciesIf a chimpanzee ventures into the territory of a different group, it will almost certainly be killed. But a New Yorker can fly to Los Angeles--or Borneo--with very little fear. Psychologists have done little to explain this: for years,
... Read more
The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything

How Carbon Dioxide Made Our World

by Peter Brannen ...

Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize"Ambitious, absorbing… Brannen is an effusive, maximalist writer, a mind vividly alive on the page… and his arguments, like his writing, are hugely compelling."—The New York Times Book ReviewHow carbon dioxide made planet Earth, shaped human history, and now holds our future in the balanceEvery year, we are dangerously warping the climate by putting ... Read more

$17.99 USD

Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize"Ambitious, absorbing… Brannen is an effusive, maximalist writer, a mind vividly alive on the page… and his arguments, like his writing, are hugely compelling."—The New York Times Book ReviewHow carbon dioxide made planet Earth, shaped human history, and now holds our future in the balanceEvery year, we are dangerously warping the climate by putting
... Read more
Bitch

On the Female of the Species

by Lucy Cooke ...

A zoologist’s “compelling and often hilarious” (Science) look at the queens of the animal kingdomSomewhere in the ocean, an orca matriarch leads her pod to better hunting grounds. At the same time, a male clownfish, alone after the death of his mate, changes sex. All the while, humans battle over sex and gender: One side argues evolutionary biology dictates how we should be, and the other that it ... Read more

$15.99 USD

A zoologist’s “compelling and often hilarious” (Science) look at the queens of the animal kingdomSomewhere in the ocean, an orca matriarch leads her pod to better hunting grounds. At the same time, a male clownfish, alone after the death of his mate, changes sex. All the while, humans battle over sex and gender: One side argues evolutionary biology dictates how we should be, and the other that it
... Read more
Living in the Sound of the Wind

A Personal Quest for W.H. Hudson, Naturalist and Writer from the River Plate

by Jason Wilson ...

W. H. Hudson was brought up on the pampas, where he learnt from gauchos about frontier life. After moving to London in 1874, Hudson lived in extreme poverty. Like his friend Joseph Conrad, Hudson was an exile, adapting to England. He never returned to Argentina.Wilson unravels Hudson’s English dream, his natural history rambles, and his work to protect birds. He remains both a complex witness to ... Read more

Was $11.99 USD Now $2.99 USD

W. H. Hudson was brought up on the pampas, where he learnt from gauchos about frontier life. After moving to London in 1874, Hudson lived in extreme poverty. Like his friend Joseph Conrad, Hudson was an exile, adapting to England. He never returned to Argentina.Wilson unravels Hudson’s English dream, his natural history rambles, and his work to protect birds. He remains both a complex witness to
... Read more
Sapiens: A Graphic History, Volume 3

The Masters of History

by Yuval Noah Harari ...

This third volume of the illustrated adaptation of the internationally bestselling phenomenon, Sapiens: A Graphic History—The Masters of History, tackles the question of the driving force of humanity’s fate: is it empire, money, religion—or something else entirely—that unites us?Sometimes history seems like a laundry list of malevolent monarchs, pompous presidents and dastardly dictators. But are ... Read more

$2.99 USD

This third volume of the illustrated adaptation of the internationally bestselling phenomenon, Sapiens: A Graphic History—The Masters of History, tackles the question of the driving force of humanity’s fate: is it empire, money, religion—or something else entirely—that unites us?Sometimes history seems like a laundry list of malevolent monarchs, pompous presidents and dastardly dictators. But are
... Read more
Eve

How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution

by Cat Bohannon ...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION FINALIST • THE REAL ORIGIN OF OUR SPECIES: a myth-busting, eye-opening landmark account of how humans evolved, offering a paradigm shift in our thinking about what the female body is, how it came to be, and how this evolution still shapes all our lives today“A page-turning whistle-stop tour of mammalian development that begins in the ... Read more

$10.99 USD

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION FINALIST • THE REAL ORIGIN OF OUR SPECIES: a myth-busting, eye-opening landmark account of how humans evolved, offering a paradigm shift in our thinking about what the female body is, how it came to be, and how this evolution still shapes all our lives today“A page-turning whistle-stop tour of mammalian development that begins in the
... Read more
Here on Earth

A Natural History of the Planet

by Tim Flannery ...

From the internationally acclaimed scientist, explorer, and conservationist comes an awe-inspiring account of earth's evolution.Beginning at the moment of creation with the Big Bang, Here on Earth explores the evolution of Earth from a galactic cloud of dust and gas to a planet with a metallic core and early signs of life within a billion years of being created. In a compelling narrative, Flannery ... Read more

$12.99 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

From the internationally acclaimed scientist, explorer, and conservationist comes an awe-inspiring account of earth's evolution.Beginning at the moment of creation with the Big Bang, Here on Earth explores the evolution of Earth from a galactic cloud of dust and gas to a planet with a metallic core and early signs of life within a billion years of being created. In a compelling narrative, Flannery
... Read more
Aspects of Human Evolution

(CW 176)

by Rudolf Steiner ...

Translated by Rita Stebbing ...

8 lectures, Berlin, May 29-July 24, 1917 (CW 176)How to Keep Your Soul Alive after Twenty-Seven This could have been the title of this book. The author shows that the natural development of the soul stops at around the age of twenty-seven. After that, nothing happens for our inner being unless we learn to make it happen. Part of the tragic nature of our time is that more and more people allow ... Read more

$3.99 USD

8 lectures, Berlin, May 29-July 24, 1917 (CW 176)How to Keep Your Soul Alive after Twenty-Seven This could have been the title of this book. The author shows that the natural development of the soul stops at around the age of twenty-seven. After that, nothing happens for our inner being unless we learn to make it happen. Part of the tragic nature of our time is that more and more people allow
... Read more
On the Prowl

In Search of Big Cat Origins

by Mark Hallett, John Harris ...

Big cats such as lions, tigers, leopards, and jaguars fascinate us like few other creatures. They are enduring symbols of natural majesty and power. Yet despite the magnetic appeal of the big cats, their origins and evolutionary history remain poorly understood—and human activity threatens to put an end to the big cats’ glory.On the Prowl is a fully illustrated and approachable guide to the ... Read more

$31.99 USD

Big cats such as lions, tigers, leopards, and jaguars fascinate us like few other creatures. They are enduring symbols of natural majesty and power. Yet despite the magnetic appeal of the big cats, their origins and evolutionary history remain poorly understood—and human activity threatens to put an end to the big cats’ glory.On the Prowl is a fully illustrated and approachable guide to the
... Read more

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