Since the 1970s, behavioural ecologists and evolutionary biologists have been fascinated by the biological implications of sperm from different males competing for fertilization of the egg in the female reproductive tract. But until Human Sperm Competition there had never been a discussion of the phenomenon for the human species in book form, despite its relevance for a full understanding of human reproduction.The book is a pioneering analysis of the evolutionary biology of human se...

First published in 1998, Baby Wars was the second title in a controversial trilogy of books which placed the past, present and future of human reproduction under the microscope of evolutionary biology. Baby Wars itself was focussed on parenthood and family strife, and attracted such international interest that it was translated into eight different languages. This digital English edition, with a new Preface by the authors, was released in 2017 to celebrate the book's upcoming 20th annivers...

Human Navigation and Magnetoreception, first published in 1989, was written to draw a line under an academic feud that had enlivened much of the 1980s. Now, thirty years on, a new generation of researchers, students and journalists have voiced a need for the book's contents to be made generally available again - and this digital 30th Anniversary edition (with a new Preface by the author) is the result.Like all mammals, early humans needed to find their way from place to place withou...

This classic work on the rules of sex -- updated for a new generation -- is still as provocative as the day it was published, providing simple explanations for any and all questions about what happens in the bedroom.Sex isn't as complicated as we make it. In Sperm Wars, evolutionary biologist Robin Baker argues that every question about human sexuality can be explained by one simple thing: sperm warfare. In the interest of promoting competition between spe...

In this ground-breaking study, Robin Baker investigates the contribution ancient Mesopotamian theology made to the origins of Christianity. Drawing on a formidable range of primary sources, Baker's conclusions challenge the widely held opinion that the theological imprint of Babylonia and Assyria on the New Testament is minimal, and what Mesopotamian legacy it contains was mediated by the Hebrew Bible and ancient Jewish sources. After evaluating and substantially supplementing previous res...

Max is a young lecturer in anthropology who always saw himself living in the jungle studying never-before-contacted tribes, but at every step he has been thwarted. One day in a second-hand bookshop he discovers a couple of handwritten pages stuck in a book. They seem to have been written by a Victorian adventuress who really had once lived with an unknown tribe in the Amazon. Determined to discover more, Max is dragged into a world of mysterious suicides, pagan sects, child prostitution an...

A man gives a lift to an unusual hitchhiker, a woman who has been thrown bound and naked from a car. On the journey he hears the bizarre but intriguing story of her predicament. It seems that there is nobody who could be the father of her child, least of all her rich powerful and vindictive husband.Mark de Vries has a passion for studying lions and for several months each year he teaches Zoology at an English University. The rest of his time he spends with his research team in a ti...

Provocative and often shocking, Sex in the Future examines how advances in reproductive technology will change human behavior. In-vitro fertilization and surrogate motherhood could mean the end not only of infertility but also of the need for men and women to form relationships or for women to interrupt careers for pregnancy. Sperm and egg storage mean people can literally shop for genes, while cloning, egg-egg fertilization, and other techniques will lead to fertility on demand in a Repro...

Presumed dead, a group of undergraduate students who go missing on a deserted Pacific island emerge one year later in two groups of ragged (and naked) survivors. All but one of the surviving women have conceived, and two students, plus their professor, are said to have died.In the glare of the world's media, every survivor sticks to the same unconvincing version of events. Piece-by-piece the narrator examines the evidence and conducts interviews with the survivors, to work out exac...

Everyday the headlines bring news of the latest health scare, with worrying predictions for where developments in science will take us. We want and need to understand the phenomena that influence our lives, but science is often more subtle and more complicated than the headlines would suggest.Over a diverse range of subjects, Robin Baker proves that the science we as consumers believe to be true is often an oversimplification - a convenient way of explaining complex subjects which are litt...

This classic work on the rules of sex -- updated for a new generation -- is still as provocative as the day it was published, providing simple explanations for any and all questions about what happens in the bedroom.Sex isn't as complicated as we make it. In Sperm Wars, evolutionary biologist Robin Baker argues that every question about human sexuality can be explained by one simple thing: sperm warfare. In the interest of promoting competition between spe...

A “drop-dead shocker” (Washington Post Book World) that uses evolutionary psychology to explain human mating and the mysteries of loveIf we all want love, why is there so much conflict in our most cherished relationships? To answer this question, we must look into our evolutionary past, argues prominent psychologist David M. Buss. Based one of the largest studies of human mating ever undertaken, encompassing more than 10,000 people of all ages from thirty-...