The proceedings were designed to bring together researchers who share a common interest in the quantitative description of the biological form. Participants came from very diverse disciplines such as agricultural genetics, botany, entomology, forensics, human anatomy, paleontology, human evolution, primatology, dentistry, etc. The participants applied various methodological approaches that are being increasingly used to describe aspects of the biological form. These techniques include neur...

This proceedings volume describes the current state of research dealing with biological shape analysis. The quantitative analysis of the shape of biological organisms represents a challenge that has now seen breakthroughs with new methodologies such as elliptical Fourier analysis, quantitative trait loci analysis (QTLs), thin plate splines, etc. The volume also illustrates the diversity of disciplines that are actively involved in the characterization and analysis of the biological shape. ...

How our collective intelligence has helped us to evolve and prosperHumans are a puzzling species. On the one hand, we struggle to survive on our own in the wild, often failing to overcome even basic challenges, like obtaining food, building shelters, or avoiding predators. On the other hand, human groups have produced ingenious technologies, sophisticated languages, and complex institutions that have permitted us to successfully expand into a vast range of diverse ...

The national bestseller that reveals how we are descended from seven prehistoric women.One of the most dramatic stories of genetic discovery since James Watson's The Double Helix, The Seven Daughters of Eve reveals the remarkable story behind a groundbreaking scientific discovery. After being summoned in 1997 to an archaeological site to examine the remains of a five-thousand-year-old man, Bryan Sykes ultimately was able to prove not only that the man was a Europe...

Drawing on startling new evidence from the mapping of the genome, an explosive new account of the genetic basis of race and its role in the human storyFewer ideas have been more toxic or harmful than the idea of the biological reality of race, and with it the idea that humans of different races are biologically different from one another. For this understandable reason, the idea has been banished from polite academic conversation. Arguing that race is more than jus...

'From your brain to your fingertips, you emerge from her book entertained and with a deeper understanding of yourself' Richard Dawkins**'A masterful account of why our bodies are the way they are . . . this book really shines . . . Roberts's lightness of touch is joyous, and celebratory' Observer'Witty, personal and above all informed by passion and deep knowledge, this is the story of you, not just from conception onwards but from...

Resistance to malaria. Blue eyes. Lactose tolerance. What do all of these traits have in common? Every one of them has emerged in the last 10,000 years.Scientists have long believed that the "great leap forward" that occurred some 40,000 to 50,000 years ago in Europe marked end of significant biological evolution in humans. In this stunningly original account of our evolutionary history, top scholars Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending reject this conventional wis...

By the best selling author of The Selfish Gene 'This entertaining and thought-provoking book is an excellent illustration of why the study of evolution is in such an exciting ferment these days.' Science 'The Extended Phenotype is a sequel to The Selfish Gene . . . he writes so clearly it could be understood by anyone prepared to make the effort' John Maynard Smith, London Review of Books 'Dawkins is quite incapable of being boring this characteristically brilliant and stimulating book is ...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “Exciting and provocative . . . A tour de force of a book that begs to be seen as well as to be read.”—The Washington Post Book WorldWorld 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. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is a thrilling saga that starts with the origin of the Earth. It shows with...

A preeminent geneticist, winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in medicine, hunts the Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes to answer the biggest question of them all: how did our ancestors become human?Neanderthal Man tells the riveting personal and scientific story of the quest to use ancient DNA to unlock the secrets of human evolution. Beginning with the study of DNA in Egyptian mummies in the early 1980s and culminating in the sequencing of the Neanderthal genom...

A New York Times bestseller“A smart and important book.”—Gretchen Reynolds, author of The First 20 MinutesPublications as varied as Wired, Men’s Fitness, and The New Yorker are abuzz over the New York Times bestseller Faster, Higher, Stronger. In it, veteran journalist Mark McClusky explains how today’s top athletes are turning to advanced technology and savvy science to improve their p...

Respiratory System is a presentation of the human respiratory system although many of the details are transferrable to other animals as well. It begins with an examination of the structures and functions involved with external respiration across the surface of alveoli before it considers the mechanics of breathing and how inhaled air is conditioned before it arrives at the alveoli. The unit then considers in detail the processes and chemistry of gas exchange and the forces that drive these...