The fingerlings are stories of what happens in the lives of finger puppets when they mix in the lives of children, many adventures occur which are of much interest to children that don't have puppets of their own. Each story is an area of interest in a child's life.

How did the biological, brain and behavioural structures underlying human language evolve? When, why and where did our ancestors become linguistic animals, and what has happened since? This book provides a clear, comprehensive but lively introduction to these interdisciplinary debates. Written in an approachable style, it cuts through the complex, sometimes contradictory and often obscure technical languages used in the different scientific disciplines involved in the study of linguistic e...

Joining the ranks of modern myth busters, Dr. Sharon Moalem turns our current understanding of illness on its head and challenges us to fundamentally change the way we think about our bodies, our health, and our relationship to just about every other living thing on earth, from plants and animals to insects and bacteria.So why does disease exist? Moalem proposes that most common ailments—diabetes, hemochromatosis, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia—came into existence for very goo...

A provocative and thoroughly researched inquiry into what we find beautiful and why, skewering the myth that the pursuit of beauty is a learned behavior.In Survival of the Prettiest, Nancy Etcoff, a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and a practicing psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, argues that beauty is neither a cultural construction, an invention of the fashion industry, nor a backlash against feminism—it’s in our biology.Beauty, she explain...

Our big brains, our language ability, and our intelligence make us uniquely human.But barely 10,000 years ago (a mere blip in evolutionary time) human-like creatures called "Boskops" flourished in South Africa. They possessed extraordinary features: forebrains roughly 50% larger than ours, and estimated IQs to match--far surpassing our own. Many of these huge fossil skulls have been discovered over the last century, but most of us have never heard of this scientific marvel....

Harnessing evolution for more sustainable agricultureAs human populations grow and resources are depleted, agriculture will need to use land, water, and other resources more efficiently and without sacrificing long-term sustainability. Darwinian Agriculture presents an entirely new approach to these challenges, one that draws on the principles of evolution and natural selection.R. Ford Denison shows how both biotechnology and traditional plant bree...

*** Original and Unabridged Content. Made available by GOLDEN CLASSIC PRESS***Synopsis:Geological Observations on South America by Charles Darwin - This was the third and last instalment of Darwin's account of the geological research he did during his five-year voyage on the Beagle. First published in 1846, it focuses on the geological history of South America. It includes detailed maps of South America and sketches of the terrain discussed.

Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from a common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory with compelling evidence for evolution in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, overcoming scientific rejection of earlier concepts of transmutation of species. Darwi...

Bringing the advances of theoretical linguistics to the study of language change in a systematic way, this innovative textbook demonstrates the mutual relevance of historical linguistics and contemporary linguistics. Numerous case studies throughout the book show both that theoretical linguistics can be used to solve problems where traditional approaches to historical linguistics have failed to produce satisfying results, and that the results of historical research can have an impact on th...

The second in a series of books in association with the Royal Institution on their world-renowned Christmas Lectures, this time exploring the secrets of the natural world – with a foreword by Sir David Attenborough.Following on from the success of 13 Journeys Through Space and Time, which took us on a voyage of astronomical discovery through past Christmas Lectures given at the Royal Institution on space and space exploration, this book turns our attention...

Human-induced environmental change currently represents the single greatest threat to global biodiversity. Species are typically adapted to the local environmental conditions in which they have evolved. Changes in environmental conditions initially influence behaviour, which in turn affects species interactions, population dynamics, evolutionary processes and, ultimately, biodiversity. How animals respond to changed conditions, and how this influences population viability, is an area of gr...

Eldredge presents the most up-to-date examination of the creation-evolution confrontation available.