Helen Plum Library

"In Eve, Cat Bohannon answers questions scientists should have been addressing for decades. With boundless curiosity and sharp wit, Bohannon covers the past 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex. Eve is not just a sweeping revision of human history, it's an urgent and necessary corrective for a world that has focused primarily on the male body for far too long. Bohannon's findings, including everything...

For fans of Bill Bryson and Mary Roach, this entertaining exploration of human evolution reveals where we inherited our adaptable, achy, brilliant bodies

"Most historians study the smallest slivers of time, emphasizing specific dates, individuals, and documents. But what would it look like to study the whole of history, from the big bang through the present day--and even into the remote future? How would looking at the full span of time change the way we perceive the universe, the earth, and our very existence? These were the questions David Christian set out to answer when he created the field of...

Anthropologist blends his scientific knowledge with imaginative vision as he reflects on the journey of man in time A collection of essays by the head of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania has its central core in the recency of man, his development, genetic endowments and the enormous, interlined complexity of life. Eiseley's observations, his brooding, his researchings and his confessions are a journey which seeks "to...

"The most up-to-date science on the genetics of who we are and where we come from, showing us a more scientifically enlightened way to talk colloquially about race"--

"Fossil Men is the riveting science-adventure story of the brilliant team who discovered the "Ardi" skeleton, a human more than a million years older than the famous Lucy, and their 20-year quest to redefine our understanding of human evolution"--

"One of the foremost researchers in human metabolism reveals surprising new science behind food and exercise. We burn 2,000 calories a day. And if we exercise and cut carbs, we'll lose more weight. Right? Wrong. In this paradigm-shifting book, Herman Pontzer reveals for the first time how human metabolism really works so that we can finally manage our weight and improve our health. Pontzer's groundbreaking studies with hunter-gatherer tribes show...

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 story Few ideas have been more harmful than one race or another being inherently superior to others. For this understandable reason, discussion of biological differences between races has been virtually banished from polite academic conversation. Human evolution, the consensus view insists, ended in prehistory....