A Natural History for Young People

A Natural History for Young People

Author: Phebe Westcott Humphreys

Publisher: Good Press

Published: 2023-10-26

Total Pages: 391

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A Natural History for Young People by Phebe Westcott Humphreys is a captivating exploration of the natural world, written in a style easily accessible to young readers. The book covers various aspects of the natural world, from the classification of plants and animals to the study of ecosystems and habitats. Humphreys' literary style is engaging and informative, making complex scientific concepts easy to understand. This book serves as an educational tool for young readers interested in learning more about the environment and the creatures that inhabit it, providing a solid foundation in natural history studies. Phebe Westcott Humphreys, a noted naturalist and educator, drew on her passion for the natural world and her experience working with young students to create A Natural History for Young People. Her dedication to inspiring curiosity and appreciation for nature shines through in her writing, making this book a valuable resource for children and educators alike. I highly recommend A Natural History for Young People to young readers eager to learn more about the natural world. Humphreys' accessible writing style and comprehensive coverage of various topics in natural history make this book both informative and engaging for readers of all ages.


Middle Age

Middle Age

Author: David Bainbridge

Publisher: Granta Publications

Published: 2012-03-01

Total Pages: 187

ISBN-13: 1846274362

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“There's lots of good news for the middle aged…A very jolly book with clear scientific explanations.”—The Telegraph David Bainbridge is a vet with a particular interest in evolutionary zoology—and he has just turned forty. As well as the usual concerns about greying hair, failing eyesight, and goldfish levels of forgetfulness, he finds himself pondering some bigger questions: have I come to the end of my productive life as a human being? And what I am now for? By looking afresh at the latest research from the fields of anthropology, neuroscience, psychology, and reproductive biology, it seems that the answers are surprisingly, reassuringly encouraging. In clear, engaging and amiable prose, Bainbridge explains the science behind the physical, mental and emotional changes men and women experience between the ages of 40 and 60, and reveals the evolutionary—and personal—benefits of middle age, which is unique to human beings and helps to explain the extraordinary success of our species. Middle Age will change the way you think about midlife, and help turn the crisis into a cause for celebration. “Bainbridge's zoological examination of the human animal results in a study that is full of surprises...Heartening.”—Sunday Times “Thought-provoking. [It] should certainly shed some new light on one's own potbellied or menopausal mid-life crisis...Fascinating.”—Evening Standard


Skin

Skin

Author: Nina G. Jablonski

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2013-02-20

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0520275896

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Our intimate connection with the world, skin protects us while advertising our health, our identity, and our individuality. This synthetic overview, written with a poetic touch and taking many intriguing side excursions, is a guidebook to the pliable covering that makes us who we are. This book celebrates the evolution of three unique attributes of human skin: its naked sweatiness, its distinctive sepia rainbow of colors, and its remarkable range of decorations. Author Jablonski begins with a look at skin's structure and functions and then tours its three-hundred-million-year evolution, delving into such topics as the importance of touch and how the skin reflects and affects emotions. She examines the modern human obsession with age-related changes in skin, especially wrinkles, then turns to skin as a canvas for self-expression, exploring our use of cosmetics, body paint, tattooing, and scarification"--Publisher's description.


A Zapotec Natural History

A Zapotec Natural History

Author: Eugene S. Hunn

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2016-08

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 0816534330

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A Zapotec Natural History is an extraordinary book that describe the people of a small town in Mexico and their remarkable knowledge of the natural world in which they live. San Juan Gbëë is a Zapotec Indian community located in the state of Oaxaca, a region of great biological diversity. Eugene S. Hunn is a well-known anthropologist and ethnobiologist who has spent many years working in San Juan Gbëë, studying its residents and their knowledge of the local environment. Here Hunn writes sensitively and respectfully about the rich understanding of local flora and fauna that village inhabitants have acquired and transmitted over many centuries. In this village everyone, young children included, can identify and name hundreds of local plants, animals, and fungi, together with the details of their life cycles, habitat preferences, and functions in the economic, aesthetic, and spiritual lives of the town. Part 1 of this two-part work describes the community, the subsistence farming practices of its residents, the nomenclature and classification of the local biological taxonomy, the use of plants for treating illnesses, and the ritual and decorative roles of flowers. Part 2 is available online, and includes detailed inventories of all plant, animal, and fungal categories recognized by San Juan’s people; a series of indexes; a library of more than 1,200 images illustrating the town’s plants, people, landscapes, and daily activities; and sounds of village life.


Flip-o-saurus

Flip-o-saurus

Author: Britta Drehsen

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2010-08-24

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 0789210614

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Mix and match the heads, bodies, and tails of different dinosaurs to create your own prehistoric beasts! This interactive board book lets you mix up the heads, bodies, and tails of ten real dinosaurs in order to create a thousand different imaginary ones, like the Stegodocus, the Oviplosaurus, or the Diploraptops. Each flap features a fun fact about the dinosaur, so you can figure out how yourFlip-o-saurus would behave. There’s also a handy chart that shows the relative sizes of the ten dinosaurs that make up the “ingredients” of your new creature, and gives the meaning and pronunciation of their names. The charming illustrations and sturdy die-cut pages will provide lots of mix-and-match fun for any young dino fan.


Life

Life

Author: Richard Fortey

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2011-03-23

Total Pages: 567

ISBN-13: 0307761185

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

By one of Britain's most gifted scientists: a magnificently daring and compulsively readable account of life on Earth (from the "big bang" to the advent of man), based entirely on the most original of all sources--the evidence of fossils. With excitement and driving intelligence, Richard Fortey guides us from the barren globe spinning in space, through the very earliest signs of life in the sulphurous hot springs and volcanic vents of the young planet, the appearance of cells, the slow creation of an atmosphere and the evolution of myriad forms of plants and animals that could then be sustained, including the magnificent era of the dinosaurs, and on to the last moment before the debut of Homo sapiens. Ranging across multiple scientific disciplines, explicating in wonderfully clear and refreshing prose their findings and arguments--about the origins of life, the causes of species extinctions and the first appearance of man--Fortey weaves this history out of the most delicate traceries left in rock, stone and earth. He also explains how, on each aspect of nature and life, scientists have reached the understanding we have today, who made the key discoveries, who their opponents were and why certain ideas won. Brimful of wit, fascinating personal experience and high scholarship, this book may well be our best introduction yet to the complex history of life on Earth. A Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection With 32 pages of photographs


A Child Through Time

A Child Through Time

Author: Phil Wilkinson

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2017-11-07

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 1465472495

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An original look at history that profiles 30 children from different eras so that children of today can discover the lives of the cave people, Romans, Vikings, and beyond through the eyes of someone their own age. History books often focus on adults, but what was the past like for children? A Child Through Time is historically accurate and thoroughly researched, and brings the children of history to life-from the earliest civilizations to the Cold War, even imagining a child of the future. Packed with facts and including a specially commissioned illustration of each profiled child, this book examines the clothes children wore, the food they ate, the games they played, and the historic moments they witnessed-all through their own eyes. Maps, timelines, and collections of objects, as well as a perspective on the often ignored topic of family life through the ages, give wider historical background and present a unique side to history. Covering key curriculum topics in a new light, A Child Through Time is a perfect and visually stunning learning tool for children ages 7 and up.


Children of Time

Children of Time

Author: Anne H. Weaver

Publisher: UNM Press

Published: 2012-04-15

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 0826344445

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Ancient relics--stone tools, bones, footprints, and even DNA--offer many clues about our human ancestors and how they lived. At the same time, our kinship with our human ancestors lies as much in their sense of humor, their interactions with others, their curiosity and their moments of wonder, as it does in the shape of their bones and teeth. And the evolution of human behavior left no direct fossil traces. Children of Time brings this vanished aspect of the human past to life through Anne Weaver's scientifically- informed imagination. The stories move through time, following the lives of long-ago hominins through the eyes of their children. Each carefully researched chapter is based on an actual child fossil--a baby, a five-year- old, a young adolescent, and teenagers. The children and their families are brought to life through illustrator Matt Celeskey's vividly rendered paleoenvironments where they encounter saber-toothed cats, giraffids, wild dogs, fearsome crocodiles, and primitive horses. Their adventures invite readers to think about what it means to be human, and to speculate on the human drama as it unfolds in many dimensions, from social organization and technology to language, music, art, and religious consciousness. Visit the website at www.children-of-time.com.


Urban Forests

Urban Forests

Author: Jill Jonnes

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2017-09-05

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 0143110446

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“Far-ranging and deeply researched, Urban Forests reveals the beauty and significance of the trees around us.” —Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction “Jonnes extols the many contributions that trees make to city life and celebrates the men and women who stood up for America’s city trees over the past two centuries. . . . An authoritative account.” —Gerard Helferich, The Wall Street Journal “We all know that trees can make streets look prettier. But in her new book Urban Forests, Jill Jonnes explains how they make them safer as well.” —Sara Begley, Time Magazine A celebration of urban trees and the Americans—presidents, plant explorers, visionaries, citizen activists, scientists, nurserymen, and tree nerds—whose arboreal passions have shaped and ornamented the nation’s cities, from Jefferson’s day to the present As nature’s largest and longest-lived creations, trees play an extraordinarily important role in our cities; they are living landmarks that define space, cool the air, soothe our psyches, and connect us to nature and our past. Today, four-fifths of Americans live in or near urban areas, surrounded by millions of trees of hundreds of different species. Despite their ubiquity and familiarity, most of us take trees for granted and know little of their fascinating natural history or remarkable civic virtues. Jill Jonnes’s Urban Forests tells the captivating stories of the founding mothers and fathers of urban forestry, in addition to those arboreal advocates presently using the latest technologies to illuminate the value of trees to public health and to our urban infrastructure. The book examines such questions as the character of American urban forests and the effect that tree-rich landscaping might have on commerce, crime, and human well-being. For amateur botanists, urbanists, environmentalists, and policymakers, Urban Forests will be a revelation of one of the greatest, most productive, and most beautiful of our natural resources.


A Natural History of the Future

A Natural History of the Future

Author: Rob Dunn

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2022-01-20

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 1399800159

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Over the past century, our species has made unprecedented technological innovations with which we have sought to control nature. In A Natural History of the Future, biologist Rob Dunn argues that such efforts are futile. We may see ourselves as life's overlords, but we are instead at its mercy. In the evolution of antibiotic resistance, the power of natural selection to create biodiversity, and even the surprising life of the London Underground, Dunn finds laws of life that no human activity can annul. When we create artificial islands of crops, dump toxic waste, or build communities, we provide new materials for old laws to shape. Life's future flourishing is not in question. Ours is. A Natural History of the Future sets a new standard for understanding the diversity and destiny of life itself.