by John Bradshaw ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 2013
A useful guide to help cat lovers better understand their elusive pets.
A cat-loving anthrozoologist probes “the cat's true nature.”
Bradshaw (Dog Sense: How the New Science of Dog Behavior Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet, 2011) worries about the future of domestic cats, “the most popular pet in the world today.” Until recently, their tendency to hunt small prey, such as mice and snakes, has added to their value for homeowners, overshadowing their predatory behavior toward small animals and birds. Not so today, as the decline of wild species has become an increasing concern. Historically, dogs and cats have been valued for different qualities, and their paths to domestication were also different. Dogs evolved from relatively tame wolves that lived in packs. They readily worked in tandem with humans as hunters, herders and guard dogs. Cats evolved from solitary, wild cats that defended their own territories. The author traces their domestication to the Middle East and the agrarian revolution. As grains were stored, house mice evolved to take advantage of the food supply, and cats were attracted by the opportunity to hunt the mice. They were valued as exterminators, but their kittens were adopted as pets. Bradshaw contends that although urban house cats are affectionate and can appear more independent and easier to manage, owners frequently do not pay sufficient attention to their socialization. While dogs befriend unrelated dogs, cats do not; therefore, the author suggests that, if possible, two cats from the same litter be placed together. Since their access to the outdoors is being increasingly restricted and, in urban environments, cats are no longer needed to control mice, it is important to provide them with companionship and an enriched play environment.
A useful guide to help cat lovers better understand their elusive pets.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-465-03101-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
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by Bill Bryson ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 6, 2003
Loads of good explaining, with reminders, time and again, of how much remains unknown, neatly putting the death of science...
Bryson (I'm a Stranger Here Myself, 1999, etc.), a man who knows how to track down an explanation and make it confess, asks the hard questions of science—e.g., how did things get to be the way they are?—and, when possible, provides answers.
As he once went about making English intelligible, Bryson now attempts the same with the great moments of science, both the ideas themselves and their genesis, to resounding success. Piqued by his own ignorance on these matters, he’s egged on even more so by the people who’ve figured out—or think they’ve figured out—such things as what is in the center of the Earth. So he goes exploring, in the library and in company with scientists at work today, to get a grip on a range of topics from subatomic particles to cosmology. The aim is to deliver reports on these subjects in terms anyone can understand, and for the most part, it works. The most difficult is the nonintuitive material—time as part of space, say, or proteins inventing themselves spontaneously, without direction—and the quantum leaps unusual minds have made: as J.B.S. Haldane once put it, “The universe is not only queerer than we suppose; it is queerer than we can suppose.” Mostly, though, Bryson renders clear the evolution of continental drift, atomic structure, singularity, the extinction of the dinosaur, and a mighty host of other subjects in self-contained chapters that can be taken at a bite, rather than read wholesale. He delivers the human-interest angle on the scientists, and he keeps the reader laughing and willing to forge ahead, even over their heads: the human body, for instance, harboring enough energy “to explode with the force of thirty very large hydrogen bombs, assuming you knew how to liberate it and really wished to make a point.”
Loads of good explaining, with reminders, time and again, of how much remains unknown, neatly putting the death of science into perspective.Pub Date: May 6, 2003
ISBN: 0-7679-0817-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Broadway
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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BOOK TO SCREEN
by Neil deGrasse Tyson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 8, 2019
A media-savvy scientist cleans out his desk.
Tyson (Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, 2017, etc.) receives a great deal of mail, and this slim volume collects his responses and other scraps of writing.
The prolific science commentator and bestselling author, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History, delivers few surprises and much admirable commentary. Readers may suspect that most of these letters date from the author’s earlier years when, a newly minted celebrity, he still thrilled that many of his audience were pouring out their hearts. Consequently, unlike more hardened colleagues, he sought to address their concerns. As years passed, suspecting that many had no interest in tapping his expertise or entering into an intelligent give and take, he undoubtedly made greater use of the waste basket. Tyson eschews pure fan letters, but many of these selections are full of compliments as a prelude to asking advice, pointing out mistakes, proclaiming opposing beliefs, or denouncing him. Readers will also encounter some earnest op-ed pieces and his eyewitness account of 9/11. “I consider myself emotionally strong,” he writes. “What I bore witness to, however, was especially upsetting, with indelible images of horror that will not soon leave my mind.” To crackpots, he gently repeats facts that almost everyone except crackpots accept. Those who have seen ghosts, dead relatives, and Bigfoot learn that eyewitness accounts are often unreliable. Tyson points out that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, so confirmation that a light in the sky represents an alien spacecraft requires more than a photograph. Again and again he defends “science,” and his criteria—observation, repeatable experiments, honest discourse, peer review—are not controversial but will remain easy for zealots to dismiss. Among the instances of “hate mail” and “science deniers,” the author also discusses philosophy, parenting, and schooling.
A media-savvy scientist cleans out his desk.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-324-00331-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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