A watery romp under the waves that will appeal to anyone wanting to broaden their knowledge of our watery planet.
Coral and reef ecologist Hardt dives into the sex lives of sea creatures.
In a fun, lively style, the author explains the sexual antics going on under the waves. She links the science of sex to the sustainability of oceans and emphasizes that creatures’ sex lives are vital for a healthy environment. Just as with humans, finding the right mate takes some searching. Hardt describes the travails faced by creatures having to find a mate in a watery environment, which covers “about 99 percent of the habitable space on the planet.” In a largely informal narrative, the author interweaves pop-culture images and contemporary analogies with scientific facts. Who knew male blue whales are “getting their Barry White on” when they emit deep baritone sounds while searching for a sweetheart? Or that sharks and rays enlist the power of electromagnetism to find the right partner? Or sex in lobster language means “peeing in your lover’s face?” Hardt traces creatures from “dating” to “post climax.” Along the way, the author touches on the importance of penis size, sex-changing clownfish, fish with personal sperm banks, sex triggered by critical mass, and threesomes. Hardt notes how sound pollution, overfishing, and climate change affect the ocean’s creatures, which then impact human food security, shoreline protection, medicines, and sheer enjoyment of the ocean environment. The discussion includes new methods and emerging technologies for further study and possible protection of the ocean and its creatures. The author also includes amusing illustrations, sea sex trivia, and short fictional vignettes such as Fifty Shades of Grunion Run, as well as a list of organizations promoting healthy oceans. Not all readers will appreciate Hardt’s tone, but all will learn plenty.
A watery romp under the waves that will appeal to anyone wanting to broaden their knowledge of our watery planet.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-137-27997-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
One of the founders of population genetics describes his life's work and its scientific context in this clear and accessible book, cowritten with his son Francesco. Luigi Cavalli-Sforza (Genetics/Stanford Univ. Medical School), a true polymath, combines the insights of anthropological fieldwork, historical linguistics, and molecular biology to create a history of human evolution, both biological and cultural. Having visited African pygmies in their villages and joined them on their hunting expeditions, he can present the essence of hunter-gatherer societies in a way no theoretician can match. But his field trips also provided him with blood samples for laboratory analysis, which reveals the complex relationships of the human species over its worldwide range. After a quick lesson in the basics of inheritance and genetics, Cavalli-Sforza gives the evidence for the African origin of modern human beings (including the often misinterpreted ``African Eve'' theory) and for the spread of humankind out of our ancestral home. The author was instrumental in reversing prevailing anthropological dogma during the postWW II era; the spread of agriculture, he showed, was a mass population movement, not simply the transmission of the new technology to new users. The story told here is often complex: Several mappings of the distribution of blood types across Europe reveal different patterns of migration. (A particularly fascinating correlation between the Rh- blood type and the Basque language implies that the Basques were among the earliest settlers of Europe.) At the same time, the author points out the genetic triviality of superficial racial distinctions on which bigots and demagogues place such importance. The translation occasionally misfires in rendering scientific terms, but is generally smooth and clear. An excellent book on human origins and modern genetics, as well as an entertaining self-portrait by a leading figure in the study of both. (56 b&w illustrations)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-201-40755-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1994
In a whirlwind tour of 13 archaeological sites around the world, Fagan's sleepy, fact-heavy narrative fails to present major scientific discoveries as much more than the sum of their plodding details. Fagan (Quest for the Past, 1994, etc.) has a solid grasp of the complexities and innovations of the discipline's techniques. Nevertheless, his central point, that archaeologists are now using advanced scientific technology and have transformed themselves from ``diggers to time detectives,'' should come as no surprise to anyone with even a mild interest in science. The book is compelling in those sections where Fagan details the highly specific conclusions that archaeologists draw from mundane bits of evidence (bone-fragment analysis reveals the prehistoric Anasazi of the American Southwest practiced cannibalism) and the use of high-technology instruments to explain the mysteries of ancient civilizations (the use of NASA satellites to determine how the Maya fed their large population). But Fagan undermines his stated purpose by discussing several major discoveries that were based on low-technology innovations (the flotation tank that separates out prehistoric seeds from a site on the Euphrates river) and no technology (the interpretation of Mayan glyphs by creative linguists). Nowhere does the book explain why these particular discoveries were profiled, and not all chapters include explanatory illustrations beyond a map. As such, Time Detectives is plagued by a general sense of incoherence, which is heightened by overgeneralizations, absurd arguments (the ``similarity'' between violent conflict among the pre-Columbian Chumash Indians and present-day homicide statistics), and glaringly obvious statements: ``No single genius `invented' agriculture.'' The most serious flaw is Fagan's failure to communicate the excitement of archaeological research. We are left with a detailed but superficial review of the important findings of several modern archaeologists. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen; 26 line drawings)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-671-79385-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1994
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