by Tim Friend ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 8, 2004
A very credible overview.
USA Today science writer Friend provides an amiable, anecdotally rich tour of communication as witnessed throughout the animal kingdom, fresh with the latest ideas behind how and why we all send signals.
Songs, dances, scents, chirps, hoots, yowls, body movement, eye contact, elements of flash—the author examines them all “to learn how animals communicate with each other and what they spend so much time chattering to each other about.” Stripped to its essentials, his main interest is how a sender provides information to a receiver, how the receiver responds to that signal, and the relationship between these two acts. The signals might entail, for example, electrical fields, or bioluminescence, or quorum-sensing by bacteria to decide if they are numerous enough to play dirty with their host’s cells. It isn’t any wonder that much signaling involves sex, real estate, and chow, nor does it come as much of a surprise that communication is thought to have “evolved as a more economical substitute for physical violence.” Underneath the dense, idiosyncratic layering each species has draped upon the signaling process can be seen peeking out a captivating set of motivational and structural rules of engagement. Tones can be harsh, low-frequency attack accompaniments or the high-frequency sounds of submission. Songs of love should not be confused with the sparrows’ singing competitions, which have been interpreted as the equivalent of “Yo’ mama”; “No, yo’ mama” and “Piss off”; “No, you piss off.” Friend handles the nature vs. nurture, instinctive vs. learned behavior debates with aplomb, just as he explains with dexterity the growing recognition of a body of shared gestures between species and the significance of gesture as language. His text boasts its own communicative clarity: nothing here need suspend disbelief; indeed all the signals seem strangely, comfortably familiar, from honeyguide bird to humpback whale.
A very credible overview.Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2004
ISBN: 0-7432-0157-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2003
Share your opinion of this book
by Rachel Carson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 27, 1962
The book is not entirely negative; final chapters indicate roads of reversal, before it is too late!
It should come as no surprise that the gifted author of The Sea Around Usand its successors can take another branch of science—that phase of biology indicated by the term ecology—and bring it so sharply into focus that any intelligent layman can understand what she is talking about.
Understand, yes, and shudder, for she has drawn a living portrait of what is happening to this balance nature has decreed in the science of life—and what man is doing (and has done) to destroy it and create a science of death. Death to our birds, to fish, to wild creatures of the woods—and, to a degree as yet undetermined, to man himself. World War II hastened the program by releasing lethal chemicals for destruction of insects that threatened man’s health and comfort, vegetation that needed quick disposal. The war against insects had been under way before, but the methods were relatively harmless to other than the insects under attack; the products non-chemical, sometimes even introduction of other insects, enemies of the ones under attack. But with chemicals—increasingly stronger, more potent, more varied, more dangerous—new chain reactions have set in. And ironically, the insects are winning the war, setting up immunities, and re-emerging, their natural enemies destroyed. The peril does not stop here. Waters, even to the underground water tables, are contaminated; soils are poisoned. The birds consume the poisons in their insect and earthworm diet; the cattle, in their fodder; the fish, in the waters and the food those waters provide. And humans? They drink the milk, eat the vegetables, the fish, the poultry. There is enough evidence to point to the far-reaching effects; but this is only the beginning,—in cancer, in liver disorders, in radiation perils…This is the horrifying story. It needed to be told—and by a scientist with a rare gift of communication and an overwhelming sense of responsibility. Already the articles taken from the book for publication in The New Yorkerare being widely discussed. Book-of-the-Month distribution in October will spread the message yet more widely.
The book is not entirely negative; final chapters indicate roads of reversal, before it is too late!Pub Date: Sept. 27, 1962
ISBN: 061825305X
Page Count: 378
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1962
Share your opinion of this book
More by Rachel Carson
BOOK REVIEW
by Rachel Carson ; illustrated by Nikki McClure
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More About This Book
APPRECIATIONS
by Brian Fies illustrated by Brian Fies ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2019
Drawings, words, and a few photos combine to convey the depth of a tragedy that would leave most people dumbstruck.
A new life and book arise from the ashes of a devastating California wildfire.
These days, it seems the fires will never end. They wreaked destruction over central California in the latter months of 2018, dominating headlines for weeks, barely a year after Fies (Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?, 2009) lost nearly everything to the fires that raged through Northern California. The result is a vividly journalistic graphic narrative of resilience in the face of tragedy, an account of recent history that seems timely as ever. “A two-story house full of our lives was a two-foot heap of dead smoking ash,” writes the author about his first return to survey the damage. The matter-of-fact tone of the reportage makes some of the flights of creative imagination seem more extraordinary—particularly a nihilistic, two-page centerpiece of a psychological solar system in which “the fire is our black hole,” and “some veer too near and are drawn into despair, depression, divorce, even suicide,” while “others are gravitationally flung entirely out of our solar system to other cities or states, and never seen again.” Yet the stories that dominate the narrative are those of the survivors, who were part of the community and would be part of whatever community would be built to take its place across the charred landscape. Interspersed with the author’s own account are those from others, many retirees, some suffering from physical or mental afflictions. Each is rendered in a couple pages of text except one from a fellow cartoonist, who draws his own. The project began with an online comic when Fies did the only thing he could as his life was reduced to ash and rubble. More than 3 million readers saw it; this expanded version will hopefully extend its reach.
Drawings, words, and a few photos combine to convey the depth of a tragedy that would leave most people dumbstruck.Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3585-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Abrams ComicArts
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
Share your opinion of this book
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.