Acclaimed author Matt Ridley's thrilling follow-up to his bestseller `Genome'. Armed with the extraordinary new discoveries about our genes, Ridley turns his attention to the nature versus nurture debate to bring the first popular account of the roots of human behaviour. What makes us who we are? In February 2001 it was announced that the genome contains not 100,000 genes as originally expected but only 30,000. This startling revision led some scientists to conclude that there are simply not enough human genes to account for all the different ways people behave: we must be made by nurture, not nature. Yet again biology was to be stretched on the Procrustean bed of the nature-nurture debate. Acclaimed science writer Matt Ridley argues that the emerging truth is far more interesting than this myth. Nurture depends on genes, too, and genes need nurture. Genes not only predetermine the broad structure of the brain; they also absorb formative experiences, react to social cues and even run memory. They are consequences as well as causes of the will. Published fifty years after the discovery of the double helix of DNA, `Nature via Nurture' chronicles a new revolution in our understanding of genes. Ridley recounts the hundred years' war between the partisans of nature and nurture to explain how this paradoxical creature, the human being, can be simultaneously free-willed and motivated by instinct and culture. `Nature via Nurture' is an enthralling, up-to-the-minute account of how genes build brains to absorb experience.

In recent years, the algal biorefinery is seen as a promising alternative to fossil derived products that reduce the environmental pollution, product costs and support circular bioeconomy. However, the upstream algal cultivation and downstream processing are the energy intensive processes and are considered as bottlenecks in promoting algal biorefinery. Improving the biomass productivity and bioproduct developments are still underway, while a number of novel bioprocess and bio-reactor engineering technologies were developed recently. Therefore, this book provides extensive knowledge of microalgae refineries. This book is divided into two volumes (Vol. I & Vol. II), which presents complete coverage of microalgae refineries. Therefore, Vol. I offers complete coverage of the algal bioproducts process, including biotechnological applications and environmental effects of microalgae cultivation. While Vol. II, provides various industrial applications and future prospects of algal biorefinery for sustainable development of circular bioeconomy. With contributions from world experts, focuses on microalgae from an organism perspective to deliver a complete picture from evolution to bioproducts. The edited book provides a concise introduction to the science, biology, technology, and application of algae. It covers downstream and upstream steps of the algal refinery for the production of algal biomass, which has several social benefits.

Sasol Eerste Veldgids tot Soogdiere van Suider-Afrika bied aan die jong leser ’n fassinerende blik op die diere lewe van die streek. Met behulp van volkleur foto’s en verspreidings kaarte, asook maklik leesbare teks, sal die jong volwassene en ontluikende natuur liefhebber die meer algemene soogdierspesies in Suider-Afrika kan identifiseer, kan vasstel waar hulle leef, en meer te wete kom oor hul unieke vreet- en teelgewoontes.

Written for all therapists who want to understand this groundbreaking theory as it might actually show up in their day-to-day practice, this book offers a comprehensive approach to polyvagal-informed intervention. Worksheets and experiential exercises designed to map and shape autonomic response provide therapists with a road map for bringing polyvagal theory into their clinical practice.

A full-color illustrated exploration of the body in motion during yoga practice * Examines anatomical patterns and body mechanics in specific asanas, such as forward bends, twists, external hip rotations, arm balances, and back bends, to inspire confidence in students, deepen practice, and prevent injury * Provides detailed images and photos overlaid with anatomical diagrams, allowing you to see clearly what is happening within each asana discussed * Explores how various yoga postures interrelate from the perspective of functional anatomy In this full-color illustrated guide, David Keil brings the anatomy of the body in yoga asanas to life. Writing in an accessible, conversational tone, he outlines how practitioners and yoga teachers alike can utilize a deeper understanding of their anatomy and its movement and function to deepen their yoga practice, increase confidence, prevent injury, and better understand their students and their challenges. Providing detailed images and photos overlaid with anatomical diagrams, allowing you to see clearly what is happening within each asana discussed, Keil shows how the muscles, joints, tendons, and structure of the body work together to support integrated movement. He discusses the basics of functional anatomy, exploring the workings of the foot and ankle, the knee, the hip joint, the pelvis and SI joint, the spine, the shoulder, and the hand, wrist, and elbow. He examines anatomical patterns and body mechanics in specific asanas, such as forward bends, twists, external hip rotations, arm balances, and back bends, such as, for example, how a wide-legged forward bend shifts the position of the femur and the pelvis, allowing students with tight hamstrings to accomplish a deep forward bend--something they struggle with when the legs are together. Keil also shows how various yoga postures interrelate from the perspective of functional anatomy. Revealing in detail how everything in the body is connected and how your anatomy functions holistically during yoga practice, this book helps you to understand the body better and connect and integrate yoga postures in a completely new way.

Advances in Energy, Environment and Chemical Engineering collects papers resulting from the conference on Energy, Environment and Chemical Engineering (AEECE 2022), Dali, China, 24-26 June, 2022. The primary goal is to promote research and developmental activities in energy technology, environment engineering and chemical engineering. Moreover, it aims to promote scientific information interchange between scholars from the top universities, business associations, research centers and high-tech enterprises working all around the world. The conference conducts in-depth exchanges and discussions on relevant topics such as energy engineering, environment technology and advanced chemical technology, aiming to provide an academic and technical communication platform for scholars and engineers engaged in scientific research and engineering practice in the field of saving technologies, environmental chemistry, clean production and so on. By sharing the research status of scientific research achievements and cutting-edge technologies, it helps scholars and engineers all over the world comprehend the academic development trend and broaden research ideas. So as to strengthen international academic research, academic topics exchange and discussion, and promote the industrialization cooperation of academic achievements.

The perfect gift for nature lovers and weather watchers. A fascinating month-by-month collection of facts, figures and explanations related to UK weather with details of famous meteorologists and their influence. Discover historical facts, notable weather events, amazing statistics and stories that will keep you informed all year round. You can delve as deeply as you like, or follow your own favourite topic throughout the year. discover little-known secrets about the weather learn fascinating facts and notable meteorological anniversaries track weather patterns over the previous 12 months examine weather extremes, temperature and atmospheric pressure highs and lows check wind, rainfall and snowfall extremes discover the times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset across the UK capital cities find the Moon's Phases and Ages for the year Written by weather expert, Storm Dunlop.

Covid-19, monkeypox, bird flu, SARS, HIV, AIDS, Ebola; we are living in the Age of Pandemics – one that we have created. As the climate crisis reaches a fever pitch and ecological destruction continues unabated, we are just beginning to reckon with the effects of environmental collapse on our global health. Fevered Planet exposes how the way we farm, what we eat, the places we travel to and the scientific experiments we conduct create the perfect conditions for deadly new diseases to emerge and spread faster and further than ever. Drawing on the latest scientific research and decades of reporting from more than 100 countries, former Guardian environment editor John Vidal takes us into deep, disappearing forests in Gabon and the Congo, valleys scorched by wildfire near Lake Tahoe and our densest, polluted cities to show how closely human, animal and plant diseases are now intertwined with planetary destruction. From fossil fuel use raising the global temperature to increased logging polluting our landscapes, Fevered Planet exposes the perils of reckless environmental destruction – not just to our planet but to ourselves. As Vidal expertly argues, unless we transform our relationship with the rest of the natural world, the pandemics we are facing today will just be the tip of the iceberg.

The fastest growing realization everywhere is that humanity can't go on the way it is going. Indeed, the great fear is we're entering endgame where we appear to have lost the race between self-destruction and self-discovery-the race to find the psychologically relieving understanding of our `good and evil'-afflicted human condition. Well, astonishing as it is, this book by Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith presents the 11th hour breakthrough biological explanation of the human condition necessary for the psychological rehabilitation and transformation of our species! The culmination of 40 years of studying and writing about our species' psychosis, FREEDOM delivers nothing less than the holy grail of insight we have needed to free ourselves from the human condition. It is, in short, as Professor Harry Prosen, a former president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, asserts in his Introduction, "The book that saves the world!". Griffith has been able to venture right to the bottom of the dark depths of what it is to be human and return with the fully accountable, true explanation of our seemingly imperfect lives. At long last we have the redeeming and thus transforming understanding of human behaviour! And with that explanation found all the other great outstanding scientific mysteries about our existence are now also able to be truthfully explained-of the meaning of our existence, of the origin of our unconditionally selfless moral instincts, and of why we humans became conscious when other animals haven't. Yes, the full story of life on Earth can finally be told-and all of these incredible breakthroughs and insights are presented here in this `greatest of all books'.

'Steve Brusatte, the author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, brings mammals out from the shadow of their more showy predecessors in a beautifully written book that . . . makes the case for them as creatures who are just as engaging as dinosaurs.' - The Sunday Times, 'Best Books For Summer' 'In this terrific new book, Steve Brusatte . . . brings well-known extinct species, the sabre-toothed tigers and the woolly mammoths, thrillingly back to life' - The Times The passing of the age of the dinosaurs allowed mammals to become ascendant. But mammals have a much deeper history. They - or, more precisely, we - originated around the same time as the dinosaurs, over 200 million years ago; mammal roots lie even further back, some 325 million years. Over these immense stretches of geological time, mammals developed their trademark features: hair, keen senses of smell and hearing, big brains and sharp intelligence, fast growth and warm-blooded metabolism, a distinctive line-up of teeth (canines, incisors, premolars, molars), mammary glands that mothers use to nourish their babies with milk, qualities that have underlain their success story. Out of this long and rich evolutionary history came the mammals of today, including our own species and our closest cousins. But today's 6,000 mammal species - the egg-laying monotremes including the platypus, marsupials such as kangaroos and koalas that raise their tiny babies in pouches, and placentals like us, who give birth to well-developed young - are simply the few survivors of a once verdant family tree, which has been pruned both by time and mass extinctions. In The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, palaeontologist Steve Brusatte weaves together the history and evolution of our mammal forebears with stories of the scientists whose fieldwork and discoveries underlie our knowledge, both of iconic mammals like the mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers of which we have all heard, and of fascinating species that few of us are aware of. For what we see today is but a very limited range of the mammals that have existed; in this fascinating and ground-breaking book, Steve Brusatte tells their - and our - story.

'He is delight and joy personified' - MARIAN KEYES 'Set to become BBC's next David Attenborough' - DAILY MAIL 'Brings a little bit of joy to us all' - GUARDIAN Discover the wonderful world of birdwatching with wildlife cameraman Hamza Yassin - winner of BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing 2022. 'Birds have been with me my entire life - from the colourful weaver birds on the banks of the Nile in Sudan to the magpies of Newcastle, from the roosting peregrine falcons near my parents' house in Northampton to the white-tailed eagles on the west coast of Scotland. I love them. If you take the time to stop and listen, you'll see the world through different eyes. It's all out there, waiting for you to find it. And it might just bring you as much joy as it's brought me.' Journey along with Hamza in Be a Birder as he recounts stories of his birding adventures, and shares tips and tricks to help you get started in birdwatching. In this beautifully illustrated guide, featuring fifty of Hamza's favourite birds, you will learn how to start identifying birds, understand their behaviour and movements, and find even more exciting birds, wherever you are. Starting with the goldfinch in your garden, to tawny owls in woodlands, to the elusive kingfisher near rivers and marshes, you will build your birdwatching confidence and push yourself further afield to find new feathered wonders. Encouraging us all to stop, step outside and listen, Be a Birder is both a practical guide and a joyous celebration of these incredible creatures. Once you start looking for them, and with Hamza as your guide, your world will be forever changed.

This is the first handbook that covers all aspects of bio-inoculants used in degraded lands to improve soil fertility and crop productivity as well as for the remediation of polluted lands. It discusses all novel sustainable approaches for the reclamation of problematic soils. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, this book explores the recent uses of plant microbe interactions in ecological and agricultural revitalization beyond normal agriculture practices and offers practical and applied solutions for the restoration of degraded lands for food, fodder, fuel and fiber security. Provides a single comprehensive platform for soil scientist, agriculture specialists, ecologists, and others.

This is a comprehensive handbook focused on geospatial applications used to study, assess, and monitor the Himalayan mountains. As a region of high relevance and very vulnerable regarding geohazards, it is crucial to detect landscape changes and understand the drivers behind the changes. With advanced remote sensing and GIS tools, in-depth analyses, and interdisciplinary approaches, the Handbook of Himalayan Ecosystems and Sustainability, Two Volume Set studies forest and agriculture ecosystems, urban sprawl and air pollution, geo and other hazards, and provides a breadth of data to support decision making and to aids in the preservation of the landscapes in a sustainable way. Features: Uses geospatial technology for studying fragile Himalayan ecosystems and their sustainability Includes 21 case studies from Indian Himalayan, Nepal, and Afghanistan regions Provides satellite data and geospatial modelling tools for assessing and monitoring all Himalayan landscapes Addresses cryospheric studies and related ongoing geohazards and potential climate change impacts Discusses ecology of the Himalayan rivers, biodiversity, and floristic shifting of endemic species, and landscape restoration

All too plausibly, it seems, popes and scientists are warning us of impending collapse-yet humanity and our fellow creatures could still be looking forward to a long and glorious future: at least a million years of peace and personal fulfilment, with abundant and diverse wildlife. But to achieve this we need to re-think everything that we do and take for granted, from the day-to-day mundanities of growing and cooking, to the economy and methods of governance, to the most arcane reaches of science and metaphysics. It all amounts to nothing less than a Renaissance-a re-birth-and the Renaissance to come must be driven and led by us, ordinary Joes and Jos, because the oligarchy of governments, corporates, financiers, and their attendant intellectuals who now dominate the world have largely lost touch with the moral and ecological realities of life. The transformation won't be easy but-the good news!-millions of grassroots initiatives of all kinds the world over are already moving in the right directions.

This title focuses on the essence of how to go about identifying birds. Topics covered include size, shape, bill length, and other physical features that provide clues to the birds’ lifestyle and identity. Full colour photographs and simple line drawings support the text.

This title is suitable for beginners of all ages as well as younger birders – in fact, for anyone daunted by the prospect of getting started in the captivating pastime of birding.

Genetics: Analysis and Principles is a one-semester, introductory genetics textbook that takes an experimental approach to understanding genetics. By weaving one or two experiments into the narrative of each chapter, students can simultaneously explore the scientific method and understand the genetic principles that have been learned from these experiments. The pedagogy of Genetics: Analysis & Principles has been designed to foster student learning. Instead of being a collection of facts and figures,this text is intended to be an engaging and motivating textbook in which formative assessment allows students to move ahead and learn the material in a productive way.

What should we teach our children about where we come from? Is evolution a lie or good science? Is it incompatible with faith? Have scientists really detected evidence of a creator in nature?

From bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward Humes comes a dramatic story of faith, science, and courage unlike any since the famous Scopes Monkey Trial. Monkey Girl takes you behind the scenes of the recent war on evolution in Dover, Pennsylvania, when the town's school board decision to confront the controversy head-on thrust its students, then the entire community, onto the front lines of America's culture wars. Told from the perspectives of all sides of the battle, it is a riveting true story about an epic court case on the teaching of "intelligent design," and what happens when science and religion collide.

'Exhilaratingly whizzes through billions of years . . . Gee is a marvellously engaging writer, juggling humour, precision, polemic and poetry to enrich his impossibly telescoped account . . . [making] clear sense out of very complex narratives' - The Times 'Henry Gee makes the kaleidoscopically changing canvas of life understandable and exciting. Who will enjoy reading this book? - Everybody!' Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel For billions of years, Earth was an inhospitably alien place - covered with churning seas, slowly crafting its landscape by way of incessant volcanic eruptions, the atmosphere in a constant state of chemical flux. And yet, despite facing literally every conceivable setback that living organisms could encounter, life has been extinguished and picked itself up to evolve again. Life has learned and adapted and continued through the billions of years that followed. It has weathered fire and ice. Slimes begat sponges, who through billions of years of complex evolution and adaptation grew a backbone, braved the unknown of pitiless shores, and sought an existence beyond the sea. From that first foray to the spread of early hominids who later became Homo sapiens, life has persisted, undaunted. A (Very) Short History of Life is an enlightening story of survival, of persistence, illuminating the delicate balance within which life has always existed, and continues to exist today. It is our planet like you've never seen it before. Life teems through Henry Gee's lyrical prose - colossal supercontinents drift, collide, and coalesce, fashioning the face of the planet as we know it today. Creatures are engagingly personified, from 'gregarious' bacteria populating the seas to duelling dinosaurs in the Triassic period to magnificent mammals with the future in their (newly evolved) grasp. Those long extinct, almost alien early life forms are resurrected in evocative detail. Life's evolutionary steps - from the development of a digestive system to the awe of creatures taking to the skies in flight - are conveyed with an alluring, up-close intimacy.

Seaweed is so familiar and yet its names - pepper dulse, sea lettuce, bladderwrack - are largely unknown to us. In this short, exquisitely illustrated portrait, the Dutch poet and artist Miek Zwamborn shares her discoveries of its history, culture and use, from the Neolithic people of the Orkney Islands to sushi artisans in modern Japan. Seaweed troubled Columbus on his voyages across the Atlantic, intrigued von Humboldt in the Sargasso Sea and inspired artists from Hokusai to Matisse. Covering seaweed's collection by Victorians, its adoption into fashion and dance and its potential for combating climate change, and with a fabulous series of recipes based around the 'truffles of the sea', this is a wonderful gift for every nature lover's home.

Comprehensive yet portable, this concise field-guide edition of Australian Bird Guide is an essential companion for every birdwatcher visiting Australia This new, fully updated concise edition of the award-winning Australian Bird Guide brings the authority and clarity of ABG into a portable format ideal for field use. Its compact format features more than 700 bird species that are residents of or regular visitors to the Australian mainland and Tasmania, and surrounding seas. Easy to use and beautifully illustrated, the book's content has been carefully designed to provide the reader with key information to enable rapid identification of any bird. Australian Bird Guide: Concise Edition includes up-to-date species descriptions, distribution maps, illustrations and comparison pages for major groups. Portable and pocket-friendly yet comprehensive and authoritative, it's an essential companion for any birdwatcher visiting Australia.