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A fascinating natural history of an incredibly curious substance.
"Preternaturally hardened whale dung" is not the first image that
comes to mind when we think of perfume, otherwise a symbol of
glamour and allure. But the key ingredient that makes the
sophisticated scent linger on the skin is precisely this bizarre
digestive by-product-ambergris. Despite being one of the world's
most expensive substances (its value is nearly that of gold and has
at times in history been triple it), ambergris is also one of the
world's least known. But with this unusual and highly alluring
book, Christopher Kemp promises to change that by uncovering the
unique history of ambergris. A rare secretion produced only by
sperm whales, which have a fondness for squid but an inability to
digest their beaks, ambergris is expelled at sea and floats on
ocean currents for years, slowly transforming, before it sometimes
washes ashore looking like a nondescript waxy pebble. It can appear
almost anywhere but is found so rarely, it might as well appear
nowhere. Kemp's journey begins with an encounter on a New Zealand
beach with a giant lump of faux ambergris-determined after much
excitement to nothing more exotic than lard-that inspires a
comprehensive quest to seek out ambergris and its story. He takes
us from the wild, rocky New Zealand coastline to Stewart Island, a
remote, windswept island in the southern seas, to Boston and Cape
Cod, and back again. Along the way, he tracks down the secretive
collectors and traders who populate the clandestine modern-day
ambergris trade. Floating Gold is an entertaining and lively
history that covers not only these precious gray lumps and those
who covet them, but presents a highly informative account of the
natural history of whales, squid, ocean ecology, and even a history
of the perfume industry. Kemp's obsessive curiosity is infectious,
and eager readers will feel as though they have stumbled upon a
precious bounty of this intriguing substance.
The tiny, lungless Thorius salamander from southern Mexico, thinner
than a match and smaller than a quarter. The lushly white-coated
Saki, an arboreal monkey from the Brazilian rainforests. The
olinguito, a native of the Andes, which looks part mongoose, part
teddy bear. These fantastic species are all new to science--at
least newly named and identified; but they weren't discovered in
the wild, instead, they were unearthed in the drawers and cavernous
basements of natural history museums. As Christopher Kemp reveals
in The Lost Species, hiding in the cabinets and storage units of
natural history museums is a treasure trove of discovery waiting to
happen. With Kemp as our guide, we go spelunking into museum
basements, dig through specimen trays, and inspect the drawers and
jars of collections, scientific detectives on the hunt for new
species. We discover king crabs from 1906, unidentified tarantulas,
mislabeled Himalayan landsnails, an unknown rove beetle originally
collected by Darwin, and an overlooked squeaker frog, among other
curiosities. In each case, these specimens sat quietly for
decades--sometimes longer than a century--within the collections of
museums, before sharp-eyed scientists understood they were new.
Each year, scientists continue to encounter new species in museum
collections--a stark reminder that we have named only a fraction of
the world's biodiversity. Sadly, some specimens have waited so long
to be named that they are gone from the wild before they were
identified, victims of climate change and habitat loss. As Kemp
shows, these stories showcase the enduring importance of these very
collections. The Lost Species vividly tells these stories of
discovery--from the latest information on each creature to the
people who collected them and the scientists who finally realized
what they had unearthed--and will inspire many a museumgoer to want
to peek behind the closed doors and rummage through the archives.
"A NATURAL STORYTELLER" Mary Roach "BRILLIANT AND BEGUILING"
Matthew Gavin Frank "CAPTIVATING ... WILL ALTER THE WAY YOU SEE AND
MOVE THROUGH THE WORLD" M. R. O'Connor "AS ENTERTAINING AS IT IS
ENLIGHTENING" Geographical Magazine, Book of the Month Within our
heads, we carry around an infinite and endlessly unfolding map of
the world. Navigation is one of the most ancient neural abilities
we have - older even than language - and in Dark and Magical
Places, Christopher Kemp embarks on a journey to discover the
remarkable extent of what our minds can do. From the secrets of
supernavigators to the strange, dreamlike environments inhabited by
people with 'place blindness', he will explore the myriad ways in
which we find our way. Kemp explains the cutting-edge neuroscience
that is transforming our understanding of it - and tries to answer
why, for a species with a highly-sophisticated internal navigation
system that evolved over millions of years, do humans get lost such
a lot? "I WAS THRILLED TO DISCOVER THIS BOOK" Robert Moor
The tiny, lungless Thorius salamander from southern Mexico, thinner
than a match and smaller than a quarter. The lushly white-coated
Saki, an arboreal monkey from the Brazilian rainforests. The
olinguito, a native of the Andes, which looks part mongoose, part
teddy bear. These fantastic species are all new to science at least
newly named and identified; but they weren't discovered in the
wild, instead, they were unearthed in the drawers and cavernous
basements of natural history museums. As Christopher Kemp reveals
in The Lost Species, hiding in the cabinets and storage units of
natural history museums is a treasure trove of discovery waiting to
happen. With Kemp as our guide, we go spelunking into museum
basements, dig through specimen trays, and inspect the drawers and
jars of collections, scientific detectives on the hunt for new
species. We discover king crabs from 1906, unidentified tarantulas,
mislabeled Himalayan landsnails, an unknown rove beetle originally
collected by Darwin, and an overlooked squeaker frog, among other
curiosities. In each case, these specimens sat quietly for decades
sometimes longer than a century within the collections of museums,
before sharp-eyed scientists understood they were new. Each year,
scientists continue to encounter new species in museum collections
a stark reminder that we have named only a fraction of the world's
biodiversity. Sadly, some specimens have waited so long to be named
that they are gone from the wild before they were identified,
victims of climate change and habitat loss. As Kemp shows, these
stories showcase the enduring importance of these very
collections.The Lost Species vividly tells these stories of
discovery from the latest information on each creature to the
people who collected them and the scientists who finally realized
what they had unearthed and will inspire many a museumgoer to want
to peek behind the closed doors and rummage through the archives.
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