The Beauty of the Beastly: New Views on the Nature of Life"The beauty of the natural world lies in the details, and most of those details are not the stuff of calendar art", Natalie Angier writes in the introduction to The Beauty of the Beastly. "I have made it a kind of hobby, almost a mission, to write about organisms that many people find repugnant: spiders, scorpions, parasites, worms, rattlesnakes, dung beetles, hyenas. I have done so out of a perverse preference for subjects that other writers generally have ignored, and because I hope to inspire in readers an appreciation for diversity, for imagination, for the twisted, webbed, infinite possibility of the natural world. Every single story that nature tells is gorgeous". She has taken pains to learn her science from the molecule up, finding "the very pulse of the machine" in everything from the supple structure of DNA to the erotic ways of barn swallows, queen bees, and the endangered, otherworldly primate called the aye-aye. Angier knows all that scientists know - and sometimes more - about the power of symmetry in sexual relations, about the brutal courting habits of dolphins, about the grand deceit of orchids, about the impact of female and male preference on evolution. She knows how scientists go about their work, and she describes their ways, their visions, and their arguments. |
Contents
Mating for Life? | 3 |
The Urge to Cuddle | 10 |
Tell a Tale of InLaws | 15 |
Copyright | |
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activity adult aggressive amino acids animal apoptosis aye-aye baby barn swallows behavior biochemical biologists biology birds blood body body's brain breast called cancer cell death cell's chaperones cheetah chemical chromosomes cichlid cockroaches complex creatures depression disease dolphins dung beetles eggs embryo enzyme estrogen evolution evolutionary evolved example fat cells female choice fertile fish flowers folding genetic sequences geneticists genistein genitals Gould histones hormone Hox genes human hyenas immune insects learned lemurs lipoprotein lipase live look male mammals mate menstruation metabolic molecular molecule monkeys mother muscle mutated nature nematode nest offspring orchid organism oxytocin pair parasites percent pit vipers plant play pollen predators primates Profet protein rats rear researchers roach rodents scientists scorpions sexual signal snake social species sperm suicide survive symmetrical tail telomerase telomeres testosterone tion tissue traits tumors turn vasopressin worm young