Best Ecology

A major book about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a powerful account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes Over the last half-billion years, there have been Five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Ms. Kolbert shows in these pages that she can write with elegiac poetry about the vanishing creatures of this planet, but the real power of her book resides in the hard science and historical context she delivers here, documenting the mounting losses that human beings are leaving in their wake.” ― The New York Times. “Natural scientists posit that there have been five extinction events in the Earth's history (think of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs), and Kolbert makes a compelling case that human activity is leading to the sixth.” ― Bill Gates. “[Kolbert] grounds her stories in rigorous science and memorable characters past and present, building a case that a mass extinction is underway, whether we want to admit it or not.” ― Discover Magazine. “The factoids Kolbert tosses off about nature's incredible variety--a frog that carries eggs in its stomach and gives birth through its mouth, a wood stork that cools off by defecating on its own legs--makes it heartbreakingly clear, without any heavy-handed sermonizing from the author, just how much we lose when an animal goes extinct. In the same way, her intrepid reporting from far-off places--Panama, Iceland, Italy, Scotland, Peru, the Amazonian rain forest of Brazil, and the remote one tree Island, off the coast of Australia--gives us a sense of the earth's vastness and beauty.” ― Bookforum. “Kolbert accomplishes an amazing feat in her latest book, which superbly blends the depressing facts associated with rampant species extinctions and impending ecosystem collapse with stellar writing to produce a text that is accessible, witty, scientifically accurate, and impossible to put down.” ― Publishers Weekly (starred review). “Rendered with rare, resolute, and resounding clarity, Kolbert's compelling and enlightening report forthrightly addresses the most significant topic of our lives.” ― Booklist (starred review). Like Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth Extinction is destined to become one of the most important and defining books of our time.” ― David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z. Her long view of extinction excited my joy in life's diversity -- even as she made me aware how many species are currently at risk.” ― Dava Sobel, author of Longitude and Galileo's Daughter. “With her usual lucid and lovely prose, Elizabeth Kolbert lays out the sad and gripping facts of our moment on earth: that we've become a geological force, driving vast swaths of creation over the brink.

What Stamets has discovered is that we can capitalize on mycelium’s digestive power and target it to decompose toxic wastes and pollutants (mycoremediation), catch and reduce silt from streambeds and pathogens from agricultural watersheds (mycofiltration), control insect populations (mycopesticides), and generally enhance the health of our forests and gardens (mycoforestry and myco-gardening). --From the foreword by Andrew Weil, MD, author of Eating Well for Optimum Health “Stamets is a visionary emissary from the fungus kingdom to our world, and the message he’s brought back in this book, about the possibilities fungi hold for healing the environment, will fill you with wonder and hope.“. --Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire “This is the kind of book I love: highly factual and practical and mixed with the spiritual content that sets the great writers apart from all the rest.“. --John Norris, former deputy commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and founder of the Bioterrorism Institute. “This is the first book to give the Kingdom of the Fungi its proper place in the scheme of things.

The Death and Life of the Great Lakes is prize-winning reporter Dan Egan’s compulsively readable portrait of an ecological catastrophe happening right before our eyes, blending the epic story of the lakes with an examination of the perils they face and the ways we can restore and preserve them for generations to come. In an age when dire problems like the Flint water crisis or the California drought bring ever more attention to the indispensability of safe, clean, easily available water, The Death and the Life of the Great Lakes is a powerful paean to what is arguably our most precious resource, an urgent examination of what threatens it and a convincing call to arms about the relatively simple things we need to do to protect it. “Dan Egan’s deeply researched and sharply written The Death and Life of The Great Lakes . nimbly splices together history, science, reporting and personal experiences into a taut and cautiously hopeful narrative. early acclaim, [ The Death and Life of the Great Lakes ] is easy to read, offering well-paced, intellectually stimulating arguments, bolstered by well-researched and captivating narratives.”. - Lekelia Danielle Jenkins, Science. “This book feels urgent to policymakers and laypersons alike.”. - Kerri Arsenault, Literary Hub. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes is an engaging, vitally important work of science journalism.”. - Eva Holland, The Globe and Mail. “Dan Egan has done more than any other journalist in America to chronicle the decline of this once-great ecosystem, to alert the public to new threats, and to force governments to take remedial action.”. - Grantham Prize for Excellence in Reporting on the Environment, Special Merit citation.

In this international bestseller, forester and author Peter Wohlleben convincingly makes the case that, yes, the forest is a social network. Peter Wohlleben spent over twenty years working for the forestry commission in Germany before leaving to put his ideas of ecology into practice.

Now an HBO® Film starring Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. Amazon Best Books of the Month, February 2010 : From a single, abbreviated life grew a seemingly immortal line of cells that made some of the most crucial innovations in modern science possible. Henrietta Lacks was a mother of five in Baltimore, a poor African American migrant from the tobacco farms of Virginia, who died from a cruelly aggressive cancer at the age of 30 in 1951. A sample of her cancerous tissue, taken without her knowledge or consent, as was the custom then, turned out to provide one of the holy grails of mid-century biology: human cells that could survive--even thrive--in the lab. Meanwhile, Henrietta's family continued to live in poverty and frequently poor health, and their discovery decades later of her unknowing contribution--and her cells' strange survival--left them full of pride, anger, and suspicion. Jad Abumrad is host and creator of the public radio hit Radiolab , now in its seventh season and reaching over a million people monthly. Just the simple facts are hard to believe: that in 1951, a poor black woman named Henrietta Lacks dies of cervical cancer, but pieces of the tumor that killed her--taken without her knowledge or consent--live on, first in one lab, then in hundreds, then thousands, then in giant factories churning out polio vaccines, then aboard rocket ships launched into space. The cells from this one tumor would spawn a multi-billion dollar industry and become a foundation of modern science--leading to breakthroughs in gene mapping, cloning and fertility and helping to discover how viruses work and how cancer develops (among a million other things). But what's truly remarkable about Rebecca Skloot 's book is that we also get the rest of the story, the part that could have easily remained hidden had she not spent ten years unearthing it: Who was Henrietta Lacks?

The lush and unique photography in this book represents National Geographic's Photo Ark, a major initiative and lifelong project by photographer Joel Sartore to make portraits of the world's animals—especially those that are endangered. He has written several books including National Geographic's Rare: Portraits of America's Endangered Species , Photographing Your Family , and Let's Be Reasonable , a collection of essays from the CBS Sunday Morning show.

Dinosaurs Are Forever A pictorial history of paleoart. It was 1830 when an English scientist named Henry De la Beche painted the first piece of paleoart, a dazzling, deliciously macabre vision of prehistoric reptiles battling underwater. “One of the most extraordinary and beautiful volumes on the topic yet conceived.” ( The Economist 1843, London ).

In this international bestseller, forester and author Peter Wohlleben convincingly makes the case that, yes, the forest is a social network. Peter Wohlleben spent over twenty years working for the forestry commission in Germany before leaving to put his ideas of ecology into practice.

For more than 35 years, The Anatomy Coloring Book has been the #1 best-selling human anatomy coloring book! Immediately recognizing the potential of this method, Dr. Elson encouraged Kapit to do a “complete” coloring book on anatomy and offered to collaborate on the project. The first edition of The Anatomy Coloring Book was published in 1977, and its immediate success inspired the development of a completely new field of publishing: educational coloring books. In the early 1990s, Kapit wrote and designed The Geography Coloring Book, now in its second edition. This is his seventh text, having authored It’s Your Body and The Zoology Coloring Book and co-authored The Human Brain Coloring Book and The Microbiology Color. ing Book. Dr. Elson was assistant professor of anatomy at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, participated in the development of the Physician’s Assistant Program, lectured and taught dissection anatomy at the University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco, and taught general anatomy, from protozoons to humans, at City College of San Francisco.

Specially designed for experienced colorists, Owls and other Creative Haven® adult coloring books offer an escape to a world of inspiration and artistic fulfillment. Marjorie Sarnat is a New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of several coloring books and more than a dozen books on art and creativity.

Robert O. Becker, a pioneer in the filed of regeneration and its relationship to electrical currents in living things, challenges the established mechanistic understanding of the body. Robert O. Becker, M.D., lived in upstate New York.

In this international bestseller, forester and author Peter Wohlleben convincingly makes the case that, yes, the forest is a social network. Peter Wohlleben spent over twenty years working for the forestry commission in Germany before leaving to put his ideas of ecology into practice.

Robert O. Becker, a pioneer in the filed of regeneration and its relationship to electrical currents in living things, challenges the established mechanistic understanding of the body. Robert O. Becker, M.D., lived in upstate New York.

An essential addition to the gardener’s library, this colorful, fully illustrated book details the history of naming plants, provides an overview of Latin naming conventions, and offers guidelines for pronunciation. ( Martha Stewart Living ). “ Latin for Gardeners is useful, surprising, and beautiful—an accessible dictionary for everyone who puzzles over botanical identifications, an opportunity to get better acquainted with the extraordinary discoverers and namers of so many of our favorite plants, and a treat for all who enjoy the art and lore of the garden.”.