"First Steps: How Upright Walking Made Us Human" by Jeremy DeSilva

 

Publisher: Harper Collins

Copyright: 2021

ISBN: 9780062938497

Dr. De Silvia's book is a well researched trip through time that looks at the development of the foot on various bipedal organisms, e.g., Us, as well as the great apes and a few other assorted beasties who walk on two legs (typically for short periods of time). It is easy to read and will be of great interest to both the layperson and high school as well as first year university students.

There have been many many changes since I graduated with an anthropology degree in the early 90s, and in fact some of the more fascinating things have happened in the last 10 to 15 years. If I was able, I would seriously consider going back and doing my masters so I can catch up on what's going on.

Dr. De Silva traces the development of the human, and other members of the genus Homo and its predecessors through the examination of fossil evidence, as wells as extent species of animals.

Well worth the read, highly recommended.

"Paleofantasy: what evolution really tells us about sex, diet, and how we live" by Marlene Zuk

 

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Copyright: 2013

ISBN: 9780393081374

Paleofantasy is a very interesting book that goes into the great detail debunking the Paleo diet and other such pseudo scientific silliness. Dr. Zuk is a professor of ecology evolution and behaviour at the University of Minnesota, and she has researched this topic extremely well.

She uses the disciplines of anthropology, physiology, psychology, medicine and history to explain why the Paleo diet is not what proponents believe it is or promote it as i.e., a cure-all for societies ills, weight loss, etc.

In this book she examines the lifestyles that proponents of the Paleo lifestyle follow, and examines how actual science debunks this system of nutrition, and living. She gives a good overview on evolution, and how it works and then examines other concepts of the Paleo lifestyle such as exercising, love, sickness and health and much more.

Dr. Zuk's writing is clear and comprehensive, and the examples she uses are easily understandable by anyone. Or at least anyone who wants to understand them, as I am sure there are many paleo-fans out there who will dispute her findings as they have little or no scientific training.

Highly recommended

"End Times: A Brief Guide t the End of the World" by Bryan Walsh

 

Publisher: Hachete Books

Copyright: 2019

ISBN: 9780316449601

This books was an extremely interesting read, that covered a lot of territory and gives the reader a lot to think about. The author is a former correspondents, reporter and editor for Time Magazine. He reported on from over 20 countries on science and environmentally focused stories such as SARS, global warming, extinction and other topics.

The book itself takes a look at eight different scenarios that could end the world, or at least the world as we know it. The first is an asteroid collision such as what wiped out the dinosaurs, and which will happen again eventually. The second is the supereruption of a volcano such as the explosion of what is now the island of Sumatra when the mountain called Toba exploded some 74 thousand years ago and essentially turned day into night for many parts of the world. The ash of Toba was found in areas such as the Indian Ocean, China Sea, Arabian Sea, Lake Malawi in Africa.

The third potential disaster is from nuclear armaments and how some rather unstable world leaders could easily be poised to commit horrendous acts. (Looking at you Putin!) Climate change is the next topic discussed, and even though a significant number of people in the world turn a blind-eye towards the facts, it seems pretty obvious to most that it is. Disease is the next topic, and discusses world-wide epidemics. It seems rather ominous that when this book predicts an epidemic of some kind in the near future when it was written, and that the world is now recovering from one. This topic merges quite well into the next one which is biotechnology, and discusses the possibility that a disease could actually be engineered.

Chapter five deals with Artificial Intelligence and what we could experience in the future if we keep increasing our computer capacity etc. at its current rates. It speculates on what would need to happen, and what the consequences might be, even though it likely won't be anything like "The Terminator" franchise. Personally I believe a better comparison would be the 1970 movie "Colossus: The Forbin Project".

Chapter six deals with Aliens, and while it doesn't deal too much with what might happen if they were to show up, it does go into a fair amount of detail with regard to our searching for them, including the history of SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) and it's off-shoot METI (Messaging Extra Terrestrial Intelligence). 

The final chapter deals with the aftermath of a potential catastrophe and how we might recover. It too goes into a fair bit of detail with regard to how people believe things will unfold and the measures they take to prepare for them. I (and most others) have heard about the survivalist movement, but I wasn't aware there was such a thing as "Doomsday Preppers" who actively plan their lives around the end of the world.

This book, while it was somewhat depressing a couple of times, is a definite eye-opener to how fragile the existence of humans, and all other life on Earth actually is. The fact that asteroids have collided with this planet, super eruptions have occurred, that we have been close to a possible nuclear confrontation in the past and might be again if certain world leaders don't wake up. That we are going through climate change right now, and are hopefully coming close to the end of a world-wide epidemic doesn't bode too well for the survival of our species. After all this only leaves AI and Aliens, which is kind of worrisome.

This is the type of book we need to see more of. Highly recommended.

"Fifty Animals that Changed the Course of History" by Eric Chaline

 

Publisher:  Firefly Books

Copyright: 2011

ISBN: 9781554078974

Fifty Animals is an interesting book that gives the readers some very interesting information on the animals that author choose. Some of the animals are or should be expected such as the horse, cow, sheep, goat, dog, cat, pig, cod, goat, herring, chicken, turkey, and other ones that are typically seen in relation of humans.

On the other hand there are some that most people would expect unless they gave it a lot of thought such as spiny dye-murex, bald eagle, cochineal, seal, rabbit, chimpanzee, lion, seal, and oyster. And there are others that are quite unexpected such as cobra, louse, dodo, schistosome, leech, rat flea, Darwin's finches. 

The book is quite well written, and an easy read and is suitable for younger readers. The only criticism I have is that lack of citations as it does tend to make me curious about some of the information that was presented. There are sections entitled "Further Reading" and "Useful Websites" but none of these entries are linked to the individual animal entries.

"The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World" by Steve Brusatte

 

Publisher: William Morrow

Copyright: 2018

ISBN: 9780062490421

It has taken me a little while to get around to reading this book due to a bit of a backlog I’ve had to work through, that and working for a living tends to chew up a few hours in the day - mind you the latter isn’t much of an excuse as I work in Palaeontology all day long. But in any case the wait was well worth it as this book was a fascinating read.

Dr. Brusatte takes the reader on a journey from the Permian Period some 252 million years ago right up to the time of the Late Cretaceous and the extinction of the dinosaurs due to a rather pesky comet/meteor that hit the earth in the Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago. Even though this extinction event was hotly debated by many for a number of years it is now accepted that this is what brought the Cretaceous and the reign of the dinosaurs to an end - with exception of the birds that is, yes birds are descended from dinosaurs. For a good read on this check out “T-Rex and the Crater of Doom” by Walter Alvarez which I reviewed back on November 23, 2020.

The book starts by introducing the reader the world of Permian Period and explains the dawn of the dinosaurs, how they became more dominant, the effects of continent drift on their distribution. It then moves on through the next couple of chapters to discuss the tyrant dinosaurs, and of course many peoples' favourite bad boy T. rex.

There is an excellent discussion on how dinosaurs likely took flight, and in each section there is a good discussion of the dominant species, and how they lived. The final chapter deals with the end of the dinosaurs, and how they died out.

This book was extremely informative, and would make a wonderful introduction to anybody who is interested in dinosaurs, it is an easy read that would be suitable for readers from the higher elementary school grades (after all everybody knows an elementary student who knows all the dinosaurs, right?) right though to seniors. I believe it would also make a great introductory text for first year university as this is the type of book that most students would actually read, as opposed to some of the textbooks typically assigned.

Highly recommended.

"I, Mammal: The Story Of What Makes Us Mammals" by Liam Drew

Publisher:London, UK : Bloomsbury Sigma, 2017.
Copyright Date:©2017
ISBN: 9781472922892
Characteristics: 336 pages :,illustrations.

This book was recommended to me by one of the staff at the University of Alberta, and after reading it I can confirm two things: 1) Platypuses are definitely out there on the weird end of the evolutionary tree. 2) Mammals are extremely interesting beasts, and I am quite glad the circumstances that brought the author to write this book happened, but at the same time I'm sorry that it did happen to him - that's gotta hurt!

Dr. Drew essentially takes the reader on quest to discover what makes a mammal, a mammal. In this book he deals with subjects such as why the male gonads are outside the body, the early investigations about what is a mammal, the  role of the 'Y' chromosome in being male, sex in the mammal kingdom, the function of the placenta, nursing, how mammals learn to be caregivers, the mammalian family tree, and much more.

Now while some may consider this to be a very dry subject, Dr. Drew makes it well worth the read as he intersperses numerous examples, real life events, and a good deal spot-on humour to make it an enjoyable read.

I believe this book would make a wonderful supplementary text for any 1st year comparative anatomy course (at least one dealing with mammals), and would suggest that even if you aren't in school, you are a mammal (at least I assume you are), and this is the story of how you came to be what you are.

A great read!

"Ocean-Space" by Allen M. Steele

Publisher: Ace Books, New York, 2000
ISBN: 044100850X

Ocean Space is a book that deals with life in an undersea research facility, and the everyday things they have to put up with in order to survive in this element. The first good thing about this book is that Mr. Steele, gets the science right. He takes things like the requirements for the divers to decompress, the use of special gas mixtures to allow for saturation diving, and even the required close living quarters into account. As a former diver these details were extremely refreshing to see.

In many science-fiction books, the science components such as this are ignored by the authors. Why they do this is anybody's guess. It could be something as simple as them not understanding the concepts (and refusing to do research), or possibly even assuming that their audience won't notice and therefore it won't matter if they skimp on the research. Both are unforgivable in my opinion.

The story opens when one of the characters (in a manned submersible mining manganese nodules on the ocean floor) gets into trouble following an unexplained encounter in the deep ocean. This sets the pace of this novel which is quite fast. The pace gets pushed even higher when a second plot line is introduced about the exploration of deeps hydrothermal vents.

For the younger readers who read this there is a young lady who is on her first visit to the installation, although this isn't where she thought she was heading too, as they just said a vacation in Florida. This adds a fair bit of conflict, and humour to the narration. When you add to this a good dose of espionage, some personal conflicts, and stir you have a first rate story that will keep you reading.

"Darwin's Devices: What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology" by Dr. John Long PhD.

Publisher:New York : Basic Books, [2012]
Copyright Date:©2012
ISBN: 9780465021413
Characteristics: 273 pages :,illustrations ;,25 cm

This book is a fascinating look into the life of what a not so typical researcher into the biological sciences has to go through both to prove their hypotheses and both learn from their mistakes and their successes at the same time.

I first came across Dr. Long's work when watching The Teaching Company's series called "Robotics", in which he is the presenter. For those people interested in robotics this series is well worth viewing as it gives a lot of information to the viewer. This series led me to his book.

Dr. Long's basic research is the study of evolution, and the book explains how he has chosen to do this with the help of robots. He tells the detailed story of his experiments in both robotics and evolution. He describes how he came to choose to use robots in the first place, the various stages he had to go through with regard to designing the robots in the first place, plus both his successes and failures.

Even though his robots were simple, they adequately approved through his experiments their ability to illustrate the power of evolution to solve difficult technological challenges autonomously.

Darwin’s Devices is without a doubt a heavy duty look at the world of robotics, the concepts and theories behind how they work, and in some cases why they don't work. It is definitely not light reading, but is well worth reading if you have any interest in electronics, robotics, the biological sciences, and likely a host of other pursuits.

"The Greatest Show on Earth" by Richard Dawkins

Publisher:New York ; Toronto : Free Press, 2009.
Edition:First Free Press hardcover edition.
ISBN:9781416594789
Characteristics: ix, 470 pages, 30 pages of plates :,illustrations (some colour) ;,24 cm

This book examines the scientific evidence behind the theory of evolution, and why it has gained acceptance throughout all the interrelated disciplines of science as the only logical explanation for how all the various flora and fauna on this planet came into being.

In the first part of the book Dr. Dawkins' delves into the details that explain why evolution is the only acceptable answer, and he does this by producing evidence based on plant biology, the breeding of dogs, and various other animals which have been done by humans for thousands of years. In proceeding this way it makes the evidence for human evolution all the more compelling, as we are animals too.

Following this he takes us on an examination of the various branches of biology, such as palaeontology, anthropology, etc. and shows how these fields have benefitted by their acceptance of evolution, and sub sequentially how each of these fields have confirmed the theory.

Unfortunately most of the hard-core believers in creation will be unlikely to be swayed by these well thought out and logically presented arguments, but then again it is unlikely anything would be able to turn them.

An enjoyable read, and one that is recommended to all.

"52 Things You Should Know About Palaeontology" edited by Alex Callum & Allard W. Martinius

Publisher:[Mahone Bay] Nova Scotia : Agile Libre, 2015.
ISBN: 9780987959447
Characteristics: 137 pages :,illustrations, map ;,23 cm.
Additional Contributors:Martinius, Allard W. 1963-
Cullum, Alex 1969-

When I first came across this title*, I was doing some research for a book on palaeontology, it's historical roots and interaction with anthropology. It looked interesting, and based solely on the title I assumed it was a book directed towards young people (which my research was sorely lacking at the time). When I finally got my hands on a copy I was both a little sad that this wasn't what it was about, but also very much happier when I read the table of contents and found out that this was a compilation of 52 short papers by leading palaeontologists and others in the field from around the world describing their work.

This book gives the reader a basic introduction to the basic science of palaeontology, it's history, and many other related topics. Each of the papers is two pages long, and should whet your appetite to look into the subject areas in more detail.

The various papers in this book touch on the fundamentals of palaeontology, its biology, applying what is learned, teaching the science, stratigraphy, methodology, fossils, and culture with a given paper typically talking about more than one of these subject areas and showing how they all interrelate.

As someone who works in the field and gives tours to school groups and other visitors to our lab (University of Alberta) I believe this book would be quite a valuable resource to any high school library, public library, college or university as it is very complete.

The authors have also published a follow-up to this book entitled "52 More things You Should Know About Palaeontology" which I have yet to read, but will be doing so shortly.

*  Kudos to the editors by the way for spelling palaeontology correctly - this is one of my nit-picky complaints as the people who work with me can attest to.

"How to Fake A Moon Landing: Exposing the Myths of Science Denial" by Darryl Cunningham

Publisher:New York : Abrams ComicArts, 2013.

ISBN:9781419706899  

Characteristics:172 pages, 4 unnumbered pages :,color illustrations

Alternative Title:Previously publushed as: Science tales: lies, hoaxes, and scams.
This book explores eight common science denial areas in cartoon format, and does it very well. Mr. Cunningham deals with the topics: The Moon landing hoax, Homeopathy, Chiropractic medicine, Vaccinations, Evolution, Fracking, Climate Change, and General Science Denial as does so in a way that will appeal to people of all ages.
A quote from Michael Specter a staff writer for the New Yorker as well as an author states the overall thesis behind this book on page 2 by saying:
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion; however, everyone is not entitled to their own facts."
The eight myths contained within this book are all refuted, by reviewing them in a rational, and logical way with simple explanations as to why they are false and providing the scientifically based reasoning behind the evidence.
While I'm sure this book won't convince the die-hard science denial fans, it will hopefully at least start to drive a wedge into their armour and therefore show everyone that their one sided opinions are not sustainable in a rational discussion.
Another quote, this time from the preface:
"... [T]he universe has amazing and strange qualities anyway for those who care to see them. There is no need to believe in fantasy in order to see the extraordinary in the world, when reality offers up so much that is astonishing." (pg. 6)
Pick this book up, and enjoy it.

"Unmentionable The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners" by Therese Oneill

Publisher:New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2016.

Edition:First edition.

Copyright Date:©2016

ISBN:9780316357913 

Characteristics:viii, 307 pages :,illustrations
Unmentionable is a fascinating look at what the Victorian Age. Ms. Oneill gives you the unvarnished truth behind what life back then was really like. The premise behind this book is that a modern woman takes a trip back in time, and lives in the 19th century, with Ms. Oneill as her guide. She does the whole thing with a humorous twist that keeps you reading, long after the light should have been out.
Many people believe they know what the 19th century was like from watching movies, and reading popular novels, and romances. However reality was much different, as the author reveals interesting items such as bathing habits (pretty much none), using arsenic as a facial cleanser, lead based cosmetics made from lead and lard (that isn't a typo), diets, courtship, what a woman should expect on her wedding night, birth control (or lack thereof in most cases), public behaviour, how to be a good wife, etc.
Now as a male, I was not the intended audience for this book, but I still found it absolutely fascinating. It is true my conceptions of the 19th century were totally skewed, but now I have seen the light. While I haven't written any historical fiction set in the the 19th century, I believe I would like to give it a try someday, but the amount of research needed to make it authentic would be mind blowing. Luckily, Ms. Oneill gives a detailed bibliography.
This book would be a fantastic resource for any writer of historical fiction, historical commentary, science-fiction (for those into time travel). In addition to this you can add students of history, anthropology, politics, gender studies, etc.

Science in the Movies (and television).

So far we have covered two very important parts of why it is very unlikely we have ever been visited by extraterrestrials, namely: first was the distance, and second why would they bother to come here. There have been literally thousands of television programs and feature films that fit the very broad description of "Science-Fiction" (over 5000 in fact according to IMDB) however, how many of them are scientifically accurate? Most are nowhere even close, and a great number do science such a disservice that they should really be classified as something like pseudo-science fiction. There is no way of classifying all the errors that some of these shows make, but the majority are things that any junior-high school student (and likely some elementary ones as well) know are not correct.

One of the biggest blunders that is continuously made is the sounds in space. Very elementary problem here - in order to have sound propagate you need air, and there is none in space so therefore there can't be any sound. The only movie I can think of off hand that got this right is 2001: A Space Odyssey. This same thing goes for explosions. "Bang" is a sound and therefore if there's no air there's no bang. This is taken to absurd lengths in virtually all films, and now-a-days when every space film seemingly has to have a battle sequence. Okay, I assume you get the point so I won't harp on it any longer.

Another problem that is very common in these films is that every alien is a bilaterally symmetrical biped, with stereoscopic vision (two eyes, both facing forward), two arms, etc. With the exception of the Star Wars series - which admittedly still lots of those good ol' bipeds there was at least a number of other aliens present (Jabba the Hut comes to mind). Now you'd think that with the huge budgets that Hollywood has for their films that they could do something a little original. Probably the biggest violator of this is the Star Trek franchise in which not only are they virtually all bipedal, but in some cases the difference between alien races is simply a few bumps on the forehead. In fact I can only recall one alien in the original series that looked alien and that was the Horta (an acidic rock dissolver, that looked like a large pepperoni pizza with extra cheese). Now admittedly I am not a Trekkie, and I haven't seen any of the newer episodes but with seventy some episodes in the original series and only one alien-looking alien the odds aren't too good that they've had any original thoughts since.

I don't want to harp on the silliness of Star Trek too much more, but they take things to absurd limits by not only making virtually all the aliens look the same, but also allowing them to interbreed. Come on people this is really basic biology. The prime example of this silliness is Mr. Spock. Why is it silly? For starters he is supposedly an alien, whose bodily chemistry is based on copper (not iron like ours), his parent's Amanda & Sarek - yes I had to look this up - mated (with a little genetic help it is stated), and successfully conceived a child. Now the chances of this happening (even with significant genetic assistance) is about as likely as a human successfully mating with a rose and producing a either living person that would never have to use deodorant, or a flower that can do calculus. Why, after all they did say there was some genetic help? Simple the two races have a different body chemistry (copper vs. iron remember), different chromosome numbers (humans have 23 vs. Vulcans' have some other number), different gestational periods (nine months vs. who knows what), etc. etc. ad nauseum. It was stated at one point that all races in Star Trek evolved from an ancient one, but this is absurd as well as basic evolutionary law says that species that are isolated will eventually be incompatible mates with other species. So enough about Star Trek.

So come on Hollywood lets see some science in your science fiction! Mind you when it comes down to it there hasn't been much original work come out of Hollywood for many many years so I guess the chances of anything like this happening is pretty slim.

TTFN