Celebrating science and the poetry of existence, this is a true story about time and chance, genetics and gender, love and death—all made more accessible to the young imagination in the concrete, finite life of one tiny snail named Jeremy.★ A Kirkus Best Book of 2021: A Best Informational Picture Book★ A Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings) Best Children’s Book of 2021★ A Spirituality & Practice Best Spiritual Book of 2021Based on a real scientific event and inspired by a beloved real human in the author’s life, this is a story about science and the poetry of existence...The Snail with the Right Heart is a story about time and chance, genetics and gender, love and death, evolution and infinity—concepts often too abstract for the human mind to fathom, often more accessible to the young imagination; concepts made fathomable in the concrete, finite life of one tiny, unusual creature dwelling in a pile of compost amid an English garden. Emerging from this singular life is a lyrical un
Our brains are marvels, hard-wired by millions of years of evolution to boast a number of mental shortcuts, biases, and tricks that allow us to negotiate our complicated lives without overthinking eve
Descartes boldly claimed: "I think, therefore I am." But one might well ask: Why do we think? How? When and why did our human ancestors develop language and culture? In other words, what makes the hum
First published in 1974 as a companion volume to?Darwin on Man?by Howard E. Gruber, Paul Barrett’s transcriptions of Darwin’s M and N notebooks served to shed new light on the evolutionist’s methods a
In a Darwinian world, religious behavior - just like other behaviors - is likely to have undergone a process of natural selection in which it was rewarded in the evolutionary currency of reproductive
What does it mean to be human? There are many theories of the evolution of human behavior which seek to explain how our brains evolved to support our unique abilities and personalities. Most of these have focused on the role of brain size or specific genetic adaptations of the brain. In contrast, in this text, Fred Previc presents a provocative theory that high levels of dopamine, the most widely studied neurotransmitter, account for all major aspects of modern human behavior. He further emphasizes the role of epigenetic rather than genetic factors in the rise of dopamine. Previc contrasts the great achievements of the dopaminergic mind with the harmful effects of rising dopamine levels in modern societies and concludes with a critical examination of whether the dopaminergic mind that has evolved in humans is still adaptive to the health of humans and to the planet in general.
Although books on the comedies of the silent era abound, few have attempted to survey film comedy as a whole—its history and evolution, how the philosophical visions of its greatest artists and direct
Combining the study of animal minds, artificial minds, and human evolution, this book examine the advances made by comparative psychologists in explaining the intelligent behavior of primates, the des
A revolutionary call to overthrow society’s mental controls and expand consciousness for the greater good of humanity • Explores the tactics used to control consciousness, such as
In the past two decades, an explosion of research has generated many compelling insights--as well as hotly debated controversies--about the evolutionary bases of human nature. This important volume b
Scholars have long been captivated by the parallels between birdsong and human speech and language. In this book, leading scholars draw on the latest research to explore what birdsong can tell us abou
Scholars have long been captivated by the parallels between birdsong and human speechand language. In this book, leading scholars draw on the latest research to explore what birdsongcan tell us about
