Following in Darwin's Footsteps

Following in Darwin's Footsteps PDF Author: Aileen O'Riordan
Publisher: Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
ISBN: 9781842464205
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Eight key chapters cover the life of Charles Darwin, each designed to read aloud in 5 minutes for a primary school audience (5-11 year-olds). Illustrated with fun family activities and presented by the characters from The Great Plant Hunt (www.greatplanthunt.org), an RBG Kew and Wellcome Trust educational program. Themed topics range from Darwin's childhood capacity for observation and his exploration and discovery of new species on the Beagle voyage, to an accessible account of Darwin's biggest idea. Together these eight tales explain how and why Darwin became a scientist who changed the world.

Following in Darwin's Footsteps

Following in Darwin's Footsteps PDF Author: Aileen O'Riordan
Publisher: Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
ISBN: 9781842464205
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
Eight key chapters cover the life of Charles Darwin, each designed to read aloud in 5 minutes for a primary school audience (5-11 year-olds). Illustrated with fun family activities and presented by the characters from The Great Plant Hunt (www.greatplanthunt.org), an RBG Kew and Wellcome Trust educational program. Themed topics range from Darwin's childhood capacity for observation and his exploration and discovery of new species on the Beagle voyage, to an accessible account of Darwin's biggest idea. Together these eight tales explain how and why Darwin became a scientist who changed the world.

Darwin in Galápagos

Darwin in Galápagos PDF Author: K. Thalia Grant
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691142106
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
Recreates the scientist's historic visit to the Galapagos Islands using his original notebooks and logs, the latest findings by scholars and researchers, and the authors' first-hand knowledge of the archipelago.

Galapagos

Galapagos PDF Author: Mark Newman
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781466287716
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
In 1996 writer-adventurer Mark Newman traveled to the Galapagos Islands. He stayed in the famed archipelago for longer than Charles Darwin had and visited more than twice as many of the islands. Here is his fascinating account of that journey, undertaken partly by Brigantine Schooner, partly by kayak, and partly on foot. There are animal encounters galore, a hike around the second largest caldera in the world, and plenty of entertaining anecdotes about the lesser known aspects of Darwin's 1835 visit. Globetrotters, wildlife enthusiasts, armchair explorers, and Darwin history buffs will all find this book irresistible.

Darwin's First Theory

Darwin's First Theory PDF Author: Rob Wesson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1681773775
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Everybody knows—or thinks they know—Charles Darwin, the father of evolution and the man who altered the way we view our place in the world. But what most people do not know is that Darwin was on board the HMS Beagle as a geologist—on a mission to examine the land, not flora and fauna.Tracing Darwin’s footsteps in South America and beyond, geologist Rob Wesson sets out on a trek across the Andes, repeating the nautical surveys made by the Beagle’s crew, hunting for fossils in Uruguay and Argentina, and explores traces of long vanished glaciers in Scotland and Wales. By following Darwin’s path literally and intellectually, Rob experiences the landscape that absorbed Darwin, followed his reasoning about what he saw, and immerses himself in the same questions about the earth. Upon Darwin’s return from the five-year journey, he conceived his theory of tectonics—his first theory. These concepts and attitudes—the vastness of time; the enormous cumulative impact of almost imperceptibly slow change; change as a constant feature of the environment—underlie his subsequent discoveries in evolution. And this peculiar way of thinking remains vitally important today as we enter the Anthropocene.

Why Darwin Matters

Why Darwin Matters PDF Author: Michael Shermer
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1429900903
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
A creationist-turned-scientist demonstrates the facts of evolution and exposes Intelligent Design's real agenda Science is on the defensive. Half of Americans reject the theory of evolution and "Intelligent Design" campaigns are gaining ground. Classroom by classroom, creationism is overthrowing biology. In Why Darwin Matters, bestselling author Michael Shermer explains how the newest brand of creationism appeals to our predisposition to look for a designer behind life's complexity. Shermer decodes the scientific evidence to show that evolution is not "just a theory" and illustrates how it achieves the design of life through the bottom-up process of natural selection. Shermer, once an evangelical Christian and a creationist, argues that Intelligent Design proponents are invoking a combination of bad science, political antipathy, and flawed theology. He refutes their pseudoscientific arguments and then demonstrates why conservatives and people of faith can and should embrace evolution. He then appraises the evolutionary questions that truly need to be settled, building a powerful argument for science itself. Cutting the politics away from the facts, Why Darwin Matters is an incisive examination of what is at stake in the debate over evolution.

What Darwin Saw

What Darwin Saw PDF Author: Rosalyn Schanzer
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 1426303971
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description
The story of Charles Darwin's voyage on the H.M.S. Beagle, told in a combination of his own words and the author's illustrations.

40 Years of Evolution

40 Years of Evolution PDF Author: Peter R. Grant
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691160465
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
An important look at a groundbreaking forty-year study of Darwin's finches Renowned evolutionary biologists Peter and Rosemary Grant have produced landmark studies of the Galápagos finches first made famous by Charles Darwin. In How and Why Species Multiply, they offered a complete evolutionary history of Darwin's finches since their origin almost three million years ago. Now, in their richly illustrated new book, 40 Years of Evolution, the authors turn their attention to events taking place on a contemporary scale. By continuously tracking finch populations over a period of four decades, they uncover the causes and consequences of significant events leading to evolutionary changes in species. The authors used a vast and unparalleled range of ecological, behavioral, and genetic data—including song recordings, DNA analyses, and feeding and breeding behavior—to measure changes in finch populations on the small island of Daphne Major in the Galápagos archipelago. They find that natural selection happens repeatedly, that finches hybridize and exchange genes rarely, and that they compete for scarce food in times of drought, with the remarkable result that the finch populations today differ significantly in average beak size and shape from those of forty years ago. The authors' most spectacular discovery is the initiation and establishment of a new lineage that now behaves as a new species, differing from others in size, song, and other characteristics. The authors emphasize the immeasurable value of continuous long-term studies of natural populations and of critical opportunities for detecting and understanding rare but significant events. By following the fates of finches for several generations, 40 Years of Evolution offers unparalleled insights into ecological and evolutionary changes in natural environments.

Darwin Slept Here

Darwin Slept Here PDF Author: Eric Simons
Publisher: ABRAMS
ISBN: 1590205421
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 165

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Book Description
This entertaining combination of history, biography, and travel adventure is “a bracingly fresh portrait [of] Darwin . . . Nothing less than exhilarating” (Michael Pollan, New York Times–bestselling author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma). One snowy day in Ushuaia, Argentina, Eric Simons picked up a copy of Charles Darwin’s The Voyage of the Beagle. Simons had just hiked the mountains overlooking Beagle Channel, and found himself engrossed in Darwin’s surprisingly relatable account. Like Simons, Darwin had been in his mid-twenties when he traveled to South America in search of adventure. Inspired, Simons went further into South America, exploring the histories, legends, and people that had fascinated Darwin himself two centuries before. In Darwin Slept Here, Simons journeys in the footsteps of one of the fathers of modern science, introducing readers to “a refreshingly different Darwin: a twenty-something traveler fond of hurling iguanas into the sea and charging up any tall peak he could find” (Outside Magazine). “Hard to put Simons’ book down—lighthearted adventures that keep a reader wanting more.” —San Francisco Chronicle

On the Backs of Tortoises

On the Backs of Tortoises PDF Author: Elizabeth Hennessy
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300232748
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
An insightful exploration of the iconic Galápagos tortoises, and how their fate is inextricably linked to our own in a rapidly changing world The Galápagos archipelago is often viewed as a last foothold of pristine nature. For sixty years, conservationists have worked to restore this evolutionary Eden after centuries of exploitation at the hands of pirates, whalers, and island settlers. This book tells the story of the islands' namesakes--the giant tortoises--as coveted food sources, objects of natural history, and famous icons of conservation and tourism. By doing so, it brings into stark relief the paradoxical, and impossible, goal of conserving species by trying to restore a past state of prehistoric evolution. The tortoises, Elizabeth Hennessy demonstrates, are not prehistoric, but rather microcosms whose stories show how deeply human and nonhuman life are entangled. In a world where evolution is thoroughly shaped by global history, Hennessy puts forward a vision for conservation based on reckoning with the past, rather than trying to erase it.

Darwin's Most Wonderful Plants

Darwin's Most Wonderful Plants PDF Author: Ken Thompson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022667567X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
For many people, the story of Charles Darwin goes like this: he ventured to the Galapagos Islands on the Beagle, was inspired by the biodiversity of the birds he saw there, and immediately returned home to write his theory of evolution. But this simplified narrative is inaccurate and lacking: it leaves out a major part of Darwin’s legacy. He published On the Origin of Species nearly thirty years after his voyages. And much of his life was spent experimenting with and observing plants. Darwin was a brilliant and revolutionary botanist whose observations and theories were far ahead of his time. With Darwin’s Most Wonderful Plants, biologist and gardening expert Ken Thompson restores this important aspect of Darwin’s biography while also delighting in the botanical world that captivated the famous scientist. Thompson traces how well Darwin’s discoveries have held up, revealing that many are remarkably long-lasting. Some findings are only now being confirmed and extended by high-tech modern research, while some have been corrected through recent analysis. We learn from Thompson how Darwin used plants to shape his most famous theory and then later how he used that theory to further push the boundaries of botanical knowledge. We also get to look over Darwin’s shoulder as he labors, learning more about his approach to research and his astonishing capacity for hard work. Darwin’s genius was to see the wonder and the significance in the ordinary and mundane, in the things that most people wouldn’t look at twice. Both Thompson and Darwin share a love for our most wonderful plants and the remarkable secrets they can unlock. This book will instill that same joy in casual gardeners and botany aficionados alike.