DoP September UK 300x380mm / 408pp Hardcover with jacket,c. 180 color photographs, Following his stunning photo-safari in Africa and an unprecedented helicopter voyage from Europe to Africa in Eyes over Africa, the award-winning photographer has ventured to the polar regions. With his inimitable blend of intimate close-ups and cinematic landscapes, Poliza leads us through the magical worlds of these frozen paradises most threatened by global warming. Poliza shows polar bears as they frolicked among purple fireweed against th... read more

In the spirit of Natalie Angier's The Canon, and writing with the verve and wit of Bill Bryson, Small Wonders takes the reader on a fantastic voyage to the microscopic, but massively influential, world of microbiology. It's a strange and dangerous world where oxygen is a lethal poison, sulphur is a delicious treat, deception is a basic survival skill, and perfectly good alcohol is simply thrown away. Idan Ben-Barak wears his learning lightly as he introduces us to the amazing lives of genes and proteins, bugs, and viruses, and the ... read more

We are all wild. It's just that civilisation keeps getting in the way. And the more civilised we become, the more we need the wild: wild places, wild creatures, and wild experiences. As every one who has patted a dog, smelled a rose, taken a walk, or even had a drink in the garden well knows, humans have a soul-deep need for non-human forms of life. This book is about pushing our birthright of wildness just that little bit further. In "How to be Wild", Barnes takes us on a journey through a year, from one raucous spring to the next... read more

What makes water, so simple in its make-up, such an integral part of life? Why has it been revered across the ages? What benefits flow from it that will shape our future? Our origin springs from water, it sustains us now, and it is the key to our future. By going further than just describing its attributes and celebrating its physical properties, this book reveals the spiritual dimension of water. We learn about our own hypnotic attraction to water's simplicity, purity and transparency; as well as its bizarre physical behaviour, st... read more

Journey to the Heart of the Rainforest Deep Jungle is an exploration of the most alien and feared habitat on Earth. Starting with man's earliest recorded adventures, Fred Pearce journeys high into the canopy - home to two-thirds of all the creatures on our planet, many of whom never come down to earth. During his travels he encounters all manner of fantastic flora and fauna, including a frog that can glide from tree to tree, a spider that can drag live chickens into its burrow and a flower that smells of decaying flesh. It is i... read more

In this remarkable journal of visits to Eden, Mabey transports his reader from Cornwall to the Mediterranean to the Tropics, from Old World to New, from present to personal memory, to new perspectives on our collective artistic and emotional past. Sensuous and evocative, exquisitely written, his new book challenges the reader to look differently at the world, and our place in the landscape. At the same time, Mabey is controversial in his views about what we mean by buzz words like 'renewable', or 'sustainable', and he is highly pro... read more

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Alina Arkins and Len Doel tell you everything you could ever need to know about New Zealand's shorebirds. Find out what our largest shorebird is, how different species of shorebirds differ from one another, how each species raises its babies, what they eat and lots more.

Describes the two species of New Zealand native bat, the long-tailed bat and the short-tailed bat, where they live, how they raise their babies, what they eat and how they manage to catch their often very small prey.

Late in 1957 two field parties set off from different sides of the Antarctic continent, both headed towards the South Pole. The intention was for one of those parties to successfully complete a trans-Antarctic crossing. This party was led by Britain's Dr Vivian Fuchs. The second party, led by Edmund Hillary, was to lay fuel and supply depots along the route, to resupply the Fuchs party on the second part of their expedition. The New Zealanders were to wait 500 miles short of the South Pole until they were joined by Fuchs and his me... read more

Need to know when to take an umbrella?When to cut hay?Planning a trip?Ken Ring has been called New Zealand's only long range weather forecaster. His book will tell you the weather for most New Zealand towns and regions for all of 2005, with daily weather maps that will closely match those in the local newspaper. Based on mathematical theory about the Moon cyclically influencing weather. Ken's predictions have proved startlingly accurate.As well as weekly radio talks, Ken's forecasts are syndicated monthly in newspapers and magazine... read more

This edition is out of print. Written by a team of international experts, each page reveals a new aspect of Antarctica. The book introduces readers to the animals and birds that make their home on and around Antarctica and looks at the first explorers to visit the area.

This edition is out of print. Antarctica has a reputation for being cold, isolated, and often desolate. Yet the ice (which covers 99 percent of the continent's surface) gives rise to spectacular scenery, and supports an astonishing variety of wildlife. In the early 1900s, heroic pioneers set out to discover this last frontier. One hundred years later, adventure tourists, arriving in cruise ships, are once again discovering this amazing land. It is a fragile environment, despite its harshness, and ecologists are concerned about t... read more

Takes the reader down a little-known but fascinating historical path, exploring cultural responses to infectious diseases and their biomedical management over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It also investigates the use of contagion as a concept in post-modern rethinking about the body.

What time is it at the North Pole? Should you pickle your conkers? Why does my aubergine look like Elvis? Plus 111 other questions answered. "Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze?" is the latest compilation of readers' answers to the questions in the "Last Word" column of "New Scientist", the world's best-selling science weekly. Following the phenomenal success of "Does Anything Eat Wasps?" - the Christmas 2005 surprise bestseller - this new collection includes recent answers never before published in book form, and also old favourites ... read more

Popular science at its most exciting: the breaking new world of chronobiology

Beech trees reached Britain about 8,000 years ago, and they were workhorses, not ornaments - fuel for Rome's glassworks; firewood for London; oars for the ships of Venice; raw material for furniture, cut and turned by 'bodgers' who lived like nomads among the trees in huts made of beechwood shavings. Mabey covers Europe as well as Britain, and autobiography as well as history and natural history. His beeches are characterful - 'hectic, gale-sculpted, gnomic' - and he writes about the bluebells, orchids, fungi, deer and badgers asso... read more

"The Living Wisdom of Trees" is a richly illustrated guide to the human significance of 55 trees, looking in particular at their botanical characteristics, their place in world myth, magic and folklore, the healing properties of their leaves, bark, nuts or berries, and (more briefly) their practical contribution to society. The coverage is broad - including native cultures such as those of North America and Oceania, and eastern trees such as the bo tree, sacred to Buddhism, as well as trees within the mainstream cultural traditions... read more

Acclaimed author Matt Ridley's thrilling follow-up to his bestseller Genome. Armed with the extraordinary new discoveries about our genes, Ridley turns his attention to the nature versus nurture debate to bring the first popular account of the roots of human behaviour. What makes us who we are?In February 2001 it was announced that the genome contains not 100,000 genes as originally expected but only 30,000. This startling revision led some scientists to conclude that there are simply not enough human genes to account for all the d... read more

This text reveals research from a long term project involving 678 nuns that has transformed scientists' understanding of healthy ageing and shows what everyone can do to help prevent Alzheimer's disease. Paperback (B-Format)