Natural Science / Natural History > Anthropology

We have long attributed man's violent, aggressive, competitive nature to his animal ancestry. But what if we are just as given to cooperation, empathy, and morality by virtue of our genes? From a scientist and writer whom E.O. Wilson has called 'the world authority on primate social behavior' comes a lively look at the most provocative aspects of human nature - power, sex, violence, kindness, and morality - through our two closest cousins in the ape family. For nearly 20 years, Frans de Waal has worked with both the famously aggres... read more

Why does time seem to speed up as we get older? Why does it seem to drag when we're bored or in pain, or to go slowly when we're in unfamiliar environments? Why does it slow down dramatically in accidents and emergency situations, when sportspeople are 'in the zone', or in higher states of consciousness? First published 2006.

Explores one of the world's least known mysteries: who were the first-ever human beings to find their way to Australia, where did they come from and how and when did they arrive? Australia's Kimberley was the cultural hub of the Ice Age world. Today, it holds within its bounds the world's largest collection of Ice Age figurative art, giving us vital clues to the origins of other cultures and civilisations right across the world. Back at a time when most of Europe lay deep beneath ice sheets, a people in the remote and rugged ... read more

Why has the female voice deepened over the last fifty years? Who talks more, men or women? How can a baby in the womb distinguish between different voices? The human voice is the personal and social glue that binds us, and the most important sound in our lives. The moment we open our mouth we leak information about our biological, psychological and social status. Babies use it to establish emotional ties and acquire language, adults to decode mood and meaning in intimate and professional relationships. Far from being rendered redun... read more

"Crystal clear, gracefully written, and filled with fascinating observations" Steven Pinker

A BOOK NO HUMAN ANIMAL DARE MISS READING Here is the Naked Ape at his most primal in love, at work, at war. Meet man as he really is: relative to the apes, stripped of his veneer as we see him courting, making love, sleeping, sociallsing, grooming, playing. Zoologist Desmond Morriss classic takes its place alongside Darwins Origin of the Species, presenting man not as a fallen angel, but as a risen ape, remarkable in his resilience, energy and imagination, yet an animal nonetheless, in danger of forgetting his origins. With its pen... read more

We take it for granted that the brain is the seat of our minds, the part of our body that is most ourselves. 500 years ago, Europeans, if they thought about the brain at all, took it much less seriously - whether it was a refrigerator or a pump, it was seen as little more than a mechanism, its only products tears and snot. Among the revolutions of the seventeenth century was a revolution on the understanding of the brain and mind. It's central figure was a 17th century Englishman called Thomas Willis. To him, we owe our modern und... read more

Why do some people like a certain aroma and others hate it? Is smell personal or cultural? How does it affect our choices and our actions? "The Scent of Desire" is the definitive psychological study of the importance of smell in our lives, from nourishment to procreation to our relationships with other people and the world at large. Located in the same part of the brain that processes emotion, memory, and motivation, this most essential of senses is imperative to our physical and emotional well-being. It was crucial to our ancesto... read more

No life form has had a greater impact upon this planet than the human male. What is it that has made his legacy so utterly distinct from that of all other life forms, including even the human female? Following on from the international success of The Naked Woman, Desmond Morris investigates this intriguing evolutionary success story. The Naked Man is a study of the masculine body from head to toe, examining biological features of the male anatomy in illuminating detail and describing the many ways in which these features have been ... read more

On the form, varieties and errors of the human body Full of fascinating and bizarre cases of genetic mutation and irregularity, Mutants is an amazing exploration of the human form in all its beautiful and unique guises. Why are most of us born with one nose, two legs, ten fingers and twenty-four ribs - and some of us not? Why do most of us stop growing in our teens - while others just keep going? Why do some us have heads of red hair - and others no hair at all? The human genome, we are told, makes us what we are. But how? Ar... read more

This fascinating anthology introduces us to a wide range of arguments on the subject of memory, the thread that holds our lives, and our history, together. Arranged in themed sections, the book includes specially commissioned essays by the editors and by writers with expertise in different fields - from "Memory and Evolution" by Patrick Bateson to "Memory and Forgetting" by the biographer Richard Holmes, and an account of the chemistry of the brain by Steven Rose. Complimenting the essays are a rich selection of extracts from write... read more

This book is about a simple measurement of the human hand: the 'finger ratio', or the length of the ring finger relative to the index finger. John Manning uses a tiny difference between the sexes - that men tend to have a greater finger ratio than women - to examine a dizzying group of questions about human behaviour, from sexuality, to musical ability, to predisposition to disease. Controversial, but unfailingly clear and balanced, John Manning's cutting-edge research poses many fruitful questions about what makes us as we are. ... read more

Described by Oliver Sacks as 'one of the best scientist-writers of our time', Robert M. Sapolsky here presents the human animal in all its quirkiness and diversity. In these remarkable essays, Sapolsky once again deploys his compassion and insights into the human condition to tell us who, why and how we are. Monkeyluv touches on themes such as sexuality, aggression, love, parenting, religion, ageing, and mental illness. He ponders such topics as our need to seek out beauty; why our preferences in food become fixed; why we are ... read more

Have you ever had the feeling of being watched? Most of us know it well - the almost physical sensation that we are the object of someone's attention. Is the feeling all in our head? And what about related phenomena, such as telepathy and premonitions? Are they merely subjective beliefs? In The Sense Of Being Stared At, renowned biologist Rupert Sheldrake explores the intricacies of the mind and discovers that our perceptive abilities are stronger than many of us could have imagined.

Travel backward through time from today's scattered billions to the handful of early humans who lived in Africa 60,000 years ago and are ancestors to us all. In "Deep Ancestry," scientist and National Geographic explorer Spencer Wells shows how tiny genetic changes add up over time into a fascinating story. Using scores of real-life examples, helpful analogies, and detailed diagrams and illustrations, he explains exactly how each and every individual's DNA contributes another piece to the jigsaw puzzle of human history. The book ... read more

"Your Inner Fish" tells the extraordinary history of the human body. Why do we look the way we do? When did we first evolve the features that we have? Why are we still able to do all the different things we do? And, finally, why do we fall ill in the way that we do? Neil Shubin draws on the latest genetic research and his huge experience as an expeditionary palaeontologist to show the incredible impact the 3.5 billion year history of life has had on our bodies. It turns out that many of our most distinctive features evolved when we... read more

Pulitzer Prize-winner Natalie Angier lifts the veil of secrecy from that most enigmatic of evolutionary masterpieces, the female body. Angier takes readers on a mesmerising tour of female anatomy and physiology that explores everything from organs to orgasm, and delves into topics such as exercise, menopause, and the mysterious properties of breast milk. Woman ultimately challenges widely accepted Darwinian-based gender stereotypes. Angier shows how cultural biases have influenced research in evolutionary psychology and consequentl... read more

"The Stuff of Thought" is an exhilarating work of non-fiction. Surprising, thought-provoking and incredibly enjoyable, there is no other book like it - Steven Pinker will revolutionise the way you think about language. He analyses what words actually mean and how we use them, and he reveals what this can tell us about ourselves. He shows how we use space and motion as metaphors for more abstract ideas, and uncovers the deeper structures of human thought that have been shaped by evolutionary history. He also explores the emotional i... read more