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Spirals in Time: The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells

Autor Helen Scales
Notă:  5.00 · o notă 
en Limba Engleză Paperback – 7 apr 2016

A biological and cultural biography of the ubiquitous yet mystical seashell.

Seashells, stretching from the deep past into the present day, are touchstones leading into fascinating realms of the natural world and cutting-edge science. In Spirals in Time: The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells, marine biologist Helen Scales shows how seashells have been sculpted by the fundamental rules of mathematics and evolution; how they gave us color, gems, food, and new medicines.

Members of the phylum Mollusca are among the most ancient animals on the planet. Their shells provide homes for other animals, and across the ages, people have used shells not only as trinkets but also as a form of money, and as powerful symbols of sex and death, prestige and war.

The science and natural history of shells are woven into a compelling narrative, revealing their cultural importance and the ways they have been used by humans over the millennia, even as a source of mind-bending drugs. After surviving multiple mass extinctions millions of years ago, mollusks and their shells still face an onslaught of anthropocentric challenges, including climate change and corrosive oceans. But rather than dwelling on all that is lost, Scales emphasizes that seashells offer an accessible way to reconnect people with nature, helping to bridge the gap between ourselves and the living world. Spirals in Time shows why nature matters, and reveals the hidden wonders that you can hold in the palm of your hand.

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Specificații

ISBN-13: 9781472911384
ISBN-10: 1472911385
Pagini: 304
Ilustrații: Black and white images in text, plus 8-page colour section
Dimensiuni: 129 x 198 x 20 mm
Greutate: 0.3 kg
Editura: Bloomsbury Publishing
Colecția Bloomsbury Sigma
Locul publicării:London, United Kingdom

Caracteristici

A beautifully written and compelling account of shells and their makers - objects of wonder that are familiar to all

Notă biografică

Helen Scales is a marine biologist based in Cambridge. Her doctorate involved exploring the reproductive biology of the humphead wrasse, and since then she has tagged sharks in California, catalogued marine life surrounding a hundred islands in the Andaman Sea, and most recently studied the diverse fish that live on coral reefs in the South Pacific. Helen is now a freelance researcher and broadcaster. A major outlet for Helen's explorations is BBC Radio where she is a reporter and presenter on science and natural history programmes, especially on Radio 4 and the World Service. Her credits include regular appearances on Inside Science and Home Planet, numerous one-off documentaries, and a coveted spot on The Museum of Curiosity. Helen is also a long-standing member of the award-winning science communication collective, The Naked Scientists, based at the University of Cambridge. Helen's first book was Poseidon's Steed; The Story of Seahorses from Myth to Reality (2010, Penguin).helenscales.com / @helenscales

Cuprins

1. Meet the shell-makers2. How to build a shell3. Sex, death and gems4. Shell food5. A mollusc called home6. Spinning shell stories7. Flight of the argonauts8. Treasure hunting9. Bright ideas10. The sea butterfly effect

Recenzii

A rewarding glimpse of another world, filled with strange and reclusive creatures ... There is rich detail in all directions. One does not know what will come next. Often the descriptions made me see shafts of sunlight underwater, irradiating extraordinary places and creatures. That is just what the book does itself.
... punctures assumptions with the power of a cone snail dart.
Splendid ... Scales clearly loves snails - she has done an elegant, excellent job of explaining her passion ... she is a most able modern champion of molluscs.
Scales is a charming raconteur with boundless enthusiasm and an eye for detail that make her subject glow with life. Combining biology, history and ecology, this is nature writing at its most engaging.
The stories in Spirals in Time - which range from slaves being bought for bags of shells in west Africa in the 1770s to ground-breaking medical uses of cone-snail venom - are gripping and unimaginable.
Helen Scales ... takes us on a fascinating journey into the strange and captivating world of mollusks. Carefully researched and entertaining throughout ... Scales's book is relentlessly interesting.
...an informed introduction to this fascinating group. The author's enthusiasm shines through the prose...This is an ideal book for a summer holiday, and beach finds will take on a new dimension because of it.
With the soul of a poet and a talent for finding the most intriguing trivia about familiar seaside sights, marine biologist Scales turns the mundane into the magical.