The Most Perfect Thing: Inside (and Outside) a Bird’s Egg
Autor Tim Birkheaden Limba Engleză Paperback – 9 mar 2017
Ne-a atras atenția un detaliu aparent banal, dar fascinant: care este capătul prin care oul părăsește corpul pasării, cel bont sau cel ascuțit? The Most Perfect Thing nu este doar o analiză biologică, ci o invitație de a privi cel mai comun obiect al naturii ca pe o minune inginerească. Apreciem modul în care Tim Birkhead descompune misterele formării cochiliei și ale pigmenților, explicând de ce unele ouă sunt perfect ovale, în timp ce altele sunt ascuțite, adaptate mediului în care sunt depuse.
Ca și The Book of Eggs, acest volum pune accent pe diversitatea estetică incredibilă a naturii, dar o face cu un stil propriu, mult mai narativ și personal, integrând povești despre colecționarii victorieni și expediții științifice. Dacă în What it's Like to be a Bird autorul se concentra pe experiența senzorială a păsărilor, aici el plonjează în istoria științei, oferind un context istoric bogat, de la practicile din Egiptul Antic până la cercetările moderne de laborator. Ritmul este unul alert, susținut de curiozitatea contagioasă a unui profesor care a petrecut o viață întreagă studiind comportamentul animalelor. Nu este doar o carte despre păsări, ci despre perfecțiunea designului biologic, scrisă într-o limbă engleză elegantă și accesibilă, care transformă datele tehnice în literatură de calitate.
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Specificații
ISBN-10: 140885127X
Pagini: 304
Ilustrații: 1 x 8 page colour plate section
Dimensiuni: 126 x 196 x 22 mm
Greutate: 0.26 kg
Editura: Bloomsbury Publishing
Colecția Bloomsbury Paperbacks
Locul publicării:London, United Kingdom
De ce să citești această carte
Recomandăm această carte oricărui pasionat de natură care dorește să înțeleagă complexitatea din spatele unui obiect pe care îl considerăm adesea garantat. Cititorul câștigă o perspectivă nouă asupra evoluției și supraviețuirii, învățând cum un simplu ou protejează viața în cele mai ostile medii. Este o lectură esențială pentru cei care apreciază scriitura științifică de tipul „nature writing”, oferind un amestec rar de rigoare academică și entuziasm pur.
Despre autor
Tim Birkhead este un renumit profesor de comportament animal și istoria științei la Universitatea din Sheffield, fiind totodată membru al prestigioasei Royal Society. Cu o carieră dedicată ornitologiei, cercetările sale l-au purtat în întreaga lume, de la insulele arctice până în laboratoarele moderne. Este un autor prolific, distins cu numeroase premii, precum medalia McColvin pentru The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Birds. Stilul său se remarcă prin capacitatea de a traduce concepte biologice complexe într-un limbaj captivant pentru publicul larg, explorând frecvent intersecția dintre natură, istorie și experiența umană.
Recenzii
Birkhead's approach to writing - hard, clear sentences; deep, revelatory looking - has the same effect as his microscope, bringing objects to light that were previously hidden, making us see the familiar with new eyes . After reading The Most Perfect Thing, you'll never dip your morning soldiers without a shiver of wonder at the complexity and resourcefulness of the humble egg.
Eye-opening . Thoroughly engaging, it also gives us a thrilling sense of the vast, unmapped territories that lie beyond, waiting to be discovered
Superb ... like having the top of your own head lifted off and its contents deliciously stirred: no one after reading this book could think it was possible to know too much, no one could think science removes us from feeling
What Birkhead does is show to anyone interested in nature why any such object is a source of wonder and fascination . Innovative work. Birkhead has made birds' eggs interesting again, by giving us a new way of looking at them: not as commodities to be drooled over and collected, but as wonders of natural science . Birkhead answers all the basic questions with panache, but other, stranger facts caught my imagination even more . Yet it is the incredible mechanisms of the life-support system, which Birkhead lays bare with perfect clarity, that are the most wondrous
Quirky and revealing . Many fascinating facts . Birkhead writes in a jaunty and compelling style, and is not afraid to deal head-on with the politics of eggs . This book is illustrated with a fine selection of photographs showing the extraordinary variety of shapes, sizes and colours of eggs . Tim Birkhead is one of Britain's leading zoologists, yet he skilfully bridges the gap between scientists and non-scientists . Impressive - an important contribution to our understanding of the world around us, and its extraordinary natural wonders
Birkhead has made birds' eggs interesting again, by giving us a new way of looking at them: not as commodities to be drooled over and collected, but as wonders of natural science
So full of fascinating facts. The author is to be congratulated on a major step forward in our understanding of eggs that in the past we just accepted and did not query. The reader will never look in eggs the same way again
He takes us on an epic journey, from the outer shell of an egg to its genetic core . It is a voyage packed with astonishing details
Justly acclaimed for his brilliance at explaining complex science in a beguilingly lively style . Though it is only April, I suspect that this beautifully written volume will end up the best bird book of 2016
Excellent . the author is exceptionally versed in the literature on eggs, from speculative 17th-century texts to the sprawling data pumped out by the poultry industry today
Anyone drawn to the natural sciences will relish it . There are curiosities at every stage
A wonderful insight into one of nature's most fascinating processes
A text that bubbles with enthusiasm ... A book that will keep you enthralled from your morning egg to your evening quiche. A delight
Anyone drawn to the natural sciences will relish it . The story of learning delights Birkhead as much as our current accumulation . Birkhead's telling is joyful
Superb . an enthralling, immensely readable book that combines deep scientific knowledge, lightly worn, with an awareness of history and a refreshing willingness to give the early pioneers of British ornithology - notably Francis Willoughby and John Ray - their due
Birkhead's enthusiasm for this "everyday miracle of nature" is infectious and his erudition lightly worn . A magical account
A delightful blend of amazing facts and hard science. You'll never look at a chicken in quite the same way again
From the handsome coloured pictures to the fascinating details about the sex life of birds, this is that rare thing: a scientific book to delight the general reader
I cannot think of a science book that is better written
I cannot think of a science book that is better written
Caracteristici
Notă biografică
Tim Birkhead is a professor at the University of Sheffield where he teaches animal behaviour and the history of science. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and his research has taken him all over the world in the quest to understand the lives of birds. He has written for the Independent, New Scientist, BBC Wildlife. Among his other books are Promiscuity, Great Auk Islands, The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Birds which won the McColvin medal, The Red Canary which won the Consul Cremer Prize, The Wisdom of Birds and Bird Sense. He is married with three children and lives in Sheffield.
Descriere scurtă
'I think that, if required on pain of death to name instantly the most perfect thing in the universe, I should risk my fate on a bird's egg' Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1862How are eggs of different shapes made, and why are they the shape they are? When does the shell of an egg harden? Why do some eggs contain two yolks? How are the colours and patterns of an eggshell created, and why do they vary? And which end of an egg is laid first - the blunt end or the pointy end?These are just some of the questions A Bird's Egg answers, as the journey of a bird's egg from creation and fertilisation to its eventual hatching is examined, with current scientific knowledge placed within an historical context. Beginning with an examination of the stunning eggs of the guillemot, each of which is so variable in pattern and colour that no two are ever the same, acclaimed ornithologist Tim Birkhead then looks at the eggs of hens, cuckoos and many other birds, revealing weird and wonderful facts about these miracles of nature. Woven around and supporting these facts are extraordinary stories of the individuals who from as far back as Ancient Egypt have been fixated on the study and collection of eggs, not always to the benefit of their conservation.Firmly grounded in science and enriched by a wealth of observation drawn from a lifetime spent studying birds,A Bird's Egg is an illuminating and engaging exploration of the science behind eggs and the history of man's obsession with them.