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Post by baalmaiden on Sept 14, 2010 18:50:12 GMT 1
May I recommend any pf the books by Stephen Jay Gould? 'Wonderful Life' is a bit out of date now, but an easy read. 'Life's Grandeur'is my favourite, but I think there is a compilation of his best essays done since his death. He had a regular essay in Nature for decades.
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Post by marchesarosa on Sept 14, 2010 19:00:48 GMT 1
Could you tell us a bit more about the contents of these books, please, baalmaiden?
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Post by eamonnshute on Sept 14, 2010 19:47:31 GMT 1
'Wonderful life' is also one of my favourites. it deals with the weird and wonderful Cambrian fauna from the Burgess shale in British Columbia. But they are not quite as weird and wonderful as was once thought. Halucigenia's 'tentacles' are actually legs, making it more like some modern animals, unlike the weird original interpretation. Nectocaris, which looked like a mixture of arthropod and chordate, is now known to be a primitive squid: scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/05/mother_of_all_squid.phpFor a more modern but slightly heavier description of the Burgess fauna see 'The crucible of Creation' by Simon Conway Morris.
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Post by rsmith7 on Sept 14, 2010 21:37:13 GMT 1
Flat Earth News by Nick Davies - a good (if jaundiced) account by an ex guardian reporter of the workings of the press and how nonsense scare stories get spread around the globe. The Sea and it's Wonders by Cyril Hall - an early 20th century book with some interesting accounts of the ways things were. Good reference material for those who believe the Arctic Ice is at an all time low.
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Post by lazarus on Sept 15, 2010 17:21:41 GMT 1
Good reference material for those who believe the Arctic Ice is at an all time low. Who would that be? No sensible person would believe that because there have been times when there was no Arctic at all.
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Post by chloepink on Sept 15, 2010 18:04:20 GMT 1
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Post by chloepink on Sept 15, 2010 18:10:20 GMT 1
PS to my last post:
Remarkable Creatures illustrates some of the issues that arise between science and religion, a hot topic on the old board - fossil evidence of animals that no longer existed, was an uncomfortable concept, if not inflammatory to many religious viewpoints.
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Post by lazarus on Sept 15, 2010 22:00:53 GMT 1
Do you have a book recommenation Lazarus? I gave some recommendations earlier in the thread.
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Post by chloepink on Sept 15, 2010 23:44:58 GMT 1
Do you have a book recommenation Lazarus? I gave some recommendations earlier in the thread. My apologies Lazarus, so you did - your best post to date if I might say
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Post by StuartG on Oct 5, 2010 20:28:00 GMT 1
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