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The Biology of Us describes the common but fascinating examples of biology and nature that are hidden in plain sight in our daily lives. It focuses on human biology, but describes animals and plants all around, on, and in us to put human features into an evolutionary context. Many aspects of ourselves and our normal activities are examples of evolution: breathing, eating, standing up, communicating, telling time, and more. This book illustrates evolutionary strategies used successfully by common organisms for hundreds of millions of years. Howard shows that the organisms in our daily lives are not trivial neighbors or even pests but are just as amazing as those in the Serengeti or the Galápagos Islands.
Sommario
- Preface
- 1. Looking for Sowbugs
- 2. Life around Us
- Building the Family Tree
- Animals
- What Distinguishes Humans from Other Animals
- Plants
- Lichens
- Fungi and Bacteria
- Life Is Everywhere
- 3. Life beneath Our Feet
- Earth under Our Feet
- Life Underground
- Key Process Underground
- Think about What's Underground
- 4. Supermarket Systematics
- Animals
- Animal Products
- Plant Products
- Mushrooms and Fungi
- Thanksgiving Dinner
- Supermarket Systematics
- 5. Fellow Travelers
- Visitors That Drop in for a Bite
- Visitor That Stay for a While
- Internal Parasites
- Fungi
- Bacteria
- Microbiome
- Viruses
- Viral Fossils
- Endosymbiosis
- In the End
- 6. Inside and Outside
- Water
- Oil and Lipids
- Proteins
- Membrane Structure
- Crossing Membranes
- Other Lipids
- Inside and Outside of Us
- The Ultimate Inside
- 7. Inside and Outside of Us
- Outside: Skin
- The Other Outside: The Digestive Tract
- The True Outside
- 8. Food and Eating
- The Evolution of Eating
- Cooking
- Digestion
- When Things Go Wrong
- Diseases of Affluence
- 9. Standing Up
- Standing on Two Feet
- Cells and Cellular Structures
- Animals
- Humans
- Plants
- Moving Plants
- Putting it all together
- 10. The Heart of the Matter
- Blood
- Heart
- Lungs
- Kidneys
- Internal Sea
- 11. Life Using Death
- Programmed Cell Death
- Butterflies and Frogs
- Falling Leaves and Fruit
- Human Development and Maintenance
- Diseases and Aging
- Quorum Sensing in Bacteria
- Cell Death Support Cell Life
- 12. Laughing and Crying
- Crying and Tears
- Laughing
- Anatomy of Speech
- Vocalizations and Language
- Evolution of Speech
- Chemical Communication
- Conclusions
- 13. Sleep and Consciousness
- What Is Sleep?
- How Much Sleep Do We Need?
- Sleep Disorders
- Do All Animals Sleep?
- Do Plants Sleep?
- How the Brain Works
- What Are Dreams?
- Consciousness
- Conclusion
- 14. Telling Time
- Circadian Rhythms
- Confusing Our Internal Clocks
- Beyond Waking and Sleeping
- Development and Aging
- Time
- 15. What's Next
- Glossary
Info autore
Gary C. Howard, PhD, served as a science editor and writer for the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco for 22 years. He received a PhD in biological sciences from Carnegie Mellon University and completed fellowships at Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University. He continues to edit and write. His previous books, The
Biology of Death (2021) and
Imaging Life (2014) were both published by Oxford University Press. Howard is also an elected member of the Board of Education of Castro Valley Unified School District and an appointed member of the Alameda County Public Health Commission.
Riassunto
In our modern world, it is easy to overlook the natural world all around us. Only major life events, such as birth, injury, disease, and death, remind us that we are still biological organisms. We "interact" with nature in controlled and safe environments, such as zoos, theme parks, or through different forms of media. Television shows, films, and books are nearly always in exotic locations (e.g., the Kalahari Desert, the deep ocean, or Antarctica), but they inadvertently reinforce our separation from nature. Biology happens somewhere else.
Author Gary Howard seeks to change that perception. The Biology of Us describes the common but fascinating examples of biology and nature that are hidden in plain sight in our daily lives. It focuses on human biology, but describes animals and plants all around, on, and in us to put human features into an evolutionary context. Many aspects of ourselves and our normal activities are examples of evolution: breathing, eating, standing up, communicating, telling time, and more. This book illustrates evolutionary strategies used successfully by common organisms for hundreds of millions of years. Howard shows that the organisms in our daily lives are not trivial neighbors or even pests but are just as amazing as those in the Serengeti or the Galápagos Islands.
