Reading Frames

In Chapter 1, “Why Is God Two-Faced?,” author John Wathey argues that the answer to this question is the key to an ethological understanding of religion.

If we ask the right questions, modern tools could help researchers solve mysteries such as why many people believe in a God that both provides unconditional love and levies eternal damnation.

New insights into the functionality of nonhuman sound may help us conserve nature and protect ourselves from excessive noise.

In Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains, I explore what it is that makes an animal a pest—and it has nothing to do with their behavior, but rather our own desires and beliefs about the natural world.

In a chapter on cats, author Bethany Brookshire explores the thorny issue of felines that live freely.

In the book's introduction, author Carol Gigliotti makes the case that intricate behavioral patterns can be just as important to conserve as species’ genomes.

When species disappear, more than their genomes are lost. The potential for their creative innovation to benefit ecosystems vanishes as well.

A puzzle for millennia, the movement of blood through the body was solved by an English physician in the 17th century, paving the way for modern medical technologies.

In Chapter 1, “The Science of Animal Dreams,” author David M. Peña-Guzmán relays the history of researchers digging into the mental realities of nonhuman brains.

Research shows that humans aren’t the only animals whose imaginations run wild while they sleep.

In Chapter 1, “Why We Love Fad Diets,” authors Janet Chrzan and Kima Cargill explain the American propensity to take shortcuts to weight loss.

Human beings are susceptible to the latest nutritional trends, regardless of their actual biological value.

This new book tells the fascinating story of plastic surgery’s unlikely origin on WWI battlefields.

The land’s first known singer may have sounded like a raspier version of today’s familiar insect fiddlers.

In a chapter entitled “Predators, Silence, Wings,” author David George Haskell explores the soundscapes of bygone eras of animal communication.

In Chapter 7, “More Remarkable Encounters,” author Gregory Forth relays a story told to him by Tegu, a Lio man who says he found and disposed of a dead organism that might fit the description of an "ape-man."

Do members of Homo floresiensis still inhabit the Indonesian island where their fossils helped identify a new human species fewer than 20 years ago?

Researchers who study the phenomenon in humans should incorporate subjective experiences into data on love.

In Chapter 1, “Survival,” author Anna Machin describes the health benefits of strong human bonds.