{"title":"Marlene Zuk","description":"Marlene Zuk is Regents Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of Minnesota and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. She has written for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and New Scientist. Her books include Dancing Cockatoos and the Dead Man Test: How Behavior Evolves and Why It Matters and Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet, and How We Live.","products":[{"product_id":"outsider-animals-how-the-creatures-at-the-margins-of-our-lives-have-the-most-to-teach-us-hardcover","title":"Outsider Animals: How the Creatures at the Margins of Our Lives Have the Most to Teach Us - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"This is a truly compelling book, rich with scientific expertise and humor.\"--Isabella Rossellini \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom one of our foremost experts on behavioral evolution, an entertaining exploration of what raccoons, rats, and other animal intruders teach us about intelligence, adaptability, and ourselves \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen we think of animals that provide the greatest insights into animal cognition and behavior, primates and honeybees come to mind, or perhaps whales or octopus. What about the raccoons that plunder our rubbish at night, or the coyotes that threaten pets and livestock, or the gulls that divebomb for snacks at the beach? \u003ci\u003eOutsider Animals\u003c\/i\u003e challenges everything you thought you knew about the overlooked animals that live in proximity to humans, sharing the stories that each has to tell about adaptation and cohabitation on our increasingly crowded planet. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMarlene Zuk gives us a new appreciation for the animals we often shun, explaining why these unpopular creatures have something special to teach us not only about the ways we deal with other species but about our own place in nature and what it means for an animal to belong somewhere. You will discover how coyotes and snakes shed light on our coevolution with predators, what cockroaches tell us about the evolution of pregnancy, how butterflies make us reconsider the effects of roadside pollution, how cowbirds and mynas are forcing ecologists to think differently about invasive species, and much more. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWriting with an infectious blend of humor and curiosity, Zuk invites us to reflect on our relationships with these close-to-home creatures and the ways our lives encroach on theirs, and to draw lessons from their behavior in all its fascinating complexity.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51376935010527,"sku":"9780691264240","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/4FKOT4l8M9780691264240.webp?v=1789228999"},{"product_id":"riddled-with-life-friendly-worms-ladybug-sex-and-the-parasites-that-make-us-who-we-are-paperback","title":"Riddled with Life: Friendly Worms, Ladybug Sex, and the Parasites That Make Us Who We Are - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eWe treat disease as our enemy. Germs and infections are things we battle. But what if we've been giving them a bum rap? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom the earliest days of life on earth, disease has evolved alongside us. And its presence isn't just natural but is also essential to our health. Drawing on the latest research, Zuk answers a fascinating range of questions about disease: Why do men die younger than women? Why are we attracted to our mates? Why does the average male bird not have a penis? Why do we--as well as insects, birds, pigs, cows, goats, and even plants--get STDs? Why do we have sex at all, rather than simply splitting off copies of ourselves like certain geckos? And how is our obsession with cleanliness making us sicker? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this witty, engaging book, evolutionary biologist Zuk makes us rethink our instincts as she argues that disease is our partner, not our foe. Reconsider the fearsome parasite!\u003ch3\u003eFront Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eZuk's book makes disease scintillating, wryly amusing and even sexy. Her enthusiasm and a hundred examples propel the reader to a deeper understanding of the nature of life.--Randolph M. Nesse, author of \u003ci\u003eWhy We Get Sick\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003eWe treat disease as our enemy, and germs and infections as things we battle. But what if we ve been giving them a bum rap? In this witty, engaging book, evolutionary biologist Zuk makes us rethink our instincts as she argues that disease is our partner, not our foe.\u003cbr\u003eFrom the earliest days of life on earth -- parasites spurred the creation of complex life forms -- disease has evolved alongside us, becoming not only natural but essential to our health. Drawing on the latest research and most unusual studies, Zuk explains the role of disease in answering a fascinating range of questions: Why do men die younger than women? Why are we attracted to our mates? Why does your average male bird not have a penis? Why do we--as well as insects, birds, pigs, cows, goats, and even plants--get STDs? Why do vultures have yellow heads and roosters have red wattles? Why do we have sex at all, rather than simply splitting off copies of ourselves like certain geckoes? And how is our obsession with cleanliness making us sicker? \u003cbr\u003eUsing her own work on sexual selection as well as an amazing sampling of stories from the natural world, Zuk makes us reconsider the fearful parasite. \"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn NPR Best Science Book of 2007 \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Fascinating.\"--Natalie Angier, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eReconsider the fearful parasite!We zealously battle disease, overdose on antibiotics to kill infections, and frantically scrub away germs--but are we giving our biological neighbors (and sometimes roommates) a bum rap? From the early days of life on earth, disease has evolved alongside us. Zuk shows us that this is not only natural but essential to our health; disease and its fellows are our partners, not our foes. Drawing on the latest research, she explains how it all fits together and in the process teaches us the answers to many fascinating questions: Why do men die younger than women? Why do we--as well as insects, birds, pigs, cows, goats, and even plants--get STDs? And how is our obsession with cleanliness making us sicker? \"What's eating you? . . . The answers are oddly consoling in evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk's witty 'disease appreciation' course . . . Beguiling.\" \u003ci\u003eO, The Oprah Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"Witty and erudite . . . Her book may not make you happy about the various pathogens, bacteria and diseases that thrive in our world, but Zuk will give you new appreciation of their complexity and how some of them even help us.\" \u003ci\u003eThe Seattle Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cb\u003eMARLENE ZUK \u003c\/b\u003eis a professor of biology at the University of California, Riverside, where she studies parasites and behavior in a variety of animals. She is the author of \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eSexual Selections: What We Can and Can t Learn about Sex from Animals\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e. She lives in Riverside, California.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51379058409695,"sku":"9780156034685","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/UpZ-sPoqA9780156034685.webp?v=1789268454"},{"product_id":"paleofantasy-what-evolution-really-tells-us-about-sex-diet-and-how-we-live-paperback","title":"Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us about Sex, Diet, and How We Live - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe evolved to eat berries rather than bagels, to live in mud huts rather than condos, to sprint barefoot rather than play football--or did we? Are our bodies and brains truly at odds with modern life? Although it may seem as though we have barely had time to shed our hunter-gatherer legacy, biologist Marlene Zuk reveals that the story is not so simple. Popular theories about how our ancestors lived--and why we should emulate them--are often based on speculation, not scientific evidence.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eArmed with a razor-sharp wit and brilliant, eye-opening research, Zuk takes us to the cutting edge of biology to show that evolution can work much faster than was previously realized, meaning that we are not biologically the same as our caveman ancestors. Contrary to what the glossy magazines would have us believe, we do not enjoy potato chips because they crunch just like the insects our forebears snacked on. And women don't go into shoe-shopping frenzies because their prehistoric foremothers gathered resources for their clans. As Zuk compellingly argues, such beliefs incorrectly assume that we're stuck--finished evolving--and have been for tens of thousands of years. She draws on fascinating evidence that examines everything from adults' ability to drink milk to the texture of our ear wax to show that we've actually never stopped evolving. Our nostalgic visions of an ideal evolutionary past in which we ate, lived, and reproduced as we were \"meant to\" fail to recognize that we were never perfectly suited to our environment. Evolution is about change, and every organism is full of trade-offs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom debunking the caveman diet to unraveling gender stereotypes, Zuk delivers an engrossing analysis of widespread paleofantasies and the scientific evidence that undermines them, all the while broadening our understanding of our origins and what they can really tell us about our present and our future.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51379091472607,"sku":"9780393347920","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/dLiBke2fBP9780393347920.webp?v=1789268542"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/marlene-zuk.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}