{"title":"Rob Dunn","description":"Rob Dunn is professor in the Department of Applied Ecology and senior vice provost at North Carolina State University. He is the author of seven previous books, including A Natural History of the Future and Never Home Alone. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.","products":[{"product_id":"the-wild-life-of-our-bodies-predators-parasites-and-partners-that-shape-who-we-are-today-paperback","title":"The Wild Life of Our Bodies: Predators, Parasites, and Partners That Shape Who We Are Today - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"An extraordinary book. . . . With clarity and charm [Dunn] takes the reader into the overlap of medicine, ecology, and evolutionary biology to reveal an important domain of the human condition.\" --Edward O. Wilson, author of \u003cem\u003eAnthill \u003c\/em\u003eand \u003cem\u003eThe Future of Life\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBiologist Rob Dunn reveals the crucial influence that other species have upon our health, our well being, and our world in \u003cem\u003eThe Wild Life of Our Bodies--\u003c\/em\u003ea fascinating tour through the hidden truths of nature and codependence. Dunn illuminates the nuanced, often imperceptible relationships that exist between homo sapiens and other species, relationships that underpin humanity's ability to thrive and prosper in every circumstance. Readers of Michael Pollan's \u003cem\u003eThe Omnivore's Dilemma \u003c\/em\u003ewill be enthralled by Dunn's powerful, lucid exploration of the role that humankind plays within the greater web of life on Earth.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFront Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the name of progress and clean living, we scrub much of nature off our bodies and try to remove whole kinds of life--parasites, bacteria, mutualists, and predators. To modern humans, nature is the landscape outside. Biologist Rob Dunn contends that while \"clean living\" has benefited us in some ways, it has also made us sicker in others.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe are trapped in bodies that evolved to deal with the dependable presence of hundreds of other species. This disconnect from the web of life has resulted in unprecedented effects that immunologists, evolutionary biologists, psychologists, and other scientists are only beginning to understand. Diabetes, autism, allergies, many anxiety disorders, autoimmune diseases, and even tooth, jaw, and vision problems are increasingly plaguing bodies that have been removed from the ecological context in which they existed for millennia.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDunn considers this crossroads at which we find ourselves. Through the stories of visionaries, Dunn argues that we can create a richer nature, one in which we choose to surround ourselves with species that benefit us, not just those that, despite us, survive.\u003c\/p\u003e--\u003cem\u003eBooklist \u003c\/em\u003e(starred review)\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the name of progress and clean living, we scrub much of nature off our bodies and try to remove whole kinds of life--parasites, bacteria, mutualists, and predators. To modern humans, nature is the landscape outside. Biologist Rob Dunn contends that while \"clean living\" has benefited us in some ways, it has also made us sicker in others.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe are trapped in bodies that evolved to deal with the dependable presence of hundreds of other species. This disconnect from the web of life has resulted in unprecedented effects that immunologists, evolutionary biologists, psychologists, and other scientists are only beginning to understand. Diabetes, autism, allergies, many anxiety disorders, autoimmune diseases, and even tooth, jaw, and vision problems are increasingly plaguing bodies that have been removed from the ecological context in which they existed for millennia.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDunn considers this crossroads at which we find ourselves. Through the stories of visionaries, Dunn argues that we can create a richer nature, one in which we choose to surround ourselves with species that benefit us, not just those that, despite us, survive.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51376765796575,"sku":"9780061806469","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/fWKFjYrkCC9780061806469.webp?v=1789225280"},{"product_id":"the-call-of-the-honeyguide-what-science-tells-us-about-how-to-live-well-with-the-rest-of-life-hardcover","title":"The Call of the Honeyguide: What Science Tells Us about How to Live Well with the Rest of Life - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \"soulful tribute\" (\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e) that shows how rethinking our relationships with other species can help us reimagine the future of humankind \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e A \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Notable Book of the Year \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In the woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa, sometime deep in our species' past, something strange happened: a bird called out, not to warn others of human presence, but to call attention to herself. Having found a beehive, that bird--a honeyguide--sought human aid to break in. The behavior can seem almost miraculous: How would a bird come to think that people could help her? Isn't life simply bloodier than that? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e As Rob Dunn argues in \u003ci\u003eThe Call of the Honeyguide\u003c\/i\u003e, it isn't. Nature is red in tooth and claw, but in equal measure, life works together. Cells host even smaller life, wrapped in a web of mutual interdependence. Ants might go to war, but they also tend fungi, aphids, and even trees. And we humans work not just with honeyguides but with yeast, crops, and pets. Ecologists call these beneficial relationships mutualisms. And they might be the most important forces in the evolution of life. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e We humans often act as though we are all alone, independent from the rest of life. As \u003ci\u003eThe Call of the Honeyguide\u003c\/i\u003e shows, we are not. It is a call to action for a more beneficent, less lonely future.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51376888414431,"sku":"9781541605732","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/jfaD6c3e3j9781541605732.webp?v=1789228870"},{"product_id":"every-living-thing-mans-obsessive-quest-to-catalog-life-from-nanobacteria-to-new-monkeys-paperback","title":"Every Living Thing: Man's Obsessive Quest to Catalog Life, from Nanobacteria to New Monkeys - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"If you have any interest in life beyond your own, you should read this book.\" --Paul R. Ehrlich, author of \u003cem\u003eThe Dominant Animal \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBiologist Rob Dunn's \u003cem\u003eEvery Little Thing \u003c\/em\u003eis the story of man's obsessive quest to catalog life, from nanobacteria to new monkeys. In the tradition of E.O. Wilson, this engaging and fascinating work of popular science follows humanity's unending quest to discover every living thing in our natural world--from the unimaginably small in the most inhospitable of places on earth to the unimaginably far away in the unexplored canals on Mars.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFront Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBiologists and laypeople alike have repeatedly claimed victory over life. A thousand years ago we thought we knew almost everything, a hundred years ago, too. But even today, Rob Dunn argues, discoveries we can't yet imagine still await us. More is unknown than known, whether about our bodies or the bottom of the sea. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a series of vivid portraits of scientists as interesting as the mysteries they chase, Dunn introduces the reader to breakthroughs that have changed the world and others that might still. With poetry and humor, Dunn reminds readers how tough and exhilarating it is to study the natural world, and why it matters.\u003c\/p\u003e--Paul R. Ehrlich, author of THE DOMINANT ANIMAL: HUMAN EVOLUTION AND THE ENVIRONMENT\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBiologists and laypeople alike have repeatedly claimed victory over life. A thousand years ago we thought we knew almost everything, a hundred years ago, too. But even today, Rob Dunn argues, discoveries we can't yet imagine still await us. More is unknown than known, whether about our bodies or the bottom of the sea. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a series of vivid portraits of scientists as interesting as the mysteries they chase, Dunn introduces the reader to breakthroughs that have changed the world and others that might still. With poetry and humor, Dunn reminds readers how tough and exhilarating it is to study the natural world, and why it matters.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51379071844575,"sku":"9780061430312","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/T2YHj9o6qH9780061430312.webp?v=1789268490"},{"product_id":"the-man-who-touched-his-own-heart-true-tales-of-science-surgery-and-mystery-hardcover","title":"The Man Who Touched His Own Heart: True Tales of Science, Surgery, and Mystery - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe secret history of our most vital organ: the human heart.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Man Who Touched His Own Heart\u003c\/i\u003e tells the raucous, gory, mesmerizing story of the heart, from the first \"explorers\" who dug up cadavers and plumbed their hearts' chambers, through the first heart surgeries -- which had to be completed in three minutes before death arrived -- to heart transplants and the latest medical efforts to prolong our hearts' lives, almost defying nature in the process. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Thought of as the seat of our soul, then as a mysteriously animated object, the heart is still more a mystery than it is understood. Why do most animals only get one billion beats? (And how did modern humans get to over two billion, effectively letting us live out two lives?) Why are sufferers of gingivitis more likely to have heart attacks? Why do we often undergo expensive procedures when cheaper ones are just as effective? What do Da Vinci, Mary Shelley, and contemporary Egyptian archaeologists have in common? And what does it really feel like to touch your own heart, or to have someone else's beating inside your chest? Rob Dunn's fascinating history of our hearts brings us deep inside the science, history, and stories of the four chambers we depend on most.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51379099926751,"sku":"9780316225793","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/NA747iFfq69780316225793.webp?v=1789268563"},{"product_id":"a-natural-history-of-the-future-what-the-laws-of-biology-tell-us-about-the-destiny-of-the-human-species-paperback","title":"A Natural History of the Future: What the Laws of Biology Tell Us about the Destiny of the Human Species - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"An arresting vision of this relentless natural world\" (\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e) by a leading ecologist, who urges us to heed nature's iron laws \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur species has amassed unprecedented knowledge of nature, which we have tried to use to seize control of life and bend the planet to our will. In  \u003ci\u003eA Natural History of the Future\u003c\/i\u003e, biologist Rob Dunn argues that such efforts are futile. We may see ourselves as life's overlords, but we are instead at its mercy. In the evolution of antibiotic resistance, the power of natural selection to create biodiversity, and even the surprising life of the London Underground, Dunn finds laws of life that no human activity can annul. When we create artificial islands of crops, dump toxic waste, or build communities, we provide new materials for old laws to shape. Life's future flourishing is not in question. Ours is. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs ambitious as Edward O. Wilson's \u003ci\u003eSociobiology\u003c\/i\u003e and as timely as Elizabeth Kolbert's \u003ci\u003eThe Sixth Extinction\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eA Natural History of the Future\u003c\/i\u003e sets a new standard for understanding the diversity and destiny of life itself. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51379479478495,"sku":"9781541603127","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/XYAAbEg-d79781541603127.webp?v=1789272567"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/rob-dunn.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}