David Quammen - Free Library Land Online - Anthologies

Wild Thoughts from Wild Places

Fri, 13 Mar 1998 21:00:12 +0200

In Wild Thoughts from Wild Places, award-winning journalist David Quammen reminds us why he has become one of our most beloved science and nature writers.

This collection of twenty-three of Quammen's most intriguing, most exciting, most memorable pieces takes us to meet kayakers on the Futaleufu River of southern Chile, where Quammen describes how it feels to travel in fast company and flail for survival in the river's maw. We are introduced to the commerce in pearls (and black-market parrots) in the Aru Islands of eastern Indonesia. Quammen even finds wildness in smog-choked Los Angeles -- embodied in an elusive population of urban coyotes, too stubborn and too clever to surrender to the sprawl of civilization.

With humor and intelligence, David Quammen's Wild Thoughts from Wild Places also reminds us that humans are just one of the many species on earth with motivations, goals, quirks, and eccentricities. Expect to be entertained and moved on this journey...

The Song of The Dodo

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:52:39 +0200

The Chimp and the River: How AIDS Emerged from an African Forest

Sat, 14 Nov 2015 11:52:39 +0200

Ebola: The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus

Fri, 14 Nov 2014 11:52:40 +0200

The Soul of Viktor Tronko (Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust Rediscoveries)

Fri, 14 Nov 2014 11:52:39 +0200

Natural Acts

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:52:39 +0200

Spillover

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 11:52:41 +0200

The Tangled Tree

Thu, 14 Nov 2013 11:52:41 +0200

Nonpareil science writer David Quammen explains how recent discoveries in molecular biology can change our understanding of evolution and life's history, with powerful implications for human health and even our own human nature.
In the mid-1970s, scientists began using DNA sequences to reexamine the history of all life. Perhaps the most startling discovery to come out of this new field—the study of life's diversity and relatedness at the molecular level—is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or the movement of genes across species lines. It turns out that HGT has been widespread and important. For instance, we now know that roughly eight percent of the human genome arrived not through traditional inheritance from directly ancestral forms, but sideways by viral infection—a type of HGT.

In The Tangled Tree David Quammen, "one of that rare breed of science journalists who blends exploration with a talent for synthesis and storytelling"...

The Flight of the Iguana

Sun, 14 Nov 1999 11:52:40 +0200

From the award-winning author of The Song of the Dodo comes a collection of essays in which various weird and wonderful aspects of nature are examined. This book contains tales of vegetarian piranha fish, voiceless dogs, and a scientific search for the genes that threaten to destroy the cheetah.

The Reluctant Mr. Darwin

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 11:52:40 +0200

"Quammen brilliantly and powerfully re-creates the 19th century naturalist's intellectual and spiritual journey."—Los Angeles Times Book ReviewTwenty-one years passed between Charles Darwin's epiphany that "natural selection" formed the basis of evolution and the scientist's publication of On the Origin of Species. Why did Darwin delay, and what happened during the course of those two decades? The human drama and scientific basis of these years constitute a fascinating, tangled tale that elucidates the character of a cautious naturalist who initiated an intellectual revolution.