Did you know that some animals have natural ninja-like talents? In this book, you'll learn all about them, including geckos, sea urchins, bombardier beetles, and more. For example, geckos can grip almost any surface--including walls and ceilings--with their amazing toes. And when collector urchins are attacked, they release tiny, sharp objects that bear a striking resemblance to throwing stars. You will also meet the scientists who are studying these...

"Why do we do the things we do? Over a decade in the making, this game-changing book is Robert Sapolsky's genre-shattering attempt to answer that question as fully as perhaps only he could, looking at it from every angle. Sapolsky's storytelling concept is delightful but it also has a powerful intrinsic logic: he starts by looking at the factors that bear on a person's reaction in the precise moment a behavior occurs, and then hops back in time from...

"Peggy Orenstein's Girls & Sex broke ground, shattered taboos, and galvanized conversations about young women's right to pleasure and agency in sexual encounters. It also had an unintended effect on its author: Orenstein realized that talking about girls is only half the conversation. To understand girls and sex, we also need to talk about boys and sex. Today's young men are subject to the same cultural forces as their female peers. They are steeped...

What do all successful fast-food restaurants have in common? Why do men's testosterone levels rise when they drive a Ferrari or a Porsche? Why are women more likely to become compulsive shoppers and men more likely to become addicted to pornography? How does the fashion industry play on our innate need to belong? The answer to all of these questions is "the consuming instinct," the underlying evolutionary basis for most of our consumer behavior....

Scientists have long counseled against interpreting animal behavior in terms of human emotions, warning that such anthropomorphizing limits our ability to understand animals as they really are. Yet what are we to make of a female gorilla in a German zoo who spent days mourning the death of her baby? Or a wild female elephant who cared for a younger one after she was injured by a rambunctious teenage male? Or a rat who refused to push a lever for food...

"Scientists often organize animals into categories based on similar traits and behaviors. But what if an animal doesn't fit in? Author Jessica Fries-Gaither introduces eight common categories and the animals that break those rules"--

An evaluation of the sources of illogical decisions explores the reasons why irrational thought often overcomes level-headed practices, offering insight into the structural patterns that cause people to make the same mistakes repeatedly.

A mother offers her child many places to sleep, but the child wants to stay in bed, sleeping as God intended.

"Join the owls in the aspen grove as they nurture and raise their young through winter, spring, and summer. Using their superior eyesight, sound absorbing feathers, and powerful talons they have the hunting skills they need to constantly deliver prey to their young. But the owlets need to be protected as well as fed.The Smallest Owlet is based on a true story that happened in the aspen grove behind Georgia Graham's house where an owlet fell from its...