David Quammen

2009 firas 200-årsminnet av Charles Darwins födelse, liksom 150-årsminnet av hans epokgörande bok om arternas uppkomst. Men vem var Darwin? Och varför väntade han i mer än 20 år med att publicera sin bok? Läs den spännande historien om hans enträgna arbete med att utveckla teorin om det naturliga urvalet som förklaring till hur arter uppstår, utvecklas och dör bort. Du kommer aldrig mer att uppleva begreppet "darwinism" på samma sätt som förut.David Quammen är en uppskattad amerikansk författare, känd för såväl sina skönlitterära som populärvetenskapliga verk. Under sin författarbana har hanföljt kända biologer i fält och genom livet och beskrivit deras personligheter, äventyr och tankevärld. Quammen har bland annat fått John Burroughsmedaljen för sitt naturhistoriska författarskap, en litterär utmärkelse av American Academy of Arts and Letters och flera gånger belönats med the National Magazine Award. Nu tar han sig an den mest eminente av alla tiders biologer, Charles Darwin.Boken inleds med ett förord av Darwinkännaren professor Staffan Ulfstrand. Pressröster: "Om du bara ska skaffa en enda bok för att fira minnet av Darwin, skulle det helt klart kunna bli den här" Science "David Quammen har skrivit en av de bästa korta biografierna om Charles Darwin som jag någonsin har läst - eller kan föreställa mig att läsa. Det här är inget hopkok av det gamla vanliga, utan en frisk och originell behandling av en av historiens största vetenskapsmän, skriven av en av våra bästa populärvetenskapliga skribenter. Med den borde alla som vill veta mer om evolution och naturvetenskap i allmänhet påbörja sina studier av Darwin." Kevin Padian, professor i Integrativ Biologi vid Paleontologiska Museet, University of California, Berkeley "Utan att glorifiera, avslöjar han Darwins historia precis så omväxlande sorgsen och heroisk som den faktiskt var" The New York Times"Kronologiskt anlagda biografier har en benägenhet att bli lite sega mot slutet, som livet självt kan vara i värsta fall, men här har vi att göra med ett lysande undantag. ---- Gubben dör visserligen till sist, men berättelsen lever hela vägen." Fredrik Sjöberg, SvD, november 2009

"Lively writing about science and nature depends less on the offering of good answers, I think, than on the offering of good questions," said David Quammen in the original introduction to Natural Acts. For more than two decades, he has stuck to that credo. In this updated version of curiosity leads him from New Mexico to Romania, from the Congo to the Amazon, asking questions about mosquitoes (what are their redeeming merits?), dinosaurs (how did they change the life of a dyslexic Vietnam vet?), and cloning (can it save endangered species?). This revised and expanded edition best-loved "Natural Acts" columns, which first appeared in Outside magazine in the early 1980s, and includes recent pieces such as "Planet of Weeds," an influential new Natural Acts is an eye-opening journey that will please both Quammen fans and newcomers to his work.

“Lively writing about science and nature depends less on the offering of good answers, I think, than on the offering of good questions,” said David Quammen in the original introduction to Natural Acts. For more than two decades, he has stuck to that credo. In this updated version of his first essay collection, Quammen’s lively curiosity leads him from New Mexico to Romania, from the Congo to the Amazon, asking questions about mosquitoes (what are their redeeming merits?), dinosaurs (how did they change the life of a dyslexic Vietnam vet?), and cloning (can it save endangered species?). This expanded edition returns to print Quammen’s best-loved “Natural Acts” columns, which first appeared in Outside magazine in the early 1980s, and includes recent pieces such as “Planet of Weeds,” an influential Harper’s cover story. The new Natural Acts is an eye-opening journey that will please both Quammen fans and newcomers to his work.

21 years passed between Charles Darwim's epiphany that 'natural selection' formed the basis of evolution and the scientist's publication of 'On the Origin of Species'. This text looks at why Darwin delayed the publication and examines what happened during the course of those two decades.

From 1981 to 1996 David Quammen delighted readers of OUTSIDE magazine with his thoughtful ruminations on the world around us in his monthly column, NATURAL ACTS. This is a selection of twenty-six of his most durable and engaging essays from that column. The Boilerplate Rhino presents Quammen's distinctive take on topics such as rattlesnake handlers and rattlesnakes, eel mythology and living eels and arachnaphobia and spiders. Each essay is written in the articulate and penetrating style for which Quammen is so renowned. Each touches upon the rich and sometimes horrifically fascinating tension between man and the natural world, in all its complexity and ambivalence. The result is another irrepressible assortment of ideas to explore, conundrums to contemplate, and wondrous creatures to behold. From the acclaimed author of WILD THOUGHTS FROM WILD PLACES and the award winning THE SONG OF THE DODO.

With The Best American Science and Nature Writing, Houghton Mifflin expands its stellar Best American series with a volume that honors our long and distinguished history of publishing the best writers in these fields. David Quammen, together with series editor Burkhard Bilger, has assembled a remarkable group of writers whose selections appeared in periodicals from National Geographic, Science, and The New Yorker to Puerto Del Sol and Doubletake. Among the acclaimed writers represented in this volume are Richard Preston on "The Demon in the Freezer," John McPhee bidding "Farewell to the Nineteeth Century," Oliver Sacks remembering the "Brilliant Light" of his boyhood, and Wendell Berry going "Back to the Land." Also including such literary lights as Anne Fadiman, David Guterson, Edward Hoagland, Natalie Angier, and Peter Matthiessen, this new collection presents selections bound together by their timelessness.

Besides bringing together a couple of decades worth of literate, incisive forays into the natural world, this collection of essays from the prize-winning author of THE SONG OF THE DODO is both a wake-up call and a testimonial. Gathered in the main from magazine articles, in particular the authors 15 years of 'Natural Acts', a column in OUTSIDE magazine, Quammen reminds us of the many less quantifiable virtues of the wild that often get crushed in the path of so-called progress. Beginning with the Rocky Mountain trout that, as a young man, would change his life, and meandering through a variety of travels and experiences around the globe, he touches on issues of wildlife conservation, island biogeography and outdoor recreation. Quammen's articles are fascinating, surprising and often humorous, as he learns about the mountain lion by looking over the shoulder of a Montana Bow hunter and delights in the grace of white-water rodeo. Whether he is writing about hard science, art, literature, or the whims that colour our investigations of the world around us, David Quammen emerges as one of the most eloquent spokesmen and campaigners for nature.

From the award-winning author of The Tangled Tree and The Song of the Dodo comes a collection of essays in which various weird and wonderful aspects of nature are examined.From tales of vegetarian piranha fish and voiceless dogs to the scientific search for the genes that threaten to destroy the cheetah, Quammen captures the natural world with precision. Throughout, he illuminates the surprising intricacies of the natural world, and our human attitudes towards those intricacies. A distinguished essayist, Quammen’s reporting is masterful and thought provoking and his curiosity and fascination with the world of living things is infectious.

Why have island ecosystems always suffered such high rates of extinction? Over the past eight years, David Quammen has followed the threads of island biogeography on a globe-encircling journey of discovery.

Takes a close-up look at island biogeography, the science of the geographic distribution of life on islands, and its significance in terms of evolution and extinction