Ideas Books

Based on the ideas in Michael Corballis' book, you probably won't  read to the end of this description. Somewhere in the middle of the next paragraph, your mind will wander off. Minds wander. That’s just how it is.Does the fact that as much as fifty percent of our waking hours find us failing to focus on the task at hand represent a problem? The Wandering Mind draws on the latest research from cognitive science and evolutionary biology, Corballis shows us how mind-wandering not only frees us from moment-to-moment drudgery, but also from the limitations of our immediate selves. Furthermore, he explains, our tendency to wander back and forth through the timeline of our lives is fundamental to our very sense of ourselves as coherent, continuing personalities. Buy Book

Could extinct species like mammoths or the dodo be brought back to life? Author Beth Shapiro explores the cutting edge science that is being used – today – to resurrect the past. Beth considers de-extinction's practical benefits and ethical challenges. What are the costs and risks? What is the ultimate goal? How to Clone a Mammoth looks at the very real and compelling science behind what was once thought of as science fiction.Beth Shapiro is professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including Nature and Science and was the 2009 recipient of a MacArthur Award. Buy Book

We have a lifetime's association with our bodies, but for many of us they remain uncharted territory. In Adventures in Human Being, award-winning author Gavin Francis leads the reader through the most intimate landscape of all: our own bodies.Drawing on his own experiences as a doctor Gavin combines first-hand case studies with reflections on the way the body has been imagined and portrayed over the millennia. Francis leads the reader on an adventure offering insights on everything from the ribbed surface of the brain to the secret workings of the heart and the womb; from the pulse of life at the wrist to the unique engineering of the foot.Both a user's guide to the body and a celebration of its elegance, this book will transform the way you think about being alive, whether in sickness or in health.   Buy Book