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Posts tagged as “science”

A Shark Week Reading List

By PublicityTeam on July 25, 2022

Dun dun…it’s Shark Week! To celebrate we have put together a reading list of books from Chicago and our distributed presses that help illuminate different aspects of sharks including their beauty, their biology, and our relationship to them. Basking with Humpbacks: Tracking Threatened Marine Life in New England Waters Todd

5 Questions with Janet Voight and Peggy Macnamara, authors of “From the Seashore to the Seafloor: An Illustrated Tour of Sandy Beaches, Kelp Forests, Coral Reefs, and Life in the Ocean’s Depths”

By PublicityTeam on May 31, 2022

Have you ever walked along the beach and wondered what kind of creatures can be found beneath the waves? We can find the answers in From the Seashore to the Seafloor, an exciting collaboration between a renowned scientist and a leading scientific illustrator. With brilliant artwork and accessible scientific descriptions,

5 Questions for Lee Alan Dugatkin, author of “Power in the Wild: The Subtle and Not-So-Subtle Ways Animals Strive for Control over Others”

By PublicityTeam on May 10, 2022

From the shell wars of hermit crabs to the machinations of mongooses, power struggles in the animal kingdom are as diverse as they are fascinating. In Power in the Wild, behavioral ecologist and brilliant storyteller Lee Alan Dugatkin illuminates their surprising range and connections. Beloved for his bestselling book How

An Earth Day 2022 Reading List

By PublicityTeam on April 20, 2022

University Presses like Chicago are committed to making available works that not only keep us informed but also help us to better understand the world and climate around us. To celebrate Earth Day, we have put together a reading list of recent books from Chicago and our client publishers that

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Read an Excerpt from “We Are All Whalers” by Michael J. Moore

By PublicityTeam on December 22, 2021

The North Atlantic right whale is a species so endangered that there are likely more researchers in the world studying them than there are individual whales in the sea. Killed by entanglement in fishing lines and collision with boats moving along global shipping routes, their population has declined more than

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Ghosts in the MRI, a Guest Post from John Lardas Modern

By PublicityTeam on December 1, 2021

In Neuromatic: Or, A Particular History of Religion and the Brain, John Lardas Modern offers a powerful and original critique of neurology’s pivotal role in religious history. In this original piece below, adapted from his research, he looks at one specific instance of the attempt to use technology to measure

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Dipesh Chakrabarty Receives Honoray Doctorate from the École normale supérieure

By PublicityTeam on October 21, 2021

We are honored to count Dipesh Chakrabarty, the Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor of History and South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, among our most renowned authors. In addition to his most recent book with us The Climate of History in a Planetary Age, he

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9 Questions with Stefan Vogler, author of “Sorting Sexualities”

By PublicityTeam on August 5, 2021

In his new book, Stefan Vogler deftly unpacks the politics of the techno-legal classification of sexuality in the United States. His study focuses specifically on state classification practices around LGBTQ people seeking asylum in the United States and sexual offenders being evaluated for carceral placement—two situations where state actors must determine individuals’ sexualities. Though these legal settings are diametrically opposed—one a punitive assessment, the other a protective one—they present the same question: how do we know someone’s sexuality? We asked him a few questions about it. Your book concerns the techno-legal classification of sexuality. For the unfamiliar, what does that mean? By “techno-legal classification” I mean the ways that law, science, and technology come together to make decisions about how to classify and categorize sexual subjects. We often think we know what sexuality is because of common sense—the old “I know it when I see it” idea. However, what I show in the book is that what “sexuality” means actually varies across institutional contexts, and that variation is often at least partially attributable to the kinds of knowledge or expertise that inform that area of law. A biological understanding of sexuality generally means that one believes we can find the “cause” of sexuality—whether it is […]

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Read an Excerpt from “Nature Remade: Engineering Life, Envisioning Worlds”

By PublicityTeam on June 23, 2021

For well over a century, the Marine Biological Laboratory has been a nexus of scientific discovery, a site where scientists and students from around the world have convened to innovate, guide, and shape our understanding of biology and its evolutionary and ecological dynamics. As work at the MBL continuously radiates over vast temporal and spatial scales, the very practice of science has also been shaped by the MBL community, which continues to have a transformative impact the world over. The Convening Science series highlights the ongoing role MBL plays in the creation and dissemination of science, in its broader historic context as well as current practice and future potential. Books in the series will be broadly conceived and defined, but each will be anchored to MBL, originating in workshops and conferences, inspired by MBL collections and archives, or influenced by conversations and creativity that MBL fosters in every scientist or student who convenes at the Woods Hole campus. Publishing this July, Nature Remade: Engineering Life, Envisioning Worlds is the fourth installment in Convening Science. In it, fourteen original essays trace material practices of the engineering of biology from the development of field sites for experimentation to the new frontiers of […]

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An Earth Day Reading List

By PublicityTeam on April 22, 2021

First observed in 1970, Earth Day has grown into an annual, April 22 celebration of the natural world—and the importance of humanity’s role in protecting it. As we mark Earth Day 2021, read on for ten recommended books that are sure to inspire thought, awe, and action. Barbara J. King’s Animals’ Best Friends: Putting Compassion to Work for Animals in Captivity and in the Wild “King’s Animals’ Best Friends is the most comprehensive exploration I’ve read of the complex relationship between the human and nonhuman, full of great insights and practical information.”—Jeff VanderMeer, New York Times Book Review, “By the Book” Charley Hailey’s The Porch: Meditations on the Edge of Nature “Hailey bears daily witness to the subtle vibrations of the natural world that well up from below, drift down from above, or move across his screened porch in the form of air, sound, light, weather, or wing beats. With this book, he fulfills a fundamental requirement of morality—paying attention.”—Robert Pogue Harrison, author of Juvenescence Sandra Knapp’s Extraordinary Orchids “In this captivating overview, Knapp covers the biology of both terrestrial and epiphytic (tree-dwelling) orchids and explains how epiphytes are adapted to living in trees, even using a special form of […]

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#AuthorAtHome: Michael Marshall on “The Genesis Quest”

By PublicityTeam on February 4, 2021

We often think of the New Year as a time for both reflecting on the past and planning new beginnings. So, as we launch into 2021 in earnest, why not ponder one of the most colossal (or rather, microscopic) beginnings in the history of our planet: the origins of life. Some scientists have argued that life began in the chemical-rich seas of the early Earth, the famous primordial soup, while others are convinced that life began in strange vents pumping hot water out of the seafloor, where the chemical reactions that sustain living cells could get started. Or perhaps life began in volcanic ponds on land, or in meteorite impact zones—or even in beds of clay. Each theory has attracted staunch believers who promote it with an almost religious fervor. But our pursuit of life’s origins is more than a tale of bizarre (and sometimes unscientific) investigative zeal: it is a story that takes in some of the greatest discoveries in modern biology, from cells to DNA, and from evolution to life’s family tree. Stretching from 1920s Soviet Russia to the Manhattan Project and the latest discoveries, Michael Marshall’s The Genesis Quest: The Geniuses and Eccentrics on a Journey to […]

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Watch the Book Trailer for “Yellowstone Wolves”

By PublicityTeam on December 14, 2020

Gray wolves are in the news: at the end of October, the Trump administration stripped them of protections under the US Endangered Species Act, effectively opening the way to renewed hunting of a species once nearly driven to extinction; yet in the 2020 elections, Colorado narrowly passed Proposition 114, directing the state to begin reintroduction efforts; and all of this is occurring as we mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the successful reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park. Publishing December 15, Yellowstone Wolves: Science and Discovery in the World’s First National Park is a testament to all we have learned from the wolves of Yellowstone since 1995—and to what we will lose if these ecologically vital predators were to disappear. Featuring a foreword by Jane Goodall, beautiful images, companion online documentary videos by celebrated filmmaker Bob Landis, and contributions from more than seventy wolf and wildlife conservation luminaries from Yellowstone and around the world, this book is a gripping, accessible celebration of the extraordinary Yellowstone Wolf Project—and of the park through which these majestic and important creatures once again roam. Below, enjoy a book trailer produced by Bob Landis in which the book’s lead editor (and Yellowstone Wolf Project leader) […]

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7 Questions with David Sepkoski, author of “Catastrophic Thinking”

By PublicityTeam on November 23, 2020

We live in an age in which we are repeatedly reminded—by scientists, by the media, by popular culture—of the looming threat of mass extinction. Such apocalyptic talk feels familiar to us, but the current fascination with extinction is a relatively recent phenomenon. As David Sepkoski reveals, the way we value biodiversity depends crucially on our sense that it is precarious—that it is something actively threatened, and that its loss could have profound consequences. In his new book, Sepkoski uncovers how and why we learned to value diversity as a precious resource at the same time as we learned to think catastrophically about extinction. We asked him a few questions about it. In the book, you explain how an “extinction imaginary” helps inform the way we see and value the world around us. Can you give us a quick introduction to that term? A central claim of this book is that scientific ideas and cultural values can’t be cleanly separated: science doesn’t “cause” us to believe certain things about society or politics, nor do political or social values “explain” particular scientific theories. Rather, the science and culture of a particular place and time are tightly interwoven and reinforce each other by […]

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5 Questions for Catherine Zabinski, author of “Amber Waves: The Extraordinary Biography of Wheat, from Wild Grass to World Megacrop”

By PublicityTeam on October 15, 2020

It’s harvest season! What better time to dip into agricultural history? Wheat was one of the first domesticated food crops, and for roughly 8,000 years it has been a dietary staple in Europe, West Asia, and North Africa. Today, wheat is grown on more land area than any other commercial crop, and it continues to be the most important food grain for humans. A plant this prolific surely deserves its own biography. In Amber Waves, Catherine Zabinski invites us to follow the evolutionary journey of wheat while exploring its symbiotic relationship with humans. We are introduced to the habits and history of this member of the grass family, how it lives, how it thrives, and how it arrived at its current form. We learn how our ancestors discovered and exploited the grain, which went on to be foundational to the development of civilization—from the wild grasses first cultivated in the Fertile Crescent to the ancient empires that sought to control its production. And in modern times, we discover wheat’s role in the Green Revolution and contemporary efforts to produce a perennial form. From the origins of agriculture to gluten sensitivities and genetic engineering, Amber Waves sheds new light on how […]

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5 Questions with Alexander Wragge-Morley, author of “Aesthetic Science: Representing Nature in the Royal Society of London, 1650–1720”

By PublicityTeam on September 10, 2020

In his new book, Aesthetic Science, Alexander Wragge-Morley explores scientific representation in the early modern period and shows us how vital the role of subjective experience is to the communication of knowledge about nature. It’s a fascinating, groundbreaking reconsideration of the role of aesthetic experience in the history of the empirical sciences, and we sent him a few questions about it. In Aesthetic Science, you explore the relationship between sensory experience and the production of knowledge. What drew you to the topic? What do you like about it? I’d say that there’s a lot to like when you think about the relationship between sensory experience and the production of knowledge. To start, the issue is obviously fundamental—and I like fundamental issues. I don’t think you can give a good account of knowledge production unless you think hard about how the senses—with all the feelings they provoke—give us access to the external world. What’s more, that fundamental question allows you to think about the history of science in new ways. By focusing on how the scientists of seventeenth-century England related to sensory experience, I was able to pull a wide range of disciplines together—disciplines that are usually studied separately. In Aesthetic […]

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