Evolutionary Biology

“A practical, heartfelt manual for anyone who needs to change minds and actions. Lisa Cron shares the art of practical empathy with leaders who care enough to make a difference.”—Seth Godin, author of The Practice A step-by-step guide to using the brain’s hardwired need for story to...

A founder of the field of evolutionary medicine uses his decades of experience as a psychiatrist to provide a much-needed new framework for making sense of mental illness. With his classic book Why We Get Sick, Dr. Randolph Nesse helped to establish the field of evolutionary medicine. Now he...

We have long attributed man's violent, aggressive, competitive nature to his animal ancestry. But what if we are just as given to cooperation, empathy, and morality by virtue of our genes? What if our behavior actually makes us apes? What kind of apes are we?

An astounding and inspiring look at the science behind tribalism, and how we can learn to harness it to improve the world around us. What do you think of when you hear the word “tribalism?” For many, it conjures images of bigotry, xenophobia, and sectarian violence. Others may envision their...

From Susan Casey, bestselling author of The Devil’s Teeth, an astonishing book about colossal, ship-swallowing rogue waves and the surfers who seek them out. For centuries, mariners have spun tales of gargantuan waves, 100-feet high or taller. Until recently scientists dis­missed these...

What science has gotten so shamefully wrong about women, and the fight, by both female and male scientists, to rewrite what we thought we knew For hundreds of years it was common sense: women were the inferior sex. Their bodies were weaker, their minds feebler, their role subservient. No less a...

A leading cognitive scientist argues that a deep sense of good and evil is bred in the bone. From John Locke to Sigmund Freud, philosophers and psychologists have long believed that we begin life as blank moral slates. Many of us take for granted that babies are born selfish and that it is...

This eye-opening book offers a "clear and captivating" (Dr. Kris Verburgh​)scientific deep dive into how plants and animals have already unlocked the secrets to immortality–and the lessons they hold for us all. Recent advances in medicine and technology have expanded our understanding of...

A New York Times bestselling writer explores what our unique sonic signature reveals about our species, our culture, and each one of us. Finally, a vital topic that has never had its own book gets its due. There’s no shortage of books about public speaking or language or song. But until now...

Societies that ignore social disintegration and collapsing birth rates are putting their future in peril. So why are we ignoring the signs? ?In The Origin Of Politics, Nicholas Wade explains how our political systems compete with a more ancient set of rules for organizing society—those...

Cooperation is the means by which life arose in the first place. It’s how we progressed through scale and complexity, from free-floating strands of genetic material, to nation states. But given what we know about the mechanisms of evolution, cooperation is also something of a puzzle. How does cooperation begin, when on a Darwinian level, all that the genes in your body care about is being passed on to the next generation? A biologist by training, Raihani looks at where and how collaborative behavior emerges throughout the animal kingdom, and what problems it solves.

Sapiens meets Why We Sleep in an evolutionary romp through the science of sleep—and how we can get better rest—by one of the world’s leading sleep scientists. We spend roughly a third of our lives in bed, but for millions of us, not all of that time is spent sleeping. We strive for eight...

A daring and visionary new narrative of the emergence of life, one that refocuses our attention on the beautiful and mysterious tango between life and Earth itself, from Olivia Judson, the bestselling and award-winning author of Dr Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation These are questions as...

More than any other modern scientists, Stephen Jay Gould has opened up to millions the wonders of evolutionary biology. His genius as an essayist lies in his unmatched ability to use his knowledge of the world, including popular culture, to illuminate the realm of science.

An eye-opening investigation into ancestry and origins in the Middle East that synthesizes thousands of years of genetic history in the region to question what it means to be indigenous to any land “Ancestors transcends geography to launch an eye-opening inquiry into the relationship of...

A leading neuroscientist offers a history of the evolution of the brain from unicellular organisms to the complexity of animals and human beings today Renowned neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux digs into the natural history of life on earth to provide a new perspective on the similarities between us...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The legendary biologist and bestselling author mounts a timely and passionate defense of science and clear thinking with this career-spanning collection of essays, including twenty pieces published in the United States for the first time. For decades, Richard...

**Kirkus Best Books of the Year (2013)** From one of our finest and most popular science writers, and the best-selling author of Your Inner Fish, comes the answer to a scientific mystery as big as the world itself: How are the events that formed our solar system billions of years ago embedded...

Two neuroscientists trace a sweeping new vision of consciousness across eighteen increasingly intelligent minds, from microbes to humankind and beyond. Why do minds exist? How did mud and stone develop into beings that can experience longing, regret, love, and compassion—beings that are aware...

A pioneering anthropologist takes readers on a journey through the rich tapestry of human ritual—showing how and why our most irrational behaviors are a key driver of our success. “Important . . . and a true delight to read.” (Paul Bloom, author of Against Empathy) Ritual is one of the...