Parasites: Tales of Humanity’s Most Unwelcome Guests
by Rosemary Drisdelle. University of California Press, 2010

Leonardo’s Legacy: How Da Vinci Reimagined the World
by Stefan Klein. Da Capo Press, 2010

FICTION
The Bradbury Report
by Steven Polansky. Weinstein Books, 2010

Ancestor
by Scott Sigler. Crown, 2010

KID-FRIENDLY
Honey Bees: Letters from the Hive
by Stephen Buchmann. Delacorte Press, 2010

The Bumper Book of Nature: A User’s Guide to the Great Outdoors
by Stephen Moss. Harmony, 2010

3 Comments

1. 1. morp 04:39 PM 6/22/10

   For an observer there countless wonders in nature, I got a cut in my finger by grass. When I see what lizards and frogs I believe thy have a big Mac in their little heads.; I often saw a butterfly flying in the vicinity of a lizard and at once there was no more butterfly;I had seen nothing but because the lizard swallowed I knew what happened; By impulses from his eyes or ears the lizard had calculated the distance and taken the butterfly by his long tongue ;At night they they take small insects flying at high speed at great distance.Which kind of computer they have in their minuscule brains?
   The digestion and respiration of a cow have procedures in common with small insects;One must think the engineering office found it more economic to use twice the same procedure. When one sees the whole biologic world,plants insects and all kinds of animals, from rabbits to lions, it is clear they come all from the same factory, they were all designed at the same engineering office.All living organisms are similar and different
   Darwin found at the Galapagos the proof there is no God.I for myself have no need to go far away to find God. When I sit down in my kitchen and observe the engineering of my hands I know enough,I am well built
   About the changing climate I observed in my country cold Winters,much colder than the last decennia , and warm Summers , warmer than now. There are indications during the Middle Ages there we vineyards here. In many countries coal indicates one time there were tropical forests only a few milennia ago half of Europe and of North America were covered by ice
   My conclusion is the world is periodic in all.We have day and night, Summer en Winter,a short cycle of the sun an we my suppose is also a long cycle of the sun May be one day there will be no snow on the Himalaya and another day London and New York will be covered by ice .But the earth will always rotate in24 hours.

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2. 2. David N'Gog 09:02 AM 7/9/10

   morp,
   
   Darwin was not setting out to prove or disprove God, and his amazing discovery did neither. Darwin merely explained how species arose. God does not factor in to this. Science and faith are not the same. It is also possible for one to acknowledge God and still be informed in man's discoveries. You don't have to turn your back on knowledge and science just to prove your faith.
   
   Climates do and have changed naturally, but very few people of credibility deny man's hand in the changes taking place today.
   
   The earth will not always rotate in 24 hours, and hasn't always rotated in 24 hours. The earth's rotation is very slowly slowing.

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3. 3. robert schmidt 09:11 AM 7/11/10

   @David N'Gog, "Science and faith are not the same. It is also possible for one to acknowledge God and still be informed in man's discoveries." That is true from the point of view of the general public. They can pick and choose what information to believe and what to reject in order to make decisions in their lives. There is no requirement for consistency. But if it is one's goal is to understand the universe, then consistency is required. You can't follow both, religion and science. To be clear, one cannot accept faith based explanations if one chooses to follow science which is evidence based. Certainly one can choose to accept only the more philosophical aspects of religion such as morality and the meaning of life, and disregard the cosmological model but in many cases the moral code is derived from the cosmological model so it is not easy to separate them, e.g. be good because god will punish you if you don't and will reward you if you do, doesn't work if you don't accept god. Ultimately, if one is looking for a moral code one doesn't need religion. There are secular moral codes that don't require blind faith.
   
   Science and faith are not the same and they are not compatible. Certainly one can live a life of delusion if one chooses and believe any number of contradictory propositions. But for those that truly understand and appreciate how science is able to unlock the secrets of the universe, there is no way they can accept that faith, the belief in things without evidence, can provide any insights into the true nature of things. If one accepts that the truth of the universe is reveal to them by god, then one does not need science. The attempt to reconcile religion and science is an attempt to preserve a comfortable cultural artefact in the face of a changing world. It is a desperate act.

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