What We Are Reading Today: ‘So Simple a Beginning’

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Updated 19 March 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘So Simple a Beginning’

Author: RAGHUVEER PARTHASARATHY

The form and function of a sprinting cheetah are quite unlike those of a rooted tree. A human being is very different from a bacterium or a zebra.

The living world is a realm of dazzling variety, yet a shared set of physical principles shapes the forms and behaviors of every creature in it.

“So Simple a Beginning” shows how the emerging new science of biophysics is transforming our understanding of life on Earth and enabling potentially lifesaving but controversial technologies such as gene editing, artificial organ growth, and ecosystem engineering.

 


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Knowledge Lost’

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Updated 29 August 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Knowledge Lost’

  • Filled with exciting stories, “Knowledge Lost” follows the trail of precarious knowledge through a series of richly detailed episodes

Author: Martin Muslow

Until now the history of knowledge has largely been about formal and documented accumulation, concentrating on systems, collections, academies, and institutions.

The central narrative has been one of advancement, refinement, and expansion.

Martin Mulsow tells a different story. Knowledge can be lost: manuscripts are burned, oral learning dies with its bearers, new ideas are suppressed by censors. 

“Knowledge Lost” is a history of efforts, from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, to counter such loss. It describes how critics of ruling political and religious regimes developed tactics to preserve their views; how they buried their ideas in footnotes and allusions; how they circulated their tracts and treatises in handwritten copies; and how they commissioned younger scholars to spread their writings after death.

Filled with exciting stories, “Knowledge Lost” follows the trail of precarious knowledge through a series of richly detailed episodes.

 


What We Are Reading Today: ID Handbook of European Birds by Nils van Duivendijk

Updated 28 August 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: ID Handbook of European Birds by Nils van Duivendijk

Would you like to be able to identify any bird species in Europe, in all plumages, in every season? “ID Handbook of European Birds” is the resource for you. This identification handbook blends incisive descriptions with stunning high-resolution photos to provide the most comprehensive, in-depth coverage of European birds available. Never before has so much current information been brought together in one place and presented so clearly and completely. This monumental two-volume work is destined to become a standard reference to Europe’s birds.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘A Place like No Other’ by Anthony R. E. Sinclair

Updated 27 August 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘A Place like No Other’ by Anthony R. E. Sinclair

With its rich biodiversity, astounding wildlife, and breathtaking animal migrations, Serengeti is like no other ecosystem on the planet.

“A Place like No Other” is Anthony Sinclair’s firsthand account of how he and other scientists discovered the biological principles that regulate life in Serengeti and how they rule all of the natural world.

Blending vivid storytelling with invaluable scientific insights from Sinclair’s pioneering fieldwork in Africa, Serengeti holds timely lessons for the restoration and conservation of our vital ecosystems.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Native America’ by Kenneth L. Feder

Updated 26 August 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Native America’ by Kenneth L. Feder

“Native America” presents an infinitely surprising and fascinating deep history of the continent’s Indigenous peoples.

Kenneth Feder, a leading expert on Native American history and archaeology, draws on archeology, historical, and cultural evidence to tell the ongoing story, more than 20,000 years in the making, of an incredibly resilient and diverse mixture of peoples, revealing how they have ingeniously adapted to the many changing environments of the continent, from the Arctic to the desert Southwest.


What We Are Reading Today: The Lives of Butterflies

Updated 25 August 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: The Lives of Butterflies

Authors: David G. James and David J. Lohman

There are more than 15,000 butterfly species in the world, fluttering through a wide variety of habitats. Bright and beautiful, butterflies also have fascinating life histories and play an important role in our planet’s ecosystems. 

“The Lives of Butterflies” showcases the extraordinary range of colors and patterns of the world’s butterflies while exploring their life histories, behavior, habitats and resources, populations, seasonality, defense and natural enemies, and threats and conservation.