basket of figs so she can evade Caesar's humiliating triumph. As with everything about Cleopatra, the moment is also deeply erotic, "a lover's pinch", as two elements conjoin in a moment that combines ...

The Science of Walking retraces the history of the growing interest in the physical act of walking - locomotion - in Western societies (particularly France, Germany, and Britain). Through the 19th ...

People think of chameleons as the masters of camouflage, but the coleoids – octopuses, squid and cuttlefish – are far ahead in terms of manipulating their appearance[1]. Because their skin appearance ...

Professor Janey Henderson studied at Aberdeen and Manchester Universities before gaining her PhD from Durham University, a CASE award with Rothamsted Experimental Station. Janey completed ...

It is always a pleasure to read about a scientist’s work in a book written for the non-specialist who may be interested in knowing more about a subject for a variety of reasons. It is no mean task to ...

The Ornaments of Life describes the beautiful animals – from birds to bats to monkeys – that have a key role in forest infrastructure. In the tropics, in addition to the usual invertebrate pollinators ...

Many people may buy this book on impulse having just read the title. It is indeed a treasure trove of facts, relating to the awe-inspiring but less familiar monsters and creatures of the deep. The ...

As with so many findings, the so-called 'immortal jellyfish' was discovered by accident. During a visit to my laboratory in the 1980s, a German student, Christian Sommer, and my very first student, ...

The President’s Medal is awarded to those individuals who have supported the Royal Society of Biology in an exceptional way, going above and beyond the normal volunteer role and having a significant ...

Hippocrates said that ‘the chief virtue that language can have is clearness, and nothing detracts from it so much as the use of unfamiliar words'. But sometimes what might have seemed clear at one ...

This is a beautifully produced and informative book on the deep ocean for the novice, written by a highly respected American science communicator. Using text that is easy to read, together with large, ...

appreciative of Shere Hite's books. He is less critical of the National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal) than I would be. He recommends Bonk as a source (I haven't seen it), and he ...