A natural history of the wilderness in our homes, from the microbes in our showers to the crickets in our basements.

The tiny, lungless Thorius salamander from southern Mexico, thinner than a match and smaller than a quarter. The lushly white-coated Saki, an arboreal monkey from the Brazilian rainforests. The olinguito, a native of the Andes, which looks part mongoose, part teddy bear. These fantastic species are all new to science-at least newly named and identified; but they weren't discovered in the wild, instead, they were unearthed in the drawers and cavernous...

"From the acclaimed scientist and writer, essays collected for the first time in book form, on ravens and other birds, insects, trees, elephants, and more: once again 'passionate observations [that] superbly mix memoir and science.'(New York Times)"--

Presents the major fields of science and discusses their applications in today's world.

Nature is the original architect, designing and building extraordinary structures through more than four billion years of evolution, and in response to the tremendous forces of the Earth. "Wild Design celebrates stunning and functional forms in the world of animals, plants, and other organisms, as well as in earth, stone, and water. This illustrated compendium explores structures as intricate as the microscopic jewel-like diatoms, as flamboyant as...