Overview

What differentiates humans from other living beings is our ability to communicate, our complex reasoning, and our use of skilled hands and smart brains to build houses, cities, and societies. We are able to learn. We penetrate into the unknown. We dominate our planet. For thousands of years, we have lived close to animals. As we are gaining a more complete understanding of our physiology, we are observing that we are not so different from them and other life forms. By studying them, we can sharpen our senses, treat diseases, and overcome some of our weaknesses. By observing their unique capabilities, we invent ways to emulate their performances in areas where evolution has helped them excel. Animals have helped us build our human culture and civilization. We still take advantage of them, even push them back into ever more restricted habitats. We are now at risk of forgetting that Sapiens’ only way to thrive, and planet Earth to survive, will be to humbly accept our place in the “shadow of animals.” This book explains how various animals have adapted to extreme conditions, and why humans need to study animals and should protect them. It helps us to understand how “life on our planet” evolved. It is a popular presentation of the human–animal relationship for curious readers of all ages. It will hopefully stimulate scientific discussions among high school and university students.

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9789815129410

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Reviews

“This book is another delightful and profoundly enlightening storybook for people of all ages by Michael Hehenberger. It is extremely well organized on multiple levels. The author makes the ‘frame story’ and the individual concepts understandable. He manages to celebrate and describe the complexity of life in terms nonscientists can easily understand, without oversimplification. Families with children will be very happy to read this book together, while the rest of us will have trouble putting the book down before we’ve raced through it all. Each chapter can stand alone as its own manuscript, and they all fit together in one magnificent compendium, making it easy for me to enthusiastically recommend this work without any reservations whatsoever.” Dr P. David Mozley Cornell University Weill College of Medicine, and Lutroo Imaging, LLC, USA “Dr Hehenberger masterfully shows us that the arc and poetry of life are not exclusive to humans—the countless interactions we have with the animal kingdom enhance both us and them as in a continuous Darwinian Terpsichore. With exceptional insight, he walks with us along the winding consanguinity of our animal/human paths and shows us that there is not a particle of life that does not bear poetry within it. Will Cuppy said, “If an animal does something, we call it instinct; if we do the same thing for the same reason, we call it intelligence”. This wonderful book is an intimate guided tour of how closely related we are to the rest of the animal kingdom, and how our phylum was formed in the glowing crucible of life that illuminates us in the shadow of animals.” William Weiss III Landscape Architect, USA

Author Information

Michael Hehenberger holds advanced degrees in physics and quantum chemistry. He spent his professional life in academia (Vienna, Austria; Uppsala, Sweden; and Gainesville, Florida) and industry (Sandvik, IBM). Throughout he focused on computational problems in engineering, computational chemistry and biology, AI, and nanomedicine. His first book Nanomedicine: Science, Business, and Impact covers both the underlying science and the steps needed to take biomedical breakthroughs from concept to patient benefit. His current research interests include “Big Data Analytics and AI,” “Quantum Information and Computing,” and “High Mountain Adaptations in Humans and Animals.”

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