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€25 - 208 pages
Enigmatic animals
“Komodo dragon, shark, jellyfish, wasp, hyena, praying mantis... all these animals horrify us, either because they are disgusting or because they are deemed dangerous. However, they hide astonishing abilities,de wonderful powers, extraordinary intelligence, and can even be very useful to man and the planet!
So, did you know that the venom of certain spiders is used as a treatment for epilepsy? That the wolf plays a major role in the balance of forests?
That the octopus is capable of building real underwater cities?
That the wasp can recognize the faces of its peers? That the jellyfish holds the key to immortality?
This book highlights the formidable powers of these animals which frighten us so much and whose dangerousness is most often a myth. It sheds new light on their legendary history, their way of life, their physical properties, and recalls their crucial importance in ecosystems.”
The beast within
« How different from animals are we really?
Are humans the only creatures who love, laugh, cry, possess morals, and wage war? In The Beast Within, scientific researcher and ethologist Jessica Serra upends the assumptions that underpin our very human hypothesis that we possess a superior place in the hierarchy of organisms on Earth. How did we come to think of our animality as standing in opposition to our humanity—and does this reasoning have a scientific basis?
Through the fascinating discoveries made by ethologists, anthropologists, and archeologists, Serra deciphers our behaviors in light of their animal roots and demystifies ideas about how different animals are from humans. She compares human behaviors with those exhibited by other species in chapters spanning topics as varied as sex, morality, emotions, intelligence, and family. Exploring the evolution of various animal species, as well as the evolution of historical ideas about humanity and animality, Serra theorizes that human behaviors and motivations may hold more in common with those of animals than we think. These explorations of scientific findings encourage us to reconsider how much we have truly removed ourselves from "the beast within."»
