Bøger af Henry Nicholls

Learn how the extraordinary impact of the panda--from obscurity to fame--is also the story of China's transition from shy beginnings to center stage.Giant pandas have been causing a stir ever since their formal scientific discovery just over 140 years ago. For almost a century they defied classification; they outwitted hunters and escaped trappers, left the public elbowing and zoo turnstiles spinning, were sent on diplomatic journeys, branded onto products and turned into company logos. Thanks to the World Wide Fund for Nature this species became the face of global conservation. Yet in spite of humankind's evident obsession with the giant panda, it is only in the last few decades that scientific research has begun to show us what this mysterious, frequently misunderstood creature is really like. Henry Nicholls uses the rich and curious history of the giant panda to do several things: to ponder our changing attitudes towards the natural world; to offer a compelling history of the conservation movement; and to chart the rise of modern China on its journey to become the self-sufficient, twenty-first-century superpower it is today.

Charles Darwin called it "e;a little world within itself."e; Sailors referred to it as "e;Las Encantadas"e;- the enchanted islands. Lying in the eastern Pacific Ocean, straddling the equator off the west coast of South America, the Gal pagos is the most pristine archipelago to be found anywhere in the tropics. It is so remote, so untouched, that the act of wading ashore can make you feel like you are the first to do so.Yet the Gal pagos is far more than a wild paradise on earth-it is one of the most important sites in the history of science. Home to over 4,000 species native to its shores, around 40 percent of them endemic, the islands have often been called a "e;laboratory of evolution."e; The finches collected on the Gal pagos inspired Darwin's revolutionary theory of natural selection.In The Gal pagos, science writer Henry Nicholls offers a lively natural and human history of the archipelago, charting its course from deserted wilderness to biological testing ground and global ecotourism hot spot. Describing the island chain's fiery geological origins as well as our species' long history of interaction with the islands, he draws vivid portraits of the life forms found in the Gal pagos, capturing its awe-inspiring landscapes, understated flora, and stunning wildlife. Nicholls also reveals the immense challenges facing the islands, which must continually balance conservation and everencroaching development.Beautifully weaving together natural history, evolutionary theory, and his own experience on the islands, Nicholls shows that the story of the Gal pagos is not merely an isolated concern, but reflects the future of our species' relationship with nature-and the fate of our planet.

One tortoise's tale of conservation, commerce, cloning, combat and collecting on the high seas

The full story of the extraordinary islands that gave the world Darwin's theory of evolution.