Bøger af Susan Allport

What do we actually know about stone walls? about the people who built them, and why? Stone walls are not simply monuments to the skill of Yankee farmers. The historical record makes clear that many were built by slaves, Indians, indentured servants, and children.Sermons in Stone is the surprising and illuminating history of the walls, a story that begins in the Ice Age and that has been shaped by the fencing dilemmas of the nineteenth century, by conflicts between Native Americans and colonists over land use, by American waves of immigration and suburbanization."Who would think that a history of that humble workaday structure, the stone wall, would be so full of the fascinating, the peculiar, the downright eccentric? But here it is, laid out in a sprightly style and beautifully illustrated by the ink drawings of David Howell." -Dallas Morning News

Anyone who has ever held a babyor observed a nesting birdwill find much to inform and entertain in this enchantingly written and thoroughly researched book. Allport revels in the marvelous diversity of care in the animal world. She shows us our place in that world with great humor, knowledge, and common sense.

Food makes the world go around, according to this absorbing account of how the search for food has shaped human nature. It is more important than love or sex for the simple reason that food is harder to find than a mate. Think of it this way, says Allport, who draws on the research of anthropologists and biologists in presenting her fascinating and provocative theories: Mates are often willing accomplices in the act of mating; food is never a willing accomplice in the act of eating.

Explorers of the Black Box is a scientific adventure story. The ';Black Box' is the brain. The ';Explorers' are neuroscientists in search of how nerve cells record memories, and they are as ruthless and dauntless as any soldiers of fortune. The book centers around the early, often-controversial research Nobel Prizewinner Eric Kandel. It takes readers behind the scenes of laboratories at Woods Hole, Columbia, Yale, and Princeton to create an absorbing account of how the brain works and of how science itself works.

A nutritional whodunit that takes readers from Greenland to Africa to Israel, The Queen of Fats gives a fascinating account of how we have become deficient in a nutrient that is essential for good health: the fatty acids known as omega-3s. Writing with intelligence and passion, Susan Allport tells the story of these vital fats, which are abundant in greens and fish, among other foods. She describes how scientists came to understand the role of omega-3s in our diet, why commercial processing has removed them from the food we eat, and what the tremendous consequences have been for our health. In many Western countries, epidemics of inflammatory diseases and metabolic disorders have been traced to omega-3 deficiencies. The Queen of Fats provides information for every consumer who wants to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and obesity and to improve brain function and overall health. This important and compelling investigation into the discovery, science, and politics of omega-3s will transform our thinking about what we should be eating.* Includes steps you can take to add omega-3s to your diet* Shows why eating fish is not the only way, or even the best way, to increase omega-3s.* Provides a new way to understand the complex advice about the role and importance of fats in the body* Explains how and why the food industry has created a deadly imbalance of fats in our foods* Shows how omega-3s can be reintroduced to our diet through food enrichment and changes in the feeding of livestock