In this eye-opening expos , acclaimed health journalist and National Geographic contributor Maryn McKenna documents how antibiotics transformed chicken from local delicacy to industrial commodity--and human health threat--uncovering the ways we can make America's favorite meat safer again.
What you eat matters--for your health, for the environment, and for future generations. In this riveting investigative narrative, McKenna dives deep into the world of modern agriculture by way of chicken: from the farm where it's raised directly to your dinner table. Consumed more than any other meat in the United States, chicken is emblematic of today's mass food-processing practices and their profound influence on our lives and health. Tracing its meteoric rise from scarce treat to ubiquitous global commodity, McKenna reveals the astounding role of antibiotics in industrial farming, documenting how and why "wonder drugs" revolutionized the way the world eats--and not necessarily for the better. Rich with scientific, historical, and cultural insights, this spellbinding cautionary tale shines a light on one of America's favorite foods--and shows us the way to safer, healthier eating for ourselves and our children. In August 2019 this book will be published in paperback with the title Plucked: Chicken, Antibiotics, and How Big Business Changed the Way the World Eats.
For millennia, fresh olive oil has been one of life's necessities--not just as food but also as medicine, a beauty aid, and a vital element of religious rituals. But this symbol of purity has become deeply corrupt. A superbly crafted combination of cultural history and food manifesto, Extra Virginity takes us on a journey through the world of olive oil, opening our eyes to olive oil's rich past as well as to the fierce contemporary struggle between oil fraudsters of the globalized food industry and artisan producers whose oil truly deserves the name "extra virgin."
From Aardonyx to Zuniceratops--A Dino-Mite Gathering of All the Dinosaurs (More Than 300 ) Worth Knowing About
We live in a golden age of paleontological discovery--the perfect time to dig in to the spectacular world of dinosaurs. From Aardonyx, a lumbering beast that formed a link between two and four-legged dinosaurs, to Zuniceratops, who boasted a deadly pair of horns, Dinosaurs--The Grand Tour details everything worth knowing about every important dinosaur that scientists know about--more than 300 in all.
In Dinosaurs you'll learn all the gory details--about geology, anatomy, evolution, astronomy, and even Native American and Chinese mythology. Stories of harrowing paleontological expeditions conjure the thrills of history's most famous dinosaur hunters. Highlights of recent research reveal what's going on in the world of dinosaurs today, including scientists' recent discovery of pigments embedded in dinosaur fossils that shed light, for the first time, on dinosaurs' true coloration. Illustrations on virtually every page bring these prehistoric creatures to life in all their razor-sharp, long-necked, spiny, scaly glory.
And for readers inspired to test their dino-expertise in the field, renowned paleontologist Jack Horner's field notes will help enthusiasts set out on their own expeditions. Track down dinosaur footprints at Horner's recommended sites, head out on a cross-country dinosaur road trip using Horner's list of top North American dinosaurs as your map, and learn what it's like to be a leading paleontologist who's been part of some of the most sensational dinosaur discoveries ever--and how you can get involved, too
"Magnificent in its breadth and illustration." -- Booklist
Dinosaurus was published in 2003 and went on to sell 15,000 in hardcover and more in paperback. Now 13 years have passed during which there have been dozens of discoveries. At the same price and fully revised, this edition of Dinosaurus is simply too exceptional a value to pass up.
Many incredible discoveries made 2015 a banner year. For example:
- Yi qi ("ee chee", "strange wing"), the earliest known flying non-avian dinosaur
- The "Chicken from Hell," a bird-like beaked, clawed and feathered dinosaur that roamed the Dakotas
- Zhenyuanlong suni, a cousin of Velociraptor, suggests that this family has been inaccurately depicted. The new 5-foot-long dino more resembles a feathered poodle than the brute of Jurassic Park.
- "Superduck," at 5 tons and with a mate-attracting head crest it is thought to be a missing link between two other known duck-billed head-crested dinosaur species.
Perhaps most exciting is that in 2016 the American Museum of Natural History opened a new exhibition featuring the astonishing, newly discovered 122-foot-long titanosaur, yet to be named. The plant-eating colossus is the largest dinosaur ever found -- it weighed around 77 tons--as much as 14 or 15 African elephants
No other life-form captures the imagination like dinosaurs. Organized by the major dinosaur families, Dinosaurus identifies 500 species. It describes in detail and stunning illustrations what they looked like, what they ate and how they fought, lived and died.
The features include:
- Concise explanations of species' traits and habits
- Vivid full-color illustrations representing life among the dinosaurs
- Stunning color photographs of dinosaur discoveries
- Latin name, translation and pronunciation
- Height specifics and comparison to humans
- Diet and habitat
- Global distribution.
Brimming with research from digs in North America, Mongolia, Europe, China and elsewhere, Dinosaurus is an encyclopedic and vividly illustrated reference for all ages.
One of the New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of the Year
Winner of the James Beard Award Author of How to Change Your Mind and the #1 New York Times Bestsellers In Defense of Food and Food Rules What should we have for dinner? Ten years ago, Michael Pollan confronted us with this seemingly simple question and, with The Omnivore's Dilemma, his brilliant and eye-opening exploration of our food choices, demonstrated that how we answer it today may determine not only our health but our survival as a species. In the years since, Pollan's revolutionary examination has changed the way Americans think about food. Bringing wide attention to the little-known but vitally important dimensions of food and agriculture in America, Pollan launched a national conversation about what we eat and the profound consequences that even the simplest everyday food choices have on both ourselves and the natural world. Ten years later, The Omnivore's Dilemma continues to transform the way Americans think about the politics, perils, and pleasures of eating.
We suffer today from food anxiety, bombarded as we are with confusing messages about how to eat an ethical diet. Should we eat locally? Is organic really better for the environment? Can genetically modified foods be good for you?
Just Food does for fresh food what Fast Food Nation did for fast food, challenging conventional views, and cutting through layers of myth and misinformation. For instance, an imported tomato is more energy-efficient than a local greenhouse-grown tomato. And farm-raised freshwater fish may soon be the most sustainable source of protein. Informative and surprising, Just Food tells us how to decide what to eat, and how our choices can help save the planet and feed the world.
THE ULTIMATE DINOSAUR BIOGRAPHY, hails Scientific American: A thrilling new history of the age of dinosaurs, from one of our finest young scientists.
A masterpiece of science writing. --Washington Post
A New York Times Bestseller - Goodreads Choice Awards Winner - A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Smithsonian, Science Friday, The Times (London), Popular Mechanics, Science News
This is scientific storytelling at its most visceral, striding with the beasts through their Triassic dawn, Jurassic dominance, and abrupt demise in the Cretaceous. --Nature
The dinosaurs. Sixty-six million years ago, the Earth's most fearsome creatures vanished. Today they remain one of our planet's great mysteries. Now The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs reveals their extraordinary, 200-million-year-long story as never before.
In this captivating narrative (enlivened with more than seventy original illustrations and photographs), Steve Brusatte, a young American paleontologist who has emerged as one of the foremost stars of the field--naming fifteen new species and leading groundbreaking scientific studies and fieldwork--masterfully tells the complete, surprising, and new history of the dinosaurs, drawing on cutting-edge science to dramatically bring to life their lost world and illuminate their enigmatic origins, spectacular flourishing, astonishing diversity, cataclysmic extinction, and startling living legacy. Captivating and revelatory, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is a book for the ages.
Brusatte traces the evolution of dinosaurs from their inauspicious start as small shadow dwellers--themselves the beneficiaries of a mass extinction caused by volcanic eruptions at the beginning of the Triassic period--into the dominant array of species every wide-eyed child memorizes today, T. rex, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, and more. This gifted scientist and writer re-creates the dinosaurs' peak during the Jurassic and Cretaceous, when thousands of species thrived, and winged and feathered dinosaurs, the prehistoric ancestors of modern birds, emerged. The story continues to the end of the Cretaceous period, when a giant asteroid or comet struck the planet and nearly every dinosaur species (but not all) died out, in the most extraordinary extinction event in earth's history, one full of lessons for today as we confront a "sixth extinction."
Brusatte also recalls compelling stories from his globe-trotting expeditions during one of the most exciting eras in dinosaur research--which he calls "a new golden age of discovery"--and offers thrilling accounts of some of the remarkable findings he and his colleagues have made, including primitive human-sized tyrannosaurs; monstrous carnivores even larger than T. rex; and paradigm-shifting feathered raptors from China.
An electrifying scientific history that unearths the dinosaurs' epic saga, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs will be a definitive and treasured account for decades to come.
Includes 75 images, world maps of the prehistoric earth, and a dinosaur family tree.
