Darwin Comes to Town

Posted on 01 October 2018 by Menno Schilthuizen

From evolutionary biologist Menno Schilthuizen, a book that will make you see yourself and the world around you in an entirely new way.For a long time, biologists thought evolution was a necessarily slow process, too incremental to be observed in a lifetime In Darwin Comes to Town, evolutionary biologist Menno Schilthuizen shows that evolution can in fact happen extremely quickly, and in the strangest of places the heart of the city.Menno Schilthuizen is one of a growing number of urban ecologists studying how our manmade environments are accelerating the evolution of the animals and plants around us Cities are extreme environments and, in a world of adapt or die, the wildlife sharing these spaces with us is being forced to adopt fascinating new ways of surviving, and often thriving Carrion crows in the Japanese city of Sendai have learned to use passing traffic to crack nuts Spiders in Vienna are adapting to build their webs near moth attracting streetlights, while moths in some cities are developing a resistance to the lure of light bulbs Certain Puerto Rican city lizards are evolving feet that better grip surfaces like concrete Europe s urban blackbirds sing at a higher pitch than their rural cousins, to be heard over the din of traffic, while many pigeons have eschewed traveling as the crow flies in favor of following manmade roads Darwin Comes to Town draws on these and other eye popping examples to share a stunning vision of urban evolution in which humans and wildlife co exist in a unique harmony It reveals that evolution can happen far rapidly than Darwin dreamed, while providing a glimmer of hope that our race toward overpopulation might not take the rest of nature down with us. Free Read Darwin Comes to Town By Menno Schilthuizen For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr Popular science at its best here Prof Schilthuizen has a relaxed style of writing that is wonderfully easy to read At the same time, he sets out some serious and thought provoking stuff, about the astonishing power of natural selection and how it is driving evolution amongst urban wildlife.The author comments early on that when humans talk about nature we almost invariably mean those much reduced parts of the world where human influence is still small He adds though, that by 2030 around 10 Popular science at its best here Prof Schilthuizen has a relaxed style of writing that is wonderfully easy to read At the same time, he sets out some serious and thought provoking stuff, about the astonishing power of natural selectio...4.5 stars.It was after much debate that I put in a request for this book on NetGalley The cover art is amazing and anything involving nature and evolution always sound interesting But I was so convinced that this book would make me mad and try to convince me humans are some sort of savior to nature by building cities or some such radical view The possibility of it being quite dense in subject matter was another doubt.But that cover art kept calling me back I got approved for a copy, and when 4.5 stars.It was after much debate that I put in a request for this book on NetGalley The cover art is amazing and anything involving nature and evolution always sound interesting But I was so convinced that this book would make me mad and try to convince me humans are some sort of savior to nature by building cities or some such radical view The possibility of it being quite dense in subject matter was another doubt....This is a good popular science book that walks the fine line between being extremely accessible but not dumbing down the thesis or the science supporting it Schilthuizen presents an interesting overview of urban evolution how plants, insects, birds, and animals have adapted to manmade urban environments in an extremely digestible way that doesn t skirt the fact that this is serious business The tone tends to default a little onto the side of breeziness, focusing on urban fauna and flora s succ This is a good popular science book...A fascinating and easy to read book about one area that tends to be ignore the evolution of organisms in a new landscape that is rapidly growing in size around the world cities and urban landscapes In numerous chapters organised by sections, the author shows what organisms are taking advantage of the new urban ecological niches opened up by human cities, what evolution has been doing to adapt organisms to an urban life and what might be in store for the future The first section gives an over A fascinating and easy to read book about one area that tends to be ignore the evolution of organisms in a new ...A surprisingly fun and chatty book of urban biodiversity and evolution As the world changes, andandpeople migrate around the world and into cities, there will berural species thatinto the city and become urban species At the this point we also can t get away f...Hmm oke, ik had meer van dit boek verwacht Leuk onderwerp en erg interessante voorbeelden, maar op een gegeven moment blijft het dan bij een opsomming en wordt het verhaal niet naar een hoger level gebracht Ik zou zelf ook niet weten hoe ik structuur moet geven aan zo n non fictie boek waarin je vooral leuk wilt vertellen over hoe dingen in de natuur voorkomen, maar ik ben dan ook niet de schrijver dus dat is niet mijn verantwoordelijkheid Dit werkte gewoon niet helemaal Er werd wel geprobee Hmm oke, ik had meer van dit boek verwacht Leuk onderwerp en erg interessante voorbeelden, maar op een gegeven moment blijft het dan bij een opsomming en wordt het verhaal niet naar een hoger level gebracht Ik zou zelf ook niet weten hoe ik structuur moet geven aan zo n non fictie boek waarin je vooral leuk wilt vertellen over hoe dingen in de natuur voorkomen, maar ik ben dan ook niet de schrijver dus dat is niet mijn verantwoordelijkheid Dit werkte gewoon niet helemaal Er werd wel geprobeerd verschillende onderwerpen achte...When Karl Chu said the future is literally a brave new world, he was hinting at how architecture, with the help of AI and natural ecology, would transform cities and the way we coexist with the natural environment To Chu, architecture is governed by our changing views of everything around us, what he calls the genesis of possible worlds In other words, we re all just another part of an ever expanding and evolving universe.An urban ecologist might argue that the first step to understanding When Karl Chu said the future is literally a brave new world, he was hinting at how architecture, with the help of AI and natural ecology, would transform cities and the way we coexist with the natural environment To Chu, architecture is governed by our changing views of everything around us, what he calls the genesis of possible worlds In other words, we re all just another part of an ever expanding and evolving universe.An urban ecologist might argue that the first step to understanding this coming paradigm shift is to bridge the gap between the manmade and the natural In Darwin Comes to Town How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution, w...Illuminating and funny a joy to read.Mahtavan luettavaa populaaritiedett Schilthuizen kirjoittaa el v sti ja asiantuntevasti kaikista aihealueistaan ja niit riitt Vaikka kirja on alle 300 sivuinen, ehdit n k sitell kaupunkiluontoa monesta n k kulmasta Miten el imet ja kasvit sopeutuvat uusiin ymp rist hin, miten vaikutukset ovat kaksisuuntaisia, miten kaupunkisuunnittelussa otetaan luonto huomioon, miten evoluutio n...Twenty articles by a biologist, an urban ecologist who likes cities While we humans space our generations about twenty eight years apart, lesser lifeforms, such as birds and insects, reproduce muchquickly, leading to a faster rate of evolution, as documented by the author in this book, which covers flora and fauna that come into contact with humans and the urban world Eleven years ago the number of people in the world living in urban areas surpassed those in rural areas The United State Twenty articles by a biologist, an urban ecologist who likes cities While we humans space our generations about twenty eight years apart, lesser lifeforms, such as birds and insects, reproduce muchquickly, leading to a faster rate of evolution, as documented by the author in this book, which covers flora and fauna that come into contact with humans and the urban world Eleven years ago the number of people in the world livin...

01 October 2018

Menno Schilthuizen