Bloomsbury Publishing

Generation; the seventeenth-century scientists who unravelled the secrets of sex, life and growth.

Although dozens of the brightest lights of the ages ruminated over where babies came from, none had come closer than proposing it was something in the air. They were not even sure that two sheep would always reproduce in the form of another sheep. However, four men of the seventeenth century, armed with the new technology of the microscope and the privilege of dissection denied previous ruminators, began to discern how the different elements of reproduction looked from the inside. Cobb (life sciences, U. of Manchester) does a remarkable job of working through previously untranslated documents and discerning the personalities, particularities and discoveries of these gentlemen scientists, and makes sure readers understand how ironic it was that they never quite understood enough about reproduction from their experiments to know precisely what was going on. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The naming of names; the search for order in the world of plants.

Gardening correspondent for the British newspaper Independent, and author of eight books, Pavord traces the efforts to establish names for plants in such a way that other people would be able to identify them, and in a way that placed them in the larger scheme of the known world. She begins with Theophrastus in the fourth century BC, and concludes with the beginnings of what is now modern taxonomy in the late 17th century. Her stories are built around specific people. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Shadow of the bear; travels in vanishing wilderness.

A writer based in British Columbia, Payton recounts the journeys he made on four continents to view all eight remaining species of bears. In addition to the familiar black, brown/grizzly, and polar bears in North America and Europe, he found the spectacled bear in the South American Andes and the sun bear, giant panda, sloth bear, and Asiatic black bear in Asia. He does not provide an index. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)