Kevin Laland's Books

Evolution Evolving

The Developmental Origins of Adaptation and Biodiversity

By: Kevin N. Lala,Tobias Uller,Nathalie Feiner,Marcus Feldman,Scott F. Gilbert

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Evolution Evolving

The Developmental Origins of Adaptation and Biodiversity

By: Kevin N. Lala,Tobias Uller,Nathalie Feiner,Marcus Feldman,Scott F. Gilbert

A new account of the central role developmental processes play in evolution A new scientific view of evolution is emerging—one that challenges and expands our understanding of how evolution works. Recent research demonstrates that organisms differ greatly in how effective they are at evolving. Whether and how each organism adapts and diversifies depends critically on the mechanistic details of how that organism operates—its development, physiology, and behavior. That is because the evolutionary process itself has evolved over time, and continues to evolve. The scientific understanding of evolution is evolving too, with groundbreaking new ways of explaining evolutionary change. In this book, a group of leading biologists draw on the latest findings in evolutionary genetics and evo-devo, as well as novel insights from studies of epigenetics, symbiosis, and inheritance, to examine the central role that developmental processes play in evolution. Written in an accessible style, and illustrated with fascinating examples of natural history, the book presents recent scientific discoveries that expand evolutionary biology beyond the classical view of gene transmission guided by natural selection. Without undermining the central importance of natural selection and other Darwinian foundations, new developmental insights indicate that all organisms possess their own characteristic sets of evolutionary mechanisms. The authors argue that a consideration of developmental phenomena is needed for evolutionary biologists to generate better explanations for adaptation and biodiversity. This book provides a new vision of adaptive evolution.

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Page Count

440

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0691262403

ISBN 13

9780691262406

Social Learning

An Introduction to Mechanisms, Methods, and Models

By: William Hoppitt,Kevin N. Lala

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Social Learning

An Introduction to Mechanisms, Methods, and Models

By: William Hoppitt,Kevin N. Lala

Many animals, including humans, acquire valuable skills and knowledge by copying others. Scientists refer to this as social learning. It is one of the most exciting and rapidly developing areas of behavioral research and sits at the interface of many academic disciplines, including biology, experimental psychology, economics, and cognitive neuroscience. Social Learning provides a comprehensive, practical guide to the research methods of this important emerging field. William Hoppitt and Kevin N. Lala define the mechanisms thought to underlie social learning and demonstrate how to distinguish them experimentally in the laboratory. They present techniques for detecting and quantifying social learning in nature, including statistical modeling of the spatial distribution of behavior traits. They also describe the latest theory and empirical findings on social learning strategies, and introduce readers to mathematical methods and models used in the study of cultural evolution. This book is an indispensable tool for researchers and an essential primer for students. Provides a comprehensive, practical guide to social learning research Combines theoretical and empirical approaches Describes techniques for the laboratory and the field Covers social learning mechanisms and strategies, statistical modeling techniques for field data, mathematical modeling of cultural evolution, and more

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Page Count

320

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1400846501

ISBN 13

9781400846504

Darwin's Unfinished Symphony

How Culture Made the Human Mind

By: Kevin N. Lala

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Darwin's Unfinished Symphony

How Culture Made the Human Mind

By: Kevin N. Lala

Humans possess an extraordinary capacity for culture, from the arts and language to science and technology. But how did the human mind—and the uniquely human ability to devise and transmit culture—evolve from its roots in animal behavior? Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony presents a captivating new theory of human cognitive evolution. This compelling and accessible book reveals how culture is not just the magnificent end product of an evolutionary process that produced a species unlike all others—it is also the key driving force behind that process. Kevin N. Lala tells the story of the painstaking fieldwork, the key experiments, the false leads, and the stunning scientific breakthroughs that led to this new understanding of how culture transformed human evolution. It is the story of how Darwin’s intellectual descendants picked up where he left off and took up the challenge of providing a scientific account of the evolution of the human mind.

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465

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

069118447X

ISBN 13

9780691184470

Sense and Nonsense

Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour

By: Gillian R. Brown,Kevin N. Lala

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Sense and Nonsense

Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour

By: Gillian R. Brown,Kevin N. Lala

Evolutionary theory is one of the most wide-ranging and inspiring scientific ideas, and it offers a battery of methods that can be used to interpret human behaviour. However, researchers disagree about the best ways to use evolution to explore humanity, and a number of schools of thought have emerged. Sense and Nonsense, third edition, provides an introduction to the ideas, methods and findings of five such schools, namely sociobiology, human behavioural ecology, evolutionary psychology, cultural evolution and gene-culture coevolution. In this revised and updated edition of their successful monograph, Brown and Lala provide a balanced and rigorous analysis that scrutinises both the evolutionary arguments and the allegations of the critics, carefully guiding the reader through the mire of confusing terminology, claim, and counter-claim, and polemical statements. This readable and informative introductory book will be of use to undergraduate and postgraduate students (for example in psychology, anthropology and zoology), as well as experts on one approach who would like to know more about the other perspectives and lay-persons interested in evolutionary explanations of human behaviour. Having completed the book, the reader will feel better placed to assess the legitimacy of claims made about human behaviour under the name of evolution and to make judgements as to what is sense and what is nonsense.

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Page Count

289

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0198908229

ISBN 13

9780198908227

My Many, Merry Melodies

By: Kevin Ahern

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My Many, Merry Melodies

By: Kevin Ahern

The latest edition of Kevin Ahern's popular Metabolic Melodies mixed with an eclectic collection of relevant, current song topics. Well over 200 song lyrics are included on topics that include biochemistry, science, daily life, life in Oregon, and politics.

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Page Count

231

Publisher

Lulu.com

Published Date

ISBN 10

1387398512

ISBN 13

9781387398515

Niche Construction

The Neglected Process in Evolution (MPB-37)

By: F. John Odling-Smee,Kevin N. Lala,Marcus Feldman

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Niche Construction

The Neglected Process in Evolution (MPB-37)

By: F. John Odling-Smee,Kevin N. Lala,Marcus Feldman

The seemingly innocent observation that the activities of organisms bring about changes in environments is so obvious that it seems an unlikely focus for a new line of thinking about evolution. Yet niche construction--as this process of organism-driven environmental modification is known--has hidden complexities. By transforming biotic and abiotic sources of natural selection in external environments, niche construction generates feedback in evolution on a scale hitherto underestimated--and in a manner that transforms the evolutionary dynamic. It also plays a critical role in ecology, supporting ecosystem engineering and influencing the flow of energy and nutrients through ecosystems. Despite this, niche construction has been given short shrift in theoretical biology, in part because it cannot be fully understood within the framework of standard evolutionary theory. Wedding evolution and ecology, this book extends evolutionary theory by formally including niche construction and ecological inheritance as additional evolutionary processes. The authors support their historic move with empirical data, theoretical population genetics, and conceptual models. They also describe new research methods capable of testing the theory. They demonstrate how their theory can resolve long-standing problems in ecology, particularly by advancing the sorely needed synthesis of ecology and evolution, and how it offers an evolutionary basis for the human sciences. Already hailed as a pioneering work by some of the world's most influential biologists, this is a rare, potentially field-changing contribution to the biological sciences.

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Page Count

489

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1400847265

ISBN 13

9781400847266

Audience-ology

How Moviegoers Shape the Films We Love

By: Kevin Goetz

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Audience-ology

How Moviegoers Shape the Films We Love

By: Kevin Goetz

Looks at the often secretive process of audience testing Hollywood movies and how it can help shape movies, with first-hand accounts from directors such as Ron Howard, Cameron Crowe, Drew Barrymore and Ed Zwick.

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Page Count

240

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

ISBN 10

1982186747

ISBN 13

9781982186746

Play the Way You Feel

The Essential Guide to Jazz Stories on Film

By: Kevin Whitehead

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Play the Way You Feel

The Essential Guide to Jazz Stories on Film

By: Kevin Whitehead

This book-both a narrative and a film directory-surveys and analyzes English-language feature films (and a few shorts and TV shows/movies) made between 1927 and 2016 that tell stories about jazz music, its musicians, its history and culture. Play the Way You Feel looks at jazz movies as a narrative tradition with recurring plot points and story tropes, whose roots and development are traced. It also demonstrates how jazz stories cut across diverse genres-biopic, romance, musical, comedy and science fiction, horror, crime and comeback stories, "race movies" and modernized Shakespeare-even as they constitute a genre of their own. The book is also a directory/checklist of such films, 66 of them with extensive credits, plus dozens more shorter/capsule discussions. Where jazz films are based on literary sources, they are examined, and the nature of their adaptation explored: what gets retained, removed, or invented? What do historical films get right and wrong? How does a film's music, and the style of the filmmaking itself, reinforce or undercut the story?--

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Page Count

401

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190847573

ISBN 13

9780190847579

Darwin's Unfinished Symphony

How Culture Made the Human Mind

By: Kevin N. Lala

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Darwin's Unfinished Symphony

How Culture Made the Human Mind

By: Kevin N. Lala

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Page Count

465

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

069118447X

ISBN 13

9780691184470

Why is God Looking for Friends?

By: Kevin Walter Johnson

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Why is God Looking for Friends?

By: Kevin Walter Johnson

A collection of forty-five devotional readings for junior high school students, focusing on understanding and applying the Bible to their lives.

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Page Count

116

Published Date

ISBN 10

1556612826

ISBN 13

9781556612824

Could Someone Wake Me Up Before I Drool on the Desk?

By: Kevin Walter Johnson

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Could Someone Wake Me Up Before I Drool on the Desk?

By: Kevin Walter Johnson

Forty-five excellent devotional readings for middle-schoolers to help them conquer school and find good friends. Ages 11-14.

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116

Published Date

ISBN 10

1556614160

ISBN 13

9781556614163

Coalwater

By: Kevin Kramer

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Coalwater

By: Kevin Kramer

On the run from Chicago authorities, John Milton is a wanted felon. His life, as he knew it, will never be the same. He guards deadly secrets in hope of preserving his future, but he won't let go of the past. Coalwater is an intricate and mysterious game of cat-and-mouse between Milton, a crooked politician, an investigator at the end of an undistinguished career, and a puppet master pulling all the strings. Millions of dollars are missing with the click of a button-retrievable by only one man. When Milton disappears, the case goes cold-until an episode of America's Most Wanted thaws the icy chill of an open murder investigation. An unsubstantiated call to the show's hotline instigates a manhunt leading to the quiet an unsuspecting Wyoming town of Coalwater ... ellipses.

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320

Published Date

ISBN 10

0595661629

ISBN 13

9780595661626

The Quest

A Self-discovery Adventure for Teens

By: Kevin J. Brown,Ray Mitsch

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The Quest

A Self-discovery Adventure for Teens

By: Kevin J. Brown,Ray Mitsch

A workbook designed to help teenagers examine their feelings and cope with problems on their journey through adolescence to adulthood.

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Page Count

132

Publisher

Thomas Nelson Publishers

Published Date

ISBN 10

0840745605

ISBN 13

9780840745606

Sense and Nonsense

Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour

By: Kevin N. Laland,Gillian R. Brown

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Sense and Nonsense

Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour

By: Kevin N. Laland,Gillian R. Brown

This book asks whether evolution can help us to understand human behaviour and explores diverse evolutionary methods and arguments. It provides a short, readable introduction to the science behind the works of Dawkins, Dennett, Wilson and Pinker. It is widely used in undergraduate courses around the world.

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Page Count

284

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199586969

ISBN 13

9780199586967

Niche Construction

The Neglected Process in Evolution (MPB-37)

By: F. John Odling-Smee,Kevin N. Lala,Marcus Feldman

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Niche Construction

The Neglected Process in Evolution (MPB-37)

By: F. John Odling-Smee,Kevin N. Lala,Marcus Feldman

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Page Count

489

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1400847265

ISBN 13

9781400847266

Social Learning

An Introduction to Mechanisms, Methods, and Models

By: William Hoppitt,Kevin N. Lala

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Social Learning

An Introduction to Mechanisms, Methods, and Models

By: William Hoppitt,Kevin N. Lala

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Page Count

319

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0691150710

ISBN 13

9780691150710

Fish Cognition and Behavior

By: Culum Brown,Kevin Laland,Jens Krause

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Fish Cognition and Behavior

By: Culum Brown,Kevin Laland,Jens Krause

In the second edition of this fascinating book an international team of experts have been brought together to explore all major areas of fish learning, including: Foraging skills Predator recognition Social organisation and learning Welfare and pain Three new chapters covering fish personality, lateralisation, and fish cognition and fish welfare, have been added to this fully revised and expanded second edition. Fish Cognition and Behavior, Second Edition contains essential information for all fish biologists and animal behaviorists and contains much new information of commercial importance for fisheries managers and aquaculture personnel. Libraries in all universities and research establishments where biological sciences, fisheries and aquaculture are studied and taught will find it an important addition to their shelves.

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Page Count

472

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons

Published Date

ISBN 10

1444342517

ISBN 13

9781444342512

Book's by Kevin Laland

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