Steve's Herpetological Blog

An insight into the life of Steve, his research and the many books he reads

#StevesLibrary

#StevesLibrary: Your Inner Fish

Note: Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of posts recently – I’ve just started my PhD fieldwork and so I’ve been quite busy with that and a few other things. Don’t worry though, I will now be blogging again on…

#StevesLibrary: The Future of Life

Those of you that read this blog regularly will know that I have a soft spot for Edward O. Wilson, one of the grandfathers of modern ecology. I’d previously read his earlier book The Diversity of Life whilst carrying out…

#StevesLibrary: Bad Science

It should be stated first that the author Ben Goldacre (who you may recognised from TV, indeed I first saw him on an episode of QI) also has a website and a former weekly column in The Guardian of the…

#StevesLibrary: Sex on Earth

Recently, I finished reading a book by the very entertaining and enthusiastic Jules Howard, a book that I wouldn’t recommend reading on the train/bus unless you want some confused faces looking your way. I am of course talking about Sex…

#StevesLibrary: Arrival of the Fittest

Recently, I read Arrival of the Fittest: How Nature Innovates by Andreas Wagner, those of you familiar with this regular section on my blog will know that I enjoyed it very much. Most biologists are familiar with Charles Darwin’s theory…

#StevesLibrary: The Unexpected Truth About Animals

Over Christmas and the New Year I managed to finish off a book I’d been meaning to finish for a while, that is Lucy Cooke’s The Unexpected Truth About Animals. The book itself is extremely well written, being both a…

#StevesLibrary: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Every now and again you need to pick up a book that helps change your perspective on life and respect just how short a time mankind has been on Earth, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is just that. The…

#StevesLibrary: Cold Blood: Adventures with Reptiles and Amphibians

I’m sure that many of us have some great stories to share from our childhood from times when we were out and about in nature, trying to find a particular species we found interesting. I still manage to form stories…

#StevesLibrary: Darwin’s Ghosts: In Search of the First Evolutionists

Rebecca Stott has authored a couple of books on the life of the most famous naturalist, Charles Darwin. The first titled Darwin and the Barnacle outlines his labour of love to classify and learn everything he could do about barnacles….

#StevesLibrary: Oxygen: The Molecule That Made the World

Some of you may remember that I went to see Nick Lane give a talk at the Linnean Society of London back in March. I’d been aware of Nick’s research for a while involving the evolution of life. For those…