Animal Beauty: On the Evolution of Biological Aesthetics
FOREWORD’S LIT HIT—INDIE BOOKS THAT’LL BLOW YOU AWAY
Stealing today’s spotlight is Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard’s Animal Beauty: On the Evolution of Biological Aesthetics. A Nobel Prize-winning biologist, Nüsslein-Volhard dives deep into the animal kingdom to produce a compact volume exploring the colors and patterns of creatures great and small. Including quotes and references from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to Charles Darwin to modern-day stem cell research, the book answers questions such as how these colors are developed and how patterns can be used to communicate socially or recognize kin. Delicate watercolor illustrations accompany the text, portraying the ornate swirls of peacock tail feathers or deceiving eye spots of butterfly wings alongside easy-to-follow graphics of the development of pigment cells. A scientific exploration that’s easy on the eyes, Animal Beauty is a delight for the biologist and nature enthusiast alike.
Animal Beauty: On the Evolution of Biological Aesthetics by Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, The MIT Press, Hardcover $14.95 (128pp), 978-0-262-03994-9
Danielle Ballantyne
