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Tracks and Shadows
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Intellectually rich, intensely personal, and beautifully written, Tracks and Shadows is both an absorbing autobiography of a celebrated field biologist and a celebration of beauty in nature. Harr...
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28 October 2013

Intellectually rich, intensely personal, and beautifully written, Tracks and Shadows is both an absorbing autobiography of a celebrated field biologist and a celebration of beauty in nature. Harry W. Greene, award-winning author of Snakes: The Evolution of Mystery in Nature, delves into the poetry of field biology, showing how nature eases our existential quandaries. More than a memoir, the book is about the wonder of snakes, the beauty of studying and understanding natural history, and the importance of sharing the love of nature with humanity.
Greene begins with his youthful curiosity about the natural world and moves to his stints as a mortician's assistant, ambulance driver, and army medic. In detailing his academic career, he describes how his work led him to believe that nature’s most profound lessons lurk in hard-won details. He discusses the nuts and bolts of field research and teaching, contrasts the emotional impact of hot dry habitats with hot wet ones, imparts the basics of snake biology, and introduces the great explorers Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. He reflects on friendship and happiness, tackles notions like anthropomorphism and wilderness, and argues that organisms remain the core of biology, science plays key roles in conservation, and natural history offers an enlightened form of contentment.
Greene begins with his youthful curiosity about the natural world and moves to his stints as a mortician's assistant, ambulance driver, and army medic. In detailing his academic career, he describes how his work led him to believe that nature’s most profound lessons lurk in hard-won details. He discusses the nuts and bolts of field research and teaching, contrasts the emotional impact of hot dry habitats with hot wet ones, imparts the basics of snake biology, and introduces the great explorers Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. He reflects on friendship and happiness, tackles notions like anthropomorphism and wilderness, and argues that organisms remain the core of biology, science plays key roles in conservation, and natural history offers an enlightened form of contentment.
Price: $29.95
Pages: 296
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Publication Date:
28 October 2013
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9780520232754
Format: Hardcover
"Achingly beautiful. . . . Greene succeeds in illuminating the world as a place of beauty, harmony, and danger, deeply interconnected and worthy of cherishing and preserving." Starred Review.
Harry W. Greene is the Stephen Weiss Presidential Fellow and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University and a recipient of the E.O. Wilson Award from the American Society of Naturalists. His book Snakes: The Evolution of Mystery in Nature (UC Press), won a PEN Literary Award and was a New York Times Notable Book.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
PART ONE: DESCENT WITH MODIFICATION
1. Tracks and Shadows
2. Naturalist
3. Nerd
4. Field Biologist
5. Medic
PART TWO: CONVERSING WITH SERPENTS
6. Graduate School
7. Hot Dry Places
8. Hot Wet Places
9. Giant Serpents
10. Venomous Serpents
PART THREE: PRETTY IN SUNLIGHT
11. Friends
12. Loose Ends
13. Born-Again Predator
14. Field Biology as Art
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
PART ONE: DESCENT WITH MODIFICATION
1. Tracks and Shadows
2. Naturalist
3. Nerd
4. Field Biologist
5. Medic
PART TWO: CONVERSING WITH SERPENTS
6. Graduate School
7. Hot Dry Places
8. Hot Wet Places
9. Giant Serpents
10. Venomous Serpents
PART THREE: PRETTY IN SUNLIGHT
11. Friends
12. Loose Ends
13. Born-Again Predator
14. Field Biology as Art
Notes
Bibliography
Index