Human age : the world shaped by us / Diane Ackerman.
| Author/creator | Ackerman, Diane, 1948- author. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication | London : Headline Publishing Group, 2015. |
| Copyright Date | ©2014 |
| Description | 344 pages ; 21 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | I. Welcome to the Anthropocene. Apps for Apes -- Wild Heart, Anthropocene Mind -- Black Marble -- Handmade Landscapes -- A Dialect of Stone -- Monkeying with the Weather -- Gaia in a Temper -- Brainstorming from Equator to Ice -- Blue Revolution. |
| Contents | II. In the House of Stone and Light. Asphalt Jungles -- A Green Man in a Green Shade -- House Plants? How Passé -- Opportunity Warms. |
| Contents | III. Is Nature "Natural" Anymore? Is Nature "Natural" Anymore? -- The Slow-Motion Invaders -- "They Had No Choice" -- Paddling in the Gene Pool -- For Love of a Snail. |
| Contents | IV. Nature, Pixilated. An (Un)Natural Future of the Senses -- Weighing in the Nanoscale -- Nature, Pixilated -- The Interspecies Internet -- Your Passion Flower Is Sexting You -- When Robots Weep, Who Will Comfort Them? -- Robots on a Date -- Printing a Rocking Horse on Mars. |
| Contents | V. Our Bodies, Our Nature. The (3D-Printed) Ear He Lends Me -- Cyborgs and Chimeras -- DNA's Secret Doormen -- Meet My Maker, The Mad Molecule -- Wild Heart, Anthropocene Mind (Revisited) |
| Summary | Ackerman is justly celebrated for her unique insight into the natural world and our place in it. In this landmark book, she confronts the unprecedented reality that one prodigiously intelligent and meddlesome creature, Homo sapiens, is now the dominant force shaping the future of planet Earth. Humans have "subdued 75 percent of the land surface, concocted a wizardry of industrial and medical marvels, strung lights all across the darkness." We tinker with nature at every opportunity; we garden the planet with our preferred species of plants and animals, many of them invasive; and we have even altered the climate, threatening our own extinction. Yet we reckon with our own destructive capabilities in extraordinary acts of hope-filled creativity: we collect the DNA of vanishing species in a "frozen ark," equip orangutans with iPads, and create wearable technologies and synthetic species that might one day outsmart us. |
| General note | First published as a Norton paperback 2015 |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Genre/form | History. |
| ISBN | 9780755365012 |
| ISBN | 0755365011 |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joyner | General Stacks | GF13 .A34 2015 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |