The author set out on a daunting program with impressive results in a fascinating domain.
The impact of scaling on the functioning of biological and technical systems is profound
The book continues to drift between wonder about the world and weakly motivated bias towards human scale, which is a pity because it cites some elegant analyses.
Folk tales about vampires and werewolves are based in an exaggerated fear for rabies
The detailed synopsis of (what seems like) every book, play, or movie that ever mentioned rabies gets boring pretty fast.
If you allow yourself to think on a different timescale, trees are surprisingly dynamic
Colin Tudge – The secret life of trees
There is a limit to the degree of suspense that you can bring into taxonomy.
To disprove ‘Intelligent Design’, just note that one can very well exhibit intelligent behavior without actual intelligence
Daniel Dennett – From bacteria to Bach and back
Caleidoscopic overview of Dennett’s ideas, but it would benefit from an more thorough justification of its antropocentric perspective (compare: Frans de Waal).
Arguing by analogy, one has to conclude that animals have emotions
Frans de Waal – Mama’s last hug
Especially interesting are the behavioral experiments, reminiscent of the line of argument in Moral Tribes