Sensuous Seas

Tales of a Marine Biologist

Eugene H. Kaplan

288 pages, parution le 01/08/2006

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Résumé

Learning marine biology from a textbook is one thing. But take readers to the bottom of the sea in a submarine to discover living fossils or to coral reefs to observe a day in the life of an octopus, and the sea and its splendors come into focus, in brilliant colors and with immediacy.

In Sensuous Seas, Eugene Kaplan offers readers an irresistibly irreverent voyage to the world of sea creatures, with a look at their habitats, their beauty and, yes, even their sex lives. A marine biologist who has built fish farms in Africa and established a marine laboratory in Jamaica, Kaplan takes us to oceans across the world to experience the lives of their inhabitants, from the horribly grotesque to the exquisitely beautiful. In chapters with titles such as "Fiddler on the Root" (reproductive rituals of fiddler crabs) and "Size Does Count" (why barnacles have the largest penis, comparatively, in the animal kingdom), Kaplan ventures inside coral reefs to study mating parrotfish; dives 740 feet in a submarine to find living fossils; explains what results from swallowing a piece of living octopus tentacle; and describes a shark attack on a friend.

The book is a sensuous blend of sparkling prose and 150 beautiful illustrations that clarify the science. Each chapter opens with an exciting personal anecdote that leads into the scientific exploration of a distinct inhabitant of the sea world--allowing the reader to experience firsthand the incredible complexity of sea life.

A one-of-a-kind memoir that unfolds in remarkable reaches of ocean few of us can ever visit for ourselves, Sensuous Seas brings the underwater world back to living room and classroom alike. Readers will be surprised at how much marine biology they have learned while being amused.

Sommaire

Prologue: The Perils of Teaching
Deadly Darts
The Great Jade Green Octopus Hunt
Bedtime Stories
Garden of Eden: The Death Apple and the Tree of Life
A True Romance Story
Elixir of Love
Skinny South Sea Sausages
The Only Male Reproductive Organ with a Name
Living Lance
Role Reversal
Super Male
Miracle Fish
Fugu
Bunnies of the Sea
Passion for Purple
Size Does Count
Fiddler on the Root
Beware the Duppy
The Secret of an Improved Sex Life
How to Court a Female
The Anti-BLB Club
Sea Pussy
Debunking the Big Lie
A Peek into the Anus of a Sea Cucumber
The Yellow Submarine
The Perils of Vanity
Sexually Repressed Victorian Taxonomists
Random Ramblings on Relationships
Penile Bloodletting
Death and Confusion
Eyeball to Eyeball

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Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	Princeton University Press
Auteur(s)	Eugene H. Kaplan
Parution	01/08/2006
Nb. de pages	288
Format	16 x 24
Couverture	Relié
Poids	550g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780691125602
ISBN13	978-0-691-12560-2