The Time Nature Keeps: A Visual Guide to the Cycles and Time Spans of the Natural World

With stunning infographics on every page, this riveting visual guide reveals the mind-bending marvels of nature’s timescales both large and minuscule

“This work broadens our perception of time by looking at it through natural cycles . . . . The visuals seamlessly enhance the text, making for an impactful learning experience.”—Booklist starred review

Take a visual journey of discovery through the animal and plant kingdoms—and uncover the extraordinary rhythms of nature! Here are the answers to all kinds of curious questions, including:

• How long do eggs take to hatch?
• Do dogs really need more sleep than humans?
• What are the world’s fastest- and slowest-growing plants?
• And many more!

These infographics shed light on the truly remarkable range of the natural world—how plants and animals grow and age, sleep and migrate, and reproduce and die. Spanning ideas both big and small—from evolution to animal behavior—The Time Nature Keeps is a visual trove of nature’s clocks that brings the world’s cadences to life before our eyes.

ISBN-13: 9781615199525

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: The Experiment - LLC

Publication Date: 04-18-2023

Pages: 208

Product Dimensions: 6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d)

Dr. Helen Pilcher is a science writer with a PhD in cell biology. She has written for Nature, The Guardian, and New Scientist. Her book Life Changing: How Humans are Alterting Life on Earth was The Times 2020 Science Book of the Year and was short-listed for the Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation. She lives in Warwickshire, England.

Table of Contents

Contents:
 
Introduction
• Clock of the Long Now
• Critical flicker fusion frequency and how all animals perceive time differently
CHAPTER 1: EVOLUTIONARY SPANS
• Humans arrive at five seconds to midnight
• The nautilus and the whale
• When early man decided to ride the horse
CHAPTER 2: ECOLOGICAL SPANS
• Lichen growth to show pollution reduction
• River regeneration
• After the fire
• After the flood
• Lemming population fluctuations
• From chaos to order, self-organizing systems in social insects
• Rates of migration
• How disease spreads
• Occupation of a shared nesting hole by tits and other species
• Seasonal ocean current migrations
CHAPTER 3: LIFE SPANS
• Clonal colonies (the quaking aspen called Pando)
• Mahogany vs. pine
• Time taken for an immortal jellyfish to die
• From the very, very old to the very, very young (Galapagos tortoise to the mayfly)
• The mad cat virus
• Metamorphosis
• Long pupations in cicadas, mayflies, and butterflies
CHAPTER 4: GROWTH SPANS
• Why is an elephant pregnancy so long?
• Time from birth to maturity (human vs. aphid)
• Parenting spans and kittens’ eyes
• A little older than my teeth?
• A cat gives birth
• A baby giraffe learns to walk
• A limb regenerates (human, lizard, jellyfish)
• Every breath we take (comparing respiratory rates)
• Estrous cycles
• In heat
• Skunk rut
• The melatonin effect
• A circadian rhythm
• Hair growth
• Nail growth
• Ugly ducklings (and penguins)
CHAPTER 5: BEHAVIORAL SPANS
• Quick to react? (springbok, fly, sloth)
• Sleep tight (sloth, cat, bird)
• Hibernation
• For a beaver to build a kingdom
• For a bowerbird to build a bower
• For a weaverbird to weave a nest
• Alzheimers
CHAPTER 6: DECOMPOSITION SPANS
• Pumpkin
• Human
• Aging
• Whale fall
• Rock erosion
Further reading
Index
Acknowledgments
  Show More