Engineering animals [electronic resource] : how life works / Mark Denny, Alan McFadzean.
Denny, Mark, 1953-; McFadzean, Alan, 1958-
2011
QP31.2 .D46 2011eb
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Title Engineering animals [electronic resource] : how life works / Mark Denny, Alan McFadzean.
Author Denny, Mark, 1953-
ISBN 9780674060852 electronic book
9780674048546
Publication Details Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011.
Language English
Description 1 online rewsource (viii, 385 p.) : ill.
Call Number QP31.2 .D46 2011eb
Dewey Decimal Classification 591.7
Summary From an engineer's perspective, how do specialized adaptations among living things really work? In this book the authors offer a look at animals, including humans, as works of evolutionary engineering, each adapted to a specific manner of survival whether that means spinning webs or flying across continents or hunting in the dark, or writing books. The alarm calls of birds make them difficult for predators to locate, while the howl of wolves and the croak of bullfrogs are designed to carry across long distances. From an engineer's perspective, how do such specialized adaptations among living things really work? And how does physics constrain evolution, channeling it in particular directions? This particular book, containing more than a hundred illustrations, conveys the physical principles underlying animal structure and behavior. Pigeons, for instance, when understood as marvels of engineering, are flying remote sensors: they have wideband acoustical receivers, hi-res optics, magnetic sensing, and celestial navigation. Albatrosses expend little energy while traveling across vast southern oceans, by exploiting a technique known to glider pilots as dynamic soaring. Among insects, one species of fly can locate the source of a sound precisely, even though the fly itself is much smaller than the wavelength of the sound it hears. And that big-brained, upright Great Ape? Evolution has equipped us to figure out an important fact about the natural world: that there is more to life than engineering, but no life at all without it.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references (p. [351]-369) and index.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description Description based on print version record.
Added Author McFadzean, Alan, 1958-
Available in Other Form Engineering animals.
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Structure and Movement. Go with the flow ; Structural engineering : the bare bones ; A moving experience ; A mind of its own ; Built for life ; Simple complexity : emergent behavior
Remote Sensing. A chemical universe ; Sound ideas ; Animal sonar ; Seeing the light ; There and back again : animal navigation ; Talk to the animals.

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