The Well-read Naturalist

blue background, ocean sciences meeting 2026, book covers left to right titled deep water, the best science stories and how they work, get 30% off and free domestic shipping

white background, book cover top center titled shell day, book cover bottom left titled the evolution of cetacean societies, book cover bottom right titled principles of animal behavior fifth edition

purple background, book cover top left titled the pale blue data point, book cover top right titled is anyone listening?, book cover bottom center titled fascinating shells

Even though #OSM2026 is coming to a close, there's still time to visit our virtual exhibit! Don't forget, our 30% discount and free shipping with code EX58246 is still available. Explore more here: bit.ly/UCPOSM

From Victorian voyages to vanishing maps: Books in brief Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.

Just spotted in @nature.com: a brilliant roundup of fascinating science books, including The Wake of HMS Challenger by Gillen D’Arcy Wood! This book is out now. Read the full review here:

Ancient by Luke Barley review – the secret history of Britain’s woodlands A former ranger tells the story of how the UK’s forests intimately shaped – and were shaped by – its people

'Luke Barley sets out to tell a more complex and fascinating tale of our forests and the people that have lived with and made use of them'

#Ancient by forester Luke Barley is the @theguardian.com's Book of the Day!

Step into the woods and discover the trees that made Britain 🌳

💧‘It falls in a moment. When the heaviest droplets of ice can no longer be held, the first slips from the sky and plunges, down through the damp, cold air, thawing as it falls. Once one slips, the others come. The earth inhaling rain, again.’

📕 #TheWaterlands by @steverutt.bsky.social, out 26 March

I did, so I will. Thank you very much for making it available!

"An excellent book that will have wide appeal. Summing Up: Highly recommended." —Choice Connect
Just saying.... 🌊

Human Dispersal, Human Evolution, and the Sea: The Palaeolithic Seafaring Debate by John F. Cherry and Thomas P. Leppard

In the nude. ;-)

Know your enemies.

“Why Study Biology By The Sea” is a favourite of mine.

A pink silhouette of a stork on a green background. Text over the image is an endorsement from Irby Lovette, Cornell Lab of Ornithology Director: "Professor Gibson invites us to marvel at birds anew, unpacking the astonishing adaptations behind the creatures we love. Her lively explorations show why they so deserve our astonishment."

"What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears ... as universal as a bird?" — David Attenborough

Lorna Gibson's "Birds Up Close" explores the wonderful engineering that keeps our feathered friends aloft and alive. Out April 28th: mitpress.mit.edu/978026204989...

Butterflies of Britain and Western Europe and Their Caterpillars For those aurelians who have been eagerly awaiting the publication of Jean-Pierre Moussus' "Butterflies of Britain and Western Europe and Their Caterpillars: An Identification Guide" to be published i...

For those aurelians who have been eagerly awaiting “Butterflies of Britain and Western Europe and Their Caterpillars: An Identification Guide” (@princetonupress.bsky.social) to be published in the U.S. following its publication last December in the U.K., the wait is finally over.

This was a very informative and well presented lecture. It should be viewed by everyone as the rapid expansion of AI affects us all.

Will Life on Mars Require a Genetic Rewrite? Microgravity, radiation, and extreme climates pose ethical and biological challenges that researchers are racing to overcome.

"Like tortoises and finches on Earthly islands, the conditions on each of the cosmic islands will influence how the people there will evolve."

Everybody Is Interested in Pigeons Throughout history people have fancied pigeons for food, pharmaceuticals, and hobby breeding.

A new excerpt on pigeons, from Jones's 'Beastly Britain', has just been published in Plough! Read on below.

Mr. Southey clearly understood why those of us who prefer to spend so much time amongst "the dead" prefer to do so.

My hopes are with the Dead; anon
My place with them will be,
And I with them shall travel on
Through all Futurity;
Yet leaving here a name, I trust,
That will not perish in the dust.

My thoughts are with the Dead; with them
I live in long-past years,
Their virtues love, their faults condemn,
Partake their hopes and fears,
And from their lessons seek and find
Instruction with an humble mind.

With them I take delight in weal
And seek relief in woe;
And while I understand and feel
How much to them I owe,
My cheeks have often been bedew'd
With tears of thoughtful gratitude.

The Scholar, by Robert Southey

My days among the Dead are past;
Around me I behold,
Where'er these casual eyes are cast,
The mighty minds of old:
My never-failing friends are they,
With whom I converse day by day.

Supreme Court strikes down Trump's tariffs The 6-3 ruling is a major blow to the president's signature economic policy.

We interrupt this nature and natural history content for a particularly hearty huzzah!

www.npr.org/2026/02/20/n...

As one who is particularly interested in such animals as these, I look forward to reading this new book from @princetonupress.bsky.social.

After reading one page of Prof. Jim Endersby's "The Arrival of the Fittest" (@uchicagopress.bsky.social) I interrupted my reading of it to read Edith Wharton's short story "The Debt" (@libraryofamerica.bsky.social) from which the title is taken so as to be ready for any forthcoming nuances. #Booksky

"At the Crossroads of the Scientific Revolution" and "Gems and the New Science" both look particularly interesting to the historian of science in me, as does "Boccaccio; A Biography" and "Chasing the Pearl-Manuscript" to the scholar of literature I originally studied to be. #Booksky

Bats of the World: A Guide to Every Family by Winifred Frick and M. Teague O'Mara. A marvelously illustrated look at bats from around the world.

A must for bat lovers everywhere, Bats of the World by @winifred-frick.bsky.social and M. Teague O'Mara showcases the extraordinary diversity of this incredible group of animals. 🦇

Available 3 March! Preorder yours: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

#Bats #Nature #Wildlife #Animals

Wuthering Heights (Oxford World's Classics) 'You said I killed you - haunt me, then ' Wuthering Heights is one of the most famous love stories in the English language. It is also one of the most potent revenge narratives. The intense and unbreakable bond between the fiery Catherine Earnshaw and the foundling Heathcliff has startled and fascinated readers since its first publication in 1847. Of uncertain parentage and ethnicity, Heathcliff comes to Wuthering Heights as a child when Catherine's father finds him wandering alone through the slave-trading port of Liverpool. After Mr Earnshaw's death, Heathcliff and Catherine find refuge in each other when the household falls into the hands of Catherine's dissolute older brother. Their bond deepens as they escape together from the violence and stern religion of their home to the Yorkshire moors. But the story of Catherine and Heathcliff's attachment transforms from intimacy to strife when Catherine marries the refined Edgar Linton. The ensuing story of violence and thwarted passion is one of the most powerful tales of the gothic tradition, a literary mode from which Emily Bront wrings all of its terrifying potential. A regional novel with a global reach, a work of sensational effects with a startling ethical core, Wuthering Heights is both a romantic melodrama and wrenching study of the difficulty of escaping from the legacies of violence. This edition reproduces the authoritative Clarendon text, with revised and expanded notes and a selection from the poems of Emily Bront .

My fellow bibliophiles, do you feel the urge to re-read any classic novel that has been newly made into a film out of a feeling of responsibility to be able to answer questions accurately from anyone who never read the novel and now thinks, eroneously, that the film is a thorough presentation of it?

Is this sale limited to the U.K. or does it extend to other countries as well (my own benighted U.S., for example)?

Faraday Prize Lecture: This is not the AI we were promised | Royal Society Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize Lecture presented by Professor Michael John Wooldridge

Professor Wooldridge is giving our Michael Faraday Prize Lecture this evening, entitled 'This is not the AI we were promised'. Head to our website to watch online: royalsociety.org/science-even...

I hope this is well attended. Each day the situation worsens and @milleridriss.bsky.social presents both the causes and some viable solutions in her book.

I was not aware of Stephen Rutt's "The Waterlands." As such British nature writing genre books are not distributed in the U.S., I shall contact a friendly U.K. bookshop to obtain a copy. #Booksky

A comprehensive photographic field guide to the butterflies & caterpillars of Britain & Western Europe—as well as the Canaries, the Azores, Madeira, & Cyprus. 🦋🐛

Butterflies of Britain and Western Europe and Their Caterpillars is now available!

Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...