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Dazzled and deceived: mimicry and camouflage

By: Publication details: Yale University Press New Haven 2009Description: xv, 283 pISBN:
  • 9780300125399
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 578.47  F6D2
Summary: Nature has perfected the art of deception. Thousands of creatures all over the world—including butterflies, moths, fish, birds, insects and snakes—have honed and practiced camouflage over hundreds of millions of years. Imitating other animals or their surroundings, nature’s fakers use mimicry to protect themselves, to attract and repel, to bluff and warn, to forage, and to hide. The advantages of mimicry are obvious—but how does “blind” nature do it? And how has humanity learned to profit from nature’s ploys? Dazzled and Deceived tells the unique and fascinating story of mimicry and camouflage in science, art, warfare, and the natural world. Discovered in the 1850s by the young English naturalists Henry Walter Bates and Alfred Russel Wallace in the Amazonian rainforest, the phenomenon of mimicry was seized upon as the first independent validation of Darwin’s theory of natural selection. But mimicry and camouflage also created a huge impact outside the laboratory walls. Peter Forbes’s cultural history links mimicry and camouflage to art, literature, military tactics, and medical cures across the twentieth century, and charts its intricate involvement with the perennial dispute between evolution and creationism. As Dazzled and Deceived unravels the concept of mimicry, Forbes introduces colorful stories and a dazzling cast of characters—Roosevelt, Picasso, Nabokov, Churchill, and Darwin himself, to name a few—whom its mystery influenced and enthralled. Illuminating and lively, Dazzled and Deceived sheds new light on the greatest quest: to understand the processes of life at its deepest level. Table of content: Ch. 1. Darwinians, mockers and mimics Ch. 2. Swallowtails and Amazon Ch. 3. Delight in deception Ch. 4. Pangenesis Ch. 5. On the wings of angels Ch. 6. Dazzle in the dock: The First World War Ch. 7. Camouflage and cubism in the First World War Ch. 8. Hopeful monsters? Ch. 9. The natural history of the visual pun Ch. 10. Cannibals and Sunshields Ch. 11. Dazzle (revisited) to D-Day Ch. 12. From butterflies to babies and back Ch. 13. The aromas of mimicry Ch. 14. The tinkerer's palette Ch. 15. The Heliconius variations Ch. 16. A shifting spectrum (http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300178968)
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Item type Current library Item location Collection Shelving location Call number Status Date due Barcode
Books Vikram Sarabhai Library Rack 33-A / Slot 1709 (2nd Floor, East Wing) Non-fiction General Stacks 578.47 F6D2 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 189738

Nature has perfected the art of deception. Thousands of creatures all over the world—including butterflies, moths, fish, birds, insects and snakes—have honed and practiced camouflage over hundreds of millions of years. Imitating other animals or their surroundings, nature’s fakers use mimicry to protect themselves, to attract and repel, to bluff and warn, to forage, and to hide. The advantages of mimicry are obvious—but how does “blind” nature do it? And how has humanity learned to profit from nature’s ploys?
Dazzled and Deceived tells the unique and fascinating story of mimicry and camouflage in science, art, warfare, and the natural world. Discovered in the 1850s by the young English naturalists Henry Walter Bates and Alfred Russel Wallace in the Amazonian rainforest, the phenomenon of mimicry was seized upon as the first independent validation of Darwin’s theory of natural selection. But mimicry and camouflage also created a huge impact outside the laboratory walls. Peter Forbes’s cultural history links mimicry and camouflage to art, literature, military tactics, and medical cures across the twentieth century, and charts its intricate involvement with the perennial dispute between evolution and creationism.
As Dazzled and Deceived unravels the concept of mimicry, Forbes introduces colorful stories and a dazzling cast of characters—Roosevelt, Picasso, Nabokov, Churchill, and Darwin himself, to name a few—whom its mystery influenced and enthralled. Illuminating and lively, Dazzled and Deceived sheds new light on the greatest quest: to understand the processes of life at its deepest level.

Table of content:
Ch. 1. Darwinians, mockers and mimics
Ch. 2. Swallowtails and Amazon
Ch. 3. Delight in deception
Ch. 4. Pangenesis
Ch. 5. On the wings of angels
Ch. 6. Dazzle in the dock: The First World War
Ch. 7. Camouflage and cubism in the First World War
Ch. 8. Hopeful monsters?
Ch. 9. The natural history of the visual pun
Ch. 10. Cannibals and Sunshields
Ch. 11. Dazzle (revisited) to D-Day
Ch. 12. From butterflies to babies and back
Ch. 13. The aromas of mimicry
Ch. 14. The tinkerer's palette
Ch. 15. The Heliconius variations
Ch. 16. A shifting spectrum
(http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300178968)

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