Civilization and Science by 
Science, Culture and Society by
What is science? Science, Culture and Society tackles this difficult question. We used to be quite certain about science, and science used to be quite certain about the world: it was the form of knowledge and set of practical activities that would allow us to unravel the 'mysteries of creation' and the 'laws of nature'. Yet despite the important contribution made by science to today's knowledge economies and knowledge societies, it is considered by many to be remote, and even dangerous. As science becomes more important, we have less understanding of what science actually is. Science, Culture and Society attempts to redress this knowledge gap and to provide an alternative framework for making sense of science. The book addresses key questions of what science is and how it is carried out, what the relationship between science and society is, how science is represented in contemporary culture, and how scientific institutions are structured. Drawing on methods from cultural studies and sociology the book locates science in a social and cultural perspective and provides a wide-ranging introduction to the social and cultural dimensions of science. Designed as a primary text for undergraduates at all levels it will be key reading on courses in the sociology of science, cultural studies of science and technology, philosophy of science, and science and technology studies.
How Science Works by 
Darwin Comes to Town by
*Carrion crows in the Japanese city of Sendai have learned to use passing traffic to crack nuts. *Lizards in Puerto Rico are evolving feet that better grip surfaces like concrete. *Europe's urban blackbirds sing at a higher pitch than their rural cousins, to be heardover the din of traffic. How is this happening? Menno Schilthuizen is one of a growing number of "urban ecologists" studying how our manmade environments are accelerating and changing the evolution of the animals and plants around us. In Darwin Comes to Town, he takes us around the world for an up-close look at just how stunningly flexible and swift-moving natural selection can be. With human populations growing, we're having an increasing impact on global ecosystems, and nowhere do these impacts overlap as much as they do in cities. The urban environment is about as extreme as it gets, and the wild animals and plants that live side-by-side with us need to adapt to a whole suite of challenging conditions: they must manage in the city's hotter climate (the "urban heat island"); they need to be able to live either in the semidesert of the tall, rocky, and cavernous structures we call buildings or in the pocket-like oases of city parks (which pose their own dangers, including smog and free-rangingdogs and cats); traffic causes continuous noise, a mist of fine dust particles, and barriers to movement for any animal that cannot fly or burrow; food sources are mainly human-derived. And yet, as Schilthuizen shows, the wildlife sharing these spaces with us is not just surviving, but evolving ways of thriving. Darwin Comes toTown draws on eye-popping examples of adaptation to share a stunning vision of urban evolution in which humans and wildlife co-exist in a unique harmony. It reveals that evolution can happen far more rapidly than Darwin dreamed, while providing a glimmer of hope that our race toward over population might not take the rest of nature down with us.
The databases PubMed and Web of Science will also be useful. Below you can find some top genetics journals and websites.
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