William C Agosta
Author
Description
From mating to parenting, foraging to self-defense, plant and animal activities are accomplished largely by the secretion or exchange of organic chemicals. The fascinating and fast-developing science of chemistry in nature is introduced in a series of remarkable stories that is accessible to the general reader yet revelatory to chemists and biologists.
Author
Description
Whether fighting off a hungry predator with an explosive burst of rocket fuel, or tantalizing a potential mate with a provocative perfume, organisms utilize built-in chemistry to go about their business. Animals and plants send each other warning signals and even broadcast calls for help, as well as create protective camouflage, make glue, lay trails, and poison their enemies. Bombardier Beetles and Fever Trees unravels the mystery behind these chemical...
Author
Description
"A wounded minnow attempts to rejoin its school and the other minnows scatter in panic; a single beetle finds a pine tree to its liking and soon thousands of beetles swarm that tree and others in the vicinity; a male Syrian golden hamster is drawn along an invisible trail to a burrow where a female hamster awaits him, ready for mating. These animals are responding to received communications, but, as in countless other occurrences in nature, the language...