David Quammen Boeken

Eilanden zijn niet alleen oorden waar unieke dieren leven; een verstoring van het biologisch evenwicht leidt er tot snel en massaal uitsterven. De dodo is slechts één van een lange lijst. Nu het landschap op de continenten in eilanden uiteen is gevallen, geldt die kwetsbaarheid voor de gehele aarde. Hoe snel zal ons gefragmenteerde dierenrijk ineenstorten? Hoe houden we de rafelige restanten natuur in leven? Dat zijn de vragen die eilandbiografen zich stellen. David Quammen reisde de wereld rond en schreef een meeslepend epos over eilandbiografie in de praktijk. Ondanks de grimmige staat waarin de aarde verkeert ademt Het lied van de dodo hoop. Er zijn, zoals de ecoloog Michael Soulé zegt, geen hopeloze gevallen, alleen dúre gevallen en mensen zonder hoop.

Mayberry, met een staat van dienst in de Vietnam Special Forces, denkt een kalm leven gevonden te hebben. Dan ontvangt hij 'van een broer van een vriend' een brief met de formule voor een 'superbom'. Hij houdt het best bewaakte geheim van de Amerikaanse regering in handen. Waarom juist hij? Mayberry raakt in een maalstroom van gebeurtenissen. Sommiige verwacht hij, andere zijn onvoorstelbaar. Ze voeren hem terug nar Vietnam. Waarom? Hij moet het weten? Naar de hel met de kalmte! David Quammens roman is een briljante mengeling an feiten en fictie, waarin de race om de 'superbom' de achtergrond vormt voor een met grote vaart geschreven verhaal over internationale nucleaire spionage. David Quammen is een meester van de suspense in de traditie van Eric Ambler en Len Deighton.

Exploring the complex relationship between animals and human health, this book delves into how animal infections can lead to pandemics. It highlights various zoonotic diseases, their origins, and the ecological factors that contribute to their spillover into human populations. Through compelling narratives and scientific insights, the author emphasizes the urgent need for better understanding and monitoring of these infectious agents to prevent future outbreaks. The work serves as a call to action for improved public health strategies and global cooperation.

First, a horse in Brisbane falls ill: fever, swelling, bloody froth.In a journey that takes him from southern China to the Congo, from Bangladesh to Australia, David Quammen tracks these infections to their source and asks what we can do to prevent some new pandemic spreading across the face of the earth.

David Quammen's book, The Song of the Dodo, is a brilliant, stirring work, breathtaking in its scope, far-reaching in its message -- a crucial book in precarious times, which radically alters the way in which we understand the natural world and our place in that world. It's also a book full of entertainment and wonders. In The Song of the Dodo, we follow Quammen's keen intellect through the ideas, theories, and experiments of prominent naturalists of the last two centuries. We trail after him as he travels the world, tracking the subject of island biogeography, which encompasses nothing less than the study of the origin and extinction of all species. Why is this island idea so important? Because islands are where species most commonly go extinct -- and because, as Quammen points out, we live in an age when all of Earth's landscapes are being chopped into island-like fragments by human activity. Through his eyes, we glimpse the nature of evolution and extinction, and in so doing come to understand the monumental diversity of our planet, and the importance of preserving its wild landscapes, animals, and plants. We also meet some fascinating human characters. By the book's end we are wiser, and more deeply concerned, but Quammen leaves us with a message of excitement and hope.

Examines the emergence and causes of new diseases all over the world, describing a process called “spillover” where illness originates in wild animals before being passed to humans and discusses the potential for the next huge pandemic. 70,000 first printing.

The collection features a series of essays where David Quammen examines the intersection of civilization and the natural world. He delves into the complexities of coexisting with nature, highlighting the challenges and responsibilities that arise in this delicate balance. Through his travels and reflections, Quammen offers insights into the relationship between humanity and the environment, prompting readers to consider their role in preserving the natural world.

**A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022 and FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2023** **Shortlisted for the Royal Science Society Book Prize 2023** From the author of the prescient Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic Breathless is the story of the scientific quest to decipher, control and fight Covid-19. Breathless traces SARS-CoV-2's fierce journey through the human population as seen by the scientists who study its origin, ever-changing nature and capacity to kill. It shows how strange viruses emerge as we disrupt wild ecosystems - sometimes causing global catastrophe - and suggests this coronavirus could be a 'forever virus' that's destined to bedevil us endlessly. Quammen also explains that experts saw this pandemic coming; that scientists warned 'the next big one' would be caused by a changeable new virus, but were ignored for political or economic reasons; and that while the origins of this virus may not be known for years, some suppositions are compelling and others can be dismissed. Breathless takes us inside the frantic international effort to control SARS-CoV-2 as if peering over the shoulders of the brilliant scientists who led the chase. Praise for Spillover: 'A frightening and fascinating masterpiece of science reporting' Walter Isaacson 'A real-life thriller with an outcome that affects us all' Elizabeth Kolbert

A revised and expanded edition of Quammenâ s first book of nonfiction, including the best of his recent work.â Lively writing about science and nature depends less on the offering of good answers, I think, than on the offering of good questions,â said David Quammen in the original introduction to Natural Acts. For more than two decades, he has stuck to that credo. In this updated version of his first essay collection, Quammenâ s lively curiosity leads him from New Mexico to Romania, from the Congo to the Amazon, asking questions about mosquitoes (what are their redeeming merits?), dinosaurs (how did they change the life of a dyslexic Vietnam vet?), and cloning (can it save endangered species?). This expanded edition returns to print Quammenâ s best-loved â Natural Actsâ columns, which first appeared in Outside magazine in the early 1980s, and includes recent pieces such as â Planet of Weeds,â an influential Harperâ s cover story. The new Natural Acts is an eye-opening journey that will please both Quammen fans and newcomers to his work.

In this "frightening and fascinating masterpiece" (Walter Isaacson), David Quammen explores the true origins of HIV/AIDS. The real story of AIDS—how it originated with a virus in a chimpanzee, jumped to one human, and then infected more than 60 million people—is very different from what most of us think we know. Recent research has revealed dark surprises and yielded a radically new scenario of how AIDS began and spread. Excerpted and adapted from the book Spillover, with a new introduction by the author, Quammen's hair-raising investigation tracks the virus from chimp populations in the jungles of southeastern Cameroon to laboratories across the globe, as he unravels the mysteries of when, where, and under what circumstances such a consequential "spillover" can happen. An audacious search for answers amid more than a century of data, The Chimp and the River tells the haunting tale of one of the most devastating pandemics of our time.