Here Comes the Sun: How it feeds us, kills us, heals us and makes us what we are

Description

Our sun drives the weather, forms the landscape, feeds and fuels - but sometimes destroys - the creatures that live upon it, controls their patterns of activity, makes chemicals in the skin that cheer up those who bask in its rays, and for the ancients was the seat of divine authority. In Here Comes the Sun, Steve Jones shows how life on Earth is ruled by our nearest star. It is filled with unexpected connections; between the need to stay cool and man's ability to stand upright, between the power of memory and the onset of darkness, between the flow of solar energy through the plants and animals and of wealth through society, and between Joseph Goebbel's 1938 scheme to make Edinburgh the summer capital of a defeated Britain and the widening gap in the life expectancy of Scottish men compared to that of other European men brought on by thnat nation's cloudy climate. Its author charts some of his own research in places hot and cold across the globe on the genetic and evolutionary effects of sunlight on snails, fruit-flies and people and shows how what was once no more an eccentric specialism has grown to become a subject of wide scientific, social and political significance. Stunningly evocative, beautifully written and packed full of insight, Here Comes the Sun is Steve Jones's most personal book to date.

Steve Jones is a Senior Research Fellow at University College, London and has worked at universities in the USA, Australia and Africa. He gave the Reith Lectures in 1991 and presented a BBC TV series on human genetics and evolution in 1996. He appears frequently on radio and television.

With wry wit and real clarity, geneticist Steve Jones examines the Sun and our relationship to it. It's a nimble narrative, from the physics of the "hydrogen bomb in the sky" to its impact on the biosphere, water cycle, food chain, human health and climate change. Jones braids in gripping storylines - on conditions linked to lack of sunlight (such as the bone disease rickets) and the interplay between night, day and sleep - and many throwaway gems, from primates urinating on themselves to stay cool, to the boiling-porridge turbulence of convection on the solar surface * Nature * A richly readable guide to all things solar . . . one of the country's best writers of popular science. His wit, insight and ability to home in on a subject's most memorable facts enliven Here Comes The Sun from the start * Daily Mail * A must read for everyone and anyone who cares about life on Earth -- Barry Sheerman MP * The House magazine * Every Steve Jones book is a masterclass in clear and captivating writing with tantalising detours into beguiling anecdotes. Here Comes the Sun is dense with ideas and stories and, like all his books, it will change the way you see the world around you -- Robin Ince From solar storms to Spanish snails, scented cakes to sleep science, this book shimmers with fascinating facts. Illuminating, warm, fascinating and funny - Steve Jones' writing is as brightly illuminating as the sunlight he writes about. A shimmering tale of sun, snails and science -- Professor Alice Roberts