Camouflage is blending into a natural environment, but mimicry is pretending to be another living thing to survive. Amazing photographs highlight this indepth look at the "masters of mimicry" who use shape, pattern, sound, smell, and/or behavior to fool predators or prey.

In the animal world, the easiest way to avoid being eaten is to avoid being seen. What are Camouflage and Mimicry? examines animals that use unique colorization to avoid their predators - or to sneak up on prey! So highly developed is the camouflage of some animals, that they are virtually impossible to see. Examples include: - spots and stripes that blend into the shadows - bright colors that warn of toxic poisons - animals that look like rocks, plants, or even other animals - animals that can change colors to blend into virtually any background

“Why we run with—or avoid—the crowd, and why it matters, from choosing a restaurant in a tourist trap to believing fake news. I learned a lot” (Tim Harford, author of The Undercover Economist). Rioting teenagers, tumbling stock markets, and the spread of religious terrorism appear to have little in common, but all are driven by the same basic instincts: the tendency to herd, follow, and imitate others. In today’s interconnected world, group choices all too often seem maladaptive. With unprecedented speed, information—or misinformation—flashes across the globe and drives rapid shifts in group opinion. Adverse results can include speculative economic bubbles, irrational denigration of scientists and other experts, seismic political reversals, and more. Drawing on insights from across the social, behavioral, and natural sciences, Michelle Baddeley explores contexts in which behavior is driven by the herd. She analyzes the rational vs. nonrational and cognitive vs. emotional forces involved, and she investigates why herding only sometimes works out well. With new perspectives on followers, leaders, and the pros and cons of herd behavior, Baddeley shines vivid light on human behavior in the context of our ever-more-connected world. “Her observations on how both risk-taking and conformism contributed to Donald Trump’s election, and on how social media affects ‘copycats,’ make for a well-timed and valuable study.” —Publishers Weekly “This might well become the defining book, for this decade and more, on the topic of herding and social influence.” —Cass Sunstein, co-author of Nudge

Details the new phenomena of copycat crime inspired by technology and the hyperreality fueled in some people by digital culture and video games. Across her 30-year career in criminology, author Jacqueline Helfgott has watched with fascination and fear as the world has shifted from a place where one-dimensional televised news each evening and newspapers bought each morning provided the only information on crimes and killings. Now, nonstop, instant global news coverage on 24-hour television and the internet enables people to see and replay not only crime, violence, terrorism, and murder coverage provided by journalists in real time, but also Facebook and YouTube feeds filmed by the criminals themselves while perpetrating the crimes. In this riveting text about the consequences of our technical, digital, and cultural changes, Helfgott focuses on how these advances are perpetuating this era's new and more massively deadly acts. The book intertwines vignettes from current events, perpetrator statements, police reports, and current research to show how copycat crimes are linked to media, technology, and our digital culture. Concluding with recommendations to reduce the criminogenic effects of media, technology, and digital culture, this book also includes an appendix listing technology- and media-influenced copycat crimes.

Explores how animals use mimicry to protect themselves.

Train dogs based on "social learning"? Yes! Recent research suggests chat dogs can engage in social learning which includes the ability to observe the actions of other dogs and imitate them to learn new behaviors. The big news for dog trainers is that author Claudia Fugazza and her colleagues in Europe have discovered that dogs can also imitate people. This natural skill can be used to teach dogs new behaviors using the Do As I Do protocol presented in this book-DVD combination. The "Do As I Do" method is particularly useful in working with service dogs and canine athletes who must masters skills such as ringing a bell, jumping over a hurdle, spinning and dozens more. Learn about: The fascinating research which shows that dogs can observe, then imitate human behavior and remember it over time. How you can start with a known behavior, then teach the dog to perform the behavior after observing you demonstrate it, followed by the new cue "Do it!" Eventually the dog learns that "Do it!" means to do whatever has just been demonstrated by the trainer, even new behaviors. How this method can build a closer bond between you and your dog, bring new energy and joy to your training efforts and challenge your thinking about how dogs learn. Book jacket.

Explore famous scientific discoveries through humorous comic strips - then have a go at copying the science experiments for yourself!

Winner • Pulitzer Prize for History Winner • Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction Finalist • National Book Critics Circle Award (Nonfiction) A New York Times Notable Book of the Year Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Washington Post, NPR, Library Journal, and gCaptain Booklist Editors’ Choice (History) Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence In this “cri de coeur about the Gulf’s environmental ruin” (New York Times), “Davis has written a beautiful homage to a neglected sea” (front page, New York Times Book Review). Hailed as a “nonfiction epic . . . in the tradition of Jared Diamond’s best-seller Collapse, and Simon Winchester’s Atlantic” (Dallas Morning News), Jack E. Davis’s The Gulf is “by turns informative, lyrical, inspiring and chilling for anyone who cares about the future of ‘America’s Sea’ ” (Wall Street Journal). Illuminating America’s political and economic relationship with the environment from the age of the conquistadors to the present, Davis demonstrates how the Gulf’s fruitful ecosystems and exceptional beauty empowered a growing nation. Filled with vivid, untold stories from the sportfish that launched Gulfside vacationing to Hollywood’s role in the country’s first offshore oil wells, this “vast and welltold story shows how we made the Gulf . . . [into] a ‘national sacrifice zone’ ” (Bill McKibben). The first and only study of its kind, The Gulf offers “a unique and illuminating history of the American Southern coast and sea as it should be written” (Edward O. Wilson).

Jane Jacobs has spent years changing the way we think about economic life in general. Now, in The Nature of Economies, Jacobs proposes a radical notion that has breath-taking common sense: economies are governed by the same rules as nature itself. With the simplicity of an extremely wise and seasoned thinker, Jane Jacobs shows us that by looking to nature, we can develop economies that are both efficient and ecologically friendly. The Nature of Economies is written in dialogue form: five intelligent friends discussing over coffee how economies work. The result is a wonderfully provocative, truly ground-breaking work by one of the great thinkers of our time.

Read Along or Enhanced eBook: This fun title asks readers to think about how different body coverings protect animals by keeping them warm and safe. From fur and feathers to scales and shells, readers get a close-up look at different animal coats to see how they suit the habitats and lives of the animals that are covered in them.