THE RED QUEEN Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature by MATT RIDLEY

Why do we have sex? One of the main biological reasons, contends Ridley, is to combat disease. By constantly combining and recombining genes every generation, people "keep their genes one step ahead of their parasites," thereby strengthening resistance to bacteria and viruses that cause deadly diseases or epidemics. Called the "Red Queen Theory" by biologists after the chess piece in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass which runs but stays in the same place, this hypothesis is just one of the controversial ideas put forth in this witty, elegantly written inquiry. Ridley, a London-based science writer and a former editor of the Economist , argues that men are polygamous for the obvious reason that whichever gender has to spend the most time and energy creating and rearing offspring tends to avoid extra mating. Women, though far less interested in multiple partners, will commit adultery if stuck with a mediocre mate. In Ridley's not wholly convincing conclusion, even human intellect is chalked up to sex: virtuosity, individuality, inventiveness and related traits are what make people sexually attractive. Photos. BOMC and QPB alternates. 

Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution

Read an excellent article of Dobzhansky.

Theodosius Grygorovych Dobzhansky, also known as T. G. Dobzhansky, and sometimesAnglicized to Theodore Dobzhansky (Ukrainian — Теодосій Григорович Добжанський; January 24, 1900 - December 18, 1975) was a prominent geneticist and evolutionary biologist, and a central figure in the field of evolutionary biology for his work in shaping the unifying modern evolutionary synthesis. Dobzhansky was born in Ukraine (then part of Imperial Russia) and emigrated to the United States as a young man in 1927.

Human Senescence:Evolutionary and Biocultural Perspectives

Much current research on the biology of senescence is on cell lines,
nematodes, or fruit flies, which may be only of peripheral relevance to
the problems encountered in human senescence. Human Senescence reviews
the evolutionary biology of human senescence and life span, and
the evolutionarily recent development of late-life survival. In examining
how human patterns of and variability in growth and development have
altered later life survival probabilities and competencies, how survival
during mid-life contributes to senescent dysfunction and alteration, and
the possibilities of further extending human life span, it gives a better understanding
of howhumans came to senesce as slowly as they do. Bringing

The Evolutionary Emergence of Language

Language has no counterpart in the animal world. Unique to Homo sapiens, it
appears inseparable from human nature. But how, when and why did it emerge?
The contributors to this volume – linguists, anthropologists, cognitive scientists and
others – adopt a modern Darwinian perspective to offer a bold synthesis of the human and natural sciences. As a feature of human social intelligence, language evolution is driven by biologically anomalous levels of social cooperation. Phonetic competence correspondingly reflects social pressures for vocal imitation, learning and other forms of social transmission. Distinctively human social and cultural strategies gave rise to the complex syntactic structure of speech. This book, presenting language as a remarkable social adaptation, testifies to the growing influence of evolutionary thinking in contemporary linguistics. It will be welcomed by all those interested in human evolution, evolutionary psychology, linguistic anthropology and general
linguistics.

Content and Consciousness by Daniel C. Dennett

Content and Consciousness
Daniel C. Dennett










A pioneering work in the philosophy of mind, Content and Consciousness brings together the approaches of philosophers and scientists to the mind--a connection that must occur if genuine analysis of the mind is to be made.

Evolution by Douglas J. Futuyma

In its scope and emphases, Evolution is a readily recognized descendant of the author's previous textbook, Evolutionary Biology. However, it is much shorter and is exclusively directed toward an undergraduate audience. Teachers and students will find the list of important concepts and terms in each chapter a helpful guide, and will appreciate the radically different dynamic figures and lively photographs. The content of all chapters has been updated, and material has been reorganized into new chapters such as "Conflict and Cooperation" and "How To Be Fit." Contributors Scott V. Edwards and John R. True have provided authoritative chapters on "Evolution of Genes and Genomes" and "Development and Evolution," two of the most rapidly developing subjects in evolutionary biology. A new final chapter on "Evolutionary Science, Creationism, and Society" treats such topics as the nature of science and the practical applications of evolutionary biology.

Unmasking Muhammad

“Muslims need to write an honest biography of the Prophet that does not shun the truth, least of
all cover it up with the dishonest subterfuge of condescending the Western scholars”.
------ Ibn Warraq, 2000, p. 21.
Towards the beginning of last century, there was a rising interest among the Western scholars to
investigate the origins of Islam and its founder, i.e., Prophet Muhammad. For this they had used
highest standard of historical scholarship available at that time. Their aim was to collect
authentic information about Muhammad and the rise of early Islam by carefully separating the
facts from fictions. In some ways the research on Muhammad was inspired by a similar type of
investigation of Christianity made famous by Albert Schweitzer’s famous work ‘The Quest of
the Historical Jesus’.

Charles Darwin and The Origin of Species

In 1985, the Italian scientist Antonella La Vergata remarked that the

‘‘Darwin’s-place-in-history approach’’ dominated writing about Darwin
and the development of the theory of evolution before 1960. Darwin
was the colossus who stood above every other scientist in the nineteenth
century when it came to developing a theory about the origin
of life. La Vergata’s argument was that historians and scientists who
used this approach ignored the important contributions made by Darwin’s
contemporaries as well as other scientists who preceded and followed
him. Even worse, this approach ignored the large number of
people to whom Darwin wrote letters either to discuss the research he
was doing or to obtain the answers to questions he had. Darwin should
be viewed as part of a community even if he was the central figure in
this community.1 While acknowledging La Vergata’s criticism, this book

What makes us Human?

What makes us human? is based on the talks presented at a
symposium with that title, organised by the Oxford International
Biomedical Centre in conjunction with the Royal
Institution, in Oxford in March 2006. The five distinguished speakers
on that occasion have now been joined by a further ten experts, giving
the subject the broadest coverage possible. The background of the
contributors, from Italy and New Zealand, from UK and USA,
ranges across anthropology, biochemistry, medicine, neuroscience,
philosophy, psychology, and religion. It is not often that you get writers
of the calibre of Susan Blackmore, Walter Bodmer, Michael
Corballis, Robin Dunbar, Maurizio Gentilucci, Richard Harries,
David Hulme, Stephen Oppenheimer, Charles Pasternak, Thomas Suddendorf, Ian Tattersall, Andrew Whiten, Lewis Wolpert, and Richard Wrangham under one cover. Click on any of these names on
the internet and the breadth of their erudition will be obvious.

Genome- The autobiography of a species in 23 chapters- Matt Ridley

Science writer Matt Ridley has found a way to tell someone else's story without being accused of plagiarism. Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters delves deep within your body (and, to be fair, Ridley's too) looking for dirt dug up by the Human Genome Project. Each chapter pries one gene out of its chromosome and focuses on its role in our development and adult life, but also goes further, exploring the implications of genetic research and our quickly changing social attitudes toward this information. Genome shies away from the "tedious biochemical middle managers" that only a nerd could love and instead goes for the A-material: genes associated with cancer, intelligence, sex (of course), and more.

Readers unfamiliar with the jargon of genetic research needn't fear; Ridley provides a quick, clear guide to the few words and concepts he must use to translate hard science into English.

The story of Evolution

An ingenious student of science once entertained his generation
with a theory of how one might behold again all the stirring
chapters that make up the story of the earth. The living scene of
our time is lit by the light of the sun, and for every few rays
that enter the human eye, and convey the image of it to the human
mind, great floods of the reflected light pour out, swiftly and
indefinitely, into space. Imagine, then, a man moving out into
space more rapidly than light, his face turned toward the earth.
Flashing through the void at, let us say, a million miles a
second, he would (if we can overlook the dispersion of the rays
of light) overtake in succession the light that fell on the
French Revolution, the Reformation, the Norman Conquest, and the
faces of the ancient empires. He would read, in reverse order,
the living history of man and whatever lay before the coming of
man.  Few thought, as they smiled over this fairy tale of science,

The Mating mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature

Why have humans evolved such costly and complex brains? And further, why do we use our brains to produce such seemingly useless behaviors as art or music? Evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller suggests that the reason might lie in what he considers to be Darwin’s most significant contribution to evolution: sexual selection. Sexual selection is different than natural, or “survival” selection, which refers to environmental factors such as climate or predators that affect reproductive success. Sexual selection is much more direct and potentially powerful; it is shaped by the mate preferences of the opposite sex. For these reasons, Miller believes that the inherently awesome power of sexual selection has profoundly affected the equally awesome trajectory of our own species mental evolution through mate choice. The Mating Mindprovides a thorough analysis of how this devil lurks in the details.

WHAT IS DEATH?- A Scientist Looks at the Cycle of Life

They are the questions that have challenged philosophers, theologians, artists, and ordinary human beings for millennia: Why are we born only to die? Does death have meaning? What happens to our "selves" after we die? In What Is Death?, biologist Tyler Volk considers these piercing questions from a unique perspective that allows him to offer readers alternatives to many traditional religious explanations.
Inspired by his own confrontation with mysterious neurological problems, Volk embarks on a personal exploration of the meaning of death and its powerful implications about the meaning of life. The answers–and further questions–that he discovers by asking "What is death?" are surprising, diverse, uplifting, and extraordinarily life-affirming.
What Is Death? examines the phenomenon of death from organic, personal, and social points of view. It sheds light upon the life spans of creatures and the role of cell death in bodily health; contemplates the links among the personal confrontation with death, our brain, and consciousness; and probes the customs and rituals that surround death in various cultures.

Islam: Past, Present and Future

• Author: Hans Kung
• Publisher: Oneworld Publications (2007)
• Language: English
• Pages: 801
• ISBN-10: 1851683771
• ISBN-13: 9781851683772
• Format: PDF

For more than two decades the world religions have been a central topic for Hans Kung. In books which have inspired millions throughout the world, he has pioneered work towards a new dialogue between cultures. In this extraordinarily comprehensive book, he gives an in-depth account of Islam, the second largest world religion after Christianity. Describing paradigm shifts in its 1400-year history,

The Qur'an in Its Historical Context

• Editor: Gabriel Said Reynolds
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (2007)
• Language: English
• Pages: 314
• eISBN-10: 0203939603 (0415428998)
• eISBN-13: 9780203939604
• Format: PDF

Providing commentary on the controversial revisionist school of Qur'anic studies, this book explores the origins, scholarship and development of the Qur'an. The collection of articles, each written by a distinguished author, treat very familiar passages of the Quran in a original manner, combining

Islam: An Historical Introduction

This highly acclaimed survey provides a thoughtful and concise account of all aspects of Islam in history. Following an appraisal of the study of Islam, Gerhard Endress guides the reader through key elements:


• Religion (including the Revelation of the prophet Muhammad and the development of doctrine in its historical setting)
• Law and the state in medieval Islam
• Social and economic aspects of medieval Islam
• The historical development of each of the main regions of the Islamic world (the Arabian peninsula; Syria and Palestine; Iraq; Spain; North Africa; Egypt; Iran; Anatolia)
• The principal trends and major periods of Islamic history
• The development of Arabic, Persian and Turkish languages
• Names and Titles

A history of Medieval Islam

This is an introduction to the history of the Muslim East from the rise of Islam to the Mongol conquests. It explains and indicates the main trends of Islamic historical evolution during the Middle Ages, and will help the non-Orientalist to understand something of the relationship between Islam and Christendom in those centuries.

A collection of Jihad verses in Koran

In our present world the word "Jihad" is something like a bomb. This word terrorize everyone. Jihad has originated from Koran. But the Islamic apologetics has been denying this fact from the very beginning. So we the mass people are confused, whether to believe the apologetics or the facts we are seeing everyday through out the world. In this book author  has gathered  many verses about Jihad. People can now see whether there are Jihadi verses in the Koran exists or not.

যে সত্য বলা হয় নি

যে সত্য বলা হয় নি

আকাশ মালিক

ঢাকা থেকে শীঘ্রই প্রকাশিতব্য

মুক্তমনায় রাখা গুরুত্বপূর্ণ  এ বইটিতে আকাশ মালিক বিধৃত করেছেন ধর্ম - বিশেষতঃ ইসলামের উৎপত্তি এবং বিকাশের এক প্রাঞ্জল উপাখ্যান। ধর্মের সামাজিক এবং রাজনৈতিক ইতিহাস থেকে শুরু করে ইসলামের জন্ম, কোরানের সঙ্কলন, মহানবীর জীবন যাপন, বিয়ে এবং ধর্ম প্রচার থেকে শুরু করে ইসলামের চার খলিফার শাসন পর্যন্ত এক ধারাবাহিক চিত্র এই বইয়ে অলঙ্কৃত হয়েছে।