Author(s): Zoe Kean

Science | Summer Reading Guide 2024/25

What can snorkelling at Shark Bay teach us about the evolution of sex? Will the secrets of our gendered society be uncovered by stick insects? What can Tasmanian devils teach us about the evolution of cancer? And why did we evolve to spend a third of our life asleep?Some questions have nipped at humanity's heels for as long as we've been ... well, humans. Modern science and evolutionary thinking have uncovered fresh and exciting answers to these perennial head-scratchers. Why Are We Like This? takes us behind the scenes of the evolutionary paradoxes that make up life on this planet. Exploring with scientists, from freezing in Tasmanian sleet to a laboratory of sleeping sharks in North Queensland, we see how these evolutionary mysteries might just uncover the secrets of a better life for humans and the creatures we share the planet with. Zoe Kean shows us that ancient ancestors of life on Earth faced the same challenges we do, so let's learn a lesson or two about how they dealt with them.