How We Do It: The Evolution and Future of Human Reproduction
This fascinating, comprehensive look at human evolution raises important questions about what everything from bottle-fed babies to assisted reproduction means for the future of the species. Martin, curator of biological anthropology at the Field Museum in Chicago and a member of the Committee on Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago, explains that he consulted more than 5,000 scientific papers and books to “distill the essence” of this vast subject. He succeeds in his stated goal to “maintain accuracy while writing plain English.” (A glossary that defines words such as aspermia, or a complete lack of semen, helps.) And this overview is filled with fascinating facts: it takes a quarter of a billion sperm to fertilize one human egg; apes and monkeys menstruate, but most other mammals don’t; regular sauna use can hurt sperm production because of the heat; fat tissue accounts for more than a pound of a typical seven-and-a-half-pound newborn; crib death is more likely in bottle-fed infants; and breast cancer is less common in nursing moms. A must-read for anyone interested in human evolution. --Karen Springen