Flights of Fancy: Defying Gravity by Design and Evolution

by Richard Dawkins

Overview

The Wonder of Flight. The Science of Evolution. From both, Richard Dawkins weaves a fascinating and beautifully illustrated account of how nature and humans have learned to overcome the pull of gravity and take to the skies.

Do you sometimes dream you can fly like a bird? Gliding effortlessly above the treetops, soaring and swooping, playing and dodging through the third dimension. Computer games, virtual reality headsets, and some drugs can lift our imagination and fly us through fabled, magical spaces. But it's not the real thing. No wonder some of the past's greatest minds, including Leonardo da Vinci's, have yearned for flying machines and struggled to design them.

Flights of Fancy is a book about flying – all the different ways of defying gravity that have been discovered by humans over the centuries and by other animals over the millions of years, from the mythical Icarus, to the sadly extinct but magnificent bird Argentavis magnificens, to the Wright Flyer and the 747. But it also means flights of digression into more general ideas and principles that take off from a discussion about actual flight.

Fascinating and elegantly written, this is a unique collaboration between one of the world's leading zoologists and a talented artist, and perfect for enquiring teenage minds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781838937850
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	05/03/2022
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	574,243
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Richard Dawkins is one of the world's most eminent writers and thinkers, and a major contributor to the public understanding of the science of evolution. The award-winning author of the Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, The God Delusion and a string of other bestselling science books, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Society of Literature.

Jana Lenzova born and raised in Bratislava, Slovakia, is an illustrator, translator and interpreter. Her two great passions are languages and drawing. The former led to the latter. After she had been commissioned to translate The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins into Slovak, she began contributing to his books as an illustrator.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Dreams of Flying 3

Chapter 2 What is Flight Good for? 12

Chapter 3 If Flying is so Great, Why do Some Animals Lose Their Wings? 47

Chapter 4 Flying is Easy if You Are Small 72

Chaster 5 If You Must Be Large and Fly, Increase Your Surface Area Out of Proportion 89

Chapter 6 Unpowered Flight: Parachuting and Gliding 106

Chapter 7 Powered Flight and How it Works 123

Chapter 8 Powered Flight in Animals 144

Chapter 9 Be Lighter Than Air 173

Chapter 10 Weightlessness 193

Chapter 11 Aerial Plankton 203

Chapter 12 'Wings' for Plants 215

Chapter 13 Differences Between Evolved and Designed Flying Machines 235

Chapter 14 What is the Use of Half a Wing? 251

Chapter 15 The Outward Urge: Beyond Flying 273

About the Author & Illustrator 284

Acknowledgements 286

Picture Credits 287

Index 288

Editorial Reviews

Richard Dawkins writes with admirable clarity and Jana Lenzova illustrates in much the same way... A masterly investigation of all aspects of flight, human and animal. This is a beautifully produced book that will appeal across age groups'” —Alexander McCall-Smith

“Dawkins writes with such an irresistible combination of mastery of the subject, delight in it, and vividness. A total pleasure” —Michael Frayn

“Dawkins's prose feels as if it were cut with a laser ... Dawkins has always been an extraordinarily muscular, persuasive thinker. What feels new here is that he writes with such charm and warmth. Genial Uncle Richard, for me, is the most likeable Dawkins yet” —Sunday Times

“He has made Darwinism cooler than it has any right to be” —Sunday Times

“PRAISE FOR RICHARD DAWKINS:

'Written with all the clarity and elegance of which Dawkins is a master. It should have a place in every school library – especially in the library of every 'faith' school' Philip Pullman, on The God Delusion.

'One of the best non-fiction writers alive today'” —Steven Pinker

From the Publisher