The Story of Rats: Their Impact on Us, and Our Impact on ThemAllen & Unwin, 2001 - 202 páginas More than the story of how people and rats live together, this book takes a serious and intriguing look at science and scientists, the problems they solve and fail to solve, and the scope and imperfections of our scientific knowledge of the world. It answers questions such as: Are rats still a threat to human health? Do rats think? Is it true that wild rats sometimes die, unwounded, from social stress? Can studies of rat societies tell us anything useful about our own social lives? This compelling historical and social study will capture the interest of all readers--from those fascinated by rats to those who cringe--by explaining the delicate and sometimes volatile impacts humans and rats have had on each other over the centuries and into the modern age. |
Contenido
| 14 | |
All Fall Down | 24 |
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS | 51 |
Do Rats Think? | 64 |
Are Rats Gluttons? | 91 |
All in Their Genes? | 115 |
Rat Societies | 128 |
THE BLINDNESS OF RESEARCH | 147 |
Social Life and Death | 164 |
Nature and Human Nature | 173 |
Notes on sources | 186 |
Index | 196 |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
The Story of Rats: Their impact on us, and our impact on them S Anthony Barnett Vista previa limitada - 2001 |
Términos y frases comunes
adaptive adrenal animal behaviour attack B.F. Skinner bait biology Black Death black rats Boucas brown rats burrows cages cells century changes chapter chromosomes cognitive complex described diet disease domestic Norways domestic rats dominance dominance relationships effects encounters environment ethology evidently experimental experiments exploration feeding female fever findings flavoured Food Aversions Galef genes genetically grains hantavirus Hence Holst house mouse human illness infection influenced instinct interactions kind laboratory Lamarck latent learning later learning leptospirosis living London male mammals maze mice modern mouse natural selection neophilia neophobia neophobic nest Nineteen Eighty-Four numbers numbers of rats observed odours organism outbreak Oxford Pavlov's perhaps physiology plague poison population psychologists response result reward Rodent Pests rodents salivation seems sewers shock Skinner Skinner Box social signals social stress sometimes species stimulation studied survival territory traps tree shrews usually vibrissae viruses wild Norways wild rats young
Pasajes populares
Página 14 - When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less." "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things." "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master — that's all.
Página 33 - The glories of our blood and state Are shadows, not substantial things ; There is no armour against fate ; Death lays his icy hand on kings : Sceptre and crown Must tumble down, And in the dust be equal made With the poor crooked scythe and spade.
Página 91 - From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty; As surfeit is the father of much fast, So every scope by the immoderate use Turns to restraint : our natures do pursue (Like rats that ravin down their proper bane) A thirsty evil ; and when we drink, we die.
Página 38 - I walk, every body talking of this dead, and that man sick, and so many in this place, and so many in that. And they tell me that, in Westminster, there is never a physician and but one apothecary left, all being dead ; but that there are great hopes of a great decrease this week : God send it!
Página 5 - His informant, the Rev. Mr. Ferryman, walking out in some meadows one evening, " observed a great number of Rats in the act of migrating from one place to another, which it is known they are in the habit of doing occasionally. He stood perfectly still, and the whole assemblage passed close to him. His astonishment...
Página 89 - The centipede was happy quite Until a toad in fun Said, "Pray, which leg goes after which?" That worked her mind to such a pitch She lay distracted in a ditch, Considering how to run!
Página v - Mr Speaker, I smell a rat; I see him forming in the air and darkening the sky; but I'll nip him in the bud.
Página 34 - I reduced these things to writing ; and lest the writing should perish with the writer, and the work fail together with the workman, I leave parchment for continuing the work, if happily any man survive, and any of the race of Adam escape this pestilence, and continue the work which I have commenced.
Página 5 - These also shall be unclean unto you among the creeping things that creep upon the earth ; the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his kind, 30 And the ferret, and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole.
Página 5 - Walking out in some meadows one evening, he observed a great number of rats migrating from one place to another. He stood perfectly still, and the whole assemblage passed close to him. His astonishment, however, was great when he saw amongst the number an old blind rat, which held a piece of stick at one end in its mouth, while another had hold of the other end of it, and thus conducted its blind companion.