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tool kit that can help prevent extinction. And more importantly, it helps frame the issues that need to be thoughtfully considered before these new technologies can be responsibly deployed. It is the first book written on this subject, and more importantly, it is written by an insider who is helping shape and define the field for conservation." RYAN PHELAN is the Executive Director of "Revive & Restore", whose mission is to increase biodiversity — specifically through genetic rescue, helping species that are either on the brink or are already extinct. The Introduction and the Epilogue are by cultural icon Stewart Brand, creator of The Whole Earth Catlog, and author of The Media Lab, How Buildings Learn, and Whole Earth Discipline among many other landmark books and projects. Brand is cofounder of "Revive And Restore" and founder of the parent organization, "The Long Now Foundation”. -o THE EVOLUTION OF BEAUTY How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World — and Us By Richard O. Prum [US — Doubleday, Audio — Penguin RH; Manuscript; Pub Date: May 2017; 480 pages] A major reimagining of how evolutionary forces work, revealing how mating preferences—what Darwin termed "the taste for the beautiful" —create the extraordinary range of ornament in the animal world. In the great halls of science, dogma holds that Darwin's theory of natural selection explains every branch on the tree of life: which species thrive, which wither away to extinction, and what features each evolves. But can adaptation by natural selection really account for everything we see in nature? Yale University ornithologist Richard Prum—reviving Darwin's own views —thinks not. Deep in tropical jungles around the world are birds with a dizzying array of appearances and mating displays: Club-winged Manakins who sing with their wings, Great Argus Pheasants who dazzle prospective mates with a four-foot- wide cone of feathers covered in golden 3D spheres, Red-capped Manakins who moonwalk. In thirty years of fieldwork, Prum has seen numerous display traits that seem disconnected from, if not outright contrary to, selection for individual survival. To explain this, he dusts off Darwin's long-neglected theory of sexual selection in which the act of choosing a mate for purely aesthetic reasons—for the mere pleasure of it—1is an independent engine of evolutionary change. Mate choice can drive ornamental traits from the constraints of adaptive evolution, allowing them to grow ever more elaborate. It also sets the stakes for sexual conflict, in which the sexual autonomy of the female evolves in response to male sexual control. Most crucially, this framework provides important insights into the evolution of human sexuality, particularly the ways in which female preferences have changed male bodies, and even maleness itself, through evolutionary time. The Evolution of Beauty presents a unique scientific vision for how nature's splendor contributes to a more complete understanding of evolution and of ourselves. RICHARD O. PRUM is the William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology at Yale University. A lifelong bird fanatic, Prum has published more than 100 scientific articles on diverse topics including the evolution, behavior, song, anatomy, developmental biology, phylogenetics, paleontology, optical physics, and pigmentary chemistry of birds. He has made ground-breaking scientific contributions to our understanding the evolutionary origin of feathers, the physics of structural coloration, dinosaur feathers, fossil coloration, and the phylogenetic evolution of behavior. Over the past thirty years, Prum has developed a unique scientific perspective on evolution, and he has documented this view with major scientific discoveries. Brockman, Inc. Frankfurt 2016 Hotlist -10- HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_025156