The Well-Dressed Ape: A Natural History of Myself

DID YOU KNOW THAT

we have more hair follicles than a chimpanzee
a male boxer in top condition can punch with the force of a thirteen-poundmallet swung at twenty miles an hour
the best human endurance runners can outlast a horse
one odor above all is sexually stimulating to the human male: cinnamonbuns
our home-building skills compare nicely with those of the bagworm
With dry wit and penetrating insight, science journalist Hannah Holmes casts the eye of a trainedresearcher and reporter on . . . herself. And on our whole species. She compares the biology and behavior of humans with that of other creatures, exploring how the human animal fits into the natural world. Holmes alsoreveals the ways in which "Homo sapiens" stands apart from other mammals (and all other animals) in ways that are alternately admirable and devastating. Deftly mixing personal storieswith the latest scientific research, Hannah Holmes has fashioned an engaging field guide to that oddest and most fascinating of primates: ourselves.