In chapter 4, “Building a Cure Machine,” author Victoria Jackson reveals the challenges in launching a foundation focused on funding research on a rare disease.

In chapter 16, “Lessons of Science: Learning from the Past to Improve the Future,” author Patricia Fara examines where we’ve been and where we’re going in terms of valuing the influence of women in science.

In chapter 5, “The Technology Ticket,” contributing author Uris Baldos urges acceptance and investment in “precision agriculture” to provide for a burgeoning global population.

In chapter 1, “The Bad Language Brain: Neuroscience and Swearing,” author Emma Byrne sets the scene for her book by telling the story of the hapless and potty-mouthed Phineas Gage.

In chapter 3, “The Sense of Sensibility,” author Wendy Jones uses scenes from one of Jane Austen’s most celebrated novels to illustrate the functioning of the body’s stress response system.

In chapter 4, “Why Recreate the Woolly Mammoth?” author Britt Wray explores the social consequences of bringing an iconic species back from extinction.

When thousands of animals die during mass migrations, ecosystems accommodate the corpses and new cycles are set in motion.

In the introduction to the book, its editors lay out the case for taking a serious, and mechanistic, look at how visiting natural places for pleasure affects ecology and animal behavior.

In the book’s introduction, author and neuroendocrinologist Robert Sapolsky explains his fascination with the biology of violence and other dark parts of human behavior.

Author Bob Holmes dove into the taste-determining realm of his genome.