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.
Flights of Fancy
€15.50
Description
Richard Dawkins on how nature and humans have learned to overcome the pull of gravity and take to the skies. ‘A masterly investigation of all aspects of flight, human and animal… A beautifully produced book that will appeal across age groups’ Alexander McCall Smith ‘Dawkins has always been an extraordinarily muscular, persuasive thinker. What feels new here is that he writes with such charm and warmth’ The TimesHave you ever dreamt you could fly? Or imagined what it would be like to glide and swoop through the sky like a bird? Do you let your mind soar to unknown, magical spaces? Richard Dawkins explores the wonder of flight: from the mythical Icarus, to the sadly extinct but spectacular bird Argentavis magnificens, from the Wright flyer and the 747, to the Tinkerbella fairyfly and the Peregrine falcon. But he also explores flights of the mind and escaping the everyday – through science, ideas and imagination. Fascinating and beautifully illustrated, this is a unique collaboration between one of the world’s leading scientists and a talented artist.
Additional information
| Weight | 0.504 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 19.8 × 12.9 × 3.4 cm |
| Book_author | Dawkins, Richard |
| Publisher | Apollo |
| Imprint | Head of Zeus |
| Cover | Paperback |
| Pages | 316 |
| Language | English |
| Edition | |
| Dewey | 573.798 (edition:23) |
| Readership | General – Trade / Code: K |
