Dawkins Richard. Flights of Fancy: Defying Gravity by Design and Evolution

Apollo, 2022. — 282 p. — ISBN 9781838937874, 1838937870.Have 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? The Wonder of Flight. The Science of Evolution. From both, Richard Dawkins weaves a fascinating and beautifully illustrated account of how nature and humans have learned to overcome the pull of gravity and take to the skies. 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. 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.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. But it also means flights of digression into more general ideas and principles that take off from a discussion about actual flight. Fascinating and elegantly written, this is a unique collaboration between one of the world's leading zoologists and a talented artist, and perfect for enquiring teenage minds.Dreams of Flying.
What is Flight Good for?
If Flying is so Great, Why do Some Animals Lose Their Wings?
Flying is Easy if You Are Small.
If You Must Be Large and Fly, Increase Your Surface Area Out of Proportion.
Unpowered Flight: Parachuting and Gliding.
Powered Flight and How it Works.
Powered Flight in Animals.
Be Lighter Than Air.
Weightlessness.
Aerial Plankton.
«Wings» for Plants.
Differences Between Evolved and Designed Flying Machines.
What is the Use of Half a Wing?
The Outward Urge: Beyond Flying.
About the Author.