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‘Levels of selection’ examines the levels-of-selection question, which asks whether natural selection acts on individuals, genes, or groups. This question is one of the most fundamental in evolutionary biology, and the subject of much controversy. Traditionally, biologists have mostly been concerned with selection and adaptation at the individual level. But, in theory, there are other possibilities, including selection on sub-individual units such as genes and cells, and on supra-individual units such as groups and colonies. Group selection, altruistic behaviour, kin selection, the gene-centric view of evolution, and the major transitions in evolution are all discussed. ...Less

Behaviour is a key way in which animals interact with their world: how animals find and choose mates, look after their young, find food, avoid becoming food for predators, and build nests and burrows. ‘How animals behave (and why)’ describes how the study of animals has changed through time and highlights some key figures in the development of the science, including Margaret Washburn, Charles H. Turner, Ivan Pavlov, and Richard Dawkins. It also considers Niko Tinbergen’s four questions for examining animal behaviour: What is it for? How did it develop during the lifetime of the individual? What mechanisms control the behaviour? How did it evolve over evolutionary time? ...Less

‘All creatures great and small’ provides an abridged history of veterinary science, which helps highlight how veterinary scientific developments have progressed alongside other scientific fields and social changes in how we treat animals. From early civilizations in Mesopotamia to the developing scientific knowledge in Ancient Greece and Rome, and from the 17th-century scientific revolution to the 18th-century Enlightenment, veterinary science has progressed alongside medical knowledge. The impact of the world wars and then increased farming productivity in peacetime is discussed along with modern developments in the digital age. Nowadays, veterinary science is both scientific and clinical, but at its core it is about non-human animal physical, mental, and social well-being. ...Less

‘Fighting disease’ looks at how the immune system and vaccination work. It considers the scientific studies of Louis Pasteur, late in the 19th century, who brilliantly expanded on the work of Robert Koch and Friedrich Henle, to formally expound the germ theory of human disease. But how did the body defend itself against these micro invaders? The phagocytic theory of immune defence resulted from the work of Élie Metchnikoff, Paul Ehrlich, and Emil von Behring. Immunoglobulin molecules provide the key to how the body creates the variety of molecules needed to protect against the different invaders experienced over a lifetime, and to how vaccination against a disease protects against future infection. ...Less