Introduction -- Why is skunks' smell so splendidly awful? -- Why are house sparrows nearly as invasive as we are? -- Can earthworms act with intelligence? -- Why is caffeine the most delightful of poisons? -- Were hardworking grandmothers behind the rise of Homo sapiens? -- I sleep the biggest mistake evolution ever made? -- Has human smarts rubbed off on rats? -- How did wolves become man's best friend? -- Why do some bumblebees go cannibalistic? -- Postscript -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

"Why do cats live longer than dogs? Why do bees have yellow stripes? Why can we smell a skunk from a mile away? Such questions can be seen as puzzles about creatures' evolved traits. Besides triggering our curiosity, they focus our attention on beguiling designs that have been millions of years in the making. Indeed, looking at the living world through a Darwinian lens reveals its colossal depth in a way that's all too easy to miss in the age of endless distractions. You need only summon up your inner inquisitive 7-year-old to notice such puzzles, and to find yourself looking deeper while considering possible solutions. In this lively book, science writer David Stipp ponders Darwinian puzzles about nine familiar creatures and things--bumblebees, dogs, sparrows, caffeine, earthworms, and sleep, among others--to show how rewarding it can be to look at nature in a deeper way. By revealing hidden depths of the ordinary, Why Rats Laugh and Jellyfish Sleep shows not only that fascinating intricacies lie just beneath the natural world's familiar surfaces, but that noticing them lets us make connections we didn't realize existed"--Amazon