Freaks of Nature: And What They Tell Us About Evolution and Development

In Freaks of Nature, malformations such as the Elephant Man and the Bearded Lady take us beyond mere fascination to a deeper understanding of the intimate connections between development and evolution. Also shows how fragile and plastic are the processes that guide early development and how even dramatically malformed individuals can exhibit elegant, adaptive solutions that mirror those typically expressed by the rest of us packaged in 'normal' bodies, and helps us appreciate what make us---all of us---who we are.

Mark Blumberg is Professor of Psychology and Starch Faculty Fellow at the University of Iowa. He has written on a wide variety of topics in the fields of biology, psychology, and development, including articles on sleep, animal behavior, animal mind, and communication. His previous books include Basic Instinct: The Genesis of Behavior (2005) and Body Heat: Temperature and Life on Earth, (2003). He is currently Editor-in-Chief of the APA journal Behavioral Neuroscience and President of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology.