Taking a fresh look at animal behavior research, at the reproductive talents of insects, birds, microorganisms, and mammals, and at Charles Darwin’s own marriage, BEYOND PRIMATES reveals how Darwin’s theories have fared over the years and throughout the plant and animal kingdoms. Do baby animals know mother love? Why do some male spiders try to die after sex? What about yeast evolution might have surprised Darwin? What does the fact that some wasps quickly evolved the ability to recognize each others’ faces suggest about human cognitive evolution? Are human couples who claim to be monogamous but “cheat” acting … hmmm … like swans and seahorses? How might Darwin’s own love life have tripped him up a bit in his scientific reasoning? Fourteen essays examine aspects of evolutionary theory, some of them long forgotten.

Rebecca Coffey has contributed science journalism to Scientific American, Discover, Forbes, Salon, The New York Daily News, The Chicago Tribune, The Seattle Times, JSTOR Daily, Dame, Psychology Today, Vermont Public Radio, and the Genetic Literacy Project. She has appeared on syndicated talk shows like WNYC’s The Takeaway, WAMC’s 51 Percent, Fox News’ Happening Now, The Bob Edwards Show, The Jim Bohannon Show, The Stephanie Miller Show, NPR’s Air Talk with Larry Mantle, and on major-market programs produced by NPR affiliates in New York, Boston, Hartford, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Albany, and Indianapolis. She regularly speaks at colleges and universities, at conferences, and on podcasts and was an invited presenter at the 50th Congress of the International Psychoanalytic Association in Buenos Aires, where she discussed her fact-based, historical novel Hysterical: Anna Freud’s Story.

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