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Flights of Fancy
- Defying Gravity by Design and Evolution
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Science & Engineering, Science
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Summary
The wonder of flight. The science of evolution. From both, Richard Dawkins weaves a fascinating account of how nature and humans have learned to overcome the pull of gravity and take to the skies.
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?
In Flights of Fancy, Richard Dawkins explains how nature and humans have learned to overcome the pull of gravity and take to the skies. 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 it is also about flights of the mind, about escaping the everyday - through science, ideas and imagination.
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What listeners say about Flights of Fancy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- aaron
- 19-12-21
Thank God for Richard Dawkins!
Dawkins excels at popular science books, and this is quite possibly his best effort to date. He explains very complex systems in ways that even an idiot like me can understand. He is truly a gift from God.
5 people found this helpful
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- Jan Valencia
- 17-12-21
5 Stars For a reason
I thought I was pretty well informed about flying but every few minute of listening I learned something new, we’ll written, well read by the author, I listened to it in one sitting and I’m starting over to absorb even more.
5 people found this helpful
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- Rebekah Hull
- 04-02-22
What a wonderful book
I'm well above the target age group, but was looking for something to listen to at work. This is exactly the type of book I would have LOVED to own as a young person. It explores the questions of how flight works, what it's for, and how it originates, giving just enough information on each topic to spark fascination without getting bogged down. Analogies and examples simplify complex topics and make them easy to understand. Dawkins is an exuberant narrator whose love of nature and science is clear and infectious. this is a great book and I will probably end up sending it as a gift to a few people.
1 person found this helpful
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- Jennifer S. Leblanc
- 23-12-21
Dawkins best book yet
I’ve read most everything Richard Dawkins has written and I think this is his finest work yet. The audiobook is wonderful and I love the conversational tone and his unparalleled ability to make science easily understood. This is a master work.
1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 24-04-22
My only complaint is that it isn't longer!
I will be listening to this book again and again. In the classic style of Richard Dawkins, he manages to explain the mechanisms of evolution in a way that is not just easy to understand, but also manages to change the way you look at the world. Even though I have read or listened to every single one of his books, he continues to surprise me with facts and hypotheses about nature that I had never considered before. Were insect wings solar panels or gills? Did dinosaurs use thier proto-wings as butterfly nets? Why do dolphins jump out of the water during dolphin "stampedes"? Is the concept of exploration programmed in our dna? Are teeth too heavy for flying? How did bats get their extemely elongated fingers?
I could obviously go on, but please get this book!
Just as a PS: It is great to have the author of the book doing the audio.
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- Jan D. Leslie
- 14-02-22
Dawkins at his best
Always love his insights, intellectual integrity, and no nonsense approach to telling the truth. All with almost childlike wonder