Body Heat: Temperature and Life on Earth. (Books: a selection of new and notable books of scientific interest).

With light-guiding shafts of hair and black skin, polar bears survive the Arctic. Desert rodents have super-efficient kidneys and respiratory systems that allow them to thrive where vegetation is the only source of water. People in the United States spend $42 billion a year just to heat and cool their environments. In short, people and animals have all adapted in order to maintain their body temperature and thrive in sometimes inhospitable climates. In this small book, Blumberg examines this phenomenon. Moving from the physical principles that govern the flow of heat into and out of our bodies to the myriad ways in which animals exploit these rules, he shows us the centrality of temperature to life on Earth. HUP, 2002, 240 p., hardcover, $22.00.