Yale Book News:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  
Contact: Paige Jokl, Publicist
203.432.0964 / paige.jokl@yale.edu
www.yalebooks.

Unique New Book from Yale University Press Focuses on the Intersection of Science and Art as a Means of Advancing our
Understanding and Appreciation of the Natural World

Yale University Press is pleased to announce the publication of Humans, Nature, and Birds: Science Art from Cave Walls to Computer
Screens by Darryl Wheye and Donald Kennedy, with a foreword by Paul R. Ehrlich (Publication date: July 24, 2008). This unique new
book presents a sweeping look at 30,000 years of art depicting birds—from Paleolithic images to those of the Information Age—all
viewed through a science lens.

This book invites readers to enter a two-floor virtual “gallery” where 60-plus images of birds created by artists throughout human history
are on display. These works represent a genre called science art—scientifically valid depictions of the natural world—and the authors
reveal how such intertwining of art and science enriches our understanding of each.

The authors also provide a timeline linking scientific innovations with the production of images of birds, and they offer a checklist of
steps to promote the creation and accessibility of science art. Readers who tour this unique and fascinating gallery will never look at art
depicting nature in the same way again.

Published with assistance from
the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Public Understanding
of Science and Technology Program.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Darryl Wheye is an artist and writer specializing primarily in birds and Science Art. She lives in Woodside, CA.

Donald Kennedy was Editor-in-chief of the journal Science (2000-2008). He is president emeritus of Stanford University and a Senior
Fellow at Stanford’s Woods Institute. He lives in Palo Alto, CA.

TITLE: Humans, Nature, and Birds:
Science Art from Cave Walls to Computer Screens 
AUTHORS:  Darryl Wheye and Donald Kennedy
ISBN: 978-0-300-12388-3 Cloth                       
PRICE: $37.50
PAGES: 240                                                            
ILLUSTRATIONS: 75 color
PUBLICATION DATE: July 24, 2008

Advance Praise for
Humans, Nature, and Birds: Science Art from Cave Walls to Computer Screens

“The authors lead us through a wonderland where science and art intersect.”
—Thomas E. Lovejoy, co-author of Climate Change and Biodiversity

“Masterfully demonstrates how art connects people to nature, advances science,
and helps protect our environment. I’ll never look at nature art the same way again.”
—John Flicker, President, National Audubon Society

“Just as a glass of a fine wine is meant to be enjoyed sip by sip, this book will be enjoyed page by page.
 Its . . . thought-provoking images depict our age-old fascination with birds,
ranging from the owl traced 30,000 years ago in Chauvet Cave,
to the goshawk attacking grouse in a dramatic modern painting.”
—Jared Diamond, Professor of Geography at UCLA
and author of the Pulitzer-prize-winning book Guns, Germs, and Steel

“Reading this book is like having a friend with a key to the natural history art museum.
The authors take us on an excursion, conveying palpable delight in works of art
from across the spectrum of time and around the world. ”
—Julie Zickefoose, artist and author of Letters from Eden

“Tells a powerful and well-documented story of the interconnectedness of creative expression
and birds, building a sound case for recognizing Science Art as a genre.”
—Kathy Kelsey Foley, Director, Woodson Art Museum

“Birds were there—on cave walls and rock shelters thirty millennia ago, on Egyptian tombs,
in Joseph Wright’s painting from the dawn of the Industrial Age,
in Roger Tory Peterson’s first biodiversity guide, and today,
where art is the only record of many species now gone forever.
Wheye and Kennedy assemble the ultimate exhibition of bird art,
with detailed notes that say so much about our world and our view of it.”
—Stuart Pimm, Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology, Duke University

“A half-century ago, George M. Sutton’s essay ‘Is Bird-art Art?’
began the rehabilitation of avian art in fine art circles.
Humans, Nature, and Birds, in an elegant survey of the grand interplay
of bird art and ornithology, makes the definitive case.”
—H. Douglas Pratt, Research Curator of Birds,
North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences

“Beautifully examines where science and art overlap through the common territory of observation—
and the human urge to both make sense of and embrace the great unknown.”
—James Prosek, painter and author

“The authors take us in a new direction—an edgy new direction—
and force us to consider broadly the relation between art and science”
—Alan Brush, University of Connecticut

“The authors’ use of birds as a binding motif gives their book appeal and coherence,
and the selection of art is eclectic and apt.”
—Timothy Goldsmith, Yale University