There is nothing more interesting to humans than the story of their origins. The evolutionary process of a tree-dwelling ape becoming a walking, talking man who has developed the technology to walk on the moon, transplant hearts, or modify living things is no trivial story. This book provides a fascinating and comprehensive view of what science has learned of human evolution. This volume covers the evolution of man from tree-dwelling ape in easy-to-read language, taking complex, jargon-filled material and extracting the core information. Each of the 39 chapters covers a topic broad enough and complex enough to deserve a book of its own, but the author extracts the essence of the topic and coveys it in an elegant manner.
Down from the Trees: Man’s Amazing Transition from Tree-Dwelling Ape Ancestors approaches the subject of human evolution from three different disciplines: fossil evidence and its interpretation, evolutionary theory and its applicability, and genetic evidence and its ability to unlock prehistoric information. The third discipline has advanced unbelievably in the last few years, and this book includes the most up-to-date research.
The book is certain to be of interest to curious intelligent readers. This book would be ideal as a supplementary book in anthropology classes. An instructor’s manual is available for faculty. Students can learn about the long evolutionary path leading from tree-dwelling ape to modern human with relatively easy reading compared to typical textbooks. That journey begins when our ancestral apes came down from the trees. An instructor’s manual is available for faculty.
About the Author
Ralph D. Hermansen has a BA/MS education, majoring in chemistry from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. He also has 40 years experience in materials science and engineering with an emphasis on formulating novel compounds from epoxies and polyurethanes. His experience includes working at several of the major aerospace companies and at two National Laboratories. He retired from Hughes Aircraft Company, where he had functioned as a Senior Scientist. He and his team were sought out by design engineers in the various Hughes Aircraft divisions, and by other companies to solve difficult custom formulating problems. He has 21 patents resulting from these efforts.
Ralph D. Hermansen has a BA/MS education, majoring in chemistry from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. He also has 40 years experience in materials science and engineering with an emphasis on formulating novel compounds from epoxies and polyurethanes. His experience includes working at several of the major aerospace companies and at two National Laboratories. He retired from Hughes Aircraft Company, where he had functioned as a Senior Scientist. He and his team were sought out by design engineers in the various Hughes Aircraft divisions, and by other companies to solve difficult custom formulating problems. He has 21 patents resulting from these efforts.
He was also active in SAMPE (Society for the Advancement of Materials and Processes Engineering) presenting several technical papers and serving as a Session Chairman. His first book Formulating Plastics and Elastomers by Computer was published in 1996. He also was an evening instructor within the Hughes Advanced Technical Education Program, teaching Materials Engineering and Pascal Programming Language for several years.
