A man admits that, when drunk, he tried to have sex with an eighteen-year-old girl; she is arrested and denies they had intercourse, but finally begs God's forgiveness. Then she is publicly hanged alongside her attacker. These events took place in 1644, in Boston, where today they would be viewed

Death, for bacteria, is not inevitable. Protect a bacterium from predators, and provide it with adequate food and space to grow, and it would continue living--and reproducing asexually--forever. But a paramecium (a slightly more advanced single-cell organism), under the same ideal conditions, would stop dividing after about 200 generations--and die.

This book demonstrates how detailed comparative analyses of the anatomy, reproductive physiology, and behaviour of non-human primates and other mammals can offer profound insights into the origins of human sexual behaviour.

'I can recommend this book as a thoroughly interesting read' -Biologist 01/02/2002'exhilarating reading... challenging... stimulates the reader to think deeply on the many issues it raises.' -Margaret Ginzburg, Science and Christian belief, Vol.13, No.1, April 2001'...the authors provide a clear-eyed review of a large part of modern biology.' -Scientific American'...the

From witch trials to pickaxe murderers, from brothels to convents, and from slavery to Toni Morrison's Paradise, these essays provide fascinating and provocative insights into our sexual and religious conventions and beliefs.