From the Scientific American (June 2014)

p. 12: "the fossil record tells us that climate change is the planet's 'normal' state."

p. 12 "More than 99 percent of the species that have ever lived are extinct."

p. 14: "The next time you walk past a poplar or black gum tree, think twice before taking a long, deep breath. Although these trees produce oxygen, they also release compounds that can react in the air to create lung-damaging ozone."

p. 26. "Bowerbirds love discarded plastic. The males use colorful pieces to woo mates in an elaborate courtyard outside their nests. New Research shows that another animal is putting our plastic waste to good use: two species of city-living bee have started building bits of plastic into their nests."

p. 30: "For the 35 percent of American adults who do daily battle with obesity, the main causes are perhaps all too familiar: an unhealthy diet, a sedentary lifestyle and perhaps some unlucky genes. In recent years, however, researchers have become increasingly convinced that important hidden players literally lurk in human bowels: billions on billions of gut microbes."

p. 86. "In this plot of the 50 migration flows, few of the poorest people leave home, and when they do they go to middle-income nations. Research suggests that is because they do not have the resources or education to survive in the richest countries."