Latest developments in understanding how, when and where the extraordinary body plan and ecology of snakes evolved from lizard ancestors.

"Snakes comprise more than 3,800 extant species found on all major continents except Antarctica. Morphologically and ecologically diverse, they include burrowing, arboreal, and marine forms, feeding on prey ranging from insects to large mammals. Snakes are strikingly different from their closest lizard relatives, and their origins and early diversification have long challenged and enthused evolutionary biologists. The origin and early evolution of snakes is a broad, interdisciplinary topic for which experts in palaeontology, ecology, physiology, embryology, phylogenetics, and molecular biology have made important contributions. The last 25 years has seen a surge of interest, resulting partly from new fossil material, but also from new techniques in molecular and systematic biology. This volume summarises and discusses the state of our knowledge, approaches, data, and ongoing debates. It provides reviews, syntheses, new data and perspectives on a wide range of topics relevant to students and researchers in evolutionary biology, neontology, and palaeontology"--

Collection of writings about the negotiations people make everyday to juggle the demands of love and work. She investigates the globalization of love by focusing on care workers who leave their own children and elderly to take care for children and the elderly in other countries. She explores personal services for hire and asks if capitalism is a religion. Several older essays such as 'Inside the clockwork of male careers' have been revised and updated for this collection.