 Highbridge, a division of recorded books, presents A Taste for the Beautiful, The Evolution of Attraction by Michael J. Ryan Read by Eric Martin Preface I am a scientist. This occupation affords me the opportunity to try to understand a small part of the natural world. I am also a professor. This occupation allows me to explain to others my findings in the context of the fields in which I work, animal behavior, and evolution. My audience is usually college students and other scientists, although I often present lectures to a more general audience and quite frequently explain what I do to friends and family who do not have a background in science. I usually find that, regardless of their background, many folks are interested in these stories of how sexual beauty plays out in nature and how our experiments in the laboratory give us insights into how and why sexual beauty evolved. My purpose in writing this book is to share these stories of sexual beauty, some from my research, but mostly from others, with a much wider audience. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to a large number of people. Mark Hauser first suggested that I write this book, and he has been a tough and constructive critic throughout all stages of its preparation. A stay as a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, WICO, in Berlin, afforded me the opportunity to plan this book, and during the planning stage I benefited greatly from the feedback of Karin Akre, Robert Trivers, Idel Cooper, Doug Emlin, Eric Lupfer, my agent at William Morris Enterprises, and Allison Callott, my editor at Princeton University Press. Mark Hauser and Idel Cooper read the entire manuscript, and Allison Callott and Karin Akre did the same, and also provided detailed editorial comments. During the later stages of writing this book, I had a bad accident that left me in a wheelchair with a spinal cord injury. I would not have been able to complete this work without the expert and generous care at St. David's Rehabilitation Hospital and Rehab Without Walls in Austin, Texas. I am eternally grateful to the staff of both of these organizations who I feel are part of a second family. During my time in the hospital I received strong support and assistance on various tasks related to this book from Emma Ryan, Lucy Ryan, Marsha Berkman, Sophia Rodriguez, Idel Cooper, Miriam Amkoff, Fernando Mateos Gonzalez, Karin Akre, Rachel Page, Caitlin Friesen, Tracy Burkhart, David Canatella, May Dixon, Claire Hemingway. Sample complete. Ready to continue?