Here are tales of exploration (a homage to Ponce de Leon with glockenspiel and the high notes of backing singer Mia Doi Todd) and evolution (the distorted vocals and wiry banjo of Galapagos).
Basu describes "Drown or Swim" as a "musical tale of inner exploration and courage, where a yearning to explore and achieve can be paralyzed by fear".
Please contribute your own thoughts and tales of species exploration in the comments below, tweet me, or email me.
The clarity of the prose never lets you down, though the story gets into ever more complex tales of equipment, exploration, science and political maneuvering.
Cyberpunks like William Gibson, contemplating the impact a worldwide computer network might have on human interaction and personal identity, wrote fiction not, perhaps, as sexy as Mr. Clarke's tales of interstellar exploration and alien contact, but equally perceptive.
Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway star in this tale of deep space exploration, which has its UK premiere in London on Wednesday.
Set between the two World Wars and inspired by events in the life of revolutionary anthropologist Margaret Mead, this enthralling tale of possession and exploration is the breakout novel from award-winning author Lily King.
The longlist for the 2005 Aventis Prizes for Science Books' general prize, which recognises the best in popular science writing, includes The Human Mind, the latest book from chair of the 2004 judging panel Robert Winston, and The Ancestor's Tale, Richard Dawkins' exploration of evolutionary biology.
But the image is striking, and the suggestion that clothes have the capacity for harm perfectly suits this tale's exploration of vanity and an obsession with the visual.
He delves into the history of exploration and the tall tales of the great hunters, explores the science of collecting and naming specimens, traces the development of the conservation movement and addresses the central issues of extinction and biodiversity.
