The Royal Institution's Christmas lectures have seen a succession of eminent speakers fill the Ri's iconic Faraday Lecture Theatre and unlock for their spellbound young audiences - and, today, viewers worldwide - the secrets of science. This beautiful hardback volume examines eleven of the past century's most exciting lectures on the natural world, including Cambridge alumnus David Attenborough's animal-packed 1977 Lectures and Richard Dawkins's explosive series on evolution. From Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell introducing the audience to a jaguar in 1911, through sleepy sloths and snapping alligators to Desmond Morris's ingenious chimpanzees, 11 Explorations into Life on Earth is crammed with extraordinary plant and animal life and amazing facts.