The Second Parkes Foundation Workshop was held in Cambridge in September 2007. The Foundation is a charity formed to promote the study of the biosocial sciences, i.e. the interdisciplinary area between biology and sociology, the publication of the results of such studies and to support related charitable activities of an educational or scientific nature. Each year it supports six to eight Masters and PhD students in their field studies.

The theme of the First Parkes Foundation Workshop was Human Adaptability. Here in the second volume the focus is on Reproduction and Adaptation in which four themes are explored: reproduction and the environment, energetics and adaptation, sexual maturation and ovulation assessment, and demography, health and fertility.

The editors would like to thank The Parkes Foundation for their generosity in funding the two-day meeting, and the speakers and authors of the chapters for their interest and commitment. We would like to express special thanks to Dr Rie Goto, who was responsible for most of the conference logistics, and also helped in preparing the manuscript for publication.