Biological Technology

Biomimicry, the science of employing nature to advance sustainable technology, is arguably one of the hottest new business concepts. At the center of this growing movement has been award-winning inventor and biomimetic entrepreneur Jay Harman.

Walter Isaacson vertelt het verhaal van DNA-expert en Nobelprijswinnaar Jennifer Doudna. In oktober 2020 ontving biochemicus Jennifer Doudna samen met haar collega Emmanuelle Charpentier de Nobelprijs voor de Scheikunde voor hun doorslaggevende bijdrage aan de ontwikkeling van CRISPR-Cas. Met deze techniek kunnen wetenschappers het menselijk genoom bewerken door te knippen en plakken in DNA-sequenties.

For over a decade, Ben Garrod has studied chimpanzees to find ways to protect and conserve them. We join Ben on a journey that has taken him around the world, studying eastern chimps in the humid forests of Uganda and the critically endangered western chimps of Liberia. In his trademark infectious, lighthearted style, Ben describes encounters with chimpanzees that highlight the different threats they face.

脳に気づかれることなく「現実」を操作できる時代。あなたにとって「現実」とは？

The emergence of genomic science in the last quarter century has revolutionized medicine, the justice system, and our understanding of who we are. We use genomics to determine guilt and exonerate the falsely convicted; devise new medicines; test embryos; and discover our ethnic and national roots. One might think that, given these advances, most would favor the availability of genomic tools. Yet as Jennifer Hochschild explains in Genomic Politics, the uses of genomic science are both politically charged and hotly contested.

Evolutionary science has long been regarded as conservative, a tool for enforcing regressive ideas, particularly about race and gender. But in A Voice in the Wilderness, evolutionary biologist Joseph L. Graves Jr.—once styled as the “Black Darwin”—argues that his field is essential to social justice. He shows, for example, why biological races do not exist. He dismantles recent work in “human biodiversity” seeking genes to explain the achievements of different ethnic groups. He decimates homophobia, sexism, and classism as well.

Unravelling the Double Helix covers the most colourful period in the history of DNA, from the discovery of 'nuclein' in the late 1860s to the publication of Watson's The Double Helix in 1968. This is a saga packed with awful mistakes as well as brilliant science, with a wonderful cast of heroes and villains. Surprisingly, much of it is unfamiliar because the early history is largely neglected by books which focus on the episode of the double helix.

Dieses Hörbuch ist eines über die Ansichten eines Vernunftmenschen und Forschers aus Leidenschaft. Die Rede ist von Richard Dawkins - Evolutionsbiologe, Aufklärer und Religionskritiker. Richard Dawkins ist einer der einflussreichsten gegenwärtigen Intellektuellen. Mit dem Erscheinen seines Bestsellers "Der Gotteswahn" wurde Dawkins einer großen Öffentlichkeit als vehementer Religionskritiker bekannt. Seither gilt er als einer der bekanntesten Vertreter des sog.

With the ongoing advancement of AI and other technologies, our world is becoming increasingly intelligent. From chatbots to innovations in brain-computer interfaces to the possibility of superintelligences leading to the Singularity later this century, our reality is being transformed before our eyes. This is commonly seen as the natural result of progress, but what if there's more to it than that? What if intelligence is an inevitability, an underlying property of the universe?

If you think sexism thrives only on Wall Street or Hollywood, you haven’t visited a lab, a science department, a research foundation, or a biotech firm. Rita Colwell is one of the top scientists in America: the groundbreaking microbiologist who discovered how cholera survives between epidemics and the former head of the National Science Foundation. But when she first applied for a graduate fellowship in bacteriology, she was told, “We don’t waste fellowships on women.” A lack of support from some male superiors would lead her to change her area of study six times.

What do computers, cells, and brains have in common? Computers are electronic devices designed by humans; cells are biological entities crafted by evolution; brains are the containers and creators of our minds. But all are, in one way or another, information-processing devices. The power of the human brain is, so far, unequaled by any existing machine or known living being. Our brains have even allowed us to develop computers that are almost as powerful as the human brain itself. Arlindo Oliveira describes how advances in science and technology could enable us to create digital minds.

How smart machines are transforming us all - and what we should do about it. The smart machines revolution is reshaping our lives and our societies. Here, Nigel Shadbolt (one of Britain’s leading authorities on artificial intelligence) and Roger Hampson dispel terror, confusion and misconception. We are not about to be elbowed aside by a rebel army of superintelligent robots of our own creation. We were using tools before we became Homo sapiens and will continue to control them. How we exercise that control - in our private lives, in employment, in politics - and make the best of the wonderful opportunities will determine our collective future well-being.

Jailed as a scapegoat for Stalin's famines, Vavilov had traveled over five continents, collected hundreds of thousands of seeds in an effort to outline the ancient centers of agricultural diversity. Gary Paul Nabhan weaves together Vavilov's story with his own expeditions to Earth's richest agricultural landscapes and the cultures that tend them.

Authors Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell tap their experiences with the MyLifeBits project at Microsoft Research for this extraordinary book. What if you could remember everything? With today’s technology, that notion becomes more realistic each day. Bell and Gemmell explain what it could all mean.

The Big Ratchet is the story of the ratchets: the technologies and innovations, big and small, that propelled our species from hunters and gatherers on the savannahs of Africa to shoppers in the aisles of the supermarket. Our species long lived on the edge of starvation. Now we produce enough food for all 7 billion of us to eat nearly 3,000 calories every day. This is such an astonishing thing in the history of life as to verge on the miraculous. The Big Ratchet is the story of how it happened.

A biography of J. B. S. Haldane, the brilliant and eccentric British scientist whose innovative predictions inspired Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

The award-winning journalist Lisa Margonelli investigates the environmental and economic impact termites inflict on human societies in this fascinating examination of one of nature's most misunderstood insects.

Scientists often challenge conventional wisdom and spark debates that last for generations. But no scientist has fuelled more debate than Charles Darwin. To some he is the revolutionary 'father' of evolution. To others he is the perverse 'originator' of modern eugenics. In The Darwin Myth: The Life and Lies of Charles Darwin, author Benjamin Wiker brings these conflicting identities to light.

The latest and most bitterly contested battle in the culture war is the controversy over Darwin and intelligent design. But much of what you've heard about it is wrong. Jonathan Wells, a battle-hardened veteran with doctorates in biology and theology, sets the record straight.

It's the ultimate technology: nanotechnology - the attempt to build ordinary objects from the atoms up, molecule by molecule. So named because its building blocks are the smallest pieces of matter, nanotechnology will give us complete control over the structure of matter, allowing us to build any substance or structure permitted by the Laws of Nature. Placing atoms as if they were bricks, nano-machines could turn grass clippings into prime sirloins - directly, without cows.