Genetic Science

When Charles Darwin finished The Origin of Species, he thought that he had explained every clue but one. Though his theory could explain many facts, Darwin knew that there was a significant event in the history of life that his theory did not explain. During this event, the "Cambrian explosion", many animals suddenly appeared in the fossil record without apparent ancestors in earlier layers of rock. In Darwin's Doubt, Stephen C. Meyer tells the story of the mystery surrounding this explosion of animal life.

Why evolution is more than just a theory: it is a fact. In all the current highly publicized debates about creationism and its descendant "intelligent design", there is an element of the controversy that is rarely mentioned: the evidence, the empirical truth of evolution by natural selection.

The Cajun dive in the middle of the godforsaken swamps wasn't exactly Trap Dawkins' idea of fun. But the GhostWalker wasn't there for a good time. He was looking for her. Cayenne. It's where she found her victims. Poor suckers. Then again, who wouldn't want to leave a place like this with a woman like her? It's not Cayenne's fault. Locked up, experimented on, and never knowing kindness, she was bred this way - with a heart of pure venom. Trap understands her.

Scientists' understanding of life is progressing more rapidly than at any point in human history, from the extraordinary decoding of DNA to the controversial emergence of biotechnology. Featuring pioneering biologists, geneticists, physicists, and science writers, Life explains just how far we've come - and takes a brilliantly educated guess at where we're heading.

In a near-future world, a new technological therapy is quickly eradicating cancer. The body’s cells are entirely replaced with nanites—robot or android cells which not only cure those afflicted but leaves them virtually immortal. Literary researcher Yonghun teaches an AI how to understand poetry and creates a living, thinking machine he names Panit, meaning Beloved, in honor of his husband. When Yonghun—himself a recipient of nanotherapy—mysteriously vanishes into thin air and then just as suddenly reappears, the event raises disturbing questions.

In the beginning, Earth was an inhospitably alien place—in constant chemical flux, covered with churning seas, crafting its landscape through incessant volcanic eruptions. Amid all this tumult and disaster, life began. The earliest living things were no more than membranes stretched across microscopic gaps in rocks, where boiling hot jets of mineral-rich water gushed out from cracks in the ocean floor. In A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth, Henry Gee zips through the last 4.6 billion years with infectious enthusiasm and intellectual rigor.

Renowned neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux digs into the natural history of life on earth to provide a new perspective on the similarities between us and our ancestors in deep time. This pause-resisting survey of the whole of terrestrial evolution sheds new light on how nervous systems evolved in animals, how the brain developed, and what it means to be human. In The Deep History of Ourselves, LeDoux argues that the key to understanding human behavior lies in viewing evolution through the prism of the first living organisms.

Devilishly clever, Next blends fact and fiction into a breathless tale of a new world where nothing is what it seems, and a set of new possibilities can open at every turn. Next challenges our sense of reality and notions of morality. Balancing the comic and bizarre with the genuinely frightening and disturbing, Next shatters our assumptions and reveals shocking new choices where we least expect.

If the history of the Earth were compressed down to a year, our species would arise in the last thirty minutes or so of the final hour. But life itself is not such a late arrival: It has existed on Earth for something like 3.7 billion years—most of our planet’s history and over a quarter of the age of the universe (as far as we can tell). What have these organisms—bacteria, animals, plants, and the rest—done in all this time? In Living on Earth, the philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith proposes a new way of understanding how the actions of living beings have shaped our planet.

Kadan Montague - a genetically enhanced warrior - is called back from an important assignment in Europe to investigate a series of brutal murders. The suspect is a fellow GhostWalker and, if he isn't found, the entire GhostWalker program will be swept under the carpet, putting the lives of Kadan and all other GhostWalkers in jeopardy. Kadan turns to Tansy Meadows, an elite tracker, to help him hunt down the killer before he can strike again.

The world is in crisis! What is the solution? Ultimately, we have to find the redeeming, and thus transforming, understanding of our psychologically troubled human condition. And it is precisely that dreamed-of insight, and its now desperately needed transformation of our lives, that Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith presents in this book.

In his eye-opening new book, Perv, the award-winning columnist and psychologist Jesse Bering argues that we are all sexual deviants on one level or another. As Bering takes us into the lives of a woman who falls madly in love with the Eiffel Tower, a young man addicted to seductive sneezes, and a pair of deeply affectionate identical twins, among others, he challenges us to move beyond our judgments and attitudes toward "deviant" sex and consider the alternative: What would happen if we rise above our fears and revulsions and accepted our true natures?

Recognized as one of the best in his field, surgeon, academic, and philanthropist, Dr. Sharad Paul combines everyday health with evolutionary biology and explains how to improve your overall wellness by following a diet and exercise plan according to your gene type. Starting with our brains, this book covers everything from skin and muscles, to hearts, diets, and stress management.

In The Genetic Lottery, Harden introduces listeners to the latest genetic science, dismantling dangerous ideas about racial superiority and challenging us to grapple with what equality really means in a world where people are born different. Weaving together personal stories with scientific evidence, Harden shows why our refusal to recognize the power of DNA perpetuates the myth of meritocracy, and argues that we must acknowledge the role of genetic luck if we are ever to create a fair society.

Niblock House is a rising executive at General Technics, one of a few all-powerful corporations. His work is leading General Technics to the forefront of global domination, both in the marketplace and politically - it's about to take over a country in Africa. Donald Hogan is his roommate, a seemingly sheepish bookworm. But Hogan is a spy, and he's about to discover a breakthrough in genetic engineering that will change the world...and kill him. Society is squeezed into hive-living madness by god-like mega computers and mass-marketed psychedelic drugs.

Dr. Carl Sagan takes us on a great adventure, offering his vivid and startling insight into the brain of man and beast, the origin of human intelligence, the function of our most haunting legends - and their amazing links to recent discoveries.

With the Surial gone, Colton Beck has a chance to rebuild the Rusa race. Colton embarks on a dangerous journey to find answers, bringing his closest allies along for the ride. Each objective is a step toward to repopulating Nulit, but the ultimate price might be higher than they’re willing to offer. Now that the truth about the Angor has been realized, the Unity Accord will never be the same. Colton is determined to ensure his peoples’ position over the fabled Ocean, even if it tears the Unity apart.

C'est en étudiant la faune et la flore d'Amérique du Sud, lors de son voyage à bord du Beagle (de 1831 à 1836) que Charles Darwin va avoir l'intuition de la sélection naturelle, point central de sa théorie future de l'évolution des espèces. Publié en 1859, "L'origine des espèces" est un livre fondamental de la science moderne. À l'origine des théories de l'évolution, ce texte va révolutionner la compréhension du monde et fonder les bases de la biologie moderne, de la génétique, de l'éthologie et de l'écologie.

A woman on the run collides with lethal danger in this GhostWalker novel by number one New York Times best-selling author Christine Feehan. GhostWalker Kane Cannon is pure male - animalistic, sexual, protective, and instinctive - and his past missions have prepared him for anything. But his newest assignment, to rescue hostages in Mexico, plunges him into a hot zone he never anticipated: The hiding place of Rose Patterson - a fugitive,an ex-lover, a fellow GhostWalker pregnant with his child.

Halek Cain has mysteries to solve, people to rescue, and a vendetta to carry out. But he must fix his Reaper augmentations before they kill him. He needs raw materials from Gronic, a technical specialist on Roxo III, and time to put himself right before the Union comes for him. Everything seems like it’s going to work out...until he learns Elise is in trouble. If Cain doesn’t get to her first, everything that happened on Dreadmax will have been for nothing. The Last Reaper will encounter assassins, Union special operators, and a mysterious rival from his past.