Genetic Science

Professor Jim Davies's fascinating and highly accessible book, Riveted, reveals the evolutionary underpinnings of why we find things compelling. Drawing on work from philosophy, anthropology, religious studies, psychology, economics, computer science, and biology, Davies offers a comprehensive explanation to show that in spite of the differences between the many things that we find compelling, they have similar effects on our minds and brains.

Under threat of destruction or servitude to the Empire, facing the fleets of the Ragnar, Finth, and Thack Delos, and the larger force of the Thandol, Mirikami prepares the Federation for all-out war. The Planetary Union, allied with the Federation, receives a squadron of new technology Federation Scouts equipped with gravity controlled weapons. They conduct a preemptive strike on a Thandol base. The emperor blames it on the Federation, unaware of the PU's existence, and orders simultaneous attacks.

In Origin Story, medical historian Howard Markel recounts the two-year period (1858 to 1860) of Darwin's writing of On the Origin of Species through its spectacular success and controversy. Simultaneously, Markel delves into the mysterious health symptoms Darwin developed, combing the literature to emerge with a cogent diagnosis of a case that has long fascinated medical historians.

Six extraordinary children are trying to lead normal lives in the Rocky Mountain countryside—but something powerful and dangerous connects them all as terrible secrets begin to arise . . . They live in different homes, with different families, but there is something powerful that connects them...

Few would question that humankind is the crowning achievement of evolution—that history yields progress over time from the primitive and simple to the more advanced and complex—or that identifying an existing trend can be helpful in making important life decisions. We have always identified trends as bad or good. But Stephen Jay Gould argues that this mode of interpretation is a bias that needs correcting.

Binge listen. Keep the lights on. Lock your doors. A mutating plague has killed two thirds of the world's population. Society has collapsed. And Mike Crenshaw is adrift. From the world of The Traveler Series comes a new cast of characters, new obstacles, and the same devastating, world-altering virus which plunges society into the depth of a dystopian hell. Adrift begins six months after The Scourge takes hold.

What is life? Humans have been asking this question for thousands of years. But as technology has advanced and our understanding of biology has deepened, the answer has evolved. For decades, scientists have been exploring the limits of nature by modifying and manipulating DNA, cells, and whole organisms to create new ones that could never have previously existed on their own.

Frankie finds that the bonobos she's studying are as complex as the humans she's working alongside. Their personalities are strong and distinct, and reigning over it all is Mama, the commanding, matriarchal leader of the group. Frankie comes to know the bonobos and to further develop her groundbreaking theory with the help of her research partner, a man with a complicated past and perhaps a place in her future. And then something changes everything, and the lines that divide them - between subject and scientist, between colleague and companion - begin to blur.

It's 2182. Stuck on a dull space station, 17-year-old Loni Solace's heart is failing her, and not just metaphorically. In search of one last thrill, she jumps aboard a freighter to see the galaxy for the first and last time. She expects adventure, but what she gets is a nightmare as crewmates start to disappear, and crazed robots start attacking. Enter Hardy: a combat ChronoBot with a messed-up memory, now Loni's unexpected ally in a system aimed against her. Loni, Hardy, and a few badass crewmates are thrown into high-octane battles and face-offs.

A prototype with a fierce primary directive: Protect her. Oliver is a super-computer built inside a supermodel body; the most luxurious android invented to date. Left collecting dust in storage because of a packaging error, he's finally activated from his prolonged sleep, eager to please his beautiful new owner. But she's running from a toxic past, and it's catching up to her. His directives are clear: Care for Becca. Protect her. It should be illegal for an artificial man to be as gorgeous as Oliver is.

Esme lost the one thing that made her time in captivity with the Grutex bearable. Even now, after her escape from the labs and her tormentor, the memory of those days haunt her. Yet from the depths of her darkest dreams, something precious calls out to her, something she thought she would never have. Esme will risk everything, even her own life, to answer the call and find out what fate has in store for her.

Perpetually bored, anxious, fatigued, and overweight, modern society has failed to deliver the happiness it promised. The remedy, Jevan Pradas argues, is in a unique synthesis of a Paleolithic lifestyle and Buddhist meditation. A sprawling journey, featuring Jevan's adventures with naked Amazonian tribes and retreats with enlightened monks to learn the secrets of optimal well-being, The Awakened Ape will teach you how to achieve deep states of bliss. All while shaping your body into the fit and healthy animal millions of years of evolution programmed you to be.

In a corporate-controlled future where the ruling conglomerates genetically engineer their employees, Millicent Foster is the best of the best. Physically perfect and exceptionally intelligent, Millicent is granted the uncommon privilege of breeding. But her daughter inherits more than superior genetics...little Marie has a rare ability that the world has never seen, and her conglomerate, Moxidone, will stop at nothing to have sole possession of the child.

In 2036, an eccentric billionaire funded humanity’s first trip to Mars as an ego project. That expedition made the most significant discovery in human history: proof of extraterrestrial life. The ancient alien outpost they found catapulted humanity’s knowledge of faster-than-light travel, genetic engineering, and planetary colonization forward by centuries.

The latest genetically engineered animal-soldier has hit the streets—literally. Jessup and Flowers confront it, but have they finally met their match? Will mutant 5.0 spell their doom? Or will it be the two-legged threats they never saw coming? Death stalks the southern Mississippi delta when a monstrous hybrid, the most vicious creature Section 17 has ever developed, escapes. And this time, not even its masters are safe. Is it a tragic accident, government ineptitude, or something more sinister?

It’s time to make plans, hide the truth, and get the HELL off her throne. But how to accomplish creating a federation when those coming together want to gut her empire? Anyone who understands the Queen Bitch knows she won't accept that condition without a fight. However, to accomplish meeting her love again in a system far away, she will accomplish the impossible. Her eyes start to glow red. No one will stop her from getting back to Michael.

Governments, black ops, rich businessmen.... All want alien tech, and some are going to great lengths, illegal lengths, to procure it. Someone went so far as to endanger a young girls family. A young girl who wrote a letter to the Queen Bitch. Now, those that are searching for the technology will have to deal with TQB. If there is one thing that will get Bethany Anne's attention... it's mistreating the defenseless.

Together again, and ready to bring the system to its knees. Karin Makos has spent the last two months running from one thing or another - but all that's about to change. Her sister's back, and Nomiki's ready to grab their problems by the horns, throw them on their backs, and rip into them with her modified carbon steel blades. With the backing of the Fallon Empire and a promising new lead, the two are determined to reach down into the mystery of their past and pull out its secrets, once and for all.

In these lively and fascinating essays, scientists from around the world weigh in on the latest advances in the search for intelligent life in the universe and discuss just what that might look like. Since 2000, science has seen a surge in data and interest on several fronts related to E.T...

The Sharers of Shora are a nation of women on a distant moon in the far future. They are pacifists, they are highly advanced in biological sciences, and they reproduce by parthenogenesis - because there are no males. Conflict erupts when a militaristic neighboring civilization decides to develop their ocean world and sends in an army.