Genetic Science

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.

Seventy years ago, Erwin Schrdinger posed a simple, yet profound, question: What is life?. How could the very existence of such extraordinary chemical systems be understood? This problem has puzzled biologists and physical scientists both before, and ever since. Living things are hugely complex and have unique properties, such as self-maintenance and apparently purposeful behaviour which we do not see in inert matter. So how does chemistry give rise to biology?

What is animal welfare? This concise and accessible guide is for anyone who is interested in animals and who has wondered how we can assess their welfare scientifically. It defines animal welfare as "health and animals having what they want", a definition that can be easily understood by scientists and non-scientists alike, expresses in simple words what underlies many existing definitions, and shows what evidence we need to collect to improve animal welfare in practice. Above all, it puts the animal's own point of view at the heart of an assessment of its welfare.

In 1966, Isaac Asimov and Theodosius Dobzhansky wrote The Genetic Effects of Radiation as a public information resource for the US Atomic Energy Commission. In Asimov's typically incisive and easy-to-understand style, the pair presents an overview of genetics, and how inherited traits can be influenced by external factors, including radiation, both environmental and man-made.

Book 5: Free the North!: Peace in the south. People settling in. Intelligent creatures moving to Vii from the RV Traveler. Soon, meat will be in short supply. Hungry people will fight for what they need. Braden knows that livestock abounds in the north. It's time to go get some. But free trade in the north has been declared illegal by a new governor.

With warmth and compassion, Denworth weaves together past and present, field biology and cutting-edge neuroscience, to show how our bodies and minds are designed to make friends, the process by which social bonds develop, and how a drive for friendship underpins human (and nonhuman) society. With its refreshingly optimistic vision of the evolution of human nature, this book puts friendship at the center of our lives.

Miriam was raised in a society without children. To offset the devastation of climate change, state-of-the-art birth control has made daycares and playgrounds things of the past. As tempting as the government inducements are to remain child-free, Miriam’s curiosity about the people who “drop out” of society to become parents grows. When she finds a like-minded partner, she must choose between the rewarding comforts she knows and the unknowable mysteries of being a mother.

In Arrival of the Fittest, renowned evolutionary biologist Andreas Wagner draws on over 15 years of research to present the missing piece in Darwin's theory. Using experimental and computational technologies that were heretofore unimagined, he has found that adaptations are not just driven by chance, but by a set of laws that allow nature to discover new molecules and mechanisms in a fraction of the time that random variation would take.

“There is no good reason why human societies should not be described and explained with the same precision and success as the rest of nature.” Thus argues evolutionary psychologist Pascal Boyer in this uniquely innovative book. Integrating recent insights from evolutionary biology, genetics, psychology, economics, and other fields, Boyer offers precise models of why humans engage in social behaviors such as forming families, tribes, and nations, or creating gender roles.

They call it Company Town - a city-size oil rig off the coast of the Canadian Maritimes, now owned by one very wealthy, powerful, byzantine family: Lynch Ltd. Hwa is of the few people in her community (which constitutes the whole rig) to forgo bioengineered enhancements. As such, she's the last truly organic person left on the rig - making her doubly an outsider as well as a neglected daughter and bodyguard extraordinaire.

Teagan Frost -- the girl with telekinetic powers and a killer paella recipe -- faces a new threat that could wipe out her home forever in the second book of Jackson Ford's irreverent fantasy series. Teagan Frost's life is finally back on track. Her role working for the government as a...

There is one thing every enemy of Bethany Anne finds out: They will be ground under her heels. Now, something is heating up between Bethany Anne and Michael, and it isn’t her anger over him leaving her behind. Well, much. Further, the Patriarch is learning there might be someone worth sticking around for in his future. If she would just stop being so hard-headed.

Leading archaeogeneticist Johannes Krause and journalist Thomas Trappe investigate what DNA can tell us about how we got where we are and what our future might be. They show how the first humans were defeated again and again and suffered fatal setbacks, and how Homo sapiens succeeded in conquering continents, overcoming natural borders, and bringing other species under its control. But the genetic blueprint that enabled us to get to the place where we are today had one flaw: it didn't factor in planetary boundaries.

In this extraordinary follow-up to the critically acclaimed The Lucifer Principle, Howard Bloom - one of today's preeminent thinkers - offers us a bold rewrite of the evolutionary saga. Global Brain is more than just a brilliantly original contribution to the ongoing debate on the inner workings of evolution; it is a "grand vision," says the eminent evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson, a work that transforms our very view of who we are and why.

In this final installment of Nancy Kress's award-winning Beggars trilogy, it is now 200 years in the future. Regular human beings hate and fear the Sleepless and the SuperSleepless, genetically-modified humans who are immune to disease and hunger and who do not need to sleep. When the Sleepless plot to take over the world and leave regular humans powerless, civilization and the very meaning of the word "human" hang in the balance.

Trapped in history's vast expanse and burdened with immortality, King's journey transcends the ordinary, plunging him into epochs where legends and reality intertwine. From the ancient sands of Babylon to the birth of the American Revolution and through the Roman Empire at its zenith, King's exploits are a thrilling blend of historical intrigue and futuristic heroism. Whether he's rescuing a doomed Babylonian prince, navigating the treacherous waters of the Caribbean as an immortal pirate, or battling a plague-ridden Roman centurion, King's actions ripple through time.

Self-exile became Sira's only choice when she discovered how deeply she'd been betrayed by the leaders of her own people. Rather than allow them to continue to use her for their own ruthless purposes, Sira, the most powerful being ever born to the alien race known at the Clan, fled with the human telepath, Jason Morgan. Now, living on a distant world in an environment over which she has control, Sira is striving to carve out a new life for herself.

How did life begin? It is perhaps the most important question science has ever asked. Over the centuries, the search for an answer has been entwined with some of science's most revolutionary advances, including van Leeuwenhoek's microscope, Darwin's theory of evolution, and Crick and Watson's unveiling of DNA.

When hope fades, the shadows fight back. After the brutal Saluki Inu invasion nearly annihilated humanity, the battle for survival continues—not just against alien forces, but against secrets that could unravel everything. Shaman—the bio-synthetic shapeshifter, haunted by visions and bound by sacrifice—emerges from the shadows to protect the last survivors. When he rescues the injured Professor Cameron, it sparks a desperate chain of events that forces the resistance to flee. With their enemies closing in, Shaman must confront his fractured past and the truth behind his mysterious powers.

A corporate aristocracy descended from Africa rules a colony on a distant planet. Life here is easy—for the rarified and privileged few. The aristocrats enjoy a powerful cybernetic technology that extends their life spans and ensures their prosperity. Those who serve them suffer under a heavy hand. But within this ruthless society are agents of hope and change. In a secret underwater laboratory, a separatist cult has created a threat to the aristocracy. The Primes are highly intelligent, manipulative products of genetic engineering, designed to lead a rebellion.