Genetic World

After escaping the laboratory where he was imprisoned by the scientific mega-corporation GenTech, Kata wants just one thing: to go back to his homeworld of Trandellia with his friend Tau and forget all about what happened. Forget about being imprisoned and mutated, forget about GenTech's attempts to break and sell him as a piece of livestock, and above all, forget the tortures he suffered at the hands of some of the scientists.

Big History, the field that studies the entire known past of our universe to give context to human existence, has so far been the domain of historians. Geologist Walter Alvarez - best known for his Impact Theory explaining dinosaur extinction - makes a compelling case for a new, science-first approach to Big History.

Since the birth of civilization, human beings have manipulated other life-forms. We have selectively bred plants and animals for thousands of years to maximize agricultural production and cater to our tastes in pets. The observation of the creation of artificial animal and plant variants was a key stimulant for Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The ability to directly engineer the genomes of organisms first became possible in the 1970s, when the gene for human insulin was introduced into bacteria.

Spectacular fossil finds make today's headlines; new technology unlocks secrets of skeletons unearthed 100 years ago. Still, evolution is often poorly represented by the media and misunderstood by the public. A potent antidote to pseudoscience, Written in Stone is an engrossing history of evolutionary discovery for anyone who has marveled at the variety and richness of life.

Ashton Chayton was born with a powerful gift, a unique inhuman telepathic ability. Orphaned and raised by the hyper-intelligent Red Wolves of Opan, he is pursued by merciless and powerful enemies.

As starving, travel-weary people overrun High Meadow, Tillie and Angus must do a delicate dance to keep the doors open. Angus has set the boundaries for their new territory, and Martin is tasked with keeping it safe. Tillie struggles to get everyone fed while keeping an eye on the stores for winter. Wisp helps where he can, vetting the newcomers and finding stragglers, but not every person comes under his scrutiny.

Find out where our world is headed with this dazzling first-hand account of inventing the future from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of What Should I Do With My Life? and the founder of science accelerator IndieBio. Decoding the World is a buddy adventure about the quest to live...

The stability of the Survivor’s Alliance is still fragile. They made it through the winter, but now it’s flu season. Every year the virus changes just a little. Tillie and Angus are trying to prepare for every scenario, even the possibility that they will be the first to go. Nick is working to bridge the gap in supplies until the spring crops come in. Wisp and Bridget are preparing for the birth of their child. But there are changes coming that no one expected.

Kalin Taylor is on the path to success. He's just won a scholarship to the prestigious Sanderson College of Arts and Science to study medicine. He's also about to do something very, very stupid in the name of becoming one of the 'in' kids at college. It sounded simple at the time. Sneak into a branch of the top-secret, interstellar scientific company GenTech, take a photo of the genetically engineered creature Project Tau that's supposedly inside, and sneak back out again. Cue membership of the college frat house, cue popularity and an improved lifestyle, right?

Josh Ridley is an overworked, underappreciated accountant caught up in life’s grind. All that changes when he is offered an adventure vacation that allows him to be miniaturized and placed in an unforgiving terrain filled with demons and demon lords, or to laymen...killer insects. In Betaloome, an infested terrarium with a land area equivalent to hundreds of square miles, Josh’s new god-like abilities make him adored by women, admired by men, and able to slay monsters.

Mark is a student of robotics with a budding career track. Still in high school, he has a fellowship with the local university working with the renowned Professor David. But just before the end of the school year, Mark becomes a quadriplegic, closing the doors to his future. But Professor David is contacted by his best friend, Tyler Davis, who was recently promoted to the project lead for a new company called Synaptergy. This company is working on a new brain-to-robotic interface that promises to restore the lives of those who have lost the use of their limbs.

An apocalypse ruined all of Dessa's plans. She's reunited with her brother and plans to hide with him and her friends, while waiting out the zombie apocalypse in safety. But an unexpected crisis throws Dessa's group into a race against time. They need some zombie-blocker meds, and they need them fast. Unfortunately, Dessa and her friends will soon learn that the outside world has more than just zombies standing in their way.

Dr. Dino Martins, an awarding-winning entomologist of Kenya's Turkana Basin, where life was born, unspools the hidden, squirming world of parasites—some of the most misunderstood, and important, creatures with whom we share the Earth (and our bodies!). “May this tusk root out the lice of the...

The president arrives at High Meadow with his entourage of bureaucrats and faux-military. Tillie and Angus don’t have time for any distractions as a massive wildfire bears down on their settlement. It will take more than hard work and good intentions to get them through this catastrophe. Martin is leery about sending all of his men to aid those in the path of the fire, thereby leaving their borders unprotected.

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.

From the cup of coffee that jump-starts the day to dangerously addictive drugs, the recreational use of plants with psychoactive properties has a long history among humans. But, as with many things, it turns out that other animals got there first. From parrots to primates, consuming medicinal chemicals is an instinctive behavior that helps countless organisms fight infection and treat disease. But the similarities don't end there: Like us, many creatures also consume substances that have no apparent benefit...except for inducing intoxication.

Despite unimaginable odds, Marine Lieutenant Gant Maker has once again done the impossible, defeating the alien Vacra’s invasion force and nullifying their unstoppable doomsday device. With their armada destroyed and their fleet crippled, the Vacra resort to the inconceivable: They sue for peace via an unexpected envoy. Fresh off his highly improbable victory, Maker now finds himself faced with the unenviable and undesirable task of escorting the Vacra representative home. However, he soon learns that the stakes are far higher than he ever imagined.

It's the 22nd century, and human cloning has become a reality. In three days, the first replicant will be made at Phoenvartis, a Swiss pharma-tech company. As the head of the development team, Rollie must decide which genetic samples to use to produce the replicant. He has been directed by his boss to use the samples provided by the World Council, which governs Earth and colony planets.

Hatcher and his band of survivors want more than to simply survive. They abandon their industrial shelter and set out to begin rebuilding their lives in an attempt to salvage their humanity. The Marauders have been broken, but Simon refuses to surrender. Gathering a handful of his enforcers, he sets about getting his revenge...and he doesn’t care who gets hurt in the turmoil. The Ragers are starving...and evolving. They don’t care who wins the war between the Survivors and the Marauders, they just want to pick their teeth with the bones of the losers.

Just 150 years ago, most of our world was an unexplored wilderness. Our sense of its age was vastly off the mark. And what we believed to be the history of our own species consisted of fantastic myths and fairy tales; fossils, known for millennia, were seen as the bones of dragons and other imagined creatures. How did we learn so much so quickly? Remarkable Creatures celebrates the pioneers who replaced our fancies with the even more remarkable real story of how our world evolved.