Genetic World

From the very beginning, life on Earth has been defined by war. Today, those first wars continue to be fought around and literally inside us, influencing our individual behavior and that of civilization as a whole. War between populations - whether between different species or between rival groups of humans - is seen as an inevitable part of the evolutionary process. The popular concept of "the survival of the fittest" explains and often excuses these actions.

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.

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?

Mary Anning was only 12 years old when, in 1811, she discovered the first dinosaur skeleton - of an ichthyosaur - while fossil hunting on the cliffs of Lyme Regis, England. Until Mary's incredible discovery, it was widely believed that animals did not become extinct.

Seth is a surveyor, along with his friend Theo, a leech-like creature running through his skull who tells Seth what lies to his left and right.

In the universe containing Seth's world, light cannot travel in all directions: there is a "dark cone" to the north and south. Seth can only face to the east (or the west, if he tips his head backwards). Every living thing in Seth's world is in a state of perpetual migration as they follow the sun's shifting orbit and the narrow habitable zone it creates.

Here is a revolutionary perspective on the relationship between religion and science that builds a bridge between people of all beliefs.

This new book by Spencer Wells, the internationally known geneticist, anthropologist, author, and director of the Genographic Project, focuses on the seminal event in human history: mankind's decision to become farmers rather than hunter-gatherers.

Dessa has plans. She plans to stay out of trouble in the group home where she lives. She plans to work crazy hours at the grocery story to save for her own place. She plans to get her little brother back, soon, from his foster parents. But when a zombie apocalypse arrives, it wrecks all of Dessa's plans. With the city falling into chaos, Dessa must use her street smarts to survive. Her only weapon against the zombies is a pillowcase of tuna cans. And there's only one plan left in the entire universe that matters. Find and save her brother before it's too late.

Could humans unknowingly be a part of a larger superorganism—one with its own motivations and goals, one that is alive, and conscious, and has the power to shape the future of our species? This is the fascinating theory from author and futurist Byron Reese, who calls this human superorganism “Agora.” In We Are Agora, Reese starts by asking the question, “What is life and how did it form?” From there, he looks at how multicellular life came about, how consciousness emerged, and how other superorganisms in nature have formed.

Charles Darwin's foremost biographer, Janet Browne, delivers a vivid and accessible introduction to the book that permanently altered our understanding of what it is to be human. A sensation on its publication in 1859, The Origin of the Species profoundly shocked Victorian readers by calling into question the belief in a Creator with its description of evolution through natural selection. And Darwin's seminal work is nearly as controversial today.

Within the verdant green of the slime forests, new slimes are born and new evolutions are found. Doc watches on as his slimes take on new life and form the budding beginnings of tribal life, complete with leaders, goals, and increasing rivalries. The martial grey slimes, the productive herb slimes, the swarming bug slimes, and the elusive mimic slimes all seek to stake their claim, even as the lieutenants work to strengthen their abilities as true bosses.

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.

From one of the world's most pre-eminent authority on DNA and genetic research, a myth-busting book that provides a window into the world of modern genetics and shows how it informs so many areas of twenty-first century life.

Humans, it turns out, are intrinsically wired to seek short-term success at the expense of long-term prosperity. Kristian Rönn, an entrepreneur formerly affiliated with the University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, calls these deeply rooted impulses “Darwinian demons.” These forces, a by-product of natural selection, can lead us to act in shortsighted ways that harm others—and even imperil our survival as a species. If this evolutionary glitch is left unchecked, the consequences will grow in magnitude as the power of technology accelerates.

In the early 1800s, a century before there was any concept of the gene, physicians in insane asylums began to record causes of madness in their admission books. Almost from the beginning, they pointed to heredity as the most important of these causes. As doctors and state officials steadily lost faith in the capacity of asylum care to stem the terrible increase of insanity, they began emphasizing the need to curb the reproduction of the insane. They became obsessed with identifying weak or tainted families and anticipating the outcomes of their marriages.

Dinosaurs. Majestic giants. They’ve captured our imagination for generations. On planet Mintari, they live again. Mintari is far from Earth. Wild. Pristine. A world where triceratops herd across grasslands, pterosaurs soar over golden mountains, and T-rexes prowl the misty forests. But these magnificent beasts might soon disappear. And only one man can save them. They call him Jurassic Joe; a semi-mythical figure, a ranger who lives in the wilderness of Mintari. He is the defender of dinosaurs and the bane of poachers. A folk hero...but is he real?

"Mrs. T struggled mightily to maintain composure.... Her head felt an overinflated balloon.... She had struggled even harder to salvage a rescue mission.... To retrieve what's needed to keep America safe from the Techno-Plague, Middle East Terrorism, and the Guardian Party." Book two's action explodes from where book one ends, relentlessly terminating old enemies as fast as new ones emerge. Can Electra keep her "secret" hidden while allowing males to play her deadly games as her array of extraordinary skills deepens? You won't find out until the last line of the last chapter!

In Star Trek, crew members travel to unusual planets, meet diverse beings, and encounter unique civilizations. Throughout these remarkable space adventures, does Star Trek reflect biology and evolution as we know it? What can the science in the science fiction of Star Trek teach us? In Live Long and Evolve, biologist and die-hard Trekkie Mohamed Noor takes fans on a fun, fact-filled scientific journey. Noor offers Trekkies, science-fiction fans, and anyone curious about how life works a cosmic gateway into introductory biology.

Offering a bold new understanding of who we are, where we came from, and where we are going, noted ecologist Mark Bertness argues that human beings and their civilization are the products of the same self-organization, evolutionary adaptation, and natural selection processes that have created all other life on Earth. Bertness follows the evolutionary process from the primordial soup of two billion years ago through today, exploring the ways opposing forces of competition and cooperation have led to current assemblages of people, animals, and plants.

Es ist nichts Geringeres als eine medizinische Sensation: Durch die Entdeckung eines neuen Wundermittels kann der Alterungsprozess des Menschen aufgehalten werden! Wer das Medikament regelmäßig nimmt bleibt nicht nur ewig jung, er ist auch schöner und stärker als "normale" Menschen. Doch die neue Wunderdroge hat einen Haken: Man braucht dazu das Blut von Menschen, deren DNA eine besondere Sequenz aufweist. Oft werden diese "Träger" entführt und in Blutfarmen gefangen gehalten.