Darwin's Ghost: The Origin of Species Updated
Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species is probably the best-known, least-read book. One of the most important achievements of the past millennium, it did for biology what Galileo did for astronomy: made it into a single science rather than a collection of unrelated facts. Important though Origin remains, its examples and intricate Victorian prose are now a century and a half old. They are ripe for renewal and reaffirmation. Writing as "Darwin's ghost," eminent geneticist Steve Jones updates this seminal work--and restates evolution's case for the 21st century. Jones is a writer of engaging wit and dazzling erudition and has been called "the British Carl Sagan." Using modern examples--the AIDS virus, the puzzles of sexual selection, the physiology and psychology of pets, and the unparalleled genetic success of our own species--he shows the power and immediacy of Darwin's great argument and makes us appreciate how it makes life make sense. Eye-opening and entertaining, filled with astonishing facts, amusing anecdotes, and the very latest research, Darwin's Ghost is contemporary science writing at its very best.
Cells, Gels and the Engines of Life
This book describes how cells work. It challenges the current wisdom of cell function, and presents a new, simpler approach to fundamental processes such as movement, transport, division, and communication, based on sound physical principles. The book is profusely illustrated with many color figures. It is written for the non-expert in an accessible, often humorous style.
Undiscovered Mind
GRAY MATTER UNDER INVESTIGATION In his acclaimed book The End of Science, John Horgan ignited a firestorm of controversy about the limits of knowledge in a wide range of sciences. Now in The Undiscovered Mind he focuses on the single most important scientific enterprise of all -- the effort to understand the human mind. Horgan takes us inside laboratories, hospitals, and universities to meet neuro-scientists, Freudian analysts, electroshock therapists, behavioral geneticists, evolutionary psychologists, artificial intelligence engineers, and philosophers of consciousness. He looks into the persistent explanatory gap between mind and body that Socrates pondered and shows that it has not been bridged. He investigates what he calls the "Humpty Dumpty dilemma," the fact that neuroscientists can break the brain and mind into pieces but cannot put the pieces back together again. He presents evidence that the placebo effect is the primary ingredient of psychotherapy, Prozac, and other treatments for mental disorders. As Horgan shows, the mystery of human consciousness, of why and how we think, remains so impregnable that to expect the attempts of scientific method and technology to penetrate it anytime soon is absurd.
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion -- and indeed our future.
Survival of the Prettiest
A provocative and thoroughly researched inquiry into what we find beautiful and why, skewering the myth that the pursuit of beauty is a learned behavior. In Survival of the Prettiest, Nancy Etcoff, a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and a practicing psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, argues that beauty is neither a cultural construction, an invention of the fashion industry, nor a backlash against feminism--it's in our biology. Beauty, she explains, is an essential and ineradicable part of human nature that is revered and ferociously pursued in nearly every civilization--and for good reason. Those features to which we are most attracted are often signals of fertility and fecundity. When seen in the context of a Darwinian struggle for survival, our sometimes extreme attempts to attain beauty--both to become beautiful ourselves and to acquire an attractive partner--suddenly become much more understandable. Moreover, if we understand how the desire for beauty is innate, then we can begin to work in our own interests, and not just the interests of our genetic tendencies.
Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior
The story of Nobel Prize-winning discoveries regarding the molecular mechanisms controlling the body's circadian rhythm. How much of our fate is decided before we are born? Which of our characteristics is inscribed in our DNA? Weiner brings us into Benzer's Fly Rooms at the California Institute of Technology, where Benzer, and his asssociates are in the process of finding answers, often astonishing ones, to these questions. Part biography, part thrilling scientific detective story, Time, Love, Memory forcefully demonstrates how Benzer's studies are changing our world view--and even our lives. Jonathan Weiner, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Beak of the Finch, brings his brilliant reporting skills to the story of Seymour Benzer, the Brooklyn-born maverick scientist whose study of genetics and experiments with fruit fly genes has helped revolutionize or knowledge of the connections between DNA and behavior both animal and human.
The Physiology Coloring Book
This colouring book offers an enjoyable, highly effective way for students to learn physiology. Topics are covered in self-contained two-page spreads, allowing students to easily focus on the material being presented. A unique combination of introductory material, names and illustrations to be coloured, and substantive captions deliver a comprehensive, yet easy-to-understand, treatment of physiology. The Physiology Coloring Book is the companion to the extremely successful Anatomy Coloring Book.
At the Water's Edge
Everybody Out of the Pond At the Water's Edge will change the way you think about your place in the world. The awesome journey of life's transformation from the first microbes 4 billion years ago to Homo sapiens today is an epic that we are only now beginning to grasp. Magnificent and bizarre, it is the story of how we got here, what we left behind, and what we brought with us. We all know about evolution, but it still seems absurd that our ancestors were fish. Darwin's idea of natural selection was the key to solving generation-to-generation evolution -- microevolution -- but it could only point us toward a complete explanation, still to come, of the engines of macroevolution, the transformation of body shapes across millions of years. Now, drawing on the latest fossil discoveries and breakthrough scientific analysis, Carl Zimmer reveals how macroevolution works. Escorting us along the trail of discovery up to the current dramatic research in paleontology, ecology, genetics, and embryology, Zimmer shows how scientists today are unveiling the secrets of life that biologists struggled with two centuries ago. In this book, you will find a dazzling, brash literary talent and a rigorous scientific sensibility gracefully brought together. Carl Zimmer provides a comprehensive, lucid, and authoritative answer to the mystery of how nature actually made itself.
The Firmament of Time
"Dr. Eiseley describes with zest and admiration the giant steps that have led man, in a scant three hundred years, to grasp the nature of his extraordinary past and to substitute a natural world for a world of divine creation and intervention. . . . An irresistible inducement to partake of the almost forgotten excitements of reflection."--New YorkerLoren Eiseley examines what we as a species have become in the late twentieth century. His illuminating and accessible discussion is a characteristically skillful and compelling synthesis of hard scientific theory, factual evidence, personal anecdotes, haunting reflection, and poetic prose.
The Cosmic Serpent
"A Copernican revolution for the life sciences."--Medical Tribune Unlock the mysteries of biology, anthropology, and ancient civilizations in this thought-provoking read where science and spirituality intersect. Through Jeremy Narby′s travels and research in the Amazon, he discovered that shamans were able to use hallucinogens to tap into knowledge and insights that rival our discoveries using modern scientific methods, particularly with regards to DNA and molecular biology. Drawing on visionary experiences, indigenous knowledge, and pharmacology, Narby challenges conventional understanding, unraveling the connections between consciousness, serpent symbolism, and the origins of life itself. This enlightening book blends science, anthropology, and mysticism into a captivating narrative that will expand your mind.
The Biotech Century: Harnessing the Gene and Remaking the World
In this seminal book, Jeremy Rifkin explores the epic marriage between computer technology and genetic engineering, and the historic transition into the Age of Biotechnology. Already, Rifkin explains, our economy is undergoing a massive shift away from the Industrial Age and into an era in which giant life-science corporations are fashioning a bioindustrial world.Humanity is on the brink of wielding greater control over the shape of life--how we are born; how our food supply is created; the traits our children may have--than has ever been imagined. But with each step into this new era, we must ask ourselves: At what cost?
Planetary Dreams
The Quest To Discover Life Beyond Earth. "The 'dreams' that I write of are not the usual ones, the images that come up in our minds involuntarily during certain stages of sleep, but rather the hopes and expectations that we have lavished upon other worlds around us."-from the Preface. The surprisingly long history of debate over extraterrestrial life is full of marvelous visions of what life "out there" might be like, as well as remarkable stories of alleged sightings and heated disputes about the probability that life might actually have arisen more than once. In Planetary Dreams, acclaimed author Robert Shapiro explores this rich history of dreams and debates in search of the best current answers to the most elusive and compelling of all questions: Are we alone? In his pursuit, he presents three contrasting views regarding how life might have started: through Divine Creation, by a highly unlikely stroke of luck, or by the inevitable process of a natural law that he terms the Life Principle. We are treated to a lively fictional dinner debate among the leading proponents of these schools of thought-with the last named group arguing that life has almost surely formed in many places throughout the universe, and the others that life may well be entirely unique to our own blue planet. To set the stage for a deep exploration of the question, the author then leads us on a fantastic journey through the museum of the cosmos, an imagined building that holds models of the universe at different degrees of magnification. We then journey deep into inner space to view the astonishingly intricate life of a single cell, and learn why the origin of such a complex object from simple chemical mixtures poses one of the most profound enigmas known to science. Writing in a wonderfully entertaining style, Shapiro then reviews the competing theories about the start of life on Earth, and suggests the debate may best be settled by finding signs of life on the other worlds of our solar system. He takes us on a guided tour of the most likely sites, from the underground hot springs of Mars to the ice-covered oceans of Jupiter's airless moons. Along the way, he shares a wealth of fascinating stories about the ways in which our views of the heavens have changed, from the theories of ancient philosphers, who argued that the Moon was inhabited, to the current Origins and Astrobiology initiatives of NASA. He describes the probes that will be sent out in the near future in pursuit of the first compelling physical evidence of life beyond Earth, and concludes with a radical suggestion about how this quest might be supported through the next millennium. As we launch into an exciting new era of space exploration, Planetary Dreams offers a thoughtful and entertaining exploration of both the history of our hopes and expectations and a vision of a possible future in which the discovery of life elsewhere will provide a new view of our place in the universe.
Life's Other Secret
Is there an underlying set of principles that connects the pattern of a tiger's stripes with the design of a butterfly's wings? Are there hidden laws of life that lie deeper than DNA? According to award-winning science writer Ian Stewart, the answer is yes, and the hidden rules are called mathematics. In "Life's Other Secret"
Beginning Bioethics
Beginning Bioethics: A Text with Integrated Readings gives students an introduction to the language of philosophical ethics before leading them through six major issues in bioethics. The bioethics section not only includes Ridley's clear explanations of all sides of a given issue, but also his analysis of a major, previously published article on that issue. It was written to accompany the third edition of Cases in Bioethics.
The Perfect Baby
The Perfect Baby is a clarion call for a more realistic discussion of biotechnology. McGee challenges the common assumption that we are essentially determined by a genetic blueprint. He denies the necessity of a new 'Genethics, ' arguing that the wisdom we need can be found in the everyday experience of parents. The Perfect Baby dramatically alters the terms of the moral debate for parents, policy makers, scientists, philosophers, theologians, and physicians.
Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution And The Meanings Of Life
In a book that is both groundbreaking and accessible, Daniel C. Dennett, whom Chet Raymo of The Boston Globe calls "one of the most provocative thinkers on the planet," focuses his unerringly logical mind on the theory of natural selection, showing how Darwin's great idea transforms and illuminates our traditional view of humanity's place in the universe. Dennett vividly describes the theory itself and then extends Darwin's vision with impeccable arguments to their often surprising conclusions, challenging the views of some of the most famous scientists of our day.
Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution
A biographical, historical, and philosophical study of the impact of Darwinism on the intellectual climate of the nineteenth century, challenging the conventional view of Darwin's greatness. "A thorough and masterly book."-Times Literary Supplement.
The Microbiology Coloring Book
This microbiology colouring book asks the reader to colour a series of figures that convey microbiological principles and processes. An efficient review of all areas pertinent to a microbiology course, it simplifies the learning process and provides visually appealing figures that can be used for future study. The act of colouring helps students understand the structure and processes of microbiology, and how they relate to one another.
Reinventing Darwin
One of the world's foremost evolutionary theorists presents a fascinating overview of the arguments supporting the two main opposing theories of evolution that have developed since Darwin--one from the geneticists and the other from the paleontologists. Eldredge offers an insider's perspective of the disputes between the most famous names in the field. He explains who the key players are, why they disagree and gives a spirited defense of his side of the debate. Features all important new advances in evolutionary theory during the past two decades.
Out of Control
Out of Control chronicles the dawn of a new era in which the machines and systems that drive our economy are so complex and autonomous as to be indistinguishable from living things.
The Medusa and the Snail
A Pulitzer Prize Finalist The medusa is a tiny jellyfish that lives on the ventral surface of a sea slug found in the Bay of Naples. Readers will find themselves caught up in the fate of the medusa and the snail as a metaphor for eternal issues of life and death as Lewis Thomas further extends the exploration of man and his world begun in The Lives of a Cell. Among the treasures in this magnificent book are essays on the human genius for making mistakes, on disease and natural death, on cloning, on warts, and on Montaigne, as well as an assessment of medical science and health care. In these essays and others, Thomas once again conveys his observations of the scientific world in prose marked by wonder and wit.
The Mass-Extinction Debates
This book is the first to examine the arguments and behavior of the scientists who have been locked in conflict for a decade over two competing hypotheses for the cause of the mass extinction, some 65 million years ago, of most of life on earth, including the dinosaurs. These papers - by historians, sociologists, philosophers, and participating scientists - provide an exceptional opportunity to observe firsthand the workings of science that in quieter times are hidden from view. The book concludes with an overarching discussion by a balanced panel of embattled scientists and scholars.
The Portable Darwin
"Deserves to be as widely read as were the originals when they were first published."--Biological Journal of the Linneas Society. Includes five chapters from The Origin of Speices, complete and unabridged; significant extracts from the works that precede and develop the theory of evolution: The Voyage of the Beagle, The Descent of Man, and The Variations of Animals and Plants; scientific papers, travel writings, letters, and a family memorial; plus a chronology and biography.
Hands
Intended for all readers--including magicians, detectives, musicians, orthopedic surgeons, and anthropologists--this book offers a thorough account of that most intriguing and most human of appendages: the hand. In this illustrated work, John Napier explores a wide range of absorbing subjects such as fingerprints, handedness, gestures, fossil remains, and the making and using of tools.
Ever Since Darwin
More than any other modern scientist, Stephen Jay Gould has opened up to millions the wonders of evolutionary biology. His genius as an essayist lies in his unmatched ability to use his knowledge of the world, including popular culture, to illuminate the realm of science.
The Body Electric
The perennial bestseller that you MUST READ in order to fully understand the interplay between electric energy and living organismsThe Body Electric tells the fascinating story of our bioelectric selves. Robert O. Becker, a pioneer in the field of regeneration and its relationship to electrical currents in living things, challenges the established mechanistic understanding of the body. He found clues to the healing process in the long-discarded theory that electricity is vital to life. But as exciting as Becker's discoveries are, pointing to the day when human limbs, spinal cords, and organs may be regenerated after they have been damaged, equally fascinating is the story of Becker's struggle to do such original work. The Body Electric explores new pathways in our understanding of evolution, acupuncture, psychic phenomena, and healing.
The Origin of Species
Since its publication in 1859, The Origin of Species has been the focal point of debate. Darwin's analysis of flora and fauna calls into question the long-held concepts of spontaneous generation, divine creation, and the unrelatedness of many species. Instead, he argues for Natural Selection: species survive and evolve in response to environmental conditions and other circumstances through a process in which those creatures and plants with stronger, more enduring characteristics live to beget more adaptable offspring. It was Darwin's research aboard the H.M.S. Beagle that led to the clash of intellectual titans - religion and science - over the true nature of humankind. Here is the book that started one of the greatest debates of the Western world.
