Human Errors cover art

Human Errors

A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes

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Human Errors

By: Nathan H. Lents
Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
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About this listen

We humans like to think of ourselves as highly evolved creatures. But if we are supposedly evolution's greatest creation, why do we have such bad knees? Why do we catch head colds so often - 200 times more often than a dog does? How come our wrists have so many useless bones? Why is the vast majority of our genetic code pointless? And are we really supposed to swallow and breathe through the same narrow tube? Surely there's been some kind of mistake.

As professor of biology Nathan H. Lents explains in Human Errors, our evolutionary history is nothing if not a litany of mistakes, each more entertaining and enlightening than the last. The human body is one big pile of compromises. But that is also a testament to our greatness: as Lents shows, humans have so many design flaws precisely because we are very, very good at getting around them.

A rollicking, deeply informative tour of humans' four billion year-long evolutionary saga, Human Errors both celebrates our imperfections and offers an unconventional accounting of the cost of our success.

©2018 Nathan H. Lents (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books Biological Sciences Biology Evolution Evolution & Genetics Science Genetic disease Pregnancy Physiology Nutrition Safety Culture
All stars
Most relevant
wonderful subject, well researched and a great narrator. I'll be looking for more of the author's work

fascinating and well read

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Interesting, easy to understand, and somewhat amusing book about characteristics in the human body that should make it harder for us to survive as a species. And yet here we are.

Interesting facts and narration

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I have just finished my Paramedics studies - this reading gave me that other angle of how the body works - or doesn’t work. I loved every minute and learned so much, it’s well written, interesting and smart. I’ll be listening again.

So Interesting!

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