Showing titles in Biology

As biologist Jeremy Griffith explains in THE Interview (which psychiatrist Professor Harry Prosen described as “the most important interview of all time”), while we humans lacked the explanation for our two-million-year corrupted human condition, we had no choice but to deny that our distant ape ancestors lived in a state of cooperative and loving innocence. But with the good reason for our corrupted condition now finally found, our species’ original state of innocence can at last be admitted.

The Revolutionary Phenotype is a science book that brings us four billion years into the past, when the first living molecules showed up on Planet Earth. Unlike what was previously thought, we learn that DNA-based life did not emerge from random events in a primordial soup. Indeed, the first molecules of DNA were fabricated by a previous life form.

In recent years, malaria has emerged as a cause célèbre for voguish philanthropists. Bill Gates, Bono, and Laura Bush are only a few of the personalities who have lent their names - and opened their pocketbooks - in hopes of curing the disease. Still, in a time when every emergent disease inspires waves of panic, why aren’t we doing more to eradicate one of our oldest foes? And how does a parasitic disease that we’ve known how to prevent for more than a century still infect 500 million people every year, killing nearly 1 million of them?

The latest and most bitterly contested battle in the culture war is the controversy over Darwin and intelligent design. But much of what you've heard about it is wrong. Jonathan Wells, a battle-hardened veteran with doctorates in biology and theology, sets the record straight.

Smallpox, the only infectious disease to have been eradicated, was one of the most terrifying of human scourges. It covered the skin with hideous, painful boils, killed a third of its victims, and left the survivors disfigured for life. In this riveting, often terrifying look at the history of smallpox, Jonathan B. Tucker tells the story of this deadly disease, the heroic efforts to eradicate it worldwide, and the looming dangers it still poses today.

Understanding why we age and how to prevent age-related physical and mental decline can help us to live in the moment and enjoy our health at any age. In this audiobook, we explore the latest thinking in why we age, strategies to help maintain good health, as well as research into the limits of human longevity.

Entomologist Justin O. Schmidt is on a mission. Some say it's a brave exploration, others shake their heads in disbelief. His goal? To compare the impacts of stinging insects on humans, mainly using himself as the gauge. In The Sting of the Wild, the colorful Dr. Schmidt takes us on a journey inside the lives of stinging insects, seeing the world through their eyes as well as his own.

As recently as 11,000 years ago - "near time" to geologists - mammoths, mastodons, gomphotheres, ground sloths, giant armadillos, native camels and horses, the dire wolf, and many other large mammals roamed North America. In what has become one of science's greatest riddles, these large animals vanished in North and South America around the time humans arrived at the end of the last great ice age.

In Light to Life, biologist Raffael Jovine takes us on a journey of discovery into the intricate, beautiful and often surprising processes that convert energy from the sun into life and how all-important these are to our survival. Despite the unprecedented challenges the Earth faces from global warming, habitat loss, air pollution and population growth; Jovine shows us that there is hope to be found. Photosynthesis is the very source of life: it has the power not just to produce food, but to reshape continents, drive biogeochemical cycles, stabilise the climate and regulate weather.

Peter Wohlleben eröffnet uns eine faszinierende Welt: das Verständnis für Organismen, die mit bloßem Auge nicht erkennbar sind, aber die Geschicke der Menschheit lenken. Sie sind nicht nur praktische Alltagshelfer – ohne Bakterien kein Joghurt, keine Salami und kein Sauerkraut – und wohnen auf der Haut, der Zunge oder im Darm, sondern in jeder unserer Körperzellen, wo sie uns nach ihren Bedürfnissen steuern. Der Autor zeigt, dass wir aus Bakterien gemacht sind und wie stark sie uns prägen, etwa durch die Produktion von Hormonen, die unsere Stimmungen beeinflussen.

Desde que en 1405 llegaron a las islas Canarias los primeros dromedarios, la modificación de los ecosistemas y el comercio mundial entre continentes han provocado que numerosas especies de plantas y animales hayan colonizado territorios que nunca hubiéramos imaginado. La humanidad ha cubierto la Tierra con un manto que influye en toda la biosfera, dejando una profunda marca en ella.

Por los bosques es un ameno paseo por el apasionante mundo de los árboles y las florestas. Por sus ramas viajaremos en compañía de algunos personajes que han destacado por su amor a los grandes vegetales. Científicos, pensadores, pintores y escritores como Charles Darwin, Henry Thoreau, Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Federico García Lorca o Patrick Leigh Fermor recorren estas páginas llenas de vida y curiosidades. Estas y otras figuras nos enseñan que los árboles son nuestros grandes amigos y son los salvadores de nuestra civilización.

An eye-opening account about what we get wrong on sex and gender—and how we can be both sex smart and thoughtful. “Doriane Coleman presents a serious blueprint for common ground on matters of sex and gender, bringing compassion and intelligence to one of our most difficult cultural...

Hormone Havoc! empowers individuals to take charge of their health journey by becoming their own hormone advocates. Like the author herself, the book catalyzes positive change, inspiring listeners to make informed decisions and take proactive steps towards a life of vitality by saying "no" to a system that, through fear, misunderstanding, and misrepresentation, has led us down the road of low hormone complacency.

How four tools enabled humanity to control its destiny What enabled us to go from simple stone tools to smartphones? How did bands of hunter-gatherers evolve into multinational empires? Listeners of Sapiens will say a cognitive revolution - a dramatic evolutionary change that altered our brains, turning primitive humans into modern ones - caused a cultural explosion. In Transcendence, Gaia Vince argues instead that modern humans are the product of a nuanced coevolution of our genes, environment, and culture that goes back into deep time.

Most of us have heard of such popular butterflies as the Monarch or Painted Lady. But what about the Fender's Blue? Or the St. Francis' Satyr? Because of their extreme rarity, these butterflies are not well-known, yet they are remarkable species with important lessons to teach us. The Last Butterflies spotlights the rarest of these creatures - some numbering no more than what can be held in one hand.

This pathbreaking book explores how life can begin, taking us from cosmic clouds of stardust, to volcanoes on Earth, to the modern chemistry laboratory. Seeking to understand life's connection to the stars, David Deamer introduces astrobiology, a new scientific discipline that studies the origin and evolution of life on Earth and relates it to the birth and death of stars, planet formation, interfaces between minerals, water, and atmosphere, and the physics and chemistry of carbon compounds.

The human reaction to insects is neither purely biological nor simply cultural. And no one reacts to insects with indifference. Insects frighten, disgust, and fascinate us. Jeff Lockwood explores this phenomenon through evolutionary science, human history, and contemporary psychology, as well as a debilitating bout with entomophobia in his work as an entomologist. Exploring the nature of anxiety and phobia, Lockwood explores the lively debate about how much of our fear of insects can be attributed to ancestral predisposition for our own survival and how much is learned through individual experiences.

Popular science master Brian Clegg’s new book is an entertaining tour through the science of what makes you you. From the atomic level, through life and energy to genetics and personality, it explores how the billions of particles which make up you - your DNA, your skin, your memories - have come to be.

I will show you how to find and harvest Chaga mushrooms and how to properly consume Chaga. We’ll also provide you with some recipes that help you improve your health and keep it running smoothly for years to come.