Showing results by publisher "Audible studios" in Evolution & Genetics

How did species wind up where they are today? Scientists have long conjectured that plants and animals dispersed throughout the world by drifting on large landmasses as they broke up, but in The Monkey’s Voyage, biologist Alan de Queiroz offers a radical new theory that displaces this passive view.

We evolved to eat berries rather than bagels, to live in mud huts rather than condos, to sprint barefoot rather than play football - or did we? Are our bodies and brains truly at odds with modern life? Although it may seem as though we have barely had time to shed our hunter-gatherer legacy, biologist Marlene Zuk reveals that the story is not so simple. Popular theories about how our ancestors lived - and why we should emulate them - are often based on speculation, not scientific evidence. Armed with a razor-sharp wit and brilliant, eye-opening research, Zuk takes us to the cutting edge of biology to show that evolution can work much faster than was previously realized.

In How We Do It, primatologist Robert Martin draws on 40 years of research to locate the roots of everything from our sex cells to the way we care for newborns. He examines the procreative history of humans as well as that of our primate kin to reveal what's really natural when it comes to making and raising babies, and distinguish which behaviors we ought to continue - and which we should not. Although it's not realistic to raise our children like our ancestors did, Martin’s investigation reveals surprising consequences of - and suggests ways to improve upon - the way we do things now.

The question of teaching evolution in the public schools is a continuing and frequently heated political issue in America. From Tennessee's Scopes Trial in 1925 to recent battles that have erupted in Louisiana, Kansas, Ohio, and countless other localities, the critics and supporters of evolution have fought nonstop over the role of science and religion in American public life. In American Genesis, Jeffrey P. Moran explores the ways in which the evolution debate has reverberated beyond the confines of state legislatures and courthouses.

While we joke that men are from Mars and women are from Venus, our gender differences can't compare to those of other animals. For instance: the male garden spider spontaneously dies after mating with a female more than fifty times his size. Female cichlids must guard their eggs and larvae--even from the hungry appetites of their own partners. And male blanket octopuses employ a copulatory arm longer than their own bodies to mate with females that outweigh them by four orders of magnitude. Why do these gender gulfs exist?

From the family to the workplace to the marketplace, every facet of our lives is shaped by cooperative interactions. Yet everywhere we look, we are confronted by proof of how difficult cooperation can be - snarled traffic, polarized politics, overexploited resources, social problems that go ignored. The benefits to oneself of a free ride on the efforts of others mean that collective goals often are not met. But compared to most other species, people actually cooperate a great deal. Why is this?

Most people know that Gregor Mendel, the Moravian monk who patiently grew his peas in a monastery garden, shaped our understanding of inheritance. But people might not know that Mendel's work was ignored in his own lifetime, even though it contained answers to the most pressing questions raised by Charles Darwin's revolutionary book, On Origrin of the Species, published only a few years earlier. Mendel's single chance of recognition failed utterly, and he died a lonely and disappointed man.

If we are, in part, a product of our genes, can free will exist? Incisive and engaging, this indispensable tour of evolutionary biology runs the gamut of contemporary debates, from science and religion to our place in the universe.

Despite extensive evidence highlighting the influence of genetics in the business world, this critical connection has been glossed over by corporate leaders and management gurus. Now, for the first time, author Scott Shane explains why genes matter, and how an understanding of their relationship to behavior is of vital importance to employers, employees, and policy makers.

Draghi, ciclopi, giganti, unicorni, fenici. Quando gli antichi si imbattevano in resti di animali sconosciuti, subito li attribuivano a creature fantastiche. Poi gli scienziati hanno dimostrato che si trattava solo di fantasie ancestrali: i mostri non esistono, oggi lo sappiamo tutti; eppure la spiegazione che gli studiosi hanno dato di quei reperti è stata addirittura più terrificante: prima di noi, una miriade di altri viventi abitava il nostro pianeta, ma ora non ci sono più. Sulla Terra, infatti, nulla è per sempre.

I nostri geni non sono scolpiti nella pietra e i nostri fattori ereditari non sono un' "impronta digitale" fissa e immodificabile. Un essere umano infatti è molto più della somma dei suoi geni. Tutto quello che mangiamo, facciamo e sentiamo, tutto ciò che ci accade può influire sull'attività del DNA, a prescindere dalla configurazione genetica con la quale nasciamo. L'epigenetica, cioè la branca della genetica che si occupa di indagare le variazioni dell'espressione del nostro DNA, ci porta infatti una buona notizia: tali variazioni sono reversibili.

La specie umana, unica tra le specie viventi, è in grado di ricostruire la propria storia biologica. Da un lato tutti gli uomini appartengono a una sola specie, dall'altro non esistono due uomini uguali sulla terra, tanto è grande la variabilità genetica tra individuo e individuo. Unica tra le specie è anche la nostra complessa storia culturale e tra le due evoluzioni, biologica e culturale, esistono convergenze ma anche divergenze.

Alla luce delle ricerche più recenti, l'audiolibro introduce i fondamenti della teoria evoluzionistica - formulata da Charles Darwin più di un secolo e mezzo fa - al cui centro stanno tre spinte concomitanti: le sorgenti di variazione, la trasmissibilità di una parte di questa variazione di generazione in generazione, l'azione della selezione naturale nei mutevoli contesti ecologici. Ripercorre poi gli altri meccanismi che oggi integrano ed estendono il nucleo darwiniano della teoria, fino alla comparsa di Homo sapiens, un ramoscello nel ricco "cespuglio" degli ominini.

Una storia prima della storia. Ossa fossili, denti, manufatti, siti preistorici e dati genetici per ricostruire l'evoluzione di un gruppo di scimmie antropomorfe che, intorno a 6 milioni di anni fa, in Africa, intrapresero l'intricato percorso evolutivo che diede origine alla nostra specie.

A vibrant young Hispano woman, Shonnie Medina, inherits a breast-cancer mutation known as BRCA1.185delAG. It is a genetic variant characteristic of Jews. The Medinas knew they were descended from Native Americans and Spanish Catholics, but they did not know that they had Jewish ancestry as well. The mutation most likely sprang from Sephardic Jews hounded by the Spanish Inquisition. The discovery of the gene leads to a fascinating investigation of cultural history and modern genetics by Dr. Harry Ostrer and other experts on the DNA of Jewish populations.

チャールズ・ダーウィンの『種の起源』は、生物の進化がなぜ起こるのかを自然淘汰で説明し「神が天地創造の際にすべての生き物を完璧な姿でつくった」というキリスト教の世界観を覆した。コペルニクスの地動説と並び、人類に知的革命を起こした大名著である。

人類の歴史は、地球規模の支配を築いた壮大な成功の物語のようにも見える。しかし、その成功の裏で、ホモ・サピエンスはずっと「借りものの時間」を生きてきた。何千年も続いた栄光は、今や終わりが近づいている。なぜそうなったのか？

≪累計300万部突破!『眠れなくなるほど面白い図解シリーズ』≫環境や努力は遺伝に勝てない!?行動遺伝学者が語る“遺伝のタブー”を図解でわかりやすく解説!【遺伝の話】

Josef H. Reichholf erzählt die Evolution des Menschen neu und wagt einen Ausblick in unsere Zukunft. Der Mensch ist etwas Besonderes. Mit acht Milliarden über den ganzen Globus verteilten Individuen ist der Mensch so erfolgreich wie keine andere vergleichbare Art. Aber warum wir so sind, wie wir sind, daran scheiden sich die Geister. Josef H. Reichholf, vielfach ausgezeichneter Biologe und Bestsellerautor, stellt sich in seinem großen Buch der Frage nach dem Wesen des Menschen. Was sind wir? Welche Rolle spielen Natur und Kultur für Gewalt und Mitgefühl, für Konflikte und Fortschritt?

Il volume, in una nuova edizione aggiornata e ampliata, traccia la storia dell'evoluzione umana avvalendosi delle più recenti acquisizioni dell'analisi dei fossili e del DNA. La scoperta di nuove specie estinte e la ricostruzione del genoma dei neandertaliani e di altre specie hanno infatti fornito dati importantissimi. Oggi non sappiamo soltanto che la specie Homo sapiens non può essere suddivisa in razze e che alcuni nostri antichi parenti erano probabilmente in grado di utilizzare un linguaggio complesso simile al nostro, ma anche che in noi sono presenti alcuni dei loro geni.