Showing titles in Evolution

How could a relatively simple chemical code give rise to the complexity of a human being? How could our human genome have evolved? And how does it actually work? Your genome defines you at the most profound level. That same genome is present in every one of the approximately 100,000 billion cells that make you who you are as an individual member of the human species. An important ingredient of the genome, and its essential nature, is memory .

"The Mean Genes message is optimistic . . . a self-help book for the merely average human being." (The Washington Post Book World) "An unusual cross between a social Darwinist monograph and a self-help manual." (The New Yorker) Why do we want-and do-so many things that are bad for us? In Mean...

"A gifted and thoughtful writer, Metzl brings us to the frontiers of biology and technology, and reveals a world full of promise and peril." —Siddhartha Mukherjee MD, New York Times bestselling author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene A groundbreaking exploration of genetic...

For many of us, the great scientific discoveries of the modern age—the Big Bang, evolution, quantum physics, relativity—point to an existence that is bleak, devoid of meaning, pointless. But in The Sacred Depths of Nature, eminent biologist Ursula Goodenough shows us that the scientific world view need not be a source of despair. Indeed, it can be a wellspring of solace and hope. This volume reconciles the modern scientific understanding of reality with our timeless spiritual yearnings for reverence and continuity.

Evolutionary theory in the theme that binds together these essays on such seemingly disparate topics as the feeding habits of flamingos, flowers and snails that change from male to female and sometimes back again, and the extinction from baseball of the .400 hitter.

Lucy Cooke examines the survival strategies adopted by animals to gain an evolutionary advantage Award-winning broadcaster, bestselling author and zoologist Lucy Cooke has produced and presented numerous natural history shows on TV and radio, and has been tipped by The Times as 'the next David...

Woraus besteht die Welt? Wer war der erste Mensch? Warum gibt es Leben auf der Erde? Seit jeher hat die Menschheit Mythen erfunden, um Antworten auf diese Fragen zu geben. Einer der einflussreichsten Evolutionsbiologen der vergangenen 50 Jahre, Autor des Bestsellers Der Gotteswahn Richard Dawkins erzählt diese Mythen und enthüllt die wissenschaftliche Wahrheit, die hinter ihnen steckt.

When it comes to relating Christianity to modern Western culture, perhaps no topic is more controversial than the relationship between Christianity and science. Outside the church, the myth of an age-old conflict between science and Christianity is nearly ubiquitous in popular culture and can...

Our ability to think about the future is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal. In The Invention of Tomorrow, cognitive scientists Thomas Suddendorf, Jonathan Redshaw, and Adam Bulley argue that its emergence transformed humans from unremarkable primates to creatures that hold the destiny of the planet in their hands. Drawing on their own cutting-edge research, the authors break down the science of foresight, showing us where it comes from, how it works, and how it made our world.

In his acclaimed Cosmosapiens, renowned scientist John Hands looked back on how we humans evolved from the origin of the universe to the present day. Building on that work, The Future of Humankind: Why We Should Be Optimistic looks ahead to our ultimate destiny. Listeners embark on a fascinating journey in which Hands evaluates current major predictions for our future in three categories—extinction, survival, and transformation—before making his own unique and astonishing forecast.

In this book, the author uses chronological evolution as the outline as we observe the foundations of our universe and the unfolding of the phenomenon of "man". The evolutionary process as explained in the Human Phenomenon, a new edition of de Chardin's The Phenomenon of Man (1065 English edition), as edited and translated from the French 1955 edition by Sarah Appleton Weber in 1999, is categorized under four parts: prelife, life, thought, and superlife.

The genetic history of the dog is a sensational example of the co-evolution of two species, man and wolf, to each other’s mutual benefit. But how did this ancient partnership begin? To answer this question, Professor Bryan Sykes identifies tantalising clues in the recently mapped genetic...

It is rare for life to change Earth, yet three organisms have profoundly transformed our planet over the long course of its history. Elemental reveals how microbes, plants, and people used the fundamental building blocks of life to alter the climate, and with it, the trajectory of life on Earth in the past, present, and future. Taking listeners from the deep geologic past to our current era of human dominance, Stephen Porder focuses on five of life’s essential elements—hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus.

There are two supreme predators on the planet with the most complex brains in nature: humans and orcas. In the 20th century alone, one of these animals killed 200 million members of its own species, the other killed none. Jeffrey Masson’s fascinating new book begins here: There is something different about us. In Beasts he demonstrates that the violence we perceive in the "wild" is mostly a matter of projection. We link the basest human behavior to animals, to "beasts" ("he behaved no better than a beast"), and claim the high ground for our species.

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.

Drawing on insights from across the social, behavioral, and natural sciences, Michelle Baddeley explores contexts in which behavior is driven by the herd. She analyzes the rational vs nonrational and cognitive vs emotional forces involved, and she investigates why herding only sometimes works out well. With new perspectives on followers, leaders, and the pros and cons of herd behavior, Baddeley shines vivid light on human behavior in the context of our ever-more-connected world. 

An extraterrestrial colony, in some form, may already exist, just awaiting discovery. But the greatest impediment to such an important scientific discovery may not be technological, but political. No scientific endeavor can be launched without a budget, and matters of money are within the arena of politicians. Dr. Ben Bova explores some of the key players and the arguments waged in a debate of both scientific and cultural priorities.

"As a sex writer, Jesse Bering is fearless—and peerless." —Dan Savage "You are a sexual deviant. A pervert, through and through." We may not want to admit it, but as the award-winning columnist and psychologist Jesse Bering reveals in Perv, there is a spectrum of perversion along which we...

Before Charles Darwin, other luminaries planted the seeds that would one day evolve into the theory that would make him famous. Author Rick Coste begins by shining a spotlight on the writers, philosophers, and scientists who planted the seeds that would blossom into the theory of evolution by natural selection, from Aristotle’s big ideas to young Mary Anning’s discovery of the first ichthyosaur skeleton. After exploring the contributions of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, Evolution Talk investigates the very beginnings of life itself.

Why did intelligence explode in only ONE species? The answer has eluded science—until now. The Curiosity Gene completes the picture first painted by Darwin himself, tracing curiosity to its violent birth amid primate warfare and revealing it as the missing link behind a 2.3-million-year march...