Born in Africa: The Quest for the Origins of Human Life


Martin Meredith - 2011
    Buried there lie answers about the origins of humankind. After a century of investigation, scientists have transformed our understanding about the beginnings of human life. But vital clues still remain hidden. In Born in Africa, Martin Meredith follows the trail of discoveries about human origins made by scientists over the last hundred years, recounting their intense rivalry, personal feuds, and fierce controversies as well as their feats of skill and endurance.The results have been momentous. Scientists have identified more than twenty species of extinct humans. They have firmly established Africa as the birthplace not only of humankind but also of modern humans. They have revealed how early technology, language ability, and artistic endeavour all originated in Africa; and they have shown how small groups of Africans spread out from Africa in an exodus sixty thousand years ago to populate the rest of the world. We have all inherited an African past.

No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality


Judith Rich Harris - 2006
    Why do people—even identical twins reared in the same home—differ so much in personality? Armed with an inquiring mind and insights from evolutionary psychology, Judith Rich Harris sets out to solve the mystery of human individuality.

Cell and Molecular Biology: Concepts and Experiments


Gerald Karp - 1979
    The sixth edition explores core concepts in considerable depth and presents experimental detail when it helps to explain and reinforce the concepts. The majority of discussions have been modified to reflect the latest changes in the field. The book also builds on its strong illustration program by opening each chapter with “VIP” art that serves as a visual summary for the chapter. Over 60 new micrographs and computer-derived images have been added to enhance the material. Biologists benefit from these changes as they build their skills in making the connection. Doody Review Services Reviewer: Bruce A. Fenderson, PhD(Thomas Jefferson University) Description: The author expertly organizes, explains, and illustrates the chemical and cellular basis of life on Earth in this comprehensive and exciting introduction to cell and molecular biology. The 18 fascinating chapters cover topics ranging from control of gene expression to mechanisms of immune response. There is even a chapter on laboratory techniques. The focus of the book is on biological chemistry, with an emphasis on core concepts and experimental approaches. Purpose: The purpose is to provide a textbook for an introductory course in cell and molecular biology. The author hopes that students will visualize a world filled with "giant molecules and minuscule structures" that constitute the chemistry of life. He encourages students to consider the evidence that is presented to support a biological model, think of alternate explanations, and plan experiments that may lead to new hypotheses. One of the author's goals is to help students develop their independent, critical-thinking skills. Audience: This is an excellent companion textbook for undergraduate and graduate-level courses in cell and molecular biology. It is written for students across a wide range of life science disciplines

What Is Life? with Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches


Erwin Schrödinger - 1944
    The book was based on a course of public lectures delivered by Schrödinger in February 1943 at Trinity College, Dublin. Schrödinger's lecture focused on one important question: "how can the events in space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of a living organism be accounted for by physics and chemistry?" In the book, Schrödinger introduced the idea of an "aperiodic crystal" that contained genetic information in its configuration of covalent chemical bonds. In the 1950s, this idea stimulated enthusiasm for discovering the genetic molecule and would give both Francis Crick and James Watson initial inspiration in their research.

The Naked Ape


Desmond Morris - 1967
    Here is the Naked Ape at his most primal in love, at work, at war. Meet man as he really is: relative to the apes, stripped of his veneer as we see him courting, making love, sleeping, socializing, grooming, playing. The Naked Ape takes its place alongside Darwin’s Origin of the Species, presenting man not as a fallen angel, but as a risen ape, remarkable in his resilience, energy and imagination, yet an animal nonetheless, in danger of forgetting his origins. With its penetrating insights on man's beginnings, sex life, habits and our astonishing bonds to the animal kingdom, The Naked Ape is a landmark, at once provocative, compelling and timeless.

Age Later: Secrets of the Healthiest, Sharpest Centenarians


Nir Barzilai - 2020
    Nir Barzilai’s life’s work is tackling the challenges of aging to delay and prevent the onset of all age-related diseases including “the big four”: diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s.One of Dr. Barzilai’s most fascinating studies features volunteers that include 750 SuperAgers—individuals who maintain active lives well into their nineties and even beyond—and, more importantly, who reached that ripe old age never having experienced cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, or cognitive decline.In Age Later, Dr. Barzilai reveals the secrets his team has unlocked about SuperAgers and the scientific discoveries that show we can mimic some of their natural resistance to the aging process. This eye-opening and inspirational book will help you think of aging not as a certainty, but as a phenomenon—like many other diseases and misfortunes—that can be targeted, improved, and even cured.

Moral Calculations: Game Theory, Logic, and Human Frailty


Mérő László - 1998
    This ideal guide shows us how mathematics can illuminate the human condition.

Descartes' Baby: How the Science of Child Development Explains What Makes Us Human


Paul Bloom - 2004
    They expect objects to obey principles of physics, and they're startled when things disappear or defy gravity. Yet they can also read emotions and respond with anger, sympathy, and joy. In Descartes' Baby, Bloom draws on a wealth of scientific discoveries to show how these two ways of knowing give rise to such uniquely human traits as humor, disgust, religion, art, and morality. How our dualist perspective, developed throughout our lives, profoundly influences our thoughts, feelings, and actions is the subject of this richly rewarding book.

Human Anatomy & Physiology


Elaine N. Marieb - 1985
    Marieb draws on her own, unique experience as a full-time A&P professor and part-time nursing student to explain concepts and processes in a meaningful and memorable way. With the Seventh Edition, Dr. Marieb has teamed up with co-author Katja Hoehn to produce the most exciting edition yet, with beautifully-enhanced muscle illustrations, updated coverage of factual material and topic boxes, new coverage of high-interest topics such as Botox, designer drugs, and cancer treatment, and a comprehensive instructor and student media package. Package Components *NEW! InterActive Physiology(R) 9-System Suite CD-ROM *Student Access Kit for MyA&P (CourseCompass) and the Anatomy & Physiology Place companion website *REVISED! A Brief Atlas of the Human Body, Second Edition

In The Blink Of An Eye: How Vision Sparked The Big Bang Of Evolution


Andrew Parker - 2003
    Although several books have been written about this surprising event, known as the Cambrian explosion, none has explained why it occurred. Indeed, none was able to. Here, for the first time, Oxford zoologist Andrew Parker reveals his theory of this great flourishing of life. Parker's controversial but increasingly accepted "Light Switch Theory" holds that it was the development of vision in primitive animals that caused the explosion. Drawing on evidence not just from biology, but also from geology, physics, chemistry, history, and art, In the Blink of an Eye is the fascinating account of a young scientist's intellectual journey, and a celebration of the scientific method.

The Mature Mind: The Positive Power of the Aging Brain


Gene D. Cohen - 2005
    The fastest-growing segment of the population, those beyond the age of fifty, are no longer content to simply cope with the losses of age. Mental acuity and vitality are becoming a life-long pursuit. Now, the science of the mind is catching up with the Baby Boom generation. In this landmark book, renowned psychiatrist Gene Cohen challenges the long-held belief that our brain power inevitably declines as we age, and shows that there are actually positive changes taking place in our minds. Based on the latest studies of the brain, as well as moving stories of men and women in the second half of life, The Mature Mind reveals for the first time how we can continue to grow and flourish. Cohen's groundbreaking theory-the first to elaborate on the psychology of later life-describes how the mind gives us "inner pushes" and creates new opportunities for positive change throughout adult life. He shows how we can jump-start that growth at any age and under any circumstances, fine-tuning as we go, actively building brain reserves and new possibilities. The Mature Mind offers a profoundly different and intriguing look at ourselves, challenging old assumptions, raising bold new questions, and providing exciting answers grounded in science and the realities of everyday life.

Delicious: The Evolution of Flavor and How It Made Us Human


Rob Dunn - 2021
    They consider the role that flavor may have played in the invention of the first tools, the extinction of giant mammals, the evolution of the world's most delicious and fatty fruits, the creation of beer, and our own sociality. Along the way, you will learn about the taste receptors you didn't even know you had, the best way to ferment a mastodon, the relationship between Paleolithic art and cheese, and much more.Blending storytelling with the latest science, Delicious is a deep history of flavor that will informs on human evolution and the gustatory pleasures of the foods we eat.

Curious Naturalists


Nikolaas Tinbergen - 1958
    Enthusiastic and informal accounts of the exciting discoveries and fascinating observations made by naturalists in the study of the behavior of animals in their natural surroundings

The Seeds of Life: From Aristotle to da Vinci, from Sharks' Teeth to Frogs' Pants, the Long and Strange Quest to Discover Where Babies Come From


Edward Dolnick - 2017
    People knew the basics: men and women had sex, and sometimes babies followed. But beyond that the origins of life were a colossal mystery. The Seeds of Life is the remarkable and rollicking story of how a series of blundering geniuses and brilliant amateurs struggled for two centuries to discover where, exactly, babies come from. Taking a page from investigative thrillers, acclaimed science writer Edward Dolnick looks to these early scientists as if they were detectives hot on the trail of a bedeviling and urgent mystery. These strange searchers included an Italian surgeon using shark teeth to prove that female reproductive organs were not 'failed' male genitalia, and a Catholic priest who designed ingenious miniature pants to prove that frogs required semen to fertilize their eggs. A witty and rousing history of science, The Seeds of Life presents our greatest scientists struggling-against their perceptions, their religious beliefs, and their deep-seated prejudices-to uncover how and where we come from.

Freedom: The End of the Human Condition


Jeremy Griffith - 2016
    Indeed, the great fear is we are entering endgame where we appear to have lost the race between self-destruction and self-discovery the race to find the psychologically relieving understanding of our good and evil-afflicted human condition. WELL, ASTONISHING AS IT IS, THIS BOOK BY AUSTRALIAN BIOLOGIST JEREMY GRIFFITH PRESENTS THE 11TH HOUR BREAKTHROUGH BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION OF THE HUMAN CONDITION NECESSARY FOR THE PSYCHOLOGICAL REHABILITATION AND TRANSFORMATION OF OUR SPECIES!The culmination of 40 years of studying and writing about our species psychosis, 'FREEDOM' delivers nothing less than the holy grail of insight we have needed to free ourselves from the human condition. It is, in short, as Professor Harry Prosen, a former president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, asserts in his Introduction, THE BOOK THAT SAVES THE WORLD! Griffith has been able to venture right to the bottom of the dark depths of what it is to be human and return with the fully accountable, true explanation of our seemingly imperfect lives. At long last we have the redeeming and thus transforming understanding of human behaviour! And with that explanation found all the other great outstanding scientific mysteries about our existence are now also able to be truthfully explained of the meaning of our existence, of the origin of our unconditionally selfless moral instincts, and of why we humans became conscious when other animals haven't. Yes, the full story of life on Earth can finally be told and all of these incredible breakthroughs and insights are presented here in this greatest of all books.