Genetic Politic

Caitlin Shetterly discovered the importance of GMOs the hard way. Shortly after she learned that her son had an alarming sensitivity to GMO corn, she was told that she had the same condition, and her family's daily existence changed forever. An expansion of Shetterly's viral Elle article "The Bad Seed", Modified delves deep into the heart of the matter - from the cornfields of Nebraska to the beekeeping conventions in Brussels - to shine a light on the people, the science, and the corporations behind the food we serve ourselves and our families every day.

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.

In the near future, an ambitious scientific experiment brings Abraham Lincoln back to life through his genetic clone, Abram Cocklin. "Clone of Liberty: A Journey to Presidential Destiny" by Frank Villavicencio intertwines historical legacy with futuristic innovation, exploring themes of leadership, ethics, and destiny. Abram, raised by Ethan and Lena Cocklin, carries the weight of his genetic heritage while navigating a world in political and social turmoil.

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.

In this engaging exploration, archaeologist Ian Hodder departs from the two prevailing modes of thought about human evolution: the older idea of constant advancement toward a civilized ideal and the newer one of a directionless process of natural selection. Instead, he proposes a theory of human evolution and history based on "entanglement," the ever-increasing mutual dependency between humans and things.

Thirty-year-old UNPOL officer Richard Warren has been embedded with the BBC, and not seeing eye-to-eye with journalist Sarah Dyer is just the start of his problems. News of an Ebola pandemic is being withheld, and when it’s discovered Sarah’s savant brother is involved, Richard’s determination to expose the truth takes an unexpected turn. But what if the truth must never be known?

What makes us human? Why are we the only animals who wear clothes, drive cars, trawl the internet, and fly helicopters on Mars? It’s all because we’ve learnt to talk, yet remarkably, we still don’t know how we did it. Speech! suggests an answer that’s been hiding in plain sight - the simple yet radical shift that turned our analog grunts and shrieks into words. But, its consequences are far from simple: being able to share ideas through language was an evolutionary tipping point - it allowed us to link up our minds.

Im digitalen Zeitalter sind Informationen wertvoller als Gold. Doch Computer können gehackt und Files gestohlen werden. Nach einem massiven Cyberangriff fürchtet die britische Regierung um ihre Staatsgeheimnisse und entwickelt einen ebenso riskanten wie genialen Plan: Die brisantesten Informationen werden offline genommen, in einen genetischen Code umgewandelt und fünf Zivilisten implantiert. Dafür bekommen diese so genannten Wächter die Chance auf ein neues Leben, eine neue Identität und finanzielle Unabhängigkeit.

Unnatural Selection is the first book to examine the rise of the "technocentric being" - or geek - who personifies a distinct new phase in human evolution. People considered geeks often have behavioral or genetic traits that were previously considered detrimental. But the new environment of the Anthropocene period - the Age of Man - has created a kind of digital greenhouse that actually favors their traits, enabling many non-neurotypical people to bloom.

MI7 is expecting an eccentric new recruit in the person of Chasha Jones, self-described (only partly tongue-in-cheek) as "the most intelligent woman in London". She's hard-working, insightful, and fun to work alongside. But the day she's due to begin, there's no sign of her. It turns out she's joined forces with an eccentric Brit called Hector Raynebow. Raynebow used to be an environmentalist, but he's rejected all that on the grounds that humanity, in its present form, is incapable of saving the world. He has the perfect solution: Humankind 2.0.

Welcome to the 11th novel in the Pseudoverse, Hellfire. Ripped from the headlines of a real-life cover-up, Hellfire is a fiery barrage of hell-bound robots, AI, and undercover spies sent to reign down hell on earth for reasons unknown to us until the climax. Our sarcastic and beautifully flawed protagonist is thrust upon this world from God-knows-where to begin a life in a world she knows nothing about. The CIA, NSA, and Israel acknowledged this inspirational cyberwarfare story that will have you clinging to the edge of your seat.

In The Synthetic Age, Christopher Preston argues that what is most startling about this coming epoch is not only how much impact humans have had but, more important, how much deliberate shaping they will start to do. Emerging technologies promise to give us the power to take over some of Nature's most basic operations. It is not just that we are exiting the Holocene and entering the Anthropocene; it is that we are leaving behind the time in which planetary change is just the unintended consequence of unbridled industrialism.

Deep in the frozen wasteland of Antarctica, a remote NASA research lab rests atop a two-mile thick glacier, covering a vast underground water reservoir. But the true discovery isn't the lake buried in ice - it's what has been found within its boundaries. Something amazing. Something alive. And it may hold the answers to existence itself. When the lab is attacked and its scientists murdered, ex-Navy SEAL Nolan Kilkenny realizes that there's more than science at stake - there's power, money, and what may be another step in evolution.

In The Genial Gene, Joan Roughgarden forcefully rejects ideas that have come to dominate the study of animal evolution. Building on her brilliant and innovative book Evolution's Rainbow, in which she challenged accepted wisdom about gender identity and sexual orientation, Roughgarden upends the notion of the selfish gene and the theory of sexual selection and develops a compelling and controversial alternative theory called social selection.

When Joselin Linder was in her 20s, her legs started to swell. She thought little of it until her health problems started to compound in ways that baffled her doctors. Diagnosed with extreme liver blockage and dangerous levels of lymph fluid, Joselin turned to the most similar case she could think of - her father's.

In his new book The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack, human paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall argues that a long tradition of "human exceptionalism" in paleoanthropology has distorted the picture of human evolution. Drawing partly on his own career - from young scientist in awe of his elders to crotchety elder statesman - Tattersall offers an idiosyncratic look at the competitive world of paleoanthropology.

The Big Ratchet is the story of the ratchets: the technologies and innovations, big and small, that propelled our species from hunters and gatherers on the savannahs of Africa to shoppers in the aisles of the supermarket. Our species long lived on the edge of starvation. Now we produce enough food for all 7 billion of us to eat nearly 3,000 calories every day. This is such an astonishing thing in the history of life as to verge on the miraculous. The Big Ratchet is the story of how it happened.

Noted scientist David P. Barash explores the process by which science has, throughout time, cut humanity "down to size", and how humanity has responded. A good paradigm is a tough thing to lose, especially when its replacement leaves us feeling more vulnerable and less special. And yet, as science has progressed, we find ourselves - like it or not - bereft of many of our most cherished beliefs, confronting an array of paradigms lost. Barash models his argument around a set of "old" and "new" paradigms that define humanity's place in the universe.

East and West have fused into separate superstates known as the Allied National Government (ANG) and the Soviet International Bloc (SIB). As the Cold War rages, brilliant scientist Lucas Martino works on a top-secret project known only as K-Eighty-eight that could alter the balance of world power. The project goes horribly awry at an Allied research facility near the Soviet border, and Martino is abducted. After several months of tense negotiations, he returns severely injured from the lab explosion, and under pressure from America, he undergoes extensive reconstructive surgery.

What can fossilized teeth tell us about our ancient life expectancy? What can big data on fossils reveal about farming's problematic role in human evolution? How can simple geometric comparisons of skull and pelvic fossils suggest an origin to our social nature? In Close Encounters with Humankind, paleoanthropologist Sang-Hee Lee explores some of our biggest evolutionary questions from unexpected new angles. Through a series of entertaining, bite-sized chapters, we gain new perspectives into our first hominin ancestors, our first steps on two feet, and more.