Genetic Science

The Genetics Investigation Team has been shut down. Section 17 and the Special Projects Animal Asset Division no longer exist. FDA Special Agent April Flowers and Memphis Police Department Sergeant Jake Jessup have gone their separate ways, each running from a troubled past, and each thinking they had seen the last of mutant apex predators. They were wrong. Very wrong.

Eleven years have passed since SHEVA was discovered in human DNA - a retrovirus that caused mutations in the human genome and heralded the arrival of a new wave of genetically enhanced humans. Now, these changed children have reached adolescence...and face a world that is outraged about their very existence. For these special youths, possessed of remarkable, advanced traits that mark a major turning point in human development, are also ticking time bombs harboring hosts of viruses that could exterminate the "old" human race.

The Ooken thought they upset a small but tough set of aliens. They had no idea the level of pain Bethany Anne was willing to bring. You don’t hurt Bethany Anne’s people, because the gloves come off and get destroyed, never to be placed back on again. The children have had to grow up, and quickly. Will they handle the new responsibilities that come with their new bodies? Or will the experiment fail? War is coming. Who will be the victor? Each side believes they know enough, but Bethany Anne gets a stark reminder that the fog of war cuts both ways.

From the author of Seed of Israel: DNA Guide to Tracing Your Jewish Ancestry comes this great dive into the history of Ashkenazi Jews. While controversial debates spark disagreements on the crystallization of this Jewish Diaspora, modern genetic studies and personal DNA samples finally conclude the Levantine Middle Eastern and Mediterranean roots of Ashkenazi ancestry: Judean people from the Holy Land that journeyed across the Mediterranean to the bottleneck of Europe.

Tucked away in Siberia, there are furry, four-legged creatures with wagging tails and floppy ears that are as docile and friendly as any lapdog. But, despite appearances, these are not dogs - they are foxes. They are the result of the most astonishing experiment in breeding ever undertaken - imagine speeding up thousands of years of evolution into a few decades. In 1959, biologists Dmitri Belyaev and Lyudmila Trut set out to do just that, by starting with a few dozen silver foxes from fox farms in the USSR and attempting to recreate the evolution of wolves into dogs in real time.

The fascinating group of animals called dinosaurs became extinct some 65 million years ago (except for their feathered descendants). In their place evolved an enormous variety of land creatures, especially mammals, which in their way were every bit as remarkable as their Mesozoic cousins. The Age of Mammals, the Cenozoic Era, has never had its Jurassic Park, but it was an amazing time in earth's history, populated by a wonderful assortment of bizarre animals. The rapid evolution of thousands of species of mammals brought forth many incredible creatures—including our own ancestors.

Rosemary and Peter Grant and those assisting them have spend 20 years on Daphne Major, an island in the Galapagos, studying natural selection. They recognize each individual bird on the island, when there are 400 at the time of the author's visit or when there are over a thousand. They have observed about 20 generations of finches - continuously.Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin's finches and come up with a new understanding of life itself.

We’ve come a long way. The earliest human had a brain as small as a child’s fist; ours are four times bigger, with spectacular abilities and potential we are only just beginning to understand. This is How the Mind Changed, a seven-million-year journey through our own heads, packed with vivid stories, groundbreaking science, and thrilling surprises. Discover how memory has almost nothing to do with the past.

Why is the genome of a salamander 40 times larger than that of a human? Why does the avocado tree produce a million flowers and only a hundred fruits? Why, in short, is there so much waste in nature? In this lively and wide-ranging meditation on the curious accidents and unexpected detours on the path of life, Daniel Milo argues that we ask these questions because we’ve embraced a faulty conception of how evolution - and human society - really works.

Ever since Darwin and The Descent of Man, the existence of humans has been attributed to our intelligence and adaptability. But in Catching Fire, renowned primatologist Richard Wrangham presents a startling alternative: our evolutionary success is the result of cooking. In a groundbreaking theory of our origins, Wrangham shows that the shift from raw to cooked foods was the key factor in human evolution.

Horses have a story to tell - one of resilience, sociability, and intelligence and of partnership with human beings. In The Horse, journalist and equestrienne Wendy Williams brings that story brilliantly to life. Williams chronicles the 56-million-year journey of horses as she visits with experts around the world, exploring what our biological affinities and differences can tell us about the bond between horses and humans and what our longtime companions might think and feel.

The scientist who has been dubbed the “Father of Intelligent Design” and author of the groundbreaking book Darwin’s Black Box contends that recent scientific discoveries further disprove Darwinism and strengthen the case for an intelligent creator.

Pets have never been more popular. Over half of American households share their home with either a cat or a dog, and many contain both. This is a huge change from only a century ago, when the majority of domestic cats and dogs were working animals, keeping rodents at bay, guarding property, herding sheep. Nowadays, most are valued solely for the companionship they provide. As mankind becomes progressively more urban and detached from nature, we seem to be clinging to the animals that served us well in the past.

It may be a wonderful world, but as Dan Riskin explains, it's also a dangerous, disturbing, and disgusting one. At every turn, it seems, living things are trying to eat us, poison us, use our bodies as their homes, or have us spread their eggs. In Mother Nature Is Trying to Kill You, Riskin is our guide through the natural world at its most gloriously ruthless. Using the seven deadly sins as a road map, Riskin offers dozens of jaw-dropping examples that illuminate how brutal nature can truly be.

After surviving the trials of Freedom, Lucius enters the next stage of the military's super soldier creation scheme. Medieval weaponry and gritty fantasy combat are a thing of the past. He must bring what he's learned to the modern battlefield. Fighting futuristic tech isn't his only challenge. He'll go head-to-head against Genesis participants—enlisted military personnel who unlocked their psionics a year before Freedom began. Will his emerging psionic abilities and hard-earned experience be enough?

Many Christians who claim to believe that the Bible is God's revealed truth seem willing to allow modern scientific theories to replace the Genesis account of creation. Such compromises present a conspicuous danger. Bible teacher and pastor John MacArthur believes that in Genesis 1-3 we find the foundation of every doctrine that is essential to the Christian faith - the vital underpinnings for everything we believe.

Brought to life by the miracle of DNA cloning, a 93-foot megalodon shark has escaped captivity. With an insatiable appetite and unmatched aggression, it travels west for the Georgia coast, leaving a path of destruction in its wake. Bullets and harpoons can’t penetrate it, steel nets can’t hold it, and it’s only a matter of time before the whole world finds out about it.

Throughout his distinguished and unconventional career, engineer-turned-molecular-biologist Douglas Axe has been asking the questions that much of the scientific community would rather silence. Now, he presents his conclusions in this brave and pioneering book. Axe argues that the key to understanding our origin is the "design intuition" - the innate belief held by all humans that tasks we would need knowledge to accomplish can be accomplished only by someone who has that knowledge.

Under threat of destruction or servitude to the Empire, facing the fleets of the Ragnar, Finth, and Thack Delos, and the larger force of the Thandol, Mirikami prepares the Federation for all-out war. The Planetary Union, allied with the Federation, receives a squadron of new technology Federation Scouts equipped with gravity controlled weapons. They conduct a preemptive strike on a Thandol base. The emperor blames it on the Federation, unaware of the PU's existence, and orders simultaneous attacks.

Only a few short weeks ago, I was a regular human..if you count being trained to kill from the time I hit puberty and crossing the globe to go on missions normal. Then, I found out I could steal powers from superheroes. It wasn't long before I formed my own team of supes called Unity. With a collection of beautiful superheroes surrounding me, I'm starting to feel like I might be able to take on Pinnacle one day.