Genetic Science

Binge listen. Keep the lights on. Lock your doors. A mutating plague has killed two thirds of the world's population. The new threats come from desperate survivors. And Mike Crenshaw is looking for solid ground on which to find safety and peace. From the world of The Traveler Series comes a new cast of characters, new obstacles, and the same devastating, world-altering virus which plunges society into the depth of a dystopian hell. Grounded begins in the aftermath of The Scourge.

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.

Out on his own as a surveyor, Major Corbin sleeps under the stars and calls his own shots. As a one-man operation without powers on a space colony with power-abusing supers, this is the life. Nothing lasts forever. The chance discovery of a mysterious substance changes everything when he gains superpowers and learns that it’s the key to saving the colony from an evil that nobody but he knows is coming. The kicker? Gaining powers means waking an ancient being that might be the difference between saving the universe or dying in the process.

In these lively and fascinating essays, scientists from around the world weigh in on the latest advances in the search for intelligent life in the universe and discuss just what that might look like. Since 2000, science has seen a surge in data and interest on several fronts related to ET (extraterrestrials); AI (artificial intelligence); and SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence). The debate has intensified over whether life exists outside our solar system, what that life would look like, and whether we'll ever make contact.

For decades Richard Dawkins has been the world's most brilliant scientific communicator, consistently illuminating the wonders of nature and attacking faulty logic. Science in the Soul brings together 42 essays, polemics, and paeans - culled from personal papers, newspapers, lectures, and online salons - all written with Dawkins' characteristic erudition, remorseless wit, and unjaded awe of the natural world.

For five long years, Richard Stavos has been spilling blood in the arena of the interstellar prison Xan. Within the impenetrable walls of the galaxy's most notorious prison complex, the former lieutenant of the Commonwealth Federation Forces had only his technomancy skills to rely on. Though Stavos has accepted that life outside Xan is nothing but a pipe dream, the forces shaping the galaxy call to him once more. Great changes wash over humankind, threatening to drown civilizations. Changes that push the Technomancer to question his role in the universe.

Just a few hundred genes separate humans from chimpanzees. Imagine someone altering the chimp genome, splicing in human genes to increase the size of the cranium, reduce the amount of body hair, enable speech. What sort of creature would result? Sims takes place in the very near future, when the science of genetics is fulfilling its vaunted potential. A world where dangerous or boring manual labor is gradually being transferred to “sims”, genetically altered chimps who occupy a gray zone between simian and human.

When the Imminy fleets arrived at Primitea, there was only one name to rally under: the Bloodmancer. With Arthur and Fars at his side, Richard Stavos had become so much more than a Technomancer. His powers had grown beyond what the Guild could have ever taught him. The war had reached every corner of the Galaxy. The Stavos family had to swing its iron fist against enemies in the far reaches of the void as much as against those on Primitea. While Freya took on the mantle of ruler at home, Richard Stavos took the war to the Federation.

This Very Short Introduction uncovers the history of our understanding of sexual selection, from Darwin's key insights to the modern day. Considering the investment animals place on reproduction, variation in mating systems, sexual conflict, and the origin of sexual dimorphism, authors Marlene Zuk and Leigh Simmons discuss questions such as whether females can really choose between males on aesthetic grounds and how sexual conflict is resolved in different species.

Entre Seul sur Mars et Dark Matter, un thriller de science-fiction inventif et trépidant, bientôt adapté au cinéma par Bong Joon-ho (Parasite) ! Mourir n'est pas une partie de plaisir... mais c'est une manière de gagner sa vie. Mickey7 est un Consommable : un employé jetable d'une expédition humaine envoyée sur Niflheim, un monde de glace, pour le coloniser. Dès qu'une mission paraît trop dangereuse - voire suicidaire -, l'équipage se tourne vers lui. À la mort d'une version, un nouveau corps est régénéré, sa mémoire pratiquement intacte.

The Galactic Federation is confronted by the vast and implacable Thandol Empire, which has coveted the former Krall region of space for eons, a region of space now occupied and claimed by the upstart Kobani. Outnumbered, they face an opponent who possesses new and deadly weapons. An enemy that had thousands of years to develop the means to take on the Krall Empire, and now present the supermen with a weapon that turns their greatest genetic asset into their greatest weakness.

For six years Anya Korbin worked with Del-Rey Delgato—the genetically altered rebel known as the Coyote Ghost—to free a group of coyote women kept in her father’s lab. As Anya matured into a woman, she and Del-Rey grew close…but then he broke his promise and killed her father. Now she must deal with her animalistic desire for the one who betrayed her.

In this eagerly awaited follow-up, brave bird-kid Max and her flock are discovered by an FBI agent and forced to go to "school." There is no such thing as an ordinary day as Max deciphers how and when she's supposed to save the world, and she faces her greatest enemy—a clone of herself.

We are now on the doorstep of a fourth change brought about by two technologies: AI and robotics. The Fourth Age provides extraordinary background information on how we got to this point, and how - rather than what - we should think about the topics we’ll soon all be facing: machine consciousness, automation, employment, creative computers, radical life extension, artificial life, AI ethics, the future of warfare, superintelligence, and the implications of extreme prosperity.

James D. Watson, the Nobel laureate whose pioneering work helped unlock the mystery of DNA's structure, charts the greatest scientific journey of our time, from the discovery of the double helix to today's controversies to what the future may hold. Updated to include new findings in gene editing, epigenetics, and agricultural chemistry as well as two entirely new chapters on personal genomics and cancer research. This is the most comprehensive and authoritative exploration of DNA's impact on our society and our world.

Like shadows in the night, Captain Andrew Serrano and his elite team intercept the cargo ship Griffin, secretly owned by a Russian arms dealer. Their objective: capture the bio-engineer Dr. Hank Nore and deliver him to the C.I.A. The operation initially goes well, with the team overpowering the security forces and tracking their target to the lower decks. Backed into a corner, Dr. Nore resorts to desperate measures to avoid capture.

In Origin Story, medical historian Howard Markel recounts the two-year period (1858 to 1860) of Darwin's writing of On the Origin of Species through its spectacular success and controversy. Simultaneously, Markel delves into the mysterious health symptoms Darwin developed, combing the literature to emerge with a cogent diagnosis of a case that has long fascinated medical historians.

Family. Cultivation. Racing. Oto has taken his first steps towards the life he’s always dreamed of, but that means he has more to lose than ever before. Dreams are expensive, though, and the Ocean Slayers need cash to pay their debts - and safe cash isn’t fast enough. With his options disappearing quickly, only bad choices remain. He'll have to push himself and his team to the brink just for the chance to keep all of their dreams alive... Some things are worth risking everything for.

The characters in Tasting the Past include a young Swiss scientist who set out to decode the DNA of every single wine grape in the world; Middle Eastern researchers who seek to discover the wines that King David drank; and a University of Pennsylvania academic who has spent decades analyzing wine remains. The science illuminates wine in ways no critic can, and demolishes some of the most sacred dogmas of the industry: well-known French grapes aren't especially noble.

Une extraordinaire histoire collective dont nous sommes tous les héritiers ! Les gènes sont une fascinante machine à remonter le temps depuis que nous savons faire "parler" non seulement l'ADN des Sapiens actuels, mais aussi celui de nos lointains ancêtres. Évelyne Heyer, biologiste française, professeure en génétique des populations, dévoile un récit de l'aventure humaine dans un style clair et accessible.