Genetic Science

Israel and Erin are strangers who wake up in a dark sub basement with no memory of how they got there. As they work together to escape, they encounter the clandestine Sentry Group and are thrust into a hidden subculture of monsters, secret societies, and carefully concealed history. The truth of human history isn't the only surprise waiting for them, though, as the power hidden deep within their DNA suddenly manifests. A man cursed with a monstrous hunger. A woman who can bend space and time. Will Israel and Erin stand against the coming darkness or let humanity fend for itself?

In the beginning, Earth was an inhospitably alien place—in constant chemical flux, covered with churning seas, crafting its landscape through incessant volcanic eruptions. Amid all this tumult and disaster, life began. The earliest living things were no more than membranes stretched across microscopic gaps in rocks, where boiling hot jets of mineral-rich water gushed out from cracks in the ocean floor. In A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth, Henry Gee zips through the last 4.6 billion years with infectious enthusiasm and intellectual rigor.

Frannie O'Neill is a young and talented veterinarian living in Colorado. Plagued by the mysterious murder of her husband, David, a local doctor, Frannie throws herself into her work. It is not long before another bizarre murder occurs, and Kit Harrison, a troubled and unconventional FBI agent, arrives on her doorstep. Late one night, near the woods of her animal hospital, Frannie stumbles upon a strange, astonishing phenomenon that will change the course of her life forever....

The world is in crisis! What is the solution? Ultimately, we have to find the redeeming, and thus transforming, understanding of our psychologically troubled human condition. And it is precisely that dreamed-of insight, and its now desperately needed transformation of our lives, that Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith presents in this book.

Human life, and how we came to be, is one of the greatest scientific and philosophical questions of our time. This compact and accessible book presents a modern view of human evolution. Written by a leading authority, it lucidly and engagingly explains not only the evolutionary process, but the technologies currently used to unravel the evolutionary past and emergence of Homo sapiens.

Religious fundamentalists and biblical literalists present any number of arguments that attempt to disprove evolution. Those with a sympathetic ear often fail to critically examine these creationist claims, leading to an ill-informed public and, perhaps more troubling, ill-advised public policy. As Aron Ra makes clear, however, every single argument deployed by creationists in their attacks on evolution is founded on fundamental scientific, religious, and historical falsehoods - all of them.

Seraphina Waters craves the opportunity to protect Bethany Anne's growing Etheric Empire. Thrown a lifeline when she needs it most, she's given a chance to prove herself. If she can. Pulled into alien politics and a life beyond her imagination, Phina might just have a chance to have the one thing she's always wanted. Now, she just needs to pull it off without getting killed.

No more Dark Mode. That’s what Bran had promised Kat—and made her promise him. Which was their shorthand for, “Let’s stop killing people.” But that’s easier said than done when your friend is a hybrid: part human, and part mutated apex predator. Wounded and on the run from their former lives in Northern California, Bran and Kat find themselves in the Oregon wilderness, searching for a place to call home—a place where they can escape their past, with people that will accept Kat for what she is. So it seems like a miracle when they stumble across an old monastery.

Abbie awakens in a daze with no memory of who she is or how she landed in this unsettling condition. The man by her side claims to be her husband. He’s a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley’s most innovative start-ups. He tells Abbie that she is the perfect wife. He says she had a terrible accident five years ago and that, through a huge technological breakthrough, she has been brought back from the abyss. But as Abbie pieces together memories of her marriage, she begins to question her husband’s motives - and his version of events.

A giant of archaeology, Colin Renfrew has immeasurably improved our understanding of human history. In this passionately argued work, he offers a concise summary of prehistory - human existence that predates the development of written records - while challenging the very definition of prehistory itself.

When a death in the family pulls King away, and the rest of the team is sent on a mission, Fort Bragg is attacked by a strange and overwhelming force. When the dust settles, Fiona is gone. The attack is part of a larger offensive. Around the world, the last speakers of ancient languages are being systematically exterminated. As they fight to find the mastermind behind the killings and Fiona's kidnapping, the team is hunted by strange creatures that defy explanation.

Leading futurist and OneShared.World founder Jamie Metzl explores how genome sequencing, gene editing, artificial intelligence, and other technologies are not only changing our lives, but catalyzing each other in radical and accelerating ways. These technologies have the potential to improve our health, feed billions of people, supercharge our economies, and store essential information for millions of years, but can also—if we are not careful—do immeasurable harm.

In this captivating book, neuroscientist Shane O'Mara invites us to marvel at the benefits walking confers on our bodies and brains, and to appreciate the advantages of this uniquely human skill. From walking's evolutionary origins, traced back millions of years to life forms on the ocean floor, to new findings from cutting-edge research, he reveals how the brain and nervous system give us the ability to balance, weave through a crowded city, and run our "inner GPS" system.

As the new story begins, Leeds and his "aspects" are hired by I3 (Innovative Information Incorporated) to recover a corpse stolen from the local morgue. But there's a catch. The corpse is that of a pioneer in the field of experimental biotechnology, a man whose work concerned the use of the human body as a massive storage device. He may have embedded something in the cells of his now dead body. And that something might be dangerous.

She Has Her Mother's Laugh presents a profoundly original perspective on what we pass along from generation to generation. Charles Darwin played a crucial part in turning heredity into a scientific question, and yet he failed spectacularly to answer it. The birth of genetics in the early 1900s seemed to do precisely that. Gradually, people translated their old notions about heredity into a language of genes. We need a new definition of what heredity is and, through Carl Zimmer's lucid exposition and storytelling, this resounding tour de force delivers it.

One of the biggest discoveries in physics, the quest for the Higgs boson demonstrates the value of a good theory. In July 2012, a Higgs-like particle was found near the energies scientists predicted. Now, armed with better evidence and better questions, the scientific process continues. In this audiobook, we’ve gathered our best reporting to explain that process - the theories, the search, the discovery, and the ongoing questions.

In this lively and illuminating discussion of his landmark research, esteemed primatologist Frans de Waal argues that human morality is not imposed from above but instead comes from within. Moral behavior does not begin and end with religion but is in fact a product of evolution. For many years, de Waal has observed chimpanzees soothe distressed neighbors and bonobos share their food. Now he delivers fascinating fresh evidence for the seeds of ethical behavior in primate societies that further cements the case for the biological origins of human fairness.

From New York Times best-selling author Sam Kean come more incredible stories of science, history, language, and music, as told by our own DNA. There are genes to explain crazy cat ladies, why other people have no fingerprints, and why some people survive nuclear bombs. Genes illuminate everything from JFK's bronze skin (it wasn't a tan) to Einstein's genius. They prove that Neanderthals and humans bred thousands of years more recently than any of us would feel comfortable thinking.

Algernon est une souris de laboratoire dont le traitement du Pr. Nemur et du Dr. Strauss vient de décupler l'intelligence. Enhardis par cette réussite, les deux savants tentent alors, avec l'assistance de la psychologue Alice Kinnian, d'appliquer leur découverte à Charlie Gordon, un simple d'esprit. C'est bientôt l'extraordinaire éveil de l'intelligence pour le jeune homme. Il découvre un monde dont il avait toujours été exclu, et entame une incroyable métamorphose. Mais un jour les facultés supérieures d'Algernon déclinent.

Sergeant Major Shaw and the Deadmen command the only known weapon, the dreadnaught, capable of thwarting the impending collapse of the human race. And their enemies in the Principality know it. The Republic’s farspace planets struggle against the spread of the biological weapon known as the Scourge. One by one they are falling prey to the devastating alien disease. Taking advantage of the Scourge calamity, the Principality embark on a brutal conquest to rule all of humanity.