Genetics category: 1528 books

You are just 10% human. For every one of the cells that make up the vessel that you call your body, there are nine impostor cells hitching a ride. You are not just flesh and blood, muscle and bone, brain and skin, but also bacteria and fungi. Over your lifetime, you will carry the equivalent weight...

A groundbreaking book about how ancient DNA has profoundly changed our understanding of human history.   Geneticists like David Reich have made astounding advances in the field of genomics, which is proving to be as important as archeology, linguistics, and written records as a means to understand...

SHOCKING. CONTROVERSIAL. UNPRECEDENTED. A CASE LIKE UNLIKE ANY OTHER IN THE ANNALS OF UFO INVESTIGATION, DNA RESEARCH, OR ALIEN ABDUCTION. Sydney, Australia. July 23, 1992. Twenty-eight-year-old Peter Khoury was awoken by what appeared to be two females—both striking and unearthly—kneeling...

This adventure in science and imagination, which the Medical Tribune said might herald "a Copernican revolution for the life sciences," leads the reader through unexplored jungles and uncharted aspects of mind to the heart of knowledge.In a first-person narrative of scientific discovery...

Power and Peril of Gene Editing CRISPR/Cas9 Technology The must-read summary of “A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution” by Jennifer A. Doudna and Samuel H. Sternberg. This complete summary of Jennifer Doudna and Samuel Sternberg’s book...

Philadelphia, 1959: A scientist scrutinizing a single human cell under a microscope detects a missing piece of DNA. That scientist, David Hungerford, had no way of knowing that he had stumbled upon the starting point of modern cancer research— the Philadelphia chromosome. It would take doctors and...

"His groundbreaking work has changed the very ways we consider our health and examine disease.” —Barack Obama From Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institute of Health, 2007 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and 15-year head of the Human Genome Project, comes...

The long-awaited story of the science, the business, the politics, the intrigue behind the scenes of the most ferocious competition in the history of modern science—the race to map the human genome. On May 10, 1998, biologist Craig Venter, director of the Institute for Genomic Research, announced...

From the best-selling author of The Seven Daughters of Eve, an illuminating guide to the genetic history of the British Isles. One of the world's leading geneticists, Bryan Sykes has helped thousands find their ancestry in the British Isles. Saxons, Vikings, and Celts, which resulted from a...

An incisive, groundbreaking book that examines how a biological concept of race is a myth that promotes inequality in a supposedly “post-racial” era.   Though the Human Genome Project proved that human beings are not naturally divided by race, the emerging fields of personalized medicine, reproductive...

"Dazzling...A feast. Absorbing and elegantly written, it tells of theorigins of life on earth, describes its variety and charaacter, and culminates in a discussion of human nature and teh complex traces ofhumankind's evolutionary past...It is an amazing story masterfully told." FINANCIAL...

The science of bioarchaeology—a cutting edge and enlightening field—reveals the secrets of our past in “one of the most important books of the year” (New Statesman). In Unlocking the Past, Martin Jones—a leading expert at the forefront of bioarchaeology, the discipline that gave Michael...

**       我們為什麼會有犧牲、信任、分享這些利他無私的行為，卻同時也存在背叛和欺騙？ 　　文化、宗教、藝術，這些我們向來視之為人類文明之精華，究竟是社會性的積累、還是生物性的產物？ 　　由此思考，我們是否能對人類行為有更不一樣的理解與詮釋？** 　　人類對自己在生物圈中的角色一直非常困惑、也非常矛盾。動物界、脊索動物門、哺乳綱、靈長目、人科、人屬、智人種，由人猿／古猿演化而來；人類跟所有生物一樣，有一個「生物學」上的分類系統可供棲身。但人類也自詡有所謂的「文明」，社會性的積累讓「人」有別於一般生物。 　　生物學家愛德華・威爾森試圖從演化角度解答這個問題。他在本書中提出「真社會性」的概念，不只挑戰過去半世紀用以解釋動物利他行為的「自私基因」理論，也試圖為人類的文化及社會行為，給出一個生物學上的說法。 　　威爾森認為天擇篩選的是群體，因此具有合作特質的真社會性群體擁有演化上的優勢。而真社會性的形成有幾個重要演化步驟：一、形成群體；二、建立永久且具備防禦功能的巢穴，並留在巢中共同生活；三、強化個體間合作，並出現階級性的分工；四、天擇對群體的篩選會進一步改變該物種的生活史和社會結構，因而產生複雜的超生物。 　　人類這個群體因真社會性具有演化的優勢，但也因群體過於複雜，導致群體中的成員仍須為了生存，彼此競爭，產生自私利己的行為。利他與自私這兩種矛盾的本性，造就了人類複雜的社會行為與文化積累。 　　我們無法從外星人的尺度對人類進行觀察，於是威爾森以螞蟻、蜜蜂等昆蟲的觀察為引，從中延伸描述人類的生物性與特殊性，兼納人類學和腦神經科學的研究成果，試圖重新解釋我們慣常以文化解釋的社會行為，並重新看待所謂人類的本性、人類的起源，與未來。 　　+++ 　　某些論述者認為，農業是「人類世」（Anthropocene）開始的證據以及與先前地質年代的最大差別。而我特別閱讀到的部分，卻是關於演化與生態共同形成壓力的思考：真社會性生物都會建造「可以永久使用且有防禦功能的巢穴」，但這個巢穴以及相鄰的環境所需要供給的環境資源，在人類與螞蟻的操作方式上卻有相當大的不同。人類為何越過與其他物種或者環境資源的合作模式，變成改變地表形態最主要的動力？這在本書的閱讀過程當中，似乎也可以得到一些啟示。——李宜澤，本書讀後記 好評推薦 　　宗教也好、運動也好、戰爭也好。生物學家威爾森說，驅動我們加入群體並且為了群體奮鬥的力量，讓我們成為人類。──《新聞周刊》 　　威爾森出色地把這些證據集合在一起，加以分析。在這本書中，可以看到他結合各領域知識的研究方式、豐富的學問，以及探討敏感話題的意願。他對這個主題的看法多采多姿、充滿創意，並能激盪思維，就如同他其他的著作一樣。──The...

A Discover Best Science Book of the Year: “A fascinating, accurate and accessible account of some of [the] contemporary efforts to combat aging” (The New York Times).   Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist   Named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times, San Jose Mercury News, and Library...