Human Genetic Engineering

Over a decade ago, as the Human Genome Project completed its mapping of the entire human genome, hopes ran high that we would rapidly be able to use our knowledge of human genes to tackle many inherited diseases, and understand what makes us unique among animals. But things didn't turn out that way.

In its 4.5 billion–year history, life on Earth has been almost erased at least half a dozen times: shattered by asteroid impacts, entombed in ice, smothered by methane, and torn apart by unfathomably powerful megavolcanoes. And we know that another global disaster is eventually headed our way. Can we survive it? How?

As a species, Homo sapiens is at a crossroads. Study of our planet’s turbulent past suggests that we are overdue for a catastrophic disaster, whether caused by nature or by human interference.
It’s a frightening prospect, as each of the Earth’s past major disasters—from meteor strikes to bombardment by cosmic radiation—resulted in a mass extinction, where more than 75 percent of the planet’s species died out. But in Scatter, Adapt, and Remember, Annalee Newitz, science journalist and editor of the science Web site io9.com explains that although global disaster is all but inevitable, our chances of long-term species survival are better than ever. Life on Earth has come close to annihilation—humans have, more than once, narrowly avoided extinction just
during the last million years—but every single time a few creatures survived, evolving to adapt to the harshest of conditions.
This brilliantly speculative work of popular science focuses on humanity’s long history of dodging the bullet, as well as on new threats that we may face in years to come. Most important, it explores how scientific breakthroughs today will help us avoid disasters tomorrow. From simulating tsunamis to studying central Turkey’s ancient underground cities; from cultivating cyanobacteria for “living cities” to designing space elevators to make space colonies cost-effective; from using math to stop pandemics to studying the remarkable survival strategies of gray whales, scientists and researchers the world over are discovering the keys to long-term resilience and learning how humans can choose life over death.
Newitz’s remarkable and fascinating journey through the science of mass extinctions is a powerful argument about human ingenuity and our ability to change. In a world populated by doomsday preppers and media commentators obsessively forecasting our demise, Scatter, Adapt, and Remember is a compelling voice of hope. It leads us away from apocalyptic thinking into a future where we live to build a better world—on this planet and perhaps on others. Readers of this book will be equipped scientifically, intellectually, and emotionally to face whatever the future holds.

Red is a brilliantly told, captivating history of red hair throughout the ages. An audiobook that breaks new ground, dispels myths, and reinforces the special nature of being a redhead, with a look at multiple disciplines, including science, religion, politics, feminism and sexuality, literature, and art. With an obsessive fascination that is as contagious as it is compelling, author Jacky Colliss Harvey (herself a redhead) begins her exploration of red hair in prehistory and traces the redhead gene as it made its way out of Africa with the early human diaspora.

Some say it's the second coming and the rapture, others are suspicious of the visitors. One thing's for sure, Earth will never be the same. S.E. Meyer combines ancient alien astronaut theory, ancient Sumerian codices, current religious beliefs from around the world and the book of Revelation in a way that tears down the veil of traditional thinking to reveal new though provoking theories on the origins of the human race and its many traditional beliefs. The Prodigal Sun will wow you with a fact filled, thrilling and intricately blended story that interweaves mythologies and religions in new...

In the spring of 2012, the Berkeley biochemist Jennifer Doudna and her collaborators turned a curiosity of nature into an invention that will transform the future of the human race: an easy-to-use tool that can edit DNA. Known as CRISPR, it opened a brave new world of medical miracles and moral questions. It has already been deployed to cure deadly diseases, fight the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, and make inheritable changes in the genes of babies.

Book Description The Impending Population Disaster: Can We Find an Imminent Solution or Will Man Have to Play God & Grow Babies in Labs? The Future of Human Reproduction, Balancing Declining Birth Rates, Ectogenesis In a world where population decline is becoming a growing concern, this book takes readers on an eye-opening journey into the future of human reproduction. It examines critical advances such as ectogenesis (artificial wombs), genetic engineering, and reproductive rights while probing into the ethical, social, and moral questions raised by these technologies. Are we prepared to ...

For the last three billion years or so, life on Earth was shaped by natural forces. Evolution tended to happen slowly, with species crafted across millennia. Then, a few hundred thousand years ago, along came a bolshie, big-brained, bipedal primate we now call Homo sapiens, and with that, the Earth’s natural history came to an abrupt end. We are now living through the post-natural phase, where humans have become the leading force shaping evolution. This audiobook considers the many ways that we’ve altered the DNA of living things and changed the fate of life on earth.

Presented in homage to Brower's original thinking, Denial offers a powerful warning about the dangers inherent in our remarkable ability to ignore reality-a gift that will either lead to our downfall, or continue to be our greatest asset.

This dynamic chronicle of the race to find the "missing links" between humans and apes transports readers into the highly competitive world of fossil hunting and into the lives of the ambitious scientists intent on pinpointing the dawn of humankind. The quest to find where and when the earliest human ancestors first appeared is one of the most exciting and challenging of all scientific pursuits.

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.

The stakes are higher, the enemies deadlier, the adventure non-stop - join the fight to save humanity in the latest instalment of the epic saga. When a super-smart ape reveals to Arthur and Elliot that they missed something important while investigating Hellinix, the four heroes must return to Level-8, the vault at the center of the corporation's rot, to uncover their ultimate goal. Elliot has lost his sword, Arthur has fallen for Elliot's best friend, Millicent is struggling to fit in with the team, and Stanley just wants to know where the mangoes are. Can they keep their minds on the ...

AD 2107: A generation ago, Earth and the cislunar colonies banned genetic and cybernetic modifications. But out in the Asteroid Belt, anything goes. Dozens of flourishing space habitats are spawning exotic new societies and strange new varieties of humans. It’s a volatile situation that threatens the peace and stability of the entire solar system.

In this 2nd book in the series, Stranger travels to Kansas where he discovers whether he is human or robotic. Later in New Mexico while deep in the Carlsbad caverns Stranger also learns who put him in the Tennessee cave where he first woke up two months earlier and why he was placed there. As Stranger takes this journey of self-awareness, he is also forced to fend off a slew of assassination attempts. Life is definitely not dull for this dude with amnesia and the ability to smell the stench of evil. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Donald W. Desaulniers is a retired Canadian lawyer who has published more ...

The year is 2205. The great pandemic and climate crisis generated social divisions, creating a new human post-biological species when a mining incident was manipulated to create the conditions of a new evolutionary social brink. This book is the first in a series about one potential path humanity may take in the evolution of new human species. There are exciting times ahead in this book. There are also bumps in the road and challenging events to navigate through. Listening to this audiobook will take you on a journey of different experiences that no one else has ever had.

How did human minds become so different from those of other animals? What accounts for our capacity to understand the way the physical world works, to think ourselves into the minds of others, to gossip, read, tell stories about the past, and imagine the future? These questions are not new: they have been debated by philosophers, psychologists, anthropologists, evolutionists, and neurobiologists over the course of centuries. One explanation widely accepted today is that humans have special cognitive instincts.

With so much variation that can be handed down genetically, for better or worse, the way we understand our biology holds huge importance for how we understand our world and one another, including the biggest questions of our day, such as social inequality. Eye-opening and profound, Adaptable is a revolutionary reappraisal of an overlooked science.

AI stands in the way of her dreams… so Ailith travels back before AI to the 2000s. Ailith and her twin sister, Thea, live a good life, although one controlled by the wealthy Paladin Guild. Except Ailith’s dreams hover out of reach; being an author in an AI dominated world is a pipe dream. Determined to see her own work in print, she contemplates a daring plan to travel back to the early days of AI in the 2000s. Despite failed attempts and various setbacks, Ailith discovers a glimmer of hope—a theoretical wormhole. What’s the worst that could happen? With her sister and a frozen ...

En el año 2080, la Tierra era solo una sombra de lo que fue. Las Guerras de la IA de la década de 2030 devastaron el planeta. La Inteligencia Artificial General, que en su día prometía ayudar a la humanidad, solo intensificó su obsesión por la destrucción. Las consecuencias de las Guerras de la IA tuvieron un enorme impacto ambiental, y la humanidad quedó en ruinas, luchando por sobrevivir. Viendo la oportunidad de afirmar su dominio, las corporaciones privadas utilizaron su tecnología avanzada para tomar el control. Joe Walker y sus amigos se propusieron exponer la verdad y ...

Entrapment can cause insanity, but it can also forge something else entirely. A thrilling sci-fi novel for fans of The Maze Runner and Divergent. Nineteen-year-old Harper has been trapped in a secret underground facility—a combination of a military school, a ward, and a laboratory—for the last five years. Memories of her prior life are gone, she’s forced to train for combat, and after being condemned as an experimental test subject, an electrifying power begins to rise within her. Harper finally escapes, but not all of her friends get out. Unsure if she’ll be able to remember who ...

The United States is embarking on a medical revolution. Supporters of personalized, or precision, medicine—the tailoring of health care to our genomes—have promised to usher in a new era of miracle cures. Advocates of this gene-guided health-care practice foresee a future where skyrocketing costs can be curbed by customization and unjust disparities are vanquished by biomedical breakthroughs. Progress, however, has come slowly, and with a price too high for the average citizen.