Human Genetics

At a conference in Hong Kong in November 2018, Dr. He Jiankui announced that he had created the first genetically modified babies - twin girls named Lulu and Nana - sending shockwaves around the world. A year later, a Chinese court sentenced Dr. He to three years in prison for "illegal medical practice". As scientists elsewhere start to catch up with China's vast genetic research program, gene editing is fueling an innovation economy that threatens to widen racial and economic inequality. Fundamental questions about science, health, and social justice are at stake.

The Mind of the Market will change the way we think about the economics of everyday life. Drawing on research from neuroeconomics, Michael Shermer explores what brain scans reveal about bargaining, snap purchases, and how trust is established in business. Utilizing experiments in behavioral economics, Shermer shows why people hang on to losing stocks and failing companies, why business negotiations often disintegrate into emotional tit-for-tat disputes, and why money does not make us happy.

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.

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 ...

In this engaging exploration, archaeologist Ian Hodder departs from the two prevailing modes of thought about human evolution: the older idea of constant advancement toward a civilized ideal and the newer one of a directionless process of natural selection. Instead, he proposes a theory of human evolution and history based on "entanglement," the ever-increasing mutual dependency between humans and things.

Introducing "The Social Animal" - a captivating and insightful journey into the intricacies of human behavior and relationships. This eBook provides a comprehensive exploration of the various aspects that make us social beings, presenting a fresh perspective on what makes us tick in our interactions with one another. Dive into the world of emotional intelligence, and delve into the power it possesses in shaping our relationships. Discover the neuroscience of love and how attraction and attachment play a vital role in our connections with others. The nature vs. nurture debate comes alive in ...

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 groundbreaking exploration of humanity's future, "The 5 New Wars" takes readers on a thrilling journey through the next 250 years of human evolution. From ideological battles to the integration of technology into our very beings, this book charts the course of five monumental conflicts that will reshape the essence of human existence.Beginning with a war of ideologies that blends religious extremism with advanced technology, the narrative unfolds to reveal the struggles of early adopters of transhuman enhancements and the societal rifts they create. As artificial intelligence gains ...

In ‘Humans Are Doomed To Go Extinct’, an article in Scientific American published in November 2021, veteran Nature editor Dr Henry Gee predicted that Homo sapiens is on a rapid one-way ride to extinction. The article provoked media coverage and comment around the world. In The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire, Gee expands the themes of his much-discussed article to book length, charting both the rise as well as the fall of humans. Gee paints a picture of extinction within the next 10,000 years – and suggests ways that our exceptional species might avoid its fate.

For all that science knows about the living world, notes David P. Barash, there are even more things we don't know, genuine evolutionary mysteries that perplex the best minds in biology. Paradoxically, many of these mysteries are very close to home, involving some of the most personal aspects of being human. Homo Mysterious examines a number of these evolutionary mysteries, exploring things we don't yet know about ourselves, laying out the best current hypotheses, and pointing toward insights that scientists are just beginning to glimpse.

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.

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.

This new book by Spencer Wells, the internationally known geneticist, anthropologist, author, and director of the Genographic Project, focuses on the seminal event in human history: mankind's decision to become farmers rather than hunter-gatherers.

In humanity’s more than 100,000 year history, we have evolved from vulnerable creatures clawing sustenance from Earth to a sophisticated global society manipulating every inch of it. In short, we have become the dominant animal. Why, then, are we creating a world that threatens our own species? What can we do to change the current trajectory toward more climate change, increased famine, and epidemic disease?

In 1997, Yiannis Kouros ran 188 miles in 24 hours. In 1984, at age 42, Maria Moreira gave birth to her 10th set of twins. In 1973, Terry Tao learned to read when he was two years old. Tao started college at age nine, and at 24 was appointed a full-time professor at UCLA. What does it feel like to be exceptional? And what does it take to get there? Why can some people achieve greatness when others can’t, no matter how hard they try? Just how much potential does our species have? Evolutionary biologist Rowan Hooper has the answers.

Denial presents a radical new theory on the origins of our species. It was not, the authors argue, a biological leap that set humanity apart from other species, but a psychological one: namely, the uniquely human ability to deny reality in the face of inarguable evidence - including the willful ignorance of our own inevitable deaths.

منذ صدور هذا الكتاب لقي الكثير من الاستحسان حول العالم، وبخاصة من عامة الناس من غير المتخصصين في علم الأنثروبولوجيا، الذين لا يمكنهم قراءة الكتب الأكاديمية وبخاصة كتب التاريخ والأنثروبولوجيا المتخصصة جداً، فأسلوبه في الكتابة جاء سلساً وسهلاً وجعل الأفكار العلمية المعقدة قريبة للفهم، كما أنه دعم آراءه بمصادر علمية موثوقة من دون الجزم بصحتها تاركاً لمن يطّلع عليها إمكانية نقضها أو تطويرها حسب فكره الخاص ومنطقه وإدراكه للأمور.

In Eve, Cat Bohannon answers questions scientists should have been addressing for decades. With boundless curiosity and sharp wit, she covers the past 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex. Eve is not only a sweeping revision of human history, it’s an urgent and necessary corrective for a world that has focused primarily on the male body for far too long.

Shawn Shaw is a Pulitzer prize winning reporter and columnist for The Chronicle who's on the hunt for his next great story. He thinks he may have found it when he's approached by billionaire tech entrepreneur James Berk. Berk is a trustee of The Destiny Foundation, a secretive society supposedly facilitating the work of the world's greatest scientific minds. Berk convinces Shaw to help him find Chuti Tiu, a prostitute who is allegedly the smartest person ever to exist. If her intelligence lives up to its promise, there is a 50-million dollar prize waiting for her. Berk uses strong arm ...

For the first time in over ten millennia, the rate of human population growth is slowing down. The global population is forecast to begin declining in the second half of this century, and in 10,000 years’ time, our species will likely be extinct.