New Biology

What is life? Many scientists believe life can be reduced to ‘mechanistic’ factors, such as genes and information codes. Yet there is a growing army of scientists, philosophers and artists who reject this view. The gene metaphor is not only too simplistic but deeply misleading. If there is a way to reduce life to a single principle, that principle must acknowledge the creativity of life, turning genetic determinism on its head.

Imagine living in a world where people use their computers, drive their cars, and communicate with one another simply by thinking. In this stunning and inspiring work, Duke University neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis shares his revolutionary insights into how the brain creates thought and the human sense of self - and how this might be augmented by machines, so that the entire universe will be within our reach.

He aquí un libro revolucionario cuya importancia ha sido comparada a la de El origen de las especies de Darwin. El biólogo Rupert Sheldrake afirma que la probabilidad de ocurrencia de un fenómeno aumenta proporcionalmente a su ocurrencia pasada. Cuando los químicos, por ejemplo, consiguen que un determinado producto cristalice en una parte del mundo, por ejemplo, resulta más sencillo cristalizarlo en cualquier otro lugar.

The microbiome is the missing link in modern medicine: a vast genetic universe of bacteria, yeasts, viruses and parasites that live inside us, influencing every aspect of our health, even the way we think and feel. In this mindblowing book, scientist and surgeon James Kinross explains how the organisms that live within us have helped us evolve, shaped our biology and defined the success of our species. With dazzling science and fascinating stories, this pioneering book will change the way you think about human health forever.

Scientists have long struggled to make pregnancy easier, safer, and more successful. In The Dance of Life, developmental and stem-cell biologist Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz takes us to the front lines of efforts to understand the creation of a human life. She has spent two decades unraveling the mysteries of development, as a simple fertilized egg becomes a complex human being of 40 trillion cells. Zernicka-Goetz's work is both incredibly practical and astonishingly vast.

Since the dawn of humankind, mental illness has been one of our greatest causes of suffering as a species. But for the majority of our history, its causes have remained a mystery. Professor Karl Deisseroth shares his breakthrough discovery, optogenetics, a biological technique that allows us to decipher the brain's inner workings using light. With moving and revelatory stories from both personal and professional experience, he reveals what mental illnesses really are, why we suffer from them and the unexpected role they have played in our evolution.

Imagine knowing years in advance whether you are likely to get cancer, or having a personalized understanding of your individual genes, organs, and cells. Imagine being able to monitor your body's well-being, or have a diet tailored to your microbiome. The Secret Body reveals how these and other stunning breakthroughs and technologies are transforming our understanding of how the human body works, what it is capable of, how to protect it from disease, and how we might manipulate it in the future.

In Strange New Worlds, renowned astronomer Ray Jayawardhana brings news from the front lines of the epic quest to find planets—and alien life—beyond our solar system. Only in the past two decades, after millennia of speculation, have astronomers begun to discover planets around other stars—thousands in fact. Now they are closer than ever to unraveling distant twins of the Earth. In this book, Jayawardhana vividly recounts the stories of the scientists and the remarkable breakthroughs that have ushered in this extraordinary age of exploration.

Like the revolutionary best sellers Predictably Irrational and Emotional Intelligence, Sensation is an exciting, completely new view of human behavior - a new psychology of physical intelligence (or embodied cognition) - that explains how the body unconsciously affects our everyday decisions and choices, written by one of the world’s leading psychologists.

Since the dawn of time, humans have worshipped the sun. And with good reason. Our biology is set up to work in partnership with the sun. From our sleep cycles to our immune systems and our mental health, access to sunlight is crucial for living a happy and fulfilling life. New research suggests that our sun exposure over a lifetime - even before we were born - may shape our risk of developing a range of different illnesses, from depression to diabetes. Chasing the Sun explores the extraordinary significance of sunlight.

What defines who we are? For decades, the biological answer has been our genes. In The Master Builder, leading biologist Alfonso Martinez Arias breaks with decades of scientific and popular tradition to make a bold argument: what defines us is our cells. Drawing on new research from his lab and others, Martinez Arias reveals that we are composed of a thrillingly complex, constantly rearranging symphony of cells that know how to count, feel, and ultimately give form to our bodies.

Professor Rose Anne Kenny has 35 years of experience at the forefront of ageing medicine. In Age Proof, she draws on her own pioneering research and the latest evidence to demystify why we age and shows us that 80% of our ageing biology is within our control: we can not only live longer lives but become happier and healthier deep into our later years.

Natalie Angier knows all that scientists know—and sometimes more—about the power of symmetry in sexual relations, about the brutal courting habits of dolphins, about the grand deceit of orchids, about the impact of female and male preferences on evolution. She knows how scientists go about their work, and she describes their ways, their visions, and their arguments. Perhaps most poignantly, she understands the complexities and the sad necessity of death.

Welcome to CHEMISTRY NERD Tired of sitting through boring chemistry lectures? This entertaining book is filled with mind-blowing information and a dash of fun to pique your interest in chemistry. Through an engaging, hands-on examination of chemistry's key concepts, Chemistry Nerd brings the central science to life. Explore the elegance of the Periodic Table, the intricate structures of organic chemistry, and investigate the unique characteristics of carbon that allow it to sustain life. This book simplifies a wide range of chemical topics—from atomic structure and electrochemistry to ...

Kundalini is a biological actuality, a primordial energy in every human being, capable of modifying DNA in a single lifetime. Nevertheless, many people are confused by its real nature, so we must define it accurately, starting with what it is not. It is neither a supernatural cult, nor a religion, nor a sect. You can’t be "converted" to Kundalini any more than you can be converted to a heart attack or an orgasm, or any other biological phenomenon. Kundalini occurrences aren’t limited by social, political, or religious constraints; Kundalini is trans-national, trans-cultural, and, most ...

Why Animals Talk is an exhilarating journey through the untamed world of animal communication. Drawing on the author's extensive research and observations of animals in the wild, the book shatters conventional wisdom and invites you to experience communication through the eyes of animals themselves. From the majestic howls of wolves and the enchanting chatter of parrots to the melodic clicks of dolphins and the spirited grunts of chimpanzees, these diverse and seemingly bizarre expressions are far from mere noise. In fact, they hold secrets that we are just beginning to decipher.

The author of Gutbliss and one of today's preeminent gastroenterologists distils the latest research on the microbiome into a practical program for boosting overall health. The microbiome - the collective name for the trillions of bacteria that live in our gut - is today's hottest medical topic.

Warum schießt uns der Puls bei Aufregung blitzartig in die Höhe? Wieso spielt mein Sohn ganz anders als meine Tochter? Und wie kommt es eigentlich, dass sich Männer und Frauen mit zunehmendem Alter immer ähnlicher sehen? Kurzweilig und anhand zahlreicher Beispiele aus seiner Praxis schildert Max Nieuwdorp, wie unsere Hormone in allen Lebensphasen, vom Augenblick unserer Empfängnis bis zu unserem letzten Atemzug, eine entscheidende Rolle spielen. Zwischen Minipubertät, Schwangerschaft und Meno- bzw.

Wir erleben eine Revolution in der Biologie: Unsterblichkeit, einst eine schwache Hoffnung, war noch nie so greifbar für uns. Der Nobelpreisträger für Chemie Venki Ramakrishnan berichtet über die jüngsten Durchbrüche in der wissenschaftlichen Forschung und verändert für immer unser Verständnis über das Altern, das Sterben und den Tod.

Charles Darwin’s theories, first published more than 150 years ago, still set the paradigm of how we understand the evolution of life--but scientific advances of recent decades have radically altered that. Now two pioneering scientists draw on their years of experience in paleontology, biology, chemistry, and astrobiology to deliver an eye-opening narrative using a generation’s worth of insights culled from new research.