At the Edge of Uncertainty
11 Discoveries Taking Science by Surprise
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Narrated by:
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Sean Runnette
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By:
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Michael Brooks
About this listen
The best-selling author of Free Radicals takes listeners on a whirlwind tour of the most controversial areas of modern science.
The atom, the big bang, DNA, natural selection - all are ideas that have revolutionized science; and all were dismissed out of hand when they first appeared. The surprises haven't stopped in recent years, and in At the Edge of Uncertainty, best-selling author Michael Brooks investigates the new wave of radical insights that are shaping the future of scientific discovery.
Brooks takes us to the extreme frontiers of what we understand about the world. He journeys from the observations that might rewrite our story of how the cosmos came to be, through the novel biology behind our will to live, and on to the physiological root of consciousness. Along the way, he examines how it's time to redress the gender imbalance in clinical trials, explores how merging humans with other species might provide a solution to the shortage of organ donors, and finds out whether the universe really is like a computer or if the flow of time is a mere illusion.
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- By: Leonard Mlodinow
- Narrated by: Leonard Mlodinow
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In this fascinating and illuminating work, Leonard Mlodinow guides us through the critical eras and events in the development of science, all of which, he demonstrates, were propelled forward by humankind's collective struggle to know. From the birth of reasoning and culture to the formation of the studies of physics, chemistry, biology, and modern-day quantum physics, we come to see that much of our progress can be attributed to simple questions - why? how? - bravely asked.
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10/10 Got What I Wanted.
- By Austin on 09-22-15
By: Leonard Mlodinow
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The Blind Watchmaker
- Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The Blind Watchmaker, knowledgably narrated by author Richard Dawkins, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the 18th-century theologian William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery challenged the creationist arguments; but only Richard Dawkins could have written this elegant riposte.
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Challenging textbook more than an enjoyable listen
- By Eric on 01-15-12
By: Richard Dawkins
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p53: The Gene That Cracked the Cancer Code
- By: Sue Armstrong
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Jasicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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p53: The Gene That Cracked the Cancer Code reveals the tale of the search for this gene, as well as the excitement of the hunt for new cures - the hype, the lost opportunities, the blind alleys, and the thrilling breakthroughs. As the long-anticipated revolution in cancer treatment tailored to each individual patient's symptoms starts to take off at last, p53 is still at the forefront of the game. This is a timely tale of scientific discovery and advances in our understanding of a disease that still affects more than one in three of us at some point in our lives.
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Excellent story! Unfortunate narration at start
- By Adriana on 12-25-14
By: Sue Armstrong
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Life on the Edge
- The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology
- By: Johnjoe McFadden, Jim Al-Khalili
- Narrated by: Pete Cross
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Life is the most extraordinary phenomenon in the known universe; but how did it come to be? Even in an age of cloning and artificial biology, the remarkable truth remains: Nobody has ever made anything living entirely out of dead material. Life remains the only way to make life. Are we still missing a vital ingredient in its creation?
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More woo than new
- By Gary on 09-09-15
By: Johnjoe McFadden, and others
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Sync
- How Order Emerges from Chaos in the Universe, Nature, and Daily Life
- By: Steven Strogatz
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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At once elegant and riveting, Sync tells the story of the dawn of a new science. Steven Strogatz, a leading mathematician in the fields of chaos and complexity theory, explains how enormous systems can synchronize themselves, from the electrons in a superconductor to the pacemaker cells in our hearts. He shows that although these phenomena might seem unrelated on the surface, at a deeper level there is a connection, forged by the unifying power of mathematics.
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Engaging, but maybe better suited for non-audio
- By Ryan on 05-26-12
By: Steven Strogatz
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Herding Hemingway's Cats
- Understanding How Our Genes Work
- By: Kat Arney
- Narrated by: Kat Arney
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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The language of genes has become common parlance. We know they make your eyes blue, your hair curly or your nose straight. The media tells us that our genes control the risk of cancer, heart disease, alcoholism or Alzheimer's. The cost of DNA sequencing has plummeted from billions of pounds to a few hundred, and gene-based advances in medicine hold huge promise. So we've all heard of genes, but how do they actually work?
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A non-scientists misguided interpretation
- By AraSevera on 05-15-16
By: Kat Arney
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Beyond Biocentrism
- Rethinking Time, Space, Consciousness, and the Illusion of Death
- By: Robert Lanza, Bob Berman
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In Beyond Biocentrism, acclaimed biologist Robert Lanza and astronomer Bob Berman take the listener on an intellectual thrill ride as they reexamine everything we thought we knew about life, death, the universe, and the nature of reality itself. The first step is acknowledging that our existing model of reality is looking increasingly creaky in the face of recent scientific discoveries.
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Here's the thing
- By Mikal on 11-09-18
By: Robert Lanza, and others
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101 Theory Drive
- A Neuroscientist's Quest for Memory
- By: Terry McDermott
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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It's not fiction: Gary Lynch is the real thing, the epitome of the rebel scientist - malnourished, contentious, inspiring, explosive, remarkably ambitious, consistently brilliant. He is one of the foremost figures of contemporary neuroscience, and his decades-long quest to understand the inner workings of the brain's memory machine has begun to pay off.
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Pretty Dang Funny
- By Will on 05-14-10
By: Terry McDermott
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Time, Love, Memory
- A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior
- By: Jonathan Weiner
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Jonathan Weiner, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Beak of the Finch, brings his brilliant reporting skills to the story of Seymour Benzer, the Brooklyn-born maverick scientist whose study of genetics and experiments with fruit fly genes has helped revolutionize or knowledge of the connections between DNA and behavior both animal and human.
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This is a profound science book
- By Timothy A. Smith on 05-12-10
By: Jonathan Weiner
What listeners say about At the Edge of Uncertainty
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Gary
- 03-22-16
Adequete but mostly rehash of other books
Zombies aren't real and they don't help in explaining consciousness, quantum computers and epigenetics are real (and cool), gender makes a difference in drug efficacy, entanglement is cool, time is not a part of physics, and the big bang theory doesn't explain everything and has some problems. All those concepts are explored in this book and probably are familiar to any regular listener of Audible's pop science books.
Science is not perfect and speculation beyond what we currently accept is worth while, but to make a book really worth my while tell me things I don't already know. This book fails at telling me things I haven't read elsewhere.
If you're not too familiar with pop science books, this book provides a good essay approach to a lot of interesting topics (with a little bit too much speculation, though), but for almost everyone else I would recommend skipping this book. (Except, the section on epigenetics did standout and the understanding about the importance of epigenetics needs to be more widely understood).
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9 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-12-15
Interesting content, wrong narrator.
Nearly stopped listening because the narrator read in such an old-fashioned manner. Too sing-song and smooth. He sounded like a grandfather with slightly loose dentures reading a bed-time story. WHY? This is supposed to be cutting-edge science- let's interject some edge to the narration.
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- Lazyskedaddle
- 06-17-23
Annoying Reader
The cadence of the reader is repetitive and fatiguing to listen to. And he sounds like Kermit the frog.
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- Pamela S of Washington DC
- 03-17-17
Amazing Scary Cutting Edge Science
This book is a must read for anyone who wants to be knowledgeable on the newest trends in science. The book clearly demonstrates how science and particularly cosmology are constantly evolving as disciplines, and the theories are in challenge. I found Michael Brooks's material to be fascinating. I am sure that my IQ went up 10 points just from listening to this book on Audible, as it was so intelligently and engagingly written. Sean Runnette's reading was top notch as well.
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- CM-G0025
- 09-22-15
Wanting more
Good narration. Plenty of entertainment for both the non science and science inclined individual. Difficult to stop listening to these great stories.
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- Annie
- 03-07-23
Not what I expected but super Interesting to listen too
I was expecting something very different but was pleased to learn details about our Universe and a better understanding of the theories that got us here.
I thought the narrator had a familiar, soothing voice that was easy to hear and gave the information authority.
Was a good 2 days spent.
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- Runner
- 02-03-21
Played too fast and loose
I found the first part of the book informative and interesting. However, as it got to later sections I felt that the author was torturing facts to fit a narrative. Too often a minority view was presented as more dominant and some “facts” were either wrong or not right in the way. An explanation that was of the problem of simultaneity was presented as the problem of causality. That is only for an issue of problems with Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc, which does not actually tell us about causality.
I had to reassess what was presented earlier because I feel like I cannot place enough faith in the Edgar was said and presented as facts.
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1 person found this helpful
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- John
- 09-10-15
Sean Runnette makes any story fascinating!
Expand the boundaries of your understanding of the universe as we know it. Mr Runnette makes it easy to absorb.
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- Grant M.
- 12-14-15
human or not
a good listen and a very interesting look at humanity from both the inside and outside
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- Ryan Brewster
- 11-26-21
Thought provoking and accessible
Really enjoyed this rabbit-hole rich review of scientists' latest battlefields. Well written, competently read. Excellent fuel for curiosity.
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