Human embryos, it has been said, «have no muscles, nerves, digestive system, feet, hands, face, or brain; they have nothing to distinguish them as a human being, and if one of them died, no one would mourn as they would for one of us.» Consequently, early human embryos are being dismembered in laboratories around the world to produce embryonic stem cells, which, we are told, are the tools that will lead to the next quantum leap in medicine. Shou ...
Authored by a leading epidemiologist, this engrossing book answers our questions about animal diseases that jump to humans-called zoonoses-including what attracts them to humans, why they have become more common in recent history, and how we can keep them at bay. Almost all pandemics and epidemics have been caused by diseases that come to us from animals, including SARS, Ebola, and-now-Covid-19. Epidemiologist, veterinarian, and ecosystem healt ...
Using understandable metaphors and easy to follow language, Stephens gives readers of any scientific level an introduction to neuroscience and shows them how things like creativity, skill, and even perception of self can grow and change by utilizing the body's most important muscle. Fans of Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson will love Stephens' down to earth attitude and those interested in science will appreciate his thoughtful explanat ...
What does drug withdrawal have in common with a broken heart? Why is the enemy of memory not time, but other memories? How can a blind person learn to see with her tongue or a deaf person learn to hear with his skin? Why did many people in the 1980s mistakenly perceive book pages to be slightly red in colour? Why is the world’s best archer armless? Might we someday control a robot with our thoughts, just as we do our fingers and toes? Why do we ...
First published in 1871 and considered his other great book alongside «The Origin of Species,» Darwin's «The Descent of Man» is a work that continues the scientist's theories on evolution. Divided into three parts, this book's purpose, as given in the introduction, is to consider whether or not man is descended from a pre-existing form, his manner of development, and the value of the differences between human races. Darwin goes on ...
"The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals" is Darwin's classic examination of behavior as can be witnessed through the outwardly visible expression of emotions. The timeless question of «nature vs. nurture» is one that has perplexed behaviorial scientists since the inception of the discipline. Is behavior a function of evolution or environment? Darwin's examination of the subject from the perspective of expression as a pr ...
The Beagle referred to in «The Voyage of the Beagle» is the HMS Beagle, which set sail from Plymouth Sound on December 27th, 1831 under the command of captain Robert FitzRoy. Also known as Darwin's «Journal of Researches», this book is an exquisite travel memoir as well as a detailed scientific journal in which Darwin makes many observations in the fields of biology, geology, and anthropology; observations that would later lay the groundwor ...
Charles Darwin's groundbreaking work of evolutionary biology, «The Origin of Species» introduces the scientific theory of evolution, which posits that species evolve over a period of many generations through a process of natural selection. Considered controversial even to this day because of its contradicting position to creationist theory, Darwin's theories have been widely embraced by the scientific community as fact and have laid th ...
