Biology & Chemistry Audiobooks | Non-Fiction

Consumer’s Guide to a Brave New World Audiobook

"What is embryonic stem cell research? Why is it so controversial? What is its relationship to human cloning? Events are moving so fast-and biotechnology seems so complicated-that many of us don't have an informed opinion about issues that are remaking the human future before our very eyes. Now Wesley J. Smith provides us with a guide to the new world that is no longer a figment of our imagination but right around the corner. This highly readable and carefully researched book reports on the gargantuan "big biotech" industry and its supporters in science and in the universities. Smith reveals how this lobby works and how the ideology of "scientism," mixed with the lure of riches, threatens to dismantle ethical norms and compromise the uniqueness and importance of all human life."

Wesley J. Smith (Author), Brian Emerson (Narrator)

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[German] - Die Evolution des Lebens

"Das Leben existiert seit circa vier Milliarden Jahren auf unserem Planeten. Doch wie entstand es? Kam das Leben aus dem Weltall? Wie kam es zur Menschwerdung und wohin steuert das Leben? Am 26. Oktober 4004 vor Christus, um 9.00 Uhr morgens, kam das Leben auf die Welt. Dieses exakte Datum errechnete der irische Bischof Ussher im 17. Jahrhundert. Er zählte einfach das Alter aller in der Bibel verzeichneten Menschen, von Adam bis Christus, zusammen. Die heutige Wissenschaft kann sich nicht auf die Stunde genau festlegen, wann das Leben auf die Erde kam. Sicher ist nur: Das Leben existiert seit rund vier Milliarden Jahren auf unserem Planeten. Diese Dokumentation ist eine Abenteuer-Entdeckungsreise zurück in eine Zeit, in der das Leben entstand. Sie fasst die Forschungsergebnisse, die in den letzten Jahren auf dem Gebiet der Evolution gemacht wurden, zusammen. Das Phänomen 'Leben' lässt aber noch immer viele Fragen offen."

Klaus Kamphausen (Author), Achim Höppner (Narrator)

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The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank

"From the former editor of Slate and CEO of Atlas Obscura comes the unbelievable story of "the Nobel Prize sperm bank" and the children it produced-"a superb book about the quest for genius and, ultimately, family" (Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Talking to Strangers). NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS It was the most radical human-breeding experiment in American history. The Repository for Germinal Choice-nicknamed "the Nobel Prize sperm bank"-opened to notorious fanfare in 1980, and for two decades women flocked to it from all over the country to choose a sperm donor from its roster of Nobel-laureate scientists, mathematical prodigies, successful businessmen, and star athletes. But the bank quietly closed its doors in 1999-its founder dead, its confidential records sealed, and the fate of its children and donors unknown. Crisscrossing the country and tracking down previously unknown family members, award-winning Slate columnist David Plotz unfolds the full and astonishing story of the Nobel Prize sperm bank and its founder's radical scheme to change our world. Praise for The Genius Factory "[David] Plotz's wonderful history of the Nobel sperm bank is filled with wit, pathos and insight. . . . [He acts] as narrator, ethnographer, historian, social critic and even go-between, brokering reunions between children and their genitors."-Chicago Tribune "Perfectly pitched-blithe, smart, skeptical, yet entranced by its subject."-The New York Times "By turns personal, confounding, creepy, defiant of expectations and touching . . .The Genius Factory isn't merely curious, it's useful."-San Francisco Chronicle "Tense, hilarious, and touching . . . wonderfully readable and eye-opening."-The Wall Street Journal "Terrific . . . [a] lively account."-The Washington Post Book World"

David Plotz (Author), Stefan Rudnicki (Narrator)

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Exuberance: The Passion For Life

"We have learned much about depression, but what about its opposite? Why hasn't the human emotion that lifts us, inspires us, drives us on, and makes life worth living been discussed-and celebrated? In this outstanding book, bestselling author Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison explores exuberance in all its unrestrained, joyful energy, and shows how its unique vitality is essential to our existence. Jamison points to the contagiousness of laughter, excitement, and positive feelings, and how it plays a role in choosing a mate, in the giddiness of new love, music, and religious ecstasy. She also discusses our dangerous desire to simulate exuberance by using drugs or alcohol. Most of all, Jamison points to some of our most famous artists and scientists to show how they all share an exuberance for life that inspires their discoveries, drives, and the force to persevere even when it seems the odds are against them."

Kay Redfield Jamison (Author), Bernadette Dunne (Narrator)

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Linked: The New Science of Networks

"A cocktail party? A terrorist cell? Ancient bacteria? An international conglomerate? All are networks, and all are a part of a surprising scientific revolution. Albert-László Barabási, the nation's foremost expert in the new science of networks and author of Bursts, takes us on an intellectual adventure to prove that social networks, corporations, and living organisms are more similar than previously thought. Grasping a full understanding of network science will someday allow us to design blue-chip businesses, stop the outbreak of deadly diseases, and influence the exchange of ideas and information. Just as James Gleick and the Erdos-Rényi model brought the discovery of chaos theory to the general public, Linked tells the story of the true science of the future and of experiments in statistical mechanics on the internet, all vital parts of what would eventually be called the Barabási-Albert model."

Albert-Laszlo Barabasi (Author), Henry Levya (Narrator)

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The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt

"The date is January 11, 1911. A young German paleontologist, accompanied only by a guide, a cook, four camels, and a couple of camel drivers, reaches the lip of the vast Bahariya Depression after a long trek across the bleak plateau of the western desert of Egypt. The scientist, Ernst Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach, hopes to find fossil evidence of early mammals. In this, he will be disappointed, for the rocks here will prove to be much older than he thinks. They are nearly a hundred million years old. Stromer is about to learn that he has walked into the age of the dinosaurs. At the bottom of the Bahariya Depression, Stromer will find the remains of four immense and entirely new dinosaurs, along with dozens of other unique specimens. But there will be reversals—shipments delayed for years by war, fossils shattered in transit, stunning personal and professional setbacks. Then, in a single cataclysmic night, all of his work will be destroyed and Ernst Stromer will slip into history and be forgotten. The date is January 11, 2000—eighty-nine years to the day after Stromer descended into Bahariya. Another young paleontologist, Ameri-can graduate student Josh Smith, has brought a team of fellow scientists to Egypt to find Stromer’ s dinosaur graveyard and resurrect the German pioneer’s legacy. After weeks of digging, often under appalling conditions, they fail utterly at rediscovering any of Stromer’ s dinosaur species. Then, just when they are about to declare defeat, Smith’s team discovers a dinosaur of such staggering immensity that it will stun the world of paleontology and make headlines around the globe. Masterfully weaving together history, science, and human drama, The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt is the gripping account of not one but two of the twentieth century’s great expeditions of discovery."

Josh Smith, William Nothdurft (Author), Michael C. Hall (Narrator)

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Why Geese Don't Get Obese (and We Do): How Evolution's Strategies for Survival Affect Our Everyday L

"Imagine being able to consume 250,000 calories daily without gaining weight. If you had the metabolism of a shrew you could. And while most of us can't hold our breath for more than a few minutes, the Weddell seal can remain underwater for a full 75 minutes! Learn how humans and other creatures have evolved to gauge their need for food, water and oxygen; regulate body temperature and respond to stressful situations."

Eric P. Widmaier (Author), Rick Adamson (Narrator)

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Deep Ecology for the 21st Century, Part 5: Human Reproduction: The Ecological Piledriver

Paul Ehrlich, Phd (Author), Michael Toms (Narrator)

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Biology & Chemistry Audiobooks in Non-Fiction