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Handmade: A Scientist's Search for Meaning Through Making
From atomic structures to theories about magnetic forces, scientific progress has given us a good grasp on the properties of many different materials. However, science cannot tell us how to measure the temperature of steel just by looking at it, or how to sculpt stone into all kinds of shapes, or what it feels like to blow up a balloon of glass. Handmade is the story of materials through making and doing. Author and material scientist Anna Ploszajski journeys into the domain of makers and craftspeople to comprehend how the most popular materials really work. Their accumulated knowledge through handson trial and error has been gathered by generation after generation of experimenters and tinkerers, and they understand the materiality of objects far better than any scientist with a textbook. Anna's is the fresh and entertaining perspective of someone at the forefront of the field. Each chapter centres around an everyday material and features Anna's accounts of learning from masters of their respective crafts. Along the way, she builds a fuller picture of materials and their place in society. She visits a female blacksmith artist to see, hear, smell and strike steel herself, explores how working with one of the most primal of materials, clay, has brought about some of the most advanced technologies, and delves down to the atomic scale of glass to find out what makes it 'glassy'. Handmade affords us a new understanding of the materials we encounter every day and an appreciation for the skills needed to fashion them into objects that are perfectly formed for the jobs they do.
Anna Ploszajski (Author), Anna Ploszajski (Narrator)
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Evolution Gone Wrong: The Curious Reasons Why Our Bodies Work (Or Don’t)
An eye-opening look into why our bodies work—or don’t—the way they do. From blurry vision to crooked teeth, ACLs (anterior cruciate ligaments) that tear at alarming rates and spines that seem to spend a lifetime falling apart, it’s surprising that human beings have beaten the odds as a species. After all, we’re the only survivors on our branch of the tree of life. Why do human mothers have such a life-endangering experience giving birth? And why are there entire medical specialties for teeth and feet? In this funny, wide-ranging and often surprising book, biologist Alex Bezzerides tells us from where we inherited our adaptable, achy, brilliant bodies in the process of evolution. The book traces the delightfully unexpected answers to these questions and many more: · Why do we blink? · Why don’t our teeth regularly fit in our mouths? · Why do women menstruate when so many other mammals don’t? · Why did humans stand up on two legs in the first place?
Alex Bezzerides (Author), Joe Knezevich (Narrator)
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Biochemistry: A Very Short Introduction
From the simplest bacteria to humans, all living things are composed of cells of one type or another, all of which have fundamentally the same chemistry. This chemistry must provide mechanisms that allow cells to interact with the external world, a means to power the cell, machinery to carry out varied processes within the cell, a structure within which everything runs, and also governance through a web of interlocking chemical reactions. Biochemistry is the study of those reactions, the molecules that are created, manipulated, and destroyed as a result of them, and the massive macromolecules that form the chemical machinery and structures on which these biochemical reactions take place. It didn't take long for an understanding of the chemistry of life to turn into a desire to manipulate it. Drugs and therapies all aim to modify biochemical processes for good or ill: Penicillin, derived from mold, stops bacteria making their cell walls. Aspirin, with its origins in willow bark, inhibits enzymes involved in inflammatory responses. This Very Short Introduction discusses the key concepts of biochemistry, as well as the historical figures in the field and the molecules they studied, before considering the current science and innovations in the field, and the interaction between biochemistry, biotechnology, and synthetic biology.
Mark Lorch (Author), Chris Sorensen (Narrator)
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The P Word: The Science of Growing Up
We all remember the p word we dreaded hearing about as adolescents…puberty. Sweaty, sticky and pimply, we all go through puberty at some point in our lives, but why? Listen in as Seeker takes you on a scientific roller coaster ride of all things puberty like acne, hormones, body odor and more in this curated audio collection.
Seeker (Author), Amy Shira Teitel, Julia Wilde, Laci Green, Patrick Kelly, Tara Long, Trace Dominguez (Narrator)
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Consciousness is more than mere awareness. It's how we experience the world, how we turn input into experience. Once the province of philosophy, religion, or perhaps fantasy, neuroscientists have added a scientific voice to the discussion, using available medical technology to explore just what separates so-called "mind" from brain. In this audiobook, we look at what science has to say about one of humankind's most fundamental, existential mysteries.
Scientific American (Author), Coleen Marlo (Narrator)
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Why can you vividly recall the day your father took you to your first baseball game many years ago, but you can't remember where you just put the car keys? The process of how-and what-we remember is a fascinating window into who we are and what makes us tick. In this audiobook, we explore what science can and can't tell us about memory.
Scientific American (Author), Coleen Marlo (Narrator)
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Ravenous: Otto Warburg, the Nazis, and the Search for the Cancer-Diet Connection
The extraordinary story of the Nazi-era scientific genius who discovered how cancer cells eat—and what it means for how we should. The Nobel laureate Otto Warburg—a cousin of the famous finance Warburgs—was widely regarded in his day as one of the most important biochemists of the twentieth century, a man whose research was integral to humanity’s understanding of cancer. He was also among the most despised figures in Nazi Germany. As a Jewish homosexual living openly with his male partner, Warburg represented all that the Third Reich abhorred. Yet Hitler and his top advisors dreaded cancer, and protected Warburg in the hope that he could cure it. In Ravenous, Sam Apple reclaims Otto Warburg as a forgotten, morally compromised genius who pursued cancer single-mindedly even as Europe disintegrated around him. While the vast majority of Jewish scientists fled Germany in the anxious years leading up to World War II, Warburg remained in Berlin, working under the watchful eye of the dictatorship. With the Nazis goose-stepping their way across Europe, systematically rounding up and murdering millions of Jews, Warburg awoke each morning in an elegant, antiques-filled home and rode horses with his partner, Jacob Heiss, before delving into his research at the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. Hitler and other Nazi leaders, Apple shows, were deeply troubled by skyrocketing cancer rates across the Western world, viewing cancer as an existential threat akin to Judaism or homosexuality. Ironically, they viewed Warburg as Germany’s best chance of survival. Setting Warburg’s work against an absorbing history of cancer science, Apple follows him as he arrives at his central belief that cancer is a problem of metabolism. Though Warburg’s metabolic approach to cancer was considered groundbreaking, his work was soon eclipsed in the early postwar era, after the discovery of the structure of DNA set off a search for the genetic origins of cancer. Remarkably, Warburg’s theory has undergone a resurgence in our own time, as scientists have begun to investigate the dangers of sugar and the link between obesity and cancer, finding that the way we eat can influence how cancer cells take up nutrients and grow. Rooting his revelations in extensive archival research as well as dozens of interviews with today’s leading cancer authorities, Apple demonstrates how Warburg’s midcentury work may well hold the secret to why cancer became so common in the modern world and how we can reverse the trend. A tale of scientific discovery, personal peril, and the race to end a disastrous disease, Ravenous would be the stuff of the most inventive fiction were it not, in fact, true.
Sam Apple (Author), Mark Bramhall (Narrator)
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Taking Charge of Your Pregnancy: The New Science for a Safe Birth and a Healthy Baby
An indispensable guide to the revolutionary advances in pregnancy and childbirth, Taking Charge of Your Pregnancy contains trailblazing science that explains: Why the first eight weeks are the most important and how to optimize themWhich prenatal genetic tests are risk‑free and which are a waste of moneyWhy miscarriages are common and the preventive steps future moms can takeWhen to be concerned about nauseaWhat pregnant women can learn from their own mother's birth storiesWhat to do about pain during labor and deliveryAfter decades of research into how babies develop in the womb, Susan J. Fisher, PhD, shares her expert advice to empower expecting parents. Complete with helpful illustrations, practical tips, and the essential questions to ask healthcare providers, here is everything you need to take charge of your health and your baby's.
Susan J. Fisher (Author), Linda Henning (Narrator)
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Understanding Coronavirus (COVID-19): A Revised 2021 Edition
Coronavirus disease is a virus that is part of a large family of viruses called coronaviruses (CoV). It has been known to cause common respiratory infections ranging from common diseases like the common cold to more critical illnesses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). However, the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a new strain of the coronaviruses that was discovered in 2019 that has never been previously identified in humans. This is a revised edition of the 2020 original version that discussed how dangerous the virus is, how it all started, the causes, the diagnosis and prevention. This updated version discusses the international response, the COVID-19 mortality, the COVID-19 vaccine and contains lots of updated data, facts and eliminates that which is outdated as of February 2021.
Tonny Rutakirwa (Author), Carolyn Jania (Narrator)
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The Stuff Dreams (And Nightmares) Are Made Of
Picture this: You’re falling from the top of a building, but just before you hit the ground, you wake up in a cold sweat and realize it was just a dream...or maybe a nightmare. Did that dream mean anything? Why do we have dreams and nightmares in the first place? Dive into this best of collection from Seeker and explore why we can’t remember our dreams, how blind people dream, the world of sleep hacking and more.
Seeker (Author), Annie Gaus, Anthony Carboni, Julian Huguet, Laci Green, Lauren Ellis, Lissette Padilla, Trace Dominguez (Narrator)
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Lighting Up: The Truth About Weed
Does smoking weed actually make you lazy? How does THC replace your brain’s neurotransmitters? From the beginnings of where marijuana came from to the future of what a world with legal pot could look like, listen in as Seeker dives in on the fascinating world of marijuana in this short-form audio collection.
Seeker (Author), Crystal Dilworth, Julia Wilde, Laci Green, Matt Morales, Tara Long, Trace Dominguez (Narrator)
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Super Fly: The Unexpected Lives of the World's Most Successful Insects
From an expert in animal consciousness, a book that will turn the fly on the wall into the elephant in the room. 'After reading Super Fly, you will never take a fly for granted again. Thank you, Jonathan Balcombe, for reminding us of the infinite marvels of everyday creatures.' -Sy Montgomery, Author of How to Be a Good Creature For most of us, the only thing we know about flies is that they're annoying, and our usual reaction is to try to kill them. In Super Fly, the myth-busting biologist Jonathan Balcombe shows the order Diptera in all of its diversity, illustrating the essential role that flies play in every ecosystem in the world as pollinators, waste-disposers, predators, and food source; and how flies continue to reshape our understanding of evolution. Along the way, he reintroduces us to familiar foes like the fruit fly and mosquito, and gives us the chance to meet their lesser-known cousins like the Petroleum Fly (the only animal in the world that breeds in crude oil) and the Chocolate Midge (the sole pollinator of the Cacao tree). No matter your outlook on our tiny buzzing neighbors, Super Fly will change the way you look at flies forever. Jonathan Balcombe is the author of four books on animal sentience, including the New York Times bestselling What A Fish Knows, which was nominated for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Award for Science Writing. He has worked for years as a researcher and educator with the Humane society to show us the consciousness of other creatures, and here he takes us to the farthest reaches of the animal kingdom.
Jonathan Balcombe (Author), Jonathan Balcombe (Narrator)
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