Biology & Chemistry Audiobooks | Science & Technology

A Short History of Humanity: How Migration Made Us Who We Are

Brought to you by Penguin. Humanity has often found itself on the precipice. We've survived and thrived because we've never stopped moving... In this eye-opening book, Johannes Krause, Chair of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Humanity, offers a new way of understanding our past, present and future. Marshalling unique insights from archaeogenetics, an emerging new discipline that allows us to read our ancestors' DNA like journals chronicling personal stories of migration, Krause charts two millennia of adaption, movement and survival, culminating in the triumph of Homo Sapiens as we swept through Europe and beyond in successive waves of migration - developing everything from language, the patriarchy, disease, art and a love of pets as we did so. We also meet our ancestors, from those many of us have heard of - such as Homo Erectus and the Neanderthals - to the wildly unfamiliar but no less real: the recently discovered Denisovans, who ranged across Asia and, like humans, interbred with Neanderthals; the Aurignacians, skilled artists who, 40,000 years ago, brought about an extraordinary transformation in what our species could invent and create; the Varna, who buried their loved ones with gold long before the Pharaohs of Egypt did; and the Gravettians, big game hunters who were Europe's most successful early settlers until they perished in the face of the toughest opponent humanity had ever faced: the ice age. As well as being a radical new telling of our shared story, this book is a reminder that the global problems that keep us awake at night - climate catastrophe; the sudden emergence of deadly epidemics; refugee crises; ethnic conflict; over-population - are all things we've faced, and overcome, before. 'Stops you dead in your tracks ... An absolute revelation' Sue Black, bestselling author of All That Remains © Johannes Krause 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Johannes Krause, Thomas Trappe (Author), Stephen Graybill (Narrator)

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A Short History Of Nearly Everything

A Short History of Nearly Everything is Bill Bryson's quest to find out everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization - how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us. His challenge is to take subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us, and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people who have never thought they could be interested in science. It's not so much about what we know, as about how we know what we know. How do we know what is in the centre of the Earth, or what a black hole is, or where the continents were 600 million years ago? How did anyone ever figure these things out? On his travels through time and space, Bill Bryson takes us with him on the ultimate eye-opening journey, and reveals the world in a way most of us have never seen it before.

Bill Bryson (Author), Bill Bryson (Narrator)

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A Silent Fire: The Story of Inflammation, Diet and Disease

Brought to you by Penguin. Hidden inflammation has a big impact on our bodies, but what causes it and what can we do? Shilpa Ravella, an expert in nutrition and the gut, explains why our immune systems are turning against us and how we might reduce and reverse inflammation. 'Controlling Inflammation is the key to good health and this beautifully written and researched book is the best way to understand it' TIM SPECTOR, #1 bestselling author of Food for Life Inflammation is the body's response to injury and foreign microbes. But as our environments and diets have changed, low-level inflammation, simmering quietly and undetected, has been identified behind everything from heart disease and cancer to mysterious autoimmune conditions. Shilpa Ravella is a doctor at the forefront of this field, specialising in gut transplants, nutrition and the microbiome. In A Silent Fire she interweaves the latest research with unusual case studies from her own practice to explain what we know about this elusive phenomenon and the simple ways in which we can reform our relationship with food and our microbiomes to benefit our health. 'As gripping as a mystery story and as useful as a self-help book' BEE WILSON, author of First Bite 'Compelling, thoughtful and rigorously researched' The Times © Shilpa Ravella 2023 (P) Penguin Audio 2023

Shilpa Ravella (Author), Suzie Althens (Narrator)

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A Slacker's Guide to Genetics: A Beginner's Guide to Genetics

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice. Discover the fascinating world of genetics in this comprehensive and engaging guide, which delves into the very core of life itself. From the simplest organisms to the complexities of the human body, this book unravels the mysteries of heredity, molecular biology, and evolution, providing readers with a deeper understanding of the intricate workings of life. Written in a friendly and conversational tone, this guide is designed to be accessible to readers of all backgrounds, from curious novices to seasoned enthusiasts. Subtle humor is sprinkled throughout, making the learning experience both enjoyable and informative. Each chapter is meticulously crafted to build upon the previous one, ensuring a coherent and captivating journey through the world of genetics. In this book, you will explore the history of genetic research, from Mendel's groundbreaking work with pea plants to the awe-inspiring advances in biotechnology and genome editing. Along the way, you will encounter the renowned scientists who have shaped our understanding of genetics, and gain insights into the ethical considerations that accompany the ever-evolving field. You will also discover key terms and concepts that will help you navigate the complex world of genetics, as well as additional resources to further your understanding and satisfy your curiosity. This book will inspire you to delve deeper into the subject, spark your imagination, and fuel your passion for genetics. Embark on an extraordinary journey through the microscopic world that lies at the heart of every living organism, and unlock the secrets that govern the blueprint of life. This book will leave you with a newfound appreciation for the incredible science of genetics and the wonders of the natural world.

William Webb (Author), Digital Voice Mike G (Narrator)

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A Story of Us: A New Look at Human Evolution

In a few decades, a torrent of new evidence and ideas about human evolution has allowed scientists to piece together a more detailed understanding of what went on thousands and even millions of years ago. We now know much more about the problems our ancestors faced, the solutions they found, and the trade-offs they made. Our species' unique capacity for culture began to evolve millions of years ago, but it only really took off in the last few hundred thousand years. This capacity allowed our ancestors to survive and raise their difficult children during times of extreme climate chaos. Understanding how this has evolved can help us understand the cultural change and diversity that we experience today. Lesley Newson and Peter Richerson, a husband-and-wife team based at the University of California, Davis, have spent years researching and collaborating with scholars from a wide range of disciplines to produce a deep history of humankind. In A Story of Us, they present this rich narrative and explain how the evolution of our genes relates to the evolution of our cultures. Newson and Richerson take listeners through seven stages of human evolution, beginning seven million years ago with the apes that were the ancestors of humans and today's chimps and bonobos. The story ends in the present day and offers a glimpse into the future.

Lesley Newson, Pete Richerson (Author), Mike Cooper (Narrator)

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A Talk Based on "Present Shock"

Doug Rushkoff (Author), Doug Rushkoff (Narrator)

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A Taste for the Beautiful: The Evolution of Attraction

Darwin developed the theory of sexual selection to explain why the animal world abounds in stunning beauty, from the brilliant colors of butterflies and fishes to the songs of birds and frogs. He argued that animals have "a taste for the beautiful" that drives their potential mates to evolve features that make them more sexually attractive and reproductively successful. But if Darwin explained why sexual beauty evolved in animals, he struggled to understand how. Drawing on cutting-edge work in neuroscience and evolutionary biology, as well as his own important studies of the tiny Túngara frog deep in the jungles of Panama, Ryan explores the key questions: Why do animals perceive certain traits as beautiful and others not? Do animals have an inherent sexual aesthetic and, if so, where is it rooted? Ryan argues that the answers to these questions lie in the brain?particularly of females, who act as biological puppeteers, spurring the development of beautiful traits in males. This theory of how sexual beauty evolves explains its astonishing diversity and provides new insights about the degree to which our own perception of beauty resembles that of other animals.

Michael J. Ryan (Author), Eric Jason Martin, Eric Martin (Narrator)

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A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence

A bestselling author, neuroscientist, and computer engineer unveils a theory of intelligence that will revolutionize our understanding of the brain and the future of AI. For all of neuroscience's advances, we've made little progress on its biggest question: How do simple cells in the brain create intelligence? Jeff Hawkins and his team discovered that the brain uses maplike structures to build a model of the world-not just one model, but hundreds of thousands of models of everything we know. This discovery allows Hawkins to answer important questions about how we perceive the world, why we have a sense of self, and the origin of high-level thought. A Thousand Brains heralds a revolution in the understanding of intelligence. It is a big-think book, in every sense of the word.

Jeff Hawkins (Author), Jamie Renell, Richard Dawkins (Narrator)

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A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race, and Human History

Drawing on startling new evidence from the human genome, an exploration of how and why the human population differentiated into distinctive races beginning fifty thousand years ago Fewer ideas have been more toxic or harmful than the idea of the biological reality of race, and with it the idea that humans of different races are biologically different from one another. For this understandable reason, the idea has been banished from polite academic conversation. Arguing that race is more than just a social construct can get a scholar run out of town, or at least off campus, on a rail. Human evolution, the consensus view insists, ended in prehistory. Inconveniently, as Nicholas Wade argues in A Troublesome Inheritance, the consensus view cannot be right. And in fact, we know that populations have changed in the past few thousand years-to be lactose tolerant, for example, and to survive at high altitudes. Race is not a bright-line distinction; by definition it means that the more human populations are kept apart, the more they evolve their own distinct traits under the selective pressure known as Darwinian evolution. For many thousands of years, most human populations stayed where they were and grew distinct, not just in outward appearance but in deeper senses as well. Wade, the longtime journalist covering genetic advances for The New York Times, draws widely on the work of scientists who have made crucial breakthroughs in establishing the reality of recent human evolution. The most provocative claims in this book involve the genetic basis of human social habits. What we might call middle-class social traits-thrift, docility, nonviolence-have been slowly but surely inculcated genetically within agrarian societies, Wade argues. These "values" obviously had a strong cultural component, but Wade points to evidence that agrarian societies evolved away from hunter-gatherer societies in some crucial respects. Also controversial are his findings regarding the genetic basis of traits we associate with intelligence, such as literacy and numeracy, in certain ethnic populations, including the Chinese and Ashkenazi Jews. Wade believes deeply in the fundamental equality of all human peoples. He also believes that science is best served by pursuing the truth without fear, and if his mission to arrive at a coherent summa of what the new genetic science does and does not tell us about race and human history leads straight into a minefield, then so be it. This will not be the last word on the subject, but it will begin a powerful and overdue conversation.

Nicholas Wade (Author), Alan Sklar (Narrator)

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A Voice in the Wilderness: A Pioneering Biologist Explains How Evolution Can Help Us Solve Our Bigge

Why understanding evolution-the most reviled branch of science-can help us all, from fighting pandemics to undoing racism Evolutionary science has long been regarded as conservative, a tool for enforcing regressive ideas, particularly about race and gender. But in A Voice in the Wilderness, evolutionary biologist Joseph L. Graves Jr.-once styled as the "Black Darwin"-argues that his field is essential to social justice. He shows, for example, why biological races do not exist. He dismantles recent work in "human biodiversity" seeking genes to explain the achievements of different ethnic groups. He decimates homophobia, sexism, and classism as well. As a pioneering Black biologist, a leftist, and a Christian, Graves uses his personal story-his journey from a child of Jim Crow to a major researcher and leader of his peers-to rewrite his field. A Voice in the Wilderness is a powerful work of scientific anti-racism and a moving account of a trailblazing life.

Joseph L Graves (Author), Kyle Chapple (Narrator)

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A World Beyond Physics: The Emergence and Evolution of Life

Among the estimated one hundred billion solar systems in the known universe, evolving life is surely abundant. That evolution is a process of 'becoming' in each case. Since Newton, we have turned to physics to assess reality. But physics alone cannot tell us where we came from, how we arrived, and why our world has evolved past the point of unicellular organisms to an extremely complex biosphere. Building on concepts from his work at the Santa Fe Institute, Kauffman focuses in particular on the idea of cells constructing themselves and introduces concepts such as 'constraint closure.' Living systems are defined by the concept of 'organization' which has not been focused on in enough in previous works. Cells are autopoetic systems that build themselves: they literally construct their own constraints on the release of energy into a few degrees of freedom that constitutes the very thermodynamic work by which they build their own self creating constraints. Living cells are 'machines' that construct and assemble their own working parts. The emergence of such systems-the origin of life problem-was probably a spontaneous phase transition to self-reproduction in complex enough prebiotic systems. The resulting protocells were capable of Darwin's heritable variation, hence open-ended evolution by natural selection.

Stuart A. Kauffman (Author), Bob Souer (Narrator)

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Above the Line: Living and Leading with Heart

A leadership consultant and neuropsychologist identify the universal habits of the heart and mind-the keys to eliminating behavior patterns that hold us back, unlocking our true potential, and creating our best selves. Why is it so hard for leaders to coach employees who are struggling? Why do we repeat the mistakes and negative behaviors? Common wisdom says you always have a choice in how you react or respond. But, as corporate consultant Stephen Klemich and clinical psychologist Mara Klemich contend, until you recognize why you make choices, and how the heart and the brain work together to shape your behavior, you can't change long-ingrained ways and discover your best self. The Klemichs have developed a model, backed by extensive research and data and paired with character-led personal development, to help you answer the why and eliminate behavior that is 'below the line.' In Above the Line, they argue that that the quality of your life flows from the attitudes of your heart. Wise, compassionate, and practical Above the Line explores the deep, fundamental drivers of human behavior that exist within your heart-the seat of your character. It reveals that all of these behaviors can be explained by four heart-based principles-humility, love, pride, and fear-which influence every facet of our life, for better or worse. We are all designed for greatness, but so often our best self is pitted against our worst. The pressures of life are pulling our character below the line while our authentic self is drawing us to live above the line. When you fully understand that these four principles are at the root of your behavior, you can begin the journey to become your best self and navigate life more effectively and successfully. Filled with proven strategies, Above the Line will create lasting behavior change and improve your life personally and professionally so you can make a positive impact on the world around you. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Mara Klemich, Stephen Klemich (Author), David Linski (Narrator)

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Biology & Chemistry Audiobooks in Science & Technology