Biology & Chemistry Audiobooks | Science & Technology

Why is Consciousness so Mysterious? Audiobook

How do the microscopic particles that make up our brains cause us to experience the tranquil beauty of a setting sun, the haunting strains of Mozart's "Requiem," or the flush of romantic love? How, in short, can consciousness be explained? In this three-part series, neuroscientist Robert Lawrence Kuhn interviews 18 guest experts about the nuts and bolts of consciousness as well its illusory aspects. Dr. Kuhn engages with his experts on a sophisticated plane without alienating you, his audience of restless souls and inquisitive minds with feet in the real world. Each episode is crafted as a series of one-on-one interviews that respond to the title question about consciousness. The sheer scope of experts that Dr. Kuhn invites to the conversation about consciousness is staggering. Their star power is another matter altogether. In these three episodes, you'll hear from pioneers in multiple fields, including Jaron Lanier, the computer scientist who popularized the term "virtual reality"; David John Chalmers, whose 1996 book The Conscious Mind is widely considered an essential work on consciousness and the mind-body problem; the late Marvin Lee Minsky (1927-2016), who co-founded MIT's AI laboratory; and Galen Strawson, the British analytic philosopher and longtime consultant editor for The Times Literary Supplement. This course is part of the Learn25 collection. Note: This audio series is brought to you by Learn25, a leading producer of lecture programs by top university professors. It was originally produced by Closer to Truth, the television series created, written, and hosted by Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn and co-created, produced, and directed by Peter Getzels. Closer to Truth invites the world's foremost scientists, philosophers, and creative thinkers to debate the deepest questions facing humanity: questions of consciousness, the cosmos, and meaning.

Robert Lawrence Kuhn (Author), Robert Lawrence Kuhn (Narrator)

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Why Honor Matters

A controversial call to put honor at the center of morality To the modern mind, the idea of honor is outdated, sexist, and barbaric. It evokes Hamilton and Burr and pistols at dawn, not visions of a well-organized society. But for philosopher Tamler Sommers, a sense of honor is essential to living moral lives. In Why Honor Matters, Sommers argues that our collective rejection of honor has come at great cost. Reliant only on Enlightenment liberalism, the United States has become the home of the cowardly, the shameless, the selfish, and the alienated. Properly channeled, honor encourages virtues like courage, integrity, and solidarity, and gives a sense of living for something larger than oneself. Sommers shows how honor can help us address some of society's most challenging problems, including education, policing, and mass incarceration. Counterintuitive and provocative, Why Honor Matters makes a convincing case for honor as a cornerstone of our modern society.

Tamler Sommers (Author), Tamler Sommers (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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Why Diets Make Us Fat: The Unintended Consequences of Our Obsession With Weight Loss

"If diets worked, we'd all be thin by now. Instead, we have enlisted hundreds of millions of people into a war we can't win." What's the secret to losing weight? If you're like most of us, you've tried cutting calories, sipping weird smoothies, avoiding fats, and swapping out sugar for Splenda. The real secret is that all of those things are likely to make you weigh more in a few years, not less. In fact, a good predictor of who will gain weight is who says they plan to lose some. Last year, 108 million Americans went on diets, to the applause of doctors, family, and friends. But long-term studies of dieters consistently find that they're more likely to end up gaining weight in the next two to fifteen years than people who don't diet. Neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt spent three decades in her own punishing cycle of starving and regaining before turning her scientific eye to the research on weight and health. What she found defies the conventional wisdom about dieting: ·Telling children that they're overweight makes them more likely to gain weight over the next few years. Weight shaming has the same effect on adults. ·The calories you absorb from a slice of pizza depend on your genes and on your gut bacteria. So does the number of calories you're burning right now. ·Most people who lose a lot of weight suffer from obsessive thoughts, binge eating, depression, and anxiety. They also burn less energy and find eating much more rewarding than it was before they lost weight. ·Fighting against your body's set point-a central tenet of most diet plans-is exhausting, psychologically damaging, and ultimately counterproductive. If dieting makes us fat, what should we do instead to stay healthy and reduce the risks of diabetes, heart disease, and other obesity-related conditions? With clarity and candor, Aamodt makes a spirited case for abandoning diets in favor of behaviors that will truly improve and extend our lives.

Sandra Aamodt (Author), Sandra Aamodt (Narrator)

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Why Did I Come into This Room?: A Candid Conversation about Aging

In her most candid and revealing book yet, acclaimed broadcast journalist and Baby Boomer Joan Lunden delves into the various phases of aging that leave many feeling uncomfortable, confused, and on edge. In her hilarious book, Lunden takes the dull and depressing out of aging, replacing it with wit and humor. After all, laughing is better than crying-unless it makes you pee! Funny, captivating, and raw, no topic is off limits. Lunden goes where others fear to tread, openly talking about wrinkles and age spots (which Lunden insists are sunspots), expanding waistlines (no, you didn't shrink your jeans), diminished energy (my get-up-and-go got up and went), weak pelvic floors (yes, we're talking about leaking), hot flashes (they suck), disrupted sleep (the morning host is an expert on lack of sleep), changes in sex drive (oh yeah, she goes there), ageism (it exists and it pisses us off), and yes, the real reasons we suddenly find ourselves always searching for those car keys! Through her poignant and often laugh out loud funny personal experiences, Lunden candidly shares her anxieties and breakthroughs. Why Did I Come into This Room? also explores the science of aging, including how it impacts the body and brain, while dispelling myths and revealing useful options to stave off the aging process as long as possible.

Joan Lunden (Author), Joan Lunden (Narrator)

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Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters: From Dating, Shopping, and Praying to Going to War and Bec

Alan S. Miller, Satoshi Kanazawa (Author), Stephen Hoye (Narrator)

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Why Am I Taller?: What Happens to an Astronaut's Body in Space

Is the human body built for Mars? NASA's studies on the International Space Station show we need to fix a few things before sending people to the Red Planet. Astronauts go into space with good vision and come back needing eyeglasses. Cognition and DNA expression could be affected for years. And then there's the discomfort of living in a tight space with crewmates, depression, and separation from the people you love. Space doctors are on the case. You'll meet the first twin to spend a year in space, the woman who racked up three physically challenging spacewalks in between 320 days of confinement, and the cosmonaut who was temporarily stranded on space station Mir while the Soviet Union broke up underneath him. What are we learning about the human body? As astronauts target moon missions and eventual landings on Mars, one of the major questions is how the human body will behave in 'partial gravity.' How does the human body change on another world, as opposed to floating freely in microgravity? What can studies on Earth and in space tell us about planetary exploration? These questions will be important to the future of space exploration and to related studies of seniors and people with reduced mobility on Earth.

Dr. Dave Williams, Elizabeth Howell Phd, Elizabeth Howell, Phd (Author), Will Tulin (Narrator)

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Who You Are: The Science of Connectedness

Who are you? Are you just a brain? A brain and a body? All the things you have done and the friends you have made? Many of us assume that who we really are is something deep inside us, an inner sanctuary that contains our true selves. In Who You Are, Michael Spivey argues that the opposite is true: that you are more than a brain, more than a brain-and-body, and more than all your assumptions about who you are. Rather than peeling layers away to reveal the inner you, Spivey traces who you are outward. You may already feel in your heart that something outside your body is actually part of you-a child, a place, a favorite book. Spivey confirms this intuition with scientific findings. With each chapter, Spivey incrementally expands a common definition of the self. After (gently) helping you to discard your assumptions about who you are, he draws on research in cognitive science and neuroscience to explain the back-and-forth among all the regions of the brain and the interaction between the brain and body. He then makes the case for understanding objects and locations in your environment as additional parts of who we are. Going even further, he shows that, just as interaction links brain, body, and environment, ever-expanding systems of interaction link humans to other humans, to nonhuman animals, and to nonliving matter.

Michael J. Spivey (Author), Matthew Josdal (Narrator)

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Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past

A groundbreaking book about how ancient DNA has profoundly changed our understanding of human history Geneticists like David Reich have made astounding advances in the field of genomics, which is proving to be as important as archaeology, linguistics, and written records as a means to understand our ancestry. In Who We Are and How We Got Here, Reich allows listeners to discover how the human genome provides not only all the information a human embryo needs to develop but also the hidden story of our species. Reich delves into how the genomic revolution is transforming our understanding of modern humans and how DNA studies reveal deep inequalities among different populations, between the sexes, and among individuals. Provocatively, Reich's book suggests that there might very well be biological differences among human populations but that these differences are unlikely to conform to common stereotypes. Drawing upon revolutionary findings and unparalleled scientific studies, Who We Are and How We Got Here is a captivating glimpse into humankind-where we came from and what that says about our lives today.

David Reich (Author), John Lescault (Narrator)

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Whitewash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer, and the Corruption of Science

It's the herbicide on our dinner plates, a chemical so pervasive it's in the air we breathe, our water, our soil, and even found increasingly in our own bodies. Known as Monsanto's Roundup by consumers, and as glyphosate by scientists, the world's most popular weed killer is used everywhere from backyard gardens to golf courses to millions of acres of farmland. For decades it's been touted as safe enough to drink, but a growing body of evidence indicates just the opposite, with research tying the chemical to cancers and a host of other health threats. In Whitewash, veteran journalist Carey Gillam uncovers one of the most controversial stories in the history of food and agriculture, exposing new evidence of corporate influence. Gillam introduces listeners to farm families devastated by cancers which they believe are caused by the chemical, and to scientists whose reputations have been smeared for publishing research that contradicted business interests. Listeners learn about the arm-twisting of regulators who signed off on the chemical, echoing company assurances of safety even as they permitted higher residues of the herbicide in food and skipped compliance tests. And, in startling detail, Gillam reveals secret industry communications that pull back the curtain on corporate efforts to manipulate public perception. Whitewash is more than an expose about the hazards of one chemical or even the influence of one company. It's a story of power, politics, and the deadly consequences of putting corporate interests ahead of public safety.

Carey Gillam (Author), Rachel Dulude (Narrator)

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Where Are We Heading?: The Evolution of Humans and Things

In this engaging exploration, archaeologist Ian Hodder departs from the two prevailing modes of thought about human evolution: the older idea of constant advancement toward a civilized ideal and the newer one of a directionless process of natural selection. Instead, he proposes a theory of human evolution and history based on 'entanglement,' the ever-increasing mutual dependency between humans and things.Not only do humans become dependent on things, Hodder asserts, but things become dependent on humans, requiring an endless succession of new innovations. It is this mutual dependency that creates the dominant trend in both cultural and genetic evolution. He selects a small number of cases, ranging in significance from the invention of the wheel down to Christmas tree lights, to show how entanglement has created webs of human-thing dependency that encircle the world and limit our responses to global crises.

Ian Hodder (Author), Gildart Jackson (Narrator)

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When the Body Says No: Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection

In When the Body Says No, physician and writer Gabor Maté explores the mind-body link and the connection between stress and disease. Can a person literally die of loneliness? Is there a relationship between the ability to express emotions and Alzheimer's disease? Is there such a thing as a "cancer personality?" Dr. Maté has a gift for making complicated medical findings accessible for the lay-person while still relevant to the professional, and both will be grateful for the final chapter, "The Seven A's of Healing," in which Maté presents an open formula for healing and the prevention of illness resulting from hidden stress.

Gabor Maté (Author), Daniel Brooklyn Maté (Narrator)

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Biology & Chemistry Audiobooks in Science & Technology