Biology & Chemistry Audiobooks | Science & Technology

The Little Book of Cannabis: How Marijuana Can Improve Your Life

A pragmatic and informative look at better living through cannabis. Cannabis. Weed. Bud. Whatever you choose to call it, it's been a health aid, comfort, and life-enhancer for humankind for more than three thousand years. But while cannabis is used by hundreds of millions of people around the world, more than a century of prohibition has resulted in confusion about its status: Is it healthy? Is it medicinal? Will it make you crazy? In this fun, illuminating book, cannabis journalist Amanda Siebert delves deep into the latest research to separate marijuana fact from fiction, revealing ten evidence-based ways this potent little plant can improve your life. She speaks with some of the world's top researchers, medical professionals, and consultants to answer questions such as: Can cannabis help you get a full night's sleep? Does it aid in exercise and weight loss? Can it really cure cancer? She also offers practical advice for maximizing its benefits-including easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions for how to enjoy everything from joints to edibles, CBD oil to oral sprays-as well as examples of real people who have used cannabis to enhance their lives. This powerful plant, it turns out, could be life-changing: it can enrich any diet, slow down aging, and even spice things up in the bedroom. *Contact customer service for additional content*.

Amanda Siebert (Author), Shannon Mcmanus (Narrator)

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The Biological Mind: How Brain, Body, and Environment Collaborate to Make Us Who We Are

A pioneering neuroscientist argues that we are more than our brains To many, the brain is the seat of personal identity and autonomy. But the way we talk about the brain is often rooted more in mystical conceptions of the soul than in scientific fact. This blinds us to the physical realities of mental function. We ignore bodily influences on our psychology, from chemicals in the blood to bacteria in the gut, and overlook the ways that the environment affects our behavior, via factors varying from subconscious sights and sounds to the weather. As a result, we alternately overestimate our capacity for free will or equate brains to inorganic machines like computers. But a brain is neither a soul nor an electrical network: it is a bodily organ, and it cannot be separated from its surroundings. Our selves aren't just inside our heads--they're spread throughout our bodies and beyond. Only once we come to terms with this can we grasp the true nature of our humanity.

Alan Jasanoff (Author), Kevin T. Collins (Narrator)

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Insulin Pumps and Continuous Glucose Monitoring

Being diagnosed with diabetes, no longer means giving up an active life. New technology, such as insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors, can help people with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes stay active and flexible and maintain healthy attitudes and lifestyles. Designed to mimic the action of the pancreas, insulin pumps are small, pager-sized devices that infuse insulin under the skin based on programmed rates. Not only does this eliminate the need for injections, it also allows for small amounts of insulin to be released throughout the day, and large amounts to be administered at meals based on what's being eaten. When paired with a continuous glucose monitor, which provides a continuous readout of glucose levels, users can enjoy accurate, tight glucose control that provides much greater flexibility and freedom than the old check-and-inject method. Dr. Francine Kaufman's Insulin Pumps and Continuous Glucose Monitoring explains the advances in glucose management, and thoroughly discusses the technology, as well as the physical and psychological aspects of diabetes care. It provides a comprehensive medical approach toward diabetes management and pump therapy with an appreciation of the real-life challenges and frustrations faced every day by people with diabetes.

Francine R. Kaufman Md, Francine R. Kaufman, M.D. (Author), Karen White (Narrator)

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The Rabbi's Brain: Mystics, Moderns, and the Science of Jewish Thinking

The topic of neurotheology has garnered increasing attention in the academic, religious, scientific, and popular worlds. But there have been no attempts to explore more specifically how Jewish religious thought and experience may intersect with neurotheology. The Rabbi's Brain engages this groundbreaking area. Topics included relate to a neurotheological approach to the foundational beliefs that arise from the Torah and associated scriptures, Jewish learning, an exploration of the different elements of Judaism (i.e., reform, conservative, and orthodox), an exploration of specifically Jewish practices (i.e., Davening, Sabbath, Kosher), and a review of Jewish mysticism. The Rabbi's Brain engages these topics in an easy-to-understand style and integrates the scientific, religious, philosophical, and theological aspects of the emerging field of neurotheology. By reviewing the concepts in a stepwise, simple yet thorough discussion, listeners, regardless of their background, will be able to understand the complexities and breadth of neurotheology from the Jewish perspective. More broadly, issues will include a review of the neurosciences and neuroscientific techniques; religious and spiritual experiences; theological development and analysis; liturgy and ritual; epistemology, philosophy, and ethics; and social implications, all from the Jewish perspective.

Andrew Newberg, Andrew Newberg Md, David Halpern, David Halpern Md (Author), John Lescault (Narrator)

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Minds Make Societies: How Cognition Explains the World Humans Create

A watershed book that masterfully integrates insights from evolutionary biology, genetics, psychology, economics, and more to explore the development and workings of human societies “There is no good reason why human societies should not be described and explained with the same precision and success as the rest of nature.” Thus argues evolutionary psychologist Pascal Boyer in this uniquely innovative book. Integrating recent insights from evolutionary biology, genetics, psychology, economics, and other fields, Boyer offers precise models of why humans engage in social behaviors such as forming families, tribes, and nations, or creating gender roles. In fascinating, thought-provoking passages, he explores questions such as, Why is there conflict between groups? Why do people believe low-value information such as rumors? Why are there religions? What is social justice? What explains morality? Boyer provides a new picture of cultural transmission that draws on the pragmatics of human communication, the constructive nature of memory in human brains, and human motivation for group formation and cooperation.

Pascal Boyer (Author), Tom Parks (Narrator)

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Sleepyhead: The Neuroscience of a Good Night's Rest

A narcoleptic's tireless journey through the neuroscience of disordered sleep Whether it's a bout of bad jet lag or a stress-induced all-nighter, we've all suffered from nights that left us feeling less than well-rested. But for some people, getting a bad night's sleep isn't just an inconvenience: it's a nightmare. In Sleepyhead, science writer Henry Nicholls uses his own experience with chronic narcolepsy as a gateway to better understanding the cryptic, curious, and relatively uncharted world of sleep disorders. We meet insomniacs who can't get any sleep, narcoleptics who can't control when they sleep, and sleep apnea victims who nearly suffocate in their sleep. We learn the underlying difference between morning larks and night owls; why our sleeping habits shift as we grow older; and the evolutionary significance of REM sleep and dreaming. Charming, eye-opening, and deeply humanizing, Sleepyhead will help us all uncover the secrets of a good night's sleep.

Henry Nicholls (Author), Henry Drury (Narrator)

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A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes

A National Geographic Best Book of the Year In our unique genomes, every one of us carries the story of our species-births, deaths, disease, war, famine, migration, and a lot of sex. But those stories have always been locked away-until now. Who are our ancestors? Where did they come from? Geneticists have suddenly become historians, and the hard evidence in our DNA has completely upended what we thought we knew about ourselves. Acclaimed science writer Adam Rutherford explains exactly how genomics is completely rewriting the human story-from 100,000 years ago to the present.

Adam Rutherford (Author), Adam Rutherford (Narrator)

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Through a Glass Brightly: Using Science to See Our Species as We Really Are

In Through a Glass Brightly, noted scientist David P. Barash explores the process by which science has, throughout time, cut humanity "down to size," and how humanity has responded. A good paradigm is a tough thing to lose, especially when its replacement leaves us feeling more vulnerable and less special. And yet, as science has progressed, we find ourselves-like it or not-bereft of many of our most cherished beliefs, confronting an array of paradigms lost. Barash models his argument around a set of "old" and "new" paradigms that define humanity's place in the universe. This new set of paradigms range from provocative revelations as to whether human beings are well designed, whether the universe has somehow been established with our species in mind (the so-called anthropic principle), whether life itself is inherently fragile, and whether Homo sapiens might someday be genetically combined with other species (and what that would mean for our self-image). Rather than seeing ourselves through a glass darkly, science enables us to perceive our strengths and weaknesses brightly and accurately at last, so that paradigms lost becomes wisdom gained. The result is a bracing, remarkably hopeful view of who we really are.

David P. Barash (Author), Charles Constant (Narrator)

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The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life

Human beings are primates, and primates are political animals. Our brains, therefore, are designed not just to hunt and gather, but also to help us get ahead socially, often via deception and self-deception. But while we may be self-interested schemers, we benefit by pretending otherwise. The less we know about our own ugly motives, the better-and thus we don't like to talk or even think about the extent of our selfishness. This is "the elephant in the brain." Such an introspective taboo makes it hard for us to think clearly about our nature and the explanations for our behavior. The aim of this book, then, is to confront our hidden motives directly-to track down the darker, unexamined corners of our psyches and blast them with floodlights. Then, once everything is clearly visible, we can work to better understand ourselves: Why do we laugh? Why are artists sexy? Why do we brag about travel? Why do we prefer to speak rather than listen? Our unconscious motives drive more than just our private behavior; they also infect our venerated social institutions such as Art, School, Charity, Medicine, Politics, and Religion. In fact, these institutions are in many ways designed to accommodate our hidden motives, to serve covert agendas alongside their "official" ones. The existence of big hidden motives can upend the usual political debates, leading one to question the legitimacy of these social institutions, and of standard policies designed to favor or discourage them. You won't see yourself-or the world-the same after confronting the elephant in the brain.

Kevin Simler, Robin Hanson (Author), Jeffrey Kafer (Narrator)

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When Humans Nearly Vanished

Some 73,000 years ago, the Mount Toba supervolcano in todayÄôs Indonesia erupted, releasing the energy of a million tons of explosives. So much ash and debris was injected into the stratosphere that it partially blocked the sunÄôs radiation and caused global temperatures to drop for a decade. In this book, Donald R. Prothero presents the controversial argument that the Toba catastrophe nearly wiped out the human race, leaving only about a thousand to ten thousand breeding pairs of humans worldwide. Human genes today show evidence of a Äúgenetic bottleneck,Äù an effect seen when a population of organisms becomes so small that their genetic diversity is greatly reduced. This group of survivors could be the ancestors of all humans alive today. Prothero explores the geological and biological evidence supporting the Toba bottleneck theory, revealing how the explosion itself was discovered and offering insight into how the world changed afterward and what might happen if such an eruption occurred today.

Donald R. Prothero (Author), Qarie Marshall (Narrator)

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Superhuman: Life at the Extremes of Our Capacity

From evolutionary biologist Rowan Hooper, an awe-inspiring look into the extremes of human ability—and what they tell us about our own potential. In 1997, an endurance runner named Yiannis Kouros ran 188 miles in twenty-four hours. Akira Haraguchi, a sixty year-old man in Tokyo, can recite pi to the 100,000th decimal point. John Nunn was accepted to Oxford University at age 15, the youngest undergraduate in 500 years. After a horrific attack by her estranged husband, Carmen Tarleton was left with burns to over eighty percent of her body. One of her surgeons said her injuries "were beyond anything we have ever seen." After a three-month coma, multiple skin grafts, and successful face transplant, Tarleton is now a motivational speaker. What does it feel like to be exceptional? And what does it take to get there? Why can some people achieve greatness when others can't, no matter how hard they try? Just how much potential does our species have? Evolutionary biologist Rowan Hooper has the answers. In Superhuman he takes us on a breathtaking tour of the peaks of human achievement that shows us what it feels like to be extraordinary—and what it takes to get there. Drawing on interviews with these "superhumans" and those who have studied them, Hooper assesses the science and genetics of peak potential. His case studies are as inspirational as they are varied, highlighting feats of endurance, strength, intelligence, and memory. Superhuman is a fascinating, eye-opening, and inspiring celebration for anyone who ever felt that they might be able to do something extraordinary in life, for those who simply want to succeed, and for anyone interested in the sublime possibilities of humankind.

Rowan Hooper (Author), Richard Lyddon (Narrator)

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Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic

There's a silent epidemic in western civilization, and it is right under our noses. Our jaws are getting smaller and our teeth crooked and crowded, creating not only aesthetic challenges but also difficulties with breathing. Modern orthodontics has persuaded us that braces and oral devices can correct these problems. While teeth can certainly be straightened, what about the underlying causes of this rapid shift in oral evolution and the health risks posed by obstructed airways? Sandra Kahn and Paul R. Ehrlich, a pioneering orthodontist and a world-renowned evolutionist, respectively, present the biological, dietary, and cultural changes that have driven us toward this major health challenge. They propose simple adjustments that can alleviate this developing crisis, as well as a major alternative to orthodontics that promises more significant long-term relief. Jaws will change your life. Every parent should read this book.

Paul R. Erhlich, Sandra Kahn (Author), Gregg Rizzo (Narrator)

Audiobook

Biology & Chemistry Audiobooks in Science & Technology