Genetic World

Could humans unknowingly be a part of a larger superorganism—one with its own motivations and goals, one that is alive, and conscious, and has the power to shape the future of our species? This is the fascinating theory from author and futurist Byron Reese, who calls this human superorganism “Agora.” In We Are Agora, Reese starts by asking the question, “What is life and how did it form?” From there, he looks at how multicellular life came about, how consciousness emerged, and how other superorganisms in nature have formed.

The crew of the Capricious seems to leave a trail of devastation wherever they go. But with powerful enemies in pursuit and family and friends under attack planetside, there's no time to worry about all that. Ensnared by the legend of Origin, humanity's birthplace, and a long-dead form of magic, the Capricious takes off on a journey to find the first colony ship...and power that could bring down gods.

Nature is rife with cheating. Possums play possum, feigning death to cheat predators. Crows cry wolf to scare off rivals. Amphibians and reptiles are inveterate impostors. Even genes and cells cheat. The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars explores the evolution of cheating in the natural world, revealing how dishonesty has given rise to wondrous diversity.

In the early 1800s, a century before there was any concept of the gene, physicians in insane asylums began to record causes of madness in their admission books. Almost from the beginning, they pointed to heredity as the most important of these causes. As doctors and state officials steadily lost faith in the capacity of asylum care to stem the terrible increase of insanity, they began emphasizing the need to curb the reproduction of the insane. They became obsessed with identifying weak or tainted families and anticipating the outcomes of their marriages.

Have you ever thought about who you might be related to? What if we told you that you were related to extraordinary emperors, great kings and magnificent queens? Well, your majesty, you are. In fact, everyone is. And geneticist Adam Rutherford is here to tell you how. Come on an extraordinary adventure through millions of years of human history where you will learn the story of our species from evolution to dinosaurs to you! You will meet kings and queens, pharaohs and vikings, and see just how far and wide humans have migrated around the world.

From the author of Seed of Israel: DNA Guide to Tracing Your Jewish Ancestry comes this great dive into the history of Ashkenazi Jews. While controversial debates spark disagreements on the crystallization of this Jewish Diaspora, modern genetic studies and personal DNA samples finally conclude the Levantine Middle Eastern and Mediterranean roots of Ashkenazi ancestry: Judean people from the Holy Land that journeyed across the Mediterranean to the bottleneck of Europe.

In this paradigm-shattering book, biologist Mark W. Moffett draws on findings in psychology, sociology, and anthropology to explain the social adaptations that bind societies. He explores how the tension between identity and anonymity defines how societies develop, function, and fail. Surpassing Guns, Germs, and Steel and Sapiens, The Human Swarm reveals how mankind created sprawling civilizations of unrivaled complexity - and what it will take to sustain them.

Charles Darwin's foremost biographer, Janet Browne, delivers a vivid and accessible introduction to the book that permanently altered our understanding of what it is to be human. A sensation on its publication in 1859, The Origin of the Species profoundly shocked Victorian readers by calling into question the belief in a Creator with its description of evolution through natural selection. And Darwin's seminal work is nearly as controversial today.

In this exciting prequel to the critically acclaimed Dane Curse, a pair of black capes are found dead on the floor of Wentorf Hall, mere inches away from the world’s largest diamond. Of course the cops think the pair killed each other over the heist. After all, everyone knows that the Vandenberg Coconut is a one size fits all motivation for murder. Everyone, that is, except for Dane Curse. But when the former villain turned PI takes the case he’ll discover that the truth has more sides than a diamond has facets. And in order to get to it Dane will follow a trail that leads through an ...

How four tools enabled humanity to control its destiny What enabled us to go from simple stone tools to smartphones? How did bands of hunter-gatherers evolve into multinational empires? Listeners of Sapiens will say a cognitive revolution - a dramatic evolutionary change that altered our brains, turning primitive humans into modern ones - caused a cultural explosion. In Transcendence, Gaia Vince argues instead that modern humans are the product of a nuanced coevolution of our genes, environment, and culture that goes back into deep time.

Former Immortal Ops Agent Wheeler Summersbee has spent most of his life on the run from his own government. When he’d agreed to be a living test subject in their quest to genetically engineer the perfect super-soldiers, he never dreamed he’d come out the other side of the testing a gargoyle-vampire hybrid who craved blood and had a serious allergy to sunlight. So, when he finds himself trapped in what feels like eternal darkness, he abandons all hope. That is, until he hears the melodic voice of a mysterious woman. Could it be she’s his someone special?

Horses have a story to tell - one of resilience, sociability, and intelligence and of partnership with human beings. In The Horse, journalist and equestrienne Wendy Williams brings that story brilliantly to life. Williams chronicles the 56-million-year journey of horses as she visits with experts around the world, exploring what our biological affinities and differences can tell us about the bond between horses and humans and what our longtime companions might think and feel.

The next generation has come into its own. Raven, Savanna’s impulsive, impetuous daughter has begun her own epic journey. Raven was born in a time of turmoil and war. She decides her calling in life is to be a soldier. Sacrificing the shelter and security of Haven, Raven puts herself at risk to save others. She finds herself in perilous situations and thrust into the role of leadership despite her own misgivings. The Siren’s Song of Haven is continuously singing to her. She could be safe, protected, sheltered and warm if she returned to Haven and its stone walls. But, is it her destiny ...

Joni, the daughter of World Walker Seb Varden, has never met her father. And the world he left behind has become a dangerous place for the last generation of Manna users. Mee and John insist Seb will return, but what if they're wrong? Could it be possible she has none of Seb Varden's powers? Or might her abilities reveal themselves as she leaves childhood behind? In her 17th year, Joni will be forced to leave those she loves, face a great evil, and finally learn the truth about her father.

Fifty thousand years ago, we were not the only species of human in the world. There were at least four others, including the Neanderthals, Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonesis and the Denisovans. At the forefront of the latter's ground-breaking discovery was Oxford Professor Tom Higham. In The World Before Us, he explains the scientific and technological advancements.

Veterinarian Darcy Jackson and her family run a small but lucrative hobby farm, raising alpacas and sheltering abused animals in Harmony Valley, a coastal ranching and agricultural community. One foggy night while Darcy is returning home after a call, she veers off the road to avoid hitting a strange creature in the road and crashes her truck. Leroy Malek and his son, Dylan have been harboring a well-kept secret for years raising and caring for hybrids.

‘What is it like to be a bat?’, the philosopher Thomas Nagel famously asked concerning consciousness. For biologist Martin Stevens, the question forms the starting point of an exploration of animal senses. In this enthralling account, we learn not only of the wonder of animal senses, but how they work and how scientists go about investigating them. And, throughout, we consider how these senses came to be.

Just 150 years ago, most of our world was an unexplored wilderness. Our sense of its age was vastly off the mark. And what we believed to be the history of our own species consisted of fantastic myths and fairy tales; fossils, known for millennia, were seen as the bones of dragons and other imagined creatures. How did we learn so much so quickly? Remarkable Creatures celebrates the pioneers who replaced our fancies with the even more remarkable real story of how our world evolved.

On May 10, 1998, biologist Craig Venter, director of the Institute for Genomic Research, announced that he was forming a private company that within three years would unravel the complete genetic code of human life, seven years before the projected finish of the U.S. government's Human Genome Project. Venter hoped that by decoding the genome ahead of schedule, he would speed up the pace of biomedical research and save the lives of thousands of people. He also hoped to become very famous and very rich.

Their planet was dying and everyone knew it. The only question left was what to do to save everyone from themselves. With time running out, their only realistic chance of salvation was The Sanctuary Project. (Part Two of Two) "An intelligent, vividly imagined novel…" — The Prairies Book Review