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The Catalyst
- RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life's Deepest Secrets
- Narrated by: Joshua Saxon
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
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Publisher's summary
For over half a century, DNA has dominated science and the popular imagination as the "secret of life." But over the last several decades, a quiet revolution has taken place. In a series of breathtaking discoveries, the biochemist Thomas R. Cech and a diverse cast of brilliant scientists have revealed that RNA-long overlooked as the passive servant of DNA-sits at the center of biology's greatest mysteries: How did life begin? What makes us human? Why do we get sick and grow old? In The Catalyst, Cech finally brings together years of research to demonstrate that RNA is the true key to understanding life on Earth, from its very origins to our future in the twenty-first century.
A gripping journey of discovery, The Catalyst moves from the early experiments that first hinted at RNA's spectacular powers, to Cech's own paradigm-shifting finding that it can catalyze cellular reactions, to the cutting-edge biotechnologies poised to reshape our health. We learn how RNA may have jump-started life itself, and how, at the same time, it can cut our individual lives short through viral diseases and cancer. We see how RNA is implicated in the aging process and explore the darker depths of the supposed fountain of youth, telomerase. And we catch a thrilling glimpse into how RNA-powered therapies may enable us to improve and even extend life beyond nature's current limits.
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The American buffalo-our nation's official mammal-is an improbable, shaggy beast that has found itself at the center of many of our most mythic and sometimes heartbreaking tales. The largest land animals in the Western Hemisphere, they are survivors of a mass extinction that erased ancient species that were even larger. For nearly 10,000 years, they evolved alongside Native people who weaved them into every aspect of daily life; relied on them for food, clothing, and shelter; and revered them as equals.
By: Dayton Duncan, and others
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Life Lessons from a Parasite
- What Tapeworms, Flukes, Lice, and Roundworms Can Teach Us About Humanity's Most Difficult Problems
- By: John Janovy Jr.
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Though you may not be able to see them with the naked eye, parasites inhabit our everyday lives. From headlice to bird droppings, litterboxes to unfiltered water, you have brushed up against the most common way of life on our planet. In this unique book, John Janovy Jr., one of the world's preeminent experts on parasites, reveals what can humans learn from the most reviled yet misunderstood animals on Earth: lice, tapeworms, flukes, and maggots that can eat a lizard from the inside, and how these lessons help us negotiate our own complicated world.
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Disappointed in double agenda.
- By Michael S Derry Jr on 09-17-24
By: John Janovy Jr.
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Life as No One Knows It
- The Physics of Life's Emergence
- By: Sara Imari Walker
- Narrated by: Sara Imari Walker
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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What is life? This is among the most difficult open problems in science, right up there with the nature of consciousness and the existence of matter. All the definitions we have fall short. None help us understand how life originates or the full range of possibilities for what life on other planets might look like. In Life as No One Knows It, physicist and astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker argues that solving the origin of life requires radical new thinking and an experimentally testable theory for what life is.
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A wordy, obscure explanation of Assembly Theory
- By Trebla on 08-30-24
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Impossible Monsters
- Dinosaurs, Darwin, and the Battle Between Science and Religion
- By: Michael Taylor
- Narrated by: Michael Langan
- Length: 15 hrs
- Unabridged
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Impossible Monsters reveals the central role of dinosaurs and their discovery in toppling traditional religious authority, and in changing perceptions about the Bible, history, and mankind's place in the world.
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Repetitive and not that interesting
- By Michael on 09-09-24
By: Michael Taylor
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Evolutionary Intelligence
- How Technology Will Make Us Smarter
- By: W. Russell Neuman
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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It is natural for us to fear artificial intelligence. But does Siri really want to kill us? Perhaps we are falling into the trap of projecting human traits onto the machines we might build. In Evolutionary Intelligence, Neuman offers a surprisingly positive vision in which computational intelligence compensates for the well-recognized limits of human judgment, improves decision making, and actually increases our agency. Neuman takes the listener on an exciting, fast-paced ride, all the while making a convincing case about a revolution in computationally augmented human intelligence.
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Charge
- Why Does Gravity Rule?
- By: Frank Close
- Narrated by: Perry Daniels
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The charges of the proton and electron are opposite and equal, even though the proton is bigger. But why are they equal? This is one of the deepest unresolved puzzles of physics. Frank Close takes us on a journey into the quantum subatomic world of particles. He describes the strong and weak forces that operate alongside electromagnetism, the color and flavor charges, as well as the parallels between them, giving hints of a deeper unity.
By: Frank Close
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Blood Memory
- The Tragic Decline and Improbable Resurrection of the American Buffalo
- By: Dayton Duncan, Ken Burns
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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The American buffalo-our nation's official mammal-is an improbable, shaggy beast that has found itself at the center of many of our most mythic and sometimes heartbreaking tales. The largest land animals in the Western Hemisphere, they are survivors of a mass extinction that erased ancient species that were even larger. For nearly 10,000 years, they evolved alongside Native people who weaved them into every aspect of daily life; relied on them for food, clothing, and shelter; and revered them as equals.
By: Dayton Duncan, and others
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Life Lessons from a Parasite
- What Tapeworms, Flukes, Lice, and Roundworms Can Teach Us About Humanity's Most Difficult Problems
- By: John Janovy Jr.
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Though you may not be able to see them with the naked eye, parasites inhabit our everyday lives. From headlice to bird droppings, litterboxes to unfiltered water, you have brushed up against the most common way of life on our planet. In this unique book, John Janovy Jr., one of the world's preeminent experts on parasites, reveals what can humans learn from the most reviled yet misunderstood animals on Earth: lice, tapeworms, flukes, and maggots that can eat a lizard from the inside, and how these lessons help us negotiate our own complicated world.
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Disappointed in double agenda.
- By Michael S Derry Jr on 09-17-24
By: John Janovy Jr.
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Life as No One Knows It
- The Physics of Life's Emergence
- By: Sara Imari Walker
- Narrated by: Sara Imari Walker
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
What is life? This is among the most difficult open problems in science, right up there with the nature of consciousness and the existence of matter. All the definitions we have fall short. None help us understand how life originates or the full range of possibilities for what life on other planets might look like. In Life as No One Knows It, physicist and astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker argues that solving the origin of life requires radical new thinking and an experimentally testable theory for what life is.
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A wordy, obscure explanation of Assembly Theory
- By Trebla on 08-30-24
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Impossible Monsters
- Dinosaurs, Darwin, and the Battle Between Science and Religion
- By: Michael Taylor
- Narrated by: Michael Langan
- Length: 15 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Impossible Monsters reveals the central role of dinosaurs and their discovery in toppling traditional religious authority, and in changing perceptions about the Bible, history, and mankind's place in the world.
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Repetitive and not that interesting
- By Michael on 09-09-24
By: Michael Taylor
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The Secret Life of the Universe
- An Astrobiologist's Search for the Origins and Frontiers of Life
- By: Nathalie A. Cabrol
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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We are living in a golden age in astronomy and in the search for life the universe. Over the last few decades, space exploration has shown that not only are there habitable environments within our solar system, but there are millions of exoplanets within our galaxy that could support life. We are on the cusp of breakthroughs that will revolutionize our understanding of our place in the cosmos in. In The Secret Life of the Universe, astrobiologist and the director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute Nathalie A. Cabrol takes us to the frontiers of the search for life.
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Incredible Book
- By Dennis T. on 09-20-24
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Meet the Neighbors
- Animal Minds and Life in a More-than-Human World
- By: Brandon Keim
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In this wide-ranging exploration of animals' inner lives, Keim takes us into courtrooms and wildlife hospitals, under backyard decks and into deserts, to meet anew the wild creatures who populate our communities and the philosophers, rogue pest controllers, ecologists, wildlife doctors, and others who are reimagining our relationships to them.
By: Brandon Keim
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Making Sense of Chaos
- A Better Economics for a Better World
- By: J. Doyne Farmer
- Narrated by: J. Doyne Farmer
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Many books have been written about J. Doyne Farmer and his work, but this is the first in his own words. It presents a manifesto for how to do economics better. In this tale of science and ideas, Farmer fuses his profound knowledge and expertise with stories from his life to explain how we can bring a scientific revolution to bear on the economic conundrums facing society.
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Doyne Farmer is brilliant but...
- By dmh00000 on 08-25-24
By: J. Doyne Farmer
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Neurodiversity for Dummies
- By: John Marble, Khushboo Chabria, Ranga Jayaraman
- Narrated by: Sharmila Devar
- Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Neurodiversity for Dummies is your essential guide in understanding neurodivergent conditions like autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and more. This quick and easy guide is perfect for anyone needing to know more about neurodiversity. And that's all of us-because recent estimates say that 15-20% of the world's population have some form of neurodivergence.
By: John Marble, and others
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Reap the Whirlwind
- Violence, Race, Justice, and the Story of Sagon Penn
- By: Peter Houlahan
- Narrated by: Joshua Saxon
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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March 31, 1985. Two white patrol officers in search of a gang member followed a pickup truck carrying seven young Black men up a dirt driveway in the Encanto neighborhood of San Diego. Minutes later, gunshots rang out, and the truck's driver, Sagon Penn, fled the scene in an officer's patrol car. Penn was an idealist who believed in the power of Buddhist chants to bring about the oneness of humanity. The two police officers were rising stars in one of the most progressive police departments in the country, yet one that had suffered more officers killed in the line of duty than any other.
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Outstanding
- By DJ McCarty on 09-11-24
By: Peter Houlahan
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Lucid Dying
- The New Science Revolutionizing How We Understand Life and Death
- By: Sam Parnia MD PhD
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Today, for the first time in history, the scientific exploration of death and what happens when we die is real, active and ongoing. Contrary to popular perceptions, this subject is no longer the remit of philosophy, religion, or personal opinion. Truly remarkable scientific discoveries that will fundamentally affect everyone’s lives now and in the future are taking place, yet very few people are aware of them. Most people—including scientists and doctors—maintain strong beliefs about death and its experience. Those beliefs are rooted in traditional, and often cultural, notions of death.
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Excited to See Scientific Rigor Applied to This Vital Topic
- By Mav on 08-27-24
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Unsettled, Updated and Expanded Edition
- What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn't, and Why It Matters
- By: Steven E. Koonin
- Narrated by: Jay Aaseng
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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With the new edition of Unsettled, Steven Koonin draws on decades of experience—including as a top science advisor to the Obama administration—to clear away the fog and explain what science really says (and doesn’t say). With a new introduction, this edition now features reflections on an additional three years of eye-opening data, alternatives to unrealistic “net zero” solutions, global energy inequalities, and the energy crisis arising from the war in Ukraine.
By: Steven E. Koonin
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The Catalyst
- How to Change Anyone's Mind
- By: Jonah Berger
- Narrated by: Keith Nobbs, Fred Irby
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Everyone has something they want to change. Marketers want to change their customers' minds and leaders want to change organizations. Start-ups want to change industries and nonprofits want to change the world. But change is hard. Often, we persuade and pressure and push, but nothing moves. Could there be a better way? This book takes a different approach. Successful change agents know it's not about pushing harder, or providing more information, it's about being a catalyst.
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Was this book written to change my mind from a republican to a democrat?
- By Jack Shocklee on 10-02-20
By: Jonah Berger
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Milton Friedman on Economics
- Selected Papers
- By: Milton Friedman, Gary S. Becker -afterword by
- Narrated by: Kyle Snyder
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Milton Friedman on Economics: Selected Papers collects a variety of Friedman's papers on topics in economics that were originally published in the Journal of Political Economy. Opening with Friedman's 1977 Nobel Lecture, the volume spans nearly the whole of his career, incorporating papers from as early as 1948 and as late as 1990. An excellent introduction to Friedman's economic thought, Milton Friedman will be essential for anyone tracing the course of twentieth-century economics and politics.
By: Milton Friedman, and others
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How America Works...and Why It Doesn't
- A Brief Guide to the US Political System
- By: William Cooper
- Narrated by: Jeff Harding
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Americans in the twenty-first century are becoming increasingly untethered from both reality and the essential principles and traditions that have shaped the nation’s historic success. A big part of why America isn’t working is because far too many Americans neither know nor care how it’s supposed to work.
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So near very good
- By Trebla on 08-27-24
By: William Cooper
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Bite
- An Incisive History of Teeth, from Hagfish to Humans
- By: Bill Schutt
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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In Bite, zoologist Bill Schutt makes a surprising case: it is teeth that are responsible for the long-term success of vertebrates. The appearance of teeth, roughly half a billion years ago, was an adaptation that allowed animals with backbones, such as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, dinosaurs and mammals—including us—to chow down in pretty much every conceivable environment.
By: Bill Schutt
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Everything Is Predictable
- How Bayesian Statistics Explain Our World
- By: Tom Chivers
- Narrated by: Tom Chivers
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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At its simplest, Bayes’s theorem describes the probability of an event, based on prior knowledge of conditions that might be related to the event. But in Everything Is Predictable, Tom Chivers lays out how it affects every aspect of our lives. He explains why highly accurate screening tests can lead to false positives and how a failure to account for it in court has put innocent people in jail. A cornerstone of rational thought, many argue that Bayes’s theorem is a description of almost everything. But who was the man who lent his name to this theorem?
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I was looking forward to this. What a disappointment.
- By Alessandro Fadini on 06-28-24
By: Tom Chivers
What listeners say about The Catalyst
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 08-22-24
Disappointing reader!!
The reading is more robotic and most of the information is needless— wish it was more direct and accurate.
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-14-24
Disappointing
Given the author’s qualifications, I was expecting something way less superficial. It’s also full of dozens of unneeded and unilluminating analogies that largely serve only as a distraction. Also annoying was the increasingly common in audiobooks disclaimer that the narration refers to illustrations/charts that are found only in the paper/e-book versions of this book, instead of actually providing a PDF of those to refer to.
The narration also was disappointing. Among other things, the narrator could’ve spent a few minutes learning how to pronounce the words he was supposed to read. Or someone who actually understood the subject matter should’ve proof-listened to the narration and insisted on corrections. And it’s not just technical/biological terms that he mispronounces. He even mispronounces La Jolla (California), as “la-HOLE-a.” A truly slipshod effort.
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- Auinash Kalsotra
- 09-16-24
Captivating
Highly accessible to non experts. A wonderful weekend read. Will recommend to high school students and teachers
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- Trebla
- 08-23-24
Among the best at telling the story of science
As a biology major I was aware of much that Cech covers, but with the addition of much I did not know existed about RNA. Perhaps the best part is his descriptions of the visits, talks, papers, friends that actually drive basic science- it is a team sport.
The down mark is for the speaker who just murdered too many well-known bio words- very distracting.
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- cortney
- 07-31-24
a discredit to women scientists everywhere
I was so excited to read this book. I pre-ordered the hard copy and the audible version. Midway through chapter one I immediately stopped. I requested a refund for both books and WILL NOT read or recommend it to anyone. Thomas Cech has done a great dishonor to women scientists everywhere. He proudly discussed DNA, Watson and Crick, Kings College with NO mention of Rosalind Franklin, further proving that old, white male scientists go out of their way to discredit women in science.
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1 person found this helpful