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What Is Life?
- Five Great Ideas in Biology
- Narrated by: Paul Nurse
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
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Publisher's summary
The Nobel Prize-winning scientist's elegant explanation of the fundamental ideas in biology and their uses today.
The renowned biologist Paul Nurse has spent his career revealing how living cells work. In What Is Life?, he takes up the challenge of describing what it means to be alive in a way that every listener can understand.
It is a shared journey of discovery; step-by-step Nurse illuminates five great ideas that underpin biology - the Cell, the Gene, Evolution by Natural Selection, Life as Chemistry, and Life as Information. He introduces the scientists who made the most important advances, and, using his personal experiences in and out of the lab, he shares with us the challenges, the lucky breaks, and the thrilling eureka moments of discovery.
Nurse writes with delight at life's richness and with a sense of the urgent role of biology in our time. To survive the challenges that face us all today - climate change, pandemic, loss of biodiversity and food security - it is vital that we all understand what life is.
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- The Life of Kurt Gödel
- By: Stephen Budiansky
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Nearly a hundred years after its publication, Kurt Gödel's famous proof that every mathematical system must contain propositions that are true - yet never provable - continues to unsettle mathematics, philosophy, and computer science. Yet unlike Einstein, with whom he formed a warm and abiding friendship, Gödel has long escaped all but the most casual scrutiny of his life.
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Interesting story of a great mathematician
- By James Orlin on 04-28-22
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What Is Life?
- With Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches
- By: Erwin Schrödinger, Roger Penrose - foreword
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger's What is Life? is one of the great science classics of the 20th century. A distinguished physicist's exploration of the question which lies at the heart of biology, it was written for the layman but proved one of the spurs to the birth of molecular biology and the subsequent discovery of the structure of DNA. It appears here together with "Mind and Matter", his essay investigating a relationship which has eluded and puzzled philosophers since the earliest times.
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An extraordinary look at life by a Physicist
- By Philomath on 01-25-19
By: Erwin Schrödinger, and others
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Oxygen
- The Molecule That Made the World
- By: Nick Lane
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Oxygen takes the listener on an enthralling journey, as gripping as a thriller, as it unravels the unexpected ways in which oxygen spurred the evolution of life and death.
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A Story About Pretty Much Everything
- By ZebraBear on 09-09-20
By: Nick Lane
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Transformer
- The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death
- By: Nick Lane
- Narrated by: Richard Trinder
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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For decades, biology has been dominated by the study of genetic information. Information is important, but it is only part of what makes us alive. Our inheritance also includes our living metabolic network, a flame passed from generation to generation, right back to the origin of life. In Transformer, biochemist Nick Lane reveals a scientific renaissance that is hiding in plain sight-how the same simple chemistry gives rise to life and causes our demise.
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You need lot of chemistry to get it
- By 11104 on 09-05-22
By: Nick Lane
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When Brains Dream
- Exploring the Science and Mystery of Sleep
- By: Antonio Zadra, Robert Stickgold
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Written by two world-renowned sleep and dream researchers, When Brains Dream debunks common myths while acknowledging the mysteries that persist around both the science and experience of dreaming.
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Should be "next-up" on your reading list!
- By Paul Coca on 02-21-22
By: Antonio Zadra, and others
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What Is Life?
- How Chemistry Becomes Biology
- By: Addy Pross
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Seventy years ago, Erwin Schrdinger posed a simple, yet profound, question: What is life?. How could the very existence of such extraordinary chemical systems be understood? This problem has puzzled biologists and physical scientists both before, and ever since. Living things are hugely complex and have unique properties, such as self-maintenance and apparently purposeful behaviour which we do not see in inert matter. So how does chemistry give rise to biology?
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Profound & Life Changing...
- By Daegan Smith on 04-06-15
By: Addy Pross
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Creation
- How Science Is Reinventing Life Itself
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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What is life? Humans have been asking this question for thousands of years. But as technology has advanced and our understanding of biology has deepened, the answer has evolved. For decades, scientists have been exploring the limits of nature by modifying and manipulating DNA, cells, and whole organisms to create new ones that could never have previously existed on their own.
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The Goldilocks book on what is life
- By Gary on 07-11-13
By: Adam Rutherford
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Liquid Rules
- The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives
- By: Mark Miodownik
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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We all know that without water we couldn't survive, and that sometimes a cup of coffee or a glass of wine feels just as vital. But do we really understand how much we rely on liquids, or the destructive power they hold? Set over the course of a flight from London to San Francisco, Liquid Rules offers listeners a fascinating tour of these formless substances, told through the language of molecules, droplets, heartbeats, and ocean waves.
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Interesting book!
- By Wayne on 08-04-19
By: Mark Miodownik
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The Epigenetics Revolution
- How Modern Biology Is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease, and Inheritance
- By: Nessa Carey
- Narrated by: Donna Postel
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Epigenetics can potentially revolutionize our understanding of the structure and behavior of biological life on Earth. It explains why mapping an organism's genetic code is not enough to determine how it develops or acts and shows how nurture combines with nature to engineer biological diversity. Surveying the 20-year history of the field while also highlighting its latest findings and innovations, this volume provides a readily understandable introduction to the foundations of epigenetics.
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Begins Accessible, Then Becomes Too Technical
- By wbiro on 07-26-17
By: Nessa Carey
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The Joy of x
- A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity
- By: Steven Strogatz
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Many people take math in high school and promptly forget much of it. But math plays a part in all of our lives all of the time, whether we know it or not. In The Joy of x, Steven Strogatz expands on his hit New York Times series to explain the big ideas of math gently and clearly, with wit, and insight.
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Great listen
- By cameron on 08-16-19
By: Steven Strogatz
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The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy
- Healing the Social Brain, Third Edition
- By: Louis Cozolino
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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This groundbreaking book explores the recent revolution in psychotherapy that has brought an understanding of the social nature of people's brains to a therapeutic context. Louis Cozolino is a master at synthesizing neuroscientific information and demonstrating how it applies to psychotherapy practice. New material on altruism, executive function, trauma, and change round out this essential book.
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Good book but annoying performance
- By F. T. Rubina on 10-22-22
By: Louis Cozolino
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Logic
- A Very Short Introduction, 2nd Edition
- By: Graham Priest
- Narrated by: Kyle Tait
- Length: 4 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Logic is often perceived as having little to do with the rest of philosophy, and even less to do with real life. In this lively and accessible introduction, Graham Priest shows how wrong this conception is. He explores the philosophical roots of the subject, explaining how modern formal logic deals with issues ranging from the existence of God and the reality of time to paradoxes of probability and decision theory. Along the way, the basics of formal logic are explained in simple, non-technical terms, showing that logic is a powerful and exciting part of modern philosophy.
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A bit disappointing.
- By MarshallP1991 on 12-16-21
By: Graham Priest
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Consciousness, 2nd Edition
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Susan Blackmore
- Narrated by: Zehra Jane Naqvi
- Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Exciting new developments in brain science are continuing the debates on these issues, and the field has now expanded to include biologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers. This controversial book clarifies the potentially confusing arguments, and the major theories, while also outlining the amazing pace of discoveries in neuroscience. Covering areas such as the construction of self in the brain, mechanisms of attention, the neural correlates of consciousness, and the physiology of altered states of consciousness, Susan Blackmore highlights our latest findings.
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Great Book, Great Narration
- By Malcolm Broderick on 07-26-24
By: Susan Blackmore
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The Laws of Thermodynamics
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Peter Atkins
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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The laws of thermodynamics drive everything that happens in the universe. From the sudden expansion of a cloud of gas to the cooling of hot metal - everything is moved or restrained by four simple laws. This powerful and compact introduction explains what these four laws are and how they work, using accessible language and virtually no mathematics.
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Basics but too Much Verbal Math
- By Dennis M Danzik on 01-13-23
By: Peter Atkins
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Quantum Theory
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: John Polkinghorne
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Quantum theory is the most revolutionary discovery in physics since Newton. This book gives a lucid, exciting, and accessible account of the surprising and counterintuitive ideas that shape our understanding of the sub-atomic world. It does not disguise the problems of interpretation that still remain unsettled 75 years after the initial discoveries. Uncertainty, probabilistic physics, complementarity, the problematic character of measurement, and decoherence are among the many topics discussed.
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Well done
- By A. Foxter on 07-20-24
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Neurofitness
- A Brain Surgeon's Secrets to Boost Performance & Unleash Creativity
- By: Dr. Rahul Jandial
- Narrated by: Graham Winton
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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This fascinating book draws on Dr. Jandial's broad-spectrum expertise and brings together the best of various fields - surgery, science, brain structure, the conscious mind - all to explain the bigger picture of brain health and rejuvenation. It is a journey into his operating room, around the world on his surgical missions, inside his laboratory, and to the outer edges of neuroscience to reveal the latest brain breakthroughs that are turning science fiction into reality, translating their implications for everyday life.
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excellent description of the state of Neuroscience
- By voxy on 07-28-19
What listeners say about What Is Life?
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ashok k
- 11-07-23
Excellent
I thoroughly enjoyed the audible. I will listen to this again. The sections are split clearly for a better understanding of the narration.
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- Yvonne Bodin
- 06-12-22
A Stunning Read!
Who we are, how we function and what we can become in the future! I will read
it again and again!
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1 person found this helpful
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- angela
- 10-06-21
Will listen to this again!
Very informative and presented in a very accessible and engaging manner by the lovely Dr. Nurse himself.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Marcia
- 09-27-21
Wonderful
I greatly enjoyed the information as well as the narration. I enjoyed the personal stories as well.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Shin
- 01-10-23
Rich evidence of design but still believe in evolution
I admire the technical details of explaining mechanics of life and glad author mentioned the DNA and amazement of human brain and even creation of computer programs.
However with such great design from physics to chemical to bio to intelligence, the conclusion of the book is greatness of natural selection.
I want to leave an open question here is: what is this selection? Who is selecting?
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1 person found this helpful