Showing titles in Biology

Ageing - not cancer, not heart disease - is the world’s leading cause of death and suffering. We accept as inevitable that as we get older our bodies and minds begin to deteriorate, and we are increasingly likely to be struck by dementia or disease. Ageing is so deeply ingrained in human experience that we never think to ask: is it necessary?

Las ideas más peregrinas tienen hoy que adoptar una vestidura "científica" para obtener credibilidad. No son ahora extrañas las "pruebas" de abducciones extraterrestres o de poderes telepáticos o los "documentos" que respaldan que el Holocausto nunca ocurrió. Schermer se interna en ese mundo de profetas y visionarios, fundamentalistas religiosos e "historiadores" racistas, y nos ofrece un análisis de sus credos y métodos, que desmonta pieza a pieza, aplicando nada más que el pensamiento científico.

Von der Haarwurzel bis zu den Zehen beschreibt Bill Bryson hier die grandiose Geschichte des menschlichen Körpers. Das ganze Leben verbringen wir in unserem Körper, doch die wenigsten haben eine Ahnung davon, wie er funktioniert, welche erstaunlichen Selbstheilungskräfte darin wirken und was tief im Inneren abläuft - manchmal auch schiefläuft. Spannende Fakten und erstaunliche Geschichten über die prächtigen Wunder unserer körperlichen und neurologischen Grundausstattung.

Bacteria form a fundamental branch of life. They are the oldest forms of life and the most prolific of all living organisms, inhabiting every part of the Earth's surface, its ocean depths, and even such inhospitable places as boiling hot springs. In this Very Short Introduction, bacteriologist Sebastian Amyes explores the nature of bacteria, their origin and evolution, bacteria in the environment, and bacteria and disease.

Inspired by the abundance of unique personalities available on dating websites, a renowned neuroscientist examines the science of what makes you, you.

Elegantly written and deeply grounded in personal experience - works by Oliver Sacks come to mind - Physical Intelligence gives us a clear, illuminating examination of the intricate, mutually responsive relationship between the mind and the body as they engage (or don’t engage) in all manner of physical action. Ever wonder why you don’t walk into walls or off cliffs? How you decide if you can drive through a snowstorm? How high you are willing to climb up a ladder to change a lightbulb?

It happens everywhere: offices, schools, even your own backyard. And, seemingly, anything can trigger it: cell phones, sirens, bad music, constant distractions, your boss, or even your spouse. We all know certain things get under our skin. Can science explain why? NPR's Joe Palca and Flora Lichtman take you on a scientific quest through psychology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, and other disciplines to uncover the truth about being annoyed.

From the cup of coffee that jump-starts the day to dangerously addictive drugs, the recreational use of plants with psychoactive properties has a long history among humans. But, as with many things, it turns out that other animals got there first. From parrots to primates, consuming medicinal chemicals is an instinctive behavior that helps countless organisms fight infection and treat disease. But the similarities don't end there: Like us, many creatures also consume substances that have no apparent benefit...except for inducing intoxication. 

Allergies, asthma, obesity, stomachaches, acne: These are just a few of the conditions that may be caused - and cured - by the microscopic life inside us. Understand how to use groundbreaking science to improve your health, mood, and more.

Scientists have long counseled against interpreting animal behavior in terms of human emotions, warning that such anthropomorphizing limits our ability to understand animals as they really are. Yet what are we to make of a female gorilla in a German zoo who spent days mourning the death of her baby? Or a wild female elephant who cared for a younger one after she was injured by a rambunctious teenage male?

In Once and Future Giants, science writer Sharon Levy digs through the evidence surrounding Pleistocene large animal ("megafauna") extinction events worldwide, showing that understanding this history - and our part in it - is crucial for protecting the elephants, polar bears, and other great creatures at risk today. These surviving relatives of the Ice Age beasts now face an intensified replay of that great die-off, as our species usurps the planet's last wild places while driving a warming trend more extreme than any in mammalian history.

We inherit mechanisms for survival from our primeval past - none so obviously as those involved in reproduction. The hormone testosterone underlies the organization of activation of masculinity: It changes the body and brain to make a male. It is involved not only in sexuality but in driving aggression, competitiveness, risk-taking - all elements that were needed for successful survival and reproduction in the past. But these ancient systems are carried forward into a modern world.

More than any other writer Gilbert White (1720-93) has shaped the relationship between man and nature. A hundred years before Darwin, White realised the crucial role of worms in the formation of soil and understood the significance of territory and song in birds. His precise, scrupulously honest and unaffectedly witty observations led him to interpret animals’ behaviour in a unique manner.

“Si j’ai écrit ce livre c’est parce que je voulais partager avec vous ce que je connais de l’ARN, ce que je comprends, ce qu’on sait, ce qu’on ne sait pas” Je ne suis pas complotiste mais généticienne, l'une des plus renommées d'après certains. Dans ce livre, je vous dirai ce qu'est l'ARN messager, celui qui compose les vaccins anti-covid. Parce que vous avez le droit de savoir.

Most of us think of bugs as pesky creatures we squish under our shoes or bat away with our hands. Under the microscope of Sue Hubbell’s keen eye emerges an exciting world we rarely take the time to see. Author of A Country Year, Hubbell writes regularly for The New Yorker, Smithsonian, and Discover magazines, bringing to her delightful essays the practical veracity of a gentlewoman farmer, and the style and élan of an eccentric who has found her bliss.

All life as we know it is carbon-based and reliant on sources of liquid water and energy for its survival; it is also, of course, known from just one planet: the Earth, a world perfectly suited to host life. But across a universe of at least 100 billion habitable, earthlike worlds, life cannot be restricted to just this one place. Or can it?

In What's Eating You? Eugene Kaplan recounts the true and harrowing tales of his adventures with parasites, and in the process introduces readers to the intimately interwoven lives of host and parasite.

A revelation for Moby-Dick devotees and neophytes alike, Ahab's Rolling Sea is a chronological journey through the natural history of Melville's novel. From white whales to whale intelligence, giant squids, barnacles, albatross, and sharks, Richard J. King examines what Melville knew from his own experiences and the sources available to a reader in the mid-1800s, exploring how and why Melville might have twisted what was known to serve his fiction.

Flush is both an urgent exploration of the world’s single most squandered natural resource, and a cri de coeur (or cri de colon?) for the vast, hidden value in our “waste.” Award-winning journalist and microbiologist Bryn Nelson, PhD, leads listeners through the colon and beyond with infectious enthusiasm, helping to usher in a necessary mental shift that could restore our balance with the rest of the planet and save us from ourselves.

This science book is targeted at younger readers aged 8-14 eager to explore the realm of microorganisms. Microorganisms for Kids' invites budding scientists to step through the looking glass of the microscope and into a world that's often invisible to the naked eye, setting the scene for an journey into the cellular heart of life itself. Children will learn about bacteria and their vital role in our ecosystem and their impact on our health. Readers will understand the complex nature of viruses and their ability to create havoc, as well as how hygiene practices help control them. A chapter ...