Other books that might interest you

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  The Master Builder - How the New...

  Alfonso Martinez Arias

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  "An ingenious argument" (Kirkus) for a "novel thesis" (Publishers Weekly) that cells, not DNA, hold the key to understanding life's past and presentWhat defines who we are? For decades, the answer has seemed obvious: our genes, the "blueprint of life." In The Master Builder, biologist Alfonso Martinez Arias argues we've been missing the bigger picture. It's not our genes that define who we are, but our cells. While genes are important, nothing in our DNA explains why the heart is on the left side of the body, how many fingers we have, or even how our cells manage to reproduce. Drawing on new research from his own lab and others, Martinez Arias reveals that we are composed of a thrillingly intricate, constantly moving symphony of cells. Both their long lineage—stretching back to the very first cell—and their intricate interactions within our bodies today make us who we are.Engaging and ambitious, The Master Builder will transform your understanding of our past, present, and future—as individuals and as a species.

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  Other Minds - The Octopus the...

  Peter Godfrey-Smith

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  Although mammals and birds are widely regarded as the smartest creatures on earth, it has lately become clear that a very distant branch of the tree of life has also sprouted higher intelligence: the cephalopods, consisting of the squid, the cuttlefish, and above all the octopus. In captivity, octopuses have been known to identify individual human keepers, raid neighboring tanks for food, turn off lightbulbs by spouting jets of water, plug drains, and make daring escapes. How is it that a creature with such gifts evolved through an evolutionary lineage so radically distant from our own? What does it mean that evolution built minds not once but at least twice? The octopus is the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien. What can we learn from the encounter? In Other Minds, Peter Godfrey-Smith, a distinguished philosopher of science and a skilled scuba diver, tells a bold new story of how subjective experience crept into being-how nature became aware of itself. As Godfrey-Smith stresses, it is a story that largely occurs in the ocean, where animals first appeared. Tracking the mind's fitful development, Godfrey-Smith shows how unruly clumps of seaborne cells began living together and became capable of sensing, acting, and signaling. As these primitive organisms became more entangled with others, they grew more complicated. The first nervous systems evolved, probably in ancient relatives of jellyfish; later on, the cephalopods, which began as inconspicuous mollusks, abandoned their shells and rose above the ocean floor, searching for prey and acquiring the greater intelligence needed to do so. Taking an independent route, mammals and birds later began their own evolutionary journeys. But what kind of intelligence do cephalopods possess? Drawing on the latest scientific research and his own scuba-diving adventures, Godfrey-Smith probes the many mysteries that surround the lineage. How did the octopus, a solitary creature with little social life, become so smart? What is it like to have eight tentacles that are so packed with neurons that they virtually "think for themselves"? What happens when some octopuses abandon their hermit-like ways and congregate, as they do in a unique location off the coast of Australia?By tracing the question of inner life back to its roots and comparing human beings with our most remarkable animal relatives, Godfrey-Smith casts crucial new light on the octopus mind-and on our own.

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  What Will Be - How the New World...

  Michael L. Dertouzos

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  Michael Dertouzos has been an insightful commentator and an active participant in the creation of the Information Age.Now, in What Will Be,  he offers a thought-provoking and entertaining vision of the world of the next decade -- and of the next century.  Dertouzos examines the impact that the following new technologies and challenges will have on our lives as the Information Revolution progresses:all the music, film and text ever produced will be available on-demand in our own homesyour "bodynet" will let you make phone calls, check email and pay bills as you walk down the streetadvances in telecommunication will radically alter the role of face-to-face contact in our livesglobal disparities in infrastructure will widen the gap between rich and poorsurgical mini-robots and online care will change the practice of medicine as we know it. Detailed, accessible and visionary, What Will Be&nbsp is essential for Information Age revolutionaries and technological neophytes alike.

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  When Germs Travel - Six Major...

  Howard Markel

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  The struggle against deadly microbes is endless. Diseases that have plagued human beings since ancient times still exist, new maladies make their way into the headlines, we are faced with vaccine shortages, and the threat of germ warfare has reemerged as a worldwide threat. In this riveting account, medical historian Howard Markel takes an eye-opening look at the fragility of the American public health system. He tells the distinctive stories of six epidemics—tuberculosis, bubonic plague, trachoma, typhus, cholera, and AIDS—to show how our chief defense against diseases from outside the United States has been to attempt to deny entry to carriers. He explains why this approach never worked, and makes clear that it is useless in today's world of bustling international travel and porous borders.Illuminating our foolhardy attempts at isolation and showing that globalization renders us all potential inhabitants of the so-called Hot Zone, Markel makes a compelling case for a globally funded public health program that could stop the spread of epidemics and safeguard the health of everyone on the planet.

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  How to Hack Your Vagus Nerve -...

  Angelina Power

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  The vagus nerve is the most important nerve you probably didn’t know you had. 
  The vagus nerve is a long meandering bundle of motor and sensory fibers that links the brain stem to the heart, lungs, and gut. It also branches out to touch and interact with the liver, spleen, gallbladder, ureter, female fertility organs, neck, ears, tongue, and kidneys. 
  Dr Justin Hoffman, a Santa Rosa, California, licensed naturopathic medical physician, says: 
  “Without the vagus nerve, key functions that keep us alive would not be maintained.” 
  Nationally recognized sports nutritionist, strength, and conditioning coach Brandon Mentore elaborates: 
  “The vagus nerve is extremely critical to your overall health and is intimately tied in with multiple organs and systems of the body.” 
  Vagus nerve dysfunction can result in a whole host of problems including obesity, bradycardia (abnormally slow heartbeat), difficulty swallowing, gastrointestinal diseases, fainting, mood disorders, B12 deficiency, chronic inflammation, impaired cough, and seizures. 
  Meanwhile, the vagus nerve stimulation has been shown to improve conditions such as: 
  - Anxiety disorder 
  - Heart disease 
  - Tinnitus 
  - Obesity 
  - Alcohol addiction 
  - Migraines 
  - Alzheimer’s 
  - Leaky gut 
  - Bad blood circulation 
  - Mood disorder 
  - CancerWhether you are feeling anxiety or depression, you can use tools to engage your social nervous system to re-establish higher order nervous system functions.

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  The Arctic - What Everyone Needs...

  Klaus Dodds, Mark Nuttall

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  Conversations defining the Arctic region often provoke debate and controversy - for scientists, this lies in the imprecise and imaginary line known as the Arctic Circle; for countries like Canada, Russia, the United States, and Denmark, such discussions are based in competition for land and resources; for indigenous communities, those discussions are also rooted in issues of rights. These shifting lines are only made murkier by the threat of global climate change. In the Arctic Ocean, the consequences of Earth's warming trend are most immediately observable in the multi-year and perennial ice that has begun to melt, which threatens ice-dependent microorganisms and, eventually, will disrupt all of Arctic life and raise sea levels globally.
   
  In The Arctic, Klaus Dodds and Mark Nuttall offer concise answers to the myriad questions that arise when looking at the circumpolar North. They focus on its peoples, politics, environment, resource development, and conservation to provide critical information about how changes there can, and will, affect our entire globe and all of its inhabitants. Dodds and Nuttall explore how the Arctic's importance has grown over time, the region's role during the Cold War, indigenous communities and their history, and the past and future of the Arctic's governance, among other crucial topics.

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