Science

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Millet Proteins - Nutritional, Structural And Functional Attributes

~~240,09€~~ 216,08€ 10% OFF

 Essential reading for food scientists and product developers, this comprehensive book investigates the unique characteristics of millet protein, exploring its bioactive properties, nutritional value and therapeutic benefits and offers valuable insights into the potential of millet protein as a sustainable and nutritious food source.
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P53 - The Gene That Cracked The Cancer Code

by Sue Armstrong

~~16,99€~~ 15,29€ 10% OFF

 Bloomsbury presents P53: The Gene that cracked the cancer code by Sue Armstrong, read by Stephanie Beattie The BMA Medical Book Award-shortlisted story of the search for p53 - the most important gene in medicine. All of us have lurking in our DNA a most remarkable gene, which has a crucial job - it protects us from cancer. Known simply as p53, this gene constantly scans our cells to ensure that they grow and divide without mishap. If a cell makes a mistake in copying its DNA during the process of division, p53 stops it in its tracks, summoning a repair team before allowing the cell to carry on dividing. If the mistake is irreparable and the rogue cell threatens to grow out of control, p53 commands the cell to commit suicide. Cancer cannot develop unless p53 itself is damaged or prevented from functioning normally. This book tells the story of medical science's mission to unravel the mysteries of this crucial gene, and to get to the heart of what happens in our cells when they turn cancerous, highlighting the tremendous recent advances made in our understanding of cancer.
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Music As Medicine - How We Can Harness Its Therapeutic Power

by Daniel Levitin

~~12,89€~~ 11,60€ 10% OFF

 Brought to you by Penguin. From the bestselling author of This Is Your Brain on Music and The Organized Mind, a surprising and inspiring exploration of the healing power of music. We are only just beginning to appreciate the healing power of music. In recent years, a wave of scientific research has upended everything we once knew about its effects on our brains: not only in reducing stress, but also in enhancing cognitive function, slowing the spread of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, even strengthening our immune systems. Here, a neuroscientist and celebrated musician introduces a bold new paradigm for medical treatment, rooted in the unexpected influence of music on our minds and bodies. From explaining how ‘rhythmic auditory stimulation’ can fight multiple sclerosis, to examining why Tracy Chapman’s songs might just help cure PTSD, Professor Daniel Levitin offers surprising insights into the new science of music as medicine. Along the way, he explores how each of us can use music to calm our thoughts, repair our memories and heal our deepest psychological wounds. The result is both a surprising tour through the science of music, and a joyful celebration of humanity’s oldest obsession. ‘As knowledgeable a guide to neuroscience as one might hope for.’ New York Times Book Review ‘Music as Medicine showcases Daniel J. Levitin’s expertise in all genres of music as well as experimental neuroscience. No one else in the universe could have written this book.’ Neil deGrasse Tyson ‘For many years I have wondered why a bunch of frequencies organised into a piece of music has the ability, even without words, to make the listener cry and become emotional. Although I know this happens to me and many people, I have often wondered how this can be. Dr Levitin, in this latest book, Music as Medicine, has some fascinating insights into this great phenomenon.’ Paul McCartney ‘Daniel J. Levitin is a visionary neuroscientist, an extraordinary musician, a brilliant writer - and this is his best book yet. Music as Medicine is inspiring and illuminating, as deep as it is delightful.’ Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness © Daniel Levitin 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
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A New History Of Life - The Radical New Discoveries About The Origins And Evolution Of Life On Earth

by Joe Kirschvink e Peter J. Ward

18,99€ + 10% CARD

 Bloomsbury presents A New History of Life by Peter Ward & Joe Kirschvink, read by William Elsman. The history of life on Earth is, in some form or another, known to us all—or so we think. A New History of Life offers a provocative new account, based on the latest scientific research, of how life on our planet evolved—the first major new synthesis for general readers in two decades. Charles Darwin's theories, first published more than 150 years ago, still set the paradigm of how we understand the evolution of life—but scientific advances of recent decades have radically altered that. Now two pioneering scientists draw on their years of experience in paleontology, biology, chemistry, and astrobiology to deliver an eye-opening narrative using a generation's worth of insights culled from new research. Writing with zest, humor, and clarity, Ward and Kirschvink show that many of our long-held beliefs about the history of life are wrong. Three central themes emerge. First, Ward and Kirschvink argue that catastrophe shaped life's history more than all other forces combined—from notorious events like the sudden extinction of dinosaurs to the recently discovered "Snowball Earth" and the "Great Oxygenation Event." Second, life consists of carbon, but oxygen, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide determined how it evolved. Third, ever since Darwin we have thought of evolution in terms of species. Yet it is the evolution of ecosystems—from deep-ocean vents to rainforests—that has formed the living world as we know it. Ward and Kirschvink tell a story of life on Earth that is at once fabulous and familiar. And in a provocative coda, they assemble discoveries from the latest cutting-edge research to imagine how the history of life might unfold deep into the future.
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Life Changing - Shortlisted For The Wainwright Prize For Writing On Global Conservation

by Helen Pilcher

18,99€ + 10% CARD

 Bloomsbury presents Life Changing written and read by Helen Pilcher. SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR WRITING ON GLOBAL CONSERVATION 'Pilcher is both very funny and very, very clever.' Gillian Burke 'Richly entertaining throughout.' Sunday Times For the last three billion years or so, life on Earth was shaped by natural forces. Evolution tended to happen slowly, with species crafted across millennia. Then, a few hundred thousand years ago, along came a bolshie, big-brained, bipedal primate we now call Homo sapiens, and with that, the Earth's natural history came to an abrupt end. We are now living through the post-natural phase, where humans have become the leading force shaping evolution. This thought-provoking book considers the many ways that we've altered the DNA of living things and changed the fate of life on earth. We have carved chihuahuas from wolves and fancy chickens from jungle fowl. We've added spider genes to goats and coral genes to tropical fish. It's possible to buy genetically-modified pets, eat genetically-modified fish and watch cloned ponies thunder up and down the polo field. Now, as our global dominance grows, our influence extends far beyond these species. As we warm our world and radically reshape the biosphere, we affect the evolution of all living things, near and far, from the emergence of novel hybrids such as the pizzly bear, to the entirely new strains of animals and plants that are evolving at breakneck speed to cope with their altered environment. In Life Changing, Helen introduces us to these post-natural creations and talks to the scientists who create, study and tend to them. At a time when the future of so many species is uncertain, we meet some of the conservationists seeking to steer evolution onto firmer footings with novel methods like the 'spermcopter', coral IVF and plans to release wild elephants into Denmark. Helen explores the changing relationship between humans and the natural world, and reveals how, with evidence-based thinking, humans can help life change for the better.
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Growing Up Human - The Evolution Of Childhood

by Brenna Hassett

18,99€ + 10% CARD

 Bloomsbury presents Growing Up Human by Brenna Hassett, read by Laurel Lefkow. Brings the science of biological anthropology to bear on understanding how our evolutionary history has shaped a phenomenon everyone has experienced - childhood. Tracking deep into our evolutionary history, anthropological science has begun to unravel one particular feature that sets us apart from the many, many animals that came before us - our uniquely long childhoods. Growing Up Human looks at how we have diverged from our ancestral roots to stay 'forever young' - or at least what seems like forever - and how the evolution of childhood is a critical part of the human story. Beginning with a look at the ways animals invest in their offspring, the book moves through the many steps of making a baby, from pair-bonding to hidden ovulation, points where our species has repeatedly stepped off the standard primate path. From the mystery of monogamy to the minefield of modern parenting advice, biological anthropologist Brenna Hassett reveals how differences between humans and our closest cousins lead to our messy mating systems, dangerous pregnancies, and difficult births, and what these tell us about the kind of babies we are trying to build. Using observations of our closest primate relatives, the tiny relics of childhood that come to us from the archaeological record, and the bones and teeth of our ancestors, science has started to unravel the evolution of our childhood right down the fossil record. In our species investment doesn't stop at birth, and as Growing Up Human reveals, we can compare every aspect of our care and feeding, from the chemical composition of our milk to our fondness for formal education from ancient times onwards, in order to understand just what we evolved our weird and wonderful childhoods for.
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Unfit For Purpose - When Human Evolution Collides With The Modern World

by Adam Hart

16,99€ + 10% CARD

 Bloomsbury presents Unfit for Purpose written and read by Adam Hart. A gripping and sobering reminder of how much we are all governed by our genetic inheritance. So much for free will.' The Mail on Sunday Stress, obesity, poor mental health, drug addiction, bowel diseases, violence and fake news; a stark checklist of modern world problems and every one of them is an echo of our evolutionary past. In Unfit for Purpose, biologist and broadcaster Adam Hart explores the mismatch between our fundamental biology and the modern world we have created. In each chapter Adam reveals the many ways in which biological adaptations that evolved to help us survive and thrive now work against us. For example, in the modern world stress is a killer but how did 'fight or flight' instincts turn from life-savers to life-takers? Obesity is a disease now but is it also just a side-effect of our evolutionary past? Whether it's the derailing of microbes in our gut, the rise of gluten and lactose intolerance, problems of social media or drug addiction, we always seem to have one foot in the modern world and the other firmly in our evolutionary past. Adam explores science, archaeology, medicine, genetics, sociology and more, to show how, in a modern world of our own making, we find ourselves 'unfit for purpose'. But all is not lost! In unpicking the causes of our current woes, he unearths some secrets of evolutionarily informed treatments that will change the way we think about ourselves and our future.
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The Inner Clock - Living In Sync With Our Circadian Rhythms

by Lynne Peeples

~~18,99€~~ 17,09€ 10% OFF

 Bloomsbury presents The Inner Clock by Lynne Peeples, read by Brittany Pressley. How the groundbreaking science of body clocks can help you sleep better, feel happier and improve your overall health 'The Inner Clock explores the strange new science of why your circadian rhythms fall out of sync - and how to get them back on track to live a happier, healthier life' JAMES NESTOR, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF BREATH 'Secrets to better sleep . . . Crammed with facts, figures and fascinating scientific studies' SUNDAY TIMES Every cell in your body has a clock, synchronised to the sun and subtle signals in your environment. But what happens when modern living - artificial light, late-night meals - throws these rhythms out of sync? The Inner Clock explores the emerging science of body clocks and its transformative applications - from the best time of day to take medication or go for a walk, to optimising performance at work and in sport. 'Peeples has new stories and surprises . . . You will find plenty of practical tips here on how to sneak an extra 'circadian snack' into your lives, reset your chronicity and live in a healthier, more timely manner' NEW SCIENTIST
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Ageless - The New Science Of Getting Older Without Getting Old

by Andrew Steele

16,99€ + 10% CARD

 Bloomsbury presents Ageless written and read by Andrew Steele. 'A stunner ... If you haven't got this book in your house, I don't know why' Chris Evans 'A startling wake-up call . . . Writing with the vim of a Bill Bryson and the technical knowledge of a scientist, Steele gives us a chance to grasp what's at stake' Independent 'An exhilarating journey . . . Steele is a superb guide' Telegraph 'A fascinating read with almost every page bursting with extraordinary facts . . . Read it now' Mail on Sunday Ageless is a guide to the biggest issue we all face. Ageing - not cancer, not heart disease - is the world's leading cause of death and suffering. What would the world be like if we could cure it? Living disease-free until the age of 100 is achievable within our lifetimes. In prose that is lucid and full of fascinating facts, Ageless introduces us to the cutting-edge research that is paving the way for this revolution. Computational biologist Andrew Steele explains what occurs biologically as we age, as well as practical ways we can slow down the process. He reveals how understanding the scientific implications of ageing could lead to the greatest discovery in the history of civilisation - one that has the potential to improve billions of lives, save trillions of dollars, and transform the human condition.
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The Genetic Book Of The Dead - A Darwinian Reverie

by Richard Dawkins

~~18,99€~~ 17,09€ 10% OFF

 Bloomsbury presents The Genetic Book of the Dead, written and read by Richard Dawkins. From one of the world's great science writers, a book that explores the deepest principles of evolutionary history. In this groundbreaking new approach to the evolution of all life, Richard Dawkins shows how the body, behaviour, and genes of every living creature can be read as a book - an archive of the worlds of its ancestors. A perfectly camouflaged desert lizard has a desiccated landscape of sand and stones 'painted' on its back. Its skin can be read as a description of ancient deserts in which its ancestors survived - and, before that, of the worlds of its more remote ancestors: a genetic book of the dead. But such descriptions are more than skin-deep. The fine chisels of Darwinian natural selection carve their way through the very warp and woof of the body, into every biochemical nook and corner, into every cell of every living creature. A zoologist of the future, presented with a hitherto-unknown animal, will be able to reconstruct the worlds that shaped its ancestors, to read its unique 'book of the dead'. The book is filled with fascinating examples of the power of Darwinian natural selection to build exquisite perfection, paradoxically accompanied by what look like gross blunders. Along the way, Dawkins dismantles influential criticisms of the 'gene's-eye-view' of life. And, to end with a provocative sting in the tail, the author asks there is a sense in which all our 'own' genes can be seen as a gigantic colony of cooperating viruses? From the author of The Selfish Gene and The Ancestor's Tale comes a revolutionary book that unlocks the door to an ancient past, seen through wholly new eyes.
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Hope Dies Last - Visionary People Across The World, Fighting To Find Us A Future

by Alan Weisman

~~12,89€~~ 11,60€ 10% OFF

 Brought to you by Penguin. In this profoundly human and moving narrative, the bestselling author of The World Without Us returns with a book ten years in the making: a study of the precarious state of our planet and what it means to be a human on the front lines of this existential crisis. His new uplifting book, Hope Dies Last, is a literary evocation of our current predicament and the core optimism of the human species against the worst odds we have ever faced. To write this book, Weisman has travelled the globe witnessing the devastation of climate change and meeting the people striving to mitigate and undo our past transgressions. From the flooding Marshall Islands to wetlands renewal in Iraq, and from the Netherlands to the Korean DMZ to cities and coastlines around the world, he has witnessed personally the best of humanity battling the heat, the hunger, and the rising tides. He profiles the work of big thinkers—engineers, scientists, economists, and psychiatrists—as they devise innovative and wildly creative responses to an uncertain and frightening future. We are at an unprecedented point in history, as our collective exploits on this planet are leading us to our own undoing, and we could be one of the species marching toward extinction. A remedy to climate anxiety by one of our most important voices on humans’ relationship with the Earth, Hope Dies Last fills a crucial gap in the global conversation: Now that we have passed the point of no return in our battle against climate change, how do we feel, behave, act, plan, and dream as we approach a future decidedly different from what we had expected? © Alan Weisman 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
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Sleep Groove - Why Your Body''S Clock Is So Messed Up And What To Do About It

by Olivia Walch

~~25,39€~~ 22,85€ 10% OFF

 Sleep Groove is Why We Sleep meets what if?—an accessible, engaging tour of sleep and circadian science from an expert. With a sleep-wonk’s attention to detail tempered by approachable graphs and illustrations, this myth-busting guide to sleep is the perfect introduction to how circadian science can demystify your nights and help reset your days. Sleep Groove introduces readers to the easy-to-understand but often misunderstood concepts and science behind circadian rhythms and how changes in daily habits can greatly improve one's sleep patterns and quality of life. Through conversational writing, humorous analogies, charts, and even comics, this book helps explain the nuances of sleep using the latest in sleep research and technology, delving into sleep-related issues like light sensitivity, jet lag, daylight savings time, napping, and how to establishing rhythmicity in our waking and sleeping routines. This fascinating illustrated guide to all things sleep takes aim at many of our long-held myths surrounding sleep and provides an easy-to-understand guide to what exactly is going on in the third of our lives we spend sleeping, posing questions like: Do we really need eight hours of sleep each night? What happens if you stay awake for 205 hours? Is REM sleep the only kind of sleep that matters? For anyone who has wondered why their sleep is so weird and what they can do about it, this book is the perfect guide to finding your own personal sleep groove.
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Memory Lane - The Perfectly Imperfect Ways We Remember

by Ciara Greene e Gillian Murphy

~~29,99€~~ 26,99€ 10% OFF

 This audiobook narrated by Emily Schwing provides an illuminating look at the adaptive nature of our memories—and how their flexibility and fallibility help us survive and thrive We tend to think of our memories as impressions of the past that remain fully intact, preserved somewhere inside our brains. In fact, we construct and reconstruct our memories every time we attempt to recall them. Memory Lane introduces readers to the cutting-edge science of human memory, revealing how our recollections of the past are constantly adapting and changing, and why a faulty memory isn't always a bad thing. Shedding light on what memory is and what it evolved to do, Ciara Greene and Gillian Murphy discuss the many benefits of our flexible yet fallible memory system, including helping us to maintain a coherent identity, sustain social bonds, and vividly imagine possible futures. But these flexible and easily distorted memories can also result in significant harm, leading us to provide erroneous eyewitness testimony or fall victim to fake news. Greene and Murphy explain why our flawed memories are not a failure of evolution but rather a byproduct of the perfectly imperfect way our minds have evolved to solve problems. They also grapple with important ethical questions surrounding the study and manipulation of memory. Blending engaging storytelling with the latest science, the authors demonstrate how our continuous reconstruction of the past makes us who we are, helps us to interpret our experiences, and explains why no two trips down memory lane are ever quite the same.
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Free Agents - How Evolution Gave Us Free Will

by Kevin J. Mitchell

19,99€ + 10% CARD

 This audiobook narrated by neuroscientist Kevin Mitchell presents an evolutionary case for the existence of free will Scientists are learning more and more about how brain activity controls behavior and how neural circuits weigh alternatives and initiate actions. As we probe ever deeper into the mechanics of decision making, many conclude that agency—or free will—is an illusion. In Free Agents, leading neuroscientist Kevin Mitchell presents a wealth of evidence to the contrary, arguing that we are not mere machines responding to physical forces but agents acting with purpose. Traversing billions of years of evolution, Mitchell tells the remarkable story of how living beings capable of choice emerged from lifeless matter. He explains how the emergence of nervous systems provided a means to learn about the world, granting sentient animals the capacity to model, predict, and simulate. Mitchell reveals how these faculties reached their peak in humans with our abilities to imagine and to be introspective, to reason in the moment, and to shape our possible futures through the exercise of our individual agency. Mitchell's argument has important implications—for how we understand decision making, for how our individual agency can be enhanced or infringed, for how we think about collective agency in the face of global crises, and for how we consider the limitations and future of artificial intelligence. An astonishing journey of discovery, Free Agents offers a new framework for understanding how, across a billion years of Earth history, life evolved the power to choose and why this matters.
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Virtual You - How Building Your Digital Twin Will Revolutionize Medicine And Change Your Life

by Peter Coveney e Roger Highfield

19,99€ + 10% CARD

 This audiobook narrated by Quentin Cooper describes the visionary science behind the digital human twins that will enhance our health and our future Virtual You is a panoramic account of efforts by scientists around the world to build digital twins of human beings, from cells and tissues to organs and whole bodies. These virtual copies will usher in a new era of personalized medicine, one in which your digital twin can help predict your risk of disease, participate in virtual drug trials, shed light on the diet and lifestyle changes that are best for you, and help identify therapies to enhance your well-being and extend your lifespan—but thorny challenges also remain. In this deeply illuminating book, Peter Coveney and Roger Highfield reveal what it will take to build a virtual, functional copy of a person in five steps. Along the way, they take you on a fantastic voyage through the complexity of the human body, describing the latest scientific and technological advances, from multiscale modeling to extraordinary new forms of computing, that will make "virtual you" a reality, while also considering the ethical questions inherent to realizing truly predictive medicine. With an incisive foreword by Nobel Prize-winning biologist Venki Ramakrishnan, Virtual You is science at its most astounding, showing how our virtual twins and even whole populations of virtual humans promise to transform our health and our lives in the coming decades.
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Period - The Real Story Of Menstruation

by Kate Clancy

18,99€ + 10% CARD

 This audiobook narrated by Kate Clancy shares a bold and revolutionary perspective on the science and cultural history of menstruation Menstruation is something half the world does for a week at a time, for months and years on end, yet it remains largely misunderstood. Scientists once thought of an individual's period as useless and some doctors still believe it's unsafe for a menstruating person to swim in the ocean wearing a tampon. Period counters the false theories that have long defined the study of the uterus, exposing the eugenic history of gynecology while providing an intersectional feminist perspective on menstruation science. Blending interviews and personal experience with engaging stories from her own pioneering research, Kate Clancy challenges many of the myths and false assumptions that have defined the study of the uterus. There is no such a thing as a "normal" menstrual cycle. In fact, menstrual cycles are incredibly variable and highly responsive to environmental and psychological stressors. Clancy takes up a host of timely issues surrounding menstruation, from bodily autonomy, menstrual hygiene, and the COVID-19 vaccine to the ways racism, sexism, and medical betrayal warp public perceptions of menstruation and erase it from public life. Offering a revelatory new perspective on one of the most captivating biological processes in the human body, Period will change the way you think about the past, present, and future of periods.
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So Simple A Beginning - How Four Physical Principles Shape Our Living World

by Raghuveer Parthasarathy

22,99€ + 10% CARD

 This audiobook narrated by Anand Jagatia reveals the hidden unity behind nature's breathtaking complexity The form and function of a sprinting cheetah are quite unlike those of a rooted tree. A human being is very different from a bacterium or a zebra. The living world is a realm of dazzling variety, yet a shared set of physical principles shapes the forms and behaviors of every creature in it. So Simple a Beginning shows how the emerging new science of biophysics is transforming our understanding of life on Earth and enabling potentially lifesaving but controversial technologies such as gene editing, artificial organ growth, and ecosystem engineering. Raghuveer Parthasarathy explains how four basic principles—self-assembly, regulatory circuits, predictable randomness, and scaling—shape the machinery of life on scales ranging from microscopic molecules to gigantic elephants. He describes how biophysics is helping to unlock the secrets of a host of natural phenomena, such as how your limbs know to form at the proper places, and why humans need lungs but ants do not. Parthasarathy explores how the cutting-edge biotechnologies of tomorrow could enable us to alter living things in ways both subtle and profound. This sweeping tour of biophysics offers astonishing new perspectives on how the wonders of life can arise from so simple a beginning.
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The Genetic Lottery - Why Dna Matters For Social Equality

by Kathryn Paige Harden

19,99€ + 10% CARD

 This audiobook narrated by Katherine Fenton makes a provocative and timely case for how the science of genetics can help create a more just and equal society In recent years, scientists like Kathryn Paige Harden have shown that DNA makes us different, in our personalities and in our health—and in ways that matter for educational and economic success in our current society. In The Genetic Lottery, Harden introduces readers to the latest genetic science, dismantling dangerous ideas about racial superiority and challenging us to grapple with what equality really means in a world where people are born different. Weaving together personal stories with scientific evidence, Harden shows why our refusal to recognize the power of DNA perpetuates the myth of meritocracy, and argues that we must acknowledge the role of genetic luck if we are ever to create a fair society. Reclaiming genetic science from the legacy of eugenics, this groundbreaking book offers a bold new vision of society where everyone thrives, regardless of how one fares in the genetic lottery.
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The Spike - An Epic Journey Through The Brain In 2.1 Seconds

by Mark Humphries

18,99€ + 10% CARD

 This audiobook narrated by Anand Jagatia tells the extraordinary story of a neural impulse and what it reveals about how our brains work We see the last cookie in the box and think, can I take that? We reach a hand out. In the 2.1 seconds that this impulse travels through our brain, billions of neurons communicate with one another, sending blips of voltage through our sensory and motor regions. Neuroscientists call these blips "spikes." Spikes enable us to do everything: talk, eat, run, see, plan, and decide. In The Spike, Mark Humphries takes readers on the epic journey of a spike through a single, brief reaction. In vivid language, Humphries tells the story of what happens in our brain, what we know about spikes, and what we still have left to understand about them. Drawing on decades of research in neuroscience, Humphries explores how spikes are born, how they are transmitted, and how they lead us to action. He dives into previously unanswered mysteries: Why are most neurons silent? What causes neurons to fire spikes spontaneously, without input from other neurons or the outside world? Why do most spikes fail to reach any destination? Humphries presents a new vision of the brain, one where fundamental computations are carried out by spontaneous spikes that predict what will happen in the world, helping us to perceive, decide, and react quickly enough for our survival. Traversing neuroscience's expansive terrain, The Spike follows a single electrical response to illuminate how our extraordinary brains work.
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Delicious - The Evolution Of Flavor And How It Made Us Human

by Monica Sanchez e Rob Dunn

20,99€ + 10% CARD

 This delightful audiobook narrated by Russell Bentley offers a savory account of how the pursuit of delicious foods shaped human evolution Nature, it has been said, invites us to eat by appetite and rewards by flavor. But what exactly are flavors? Why are some so pleasing while others are not? Delicious is a supremely entertaining foray into the heart of such questions. With generous helpings of warmth and wit, Rob Dunn and Monica Sanchez offer bold new perspectives on why food is enjoyable and how the pursuit of delicious flavors has guided the course of human history. They consider the role that flavor may have played in the invention of the first tools, the extinction of giant mammals, the evolution of the world's most delicious and fatty fruits, the creation of beer, and our own sociality. Along the way, you will learn about the taste receptors you didn't even know you had, the best way to ferment a mastodon, the relationship between Paleolithic art and cheese, and much more. Blending irresistible storytelling with the latest science, Delicious is a deep history of flavor that will transform the way you think about human evolution and the gustatory pleasures of the foods we eat.
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A Series Of Fortunate Events - Chance And The Making Of The Planet, Life, And You

by Sean B. Carroll

15,99€ + 10% CARD

 "Fascinating and exhilarating—Sean B. Carroll at his very best."—Bill Bryson, author of The Body: A Guide for Occupants In this audiobook, acclaimed writer and biologist Sean B. Carroll narrates the rollicking, awe-inspiring story of the surprising power of chance in our lives and the world Why is the world the way it is? How did we get here? Does everything happen for a reason or are some things left to chance? Philosophers and theologians have pondered these questions for millennia, but startling scientific discoveries over the past half century are revealing that we live in a world driven by chance. A Series of Fortunate Events tells the story of the awesome power of chance and how it is the surprising source of all the beauty and diversity in the living world. Like every other species, we humans are here by accident. But it is shocking just how many things—any of which might never have occurred—had to happen in certain ways for any of us to exist. From an extremely improbable asteroid impact, to the wild gyrations of the Ice Age, to invisible accidents in our parents' gonads, we are all here through an astonishing series of fortunate events. And chance continues to reign every day over the razor-thin line between our life and death. This is a relatively small book about a really big idea. It is also a spirited tale. Drawing inspiration from Monty Python, Kurt Vonnegut, and other great thinkers, and crafted by one of today's most accomplished science storytellers, A Series of Fortunate Events is an irresistibly entertaining and thought-provoking account of one of the most important but least appreciated facts of life.

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Artificial You - Ai And The Future Of Your Mind

by Susan Schneider

16,99€ + 10% CARD

 "Entertaining and profound."—Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal Hailed by the Washington Post as "a sure-footed and witty guide to slippery ethical terrain." This audiobook narrated by Katherine Fenton take you on a philosophical exploration of AI and the future of the mind Humans may not be Earth's most intelligent beings for much longer: the world champions of chess, Go, and Jeopardy! are now all AIs. Given the rapid pace of progress in AI, many predict that it could advance to human-level intelligence within the next several decades. From there, it could quickly outpace human intelligence. What do these developments mean for the future of the mind? In Artificial You, Susan Schneider says that it is inevitable that AI will take intelligence in new directions, but urges that it is up to us to carve out a sensible path forward. As AI technology turns inward, reshaping the brain, as well as outward, potentially creating machine minds, it is crucial to beware. Homo sapiens, as mind designers, will be playing with "tools" they do not understand how to use: the self, the mind, and consciousness. Schneider argues that an insufficient grasp of the nature of these entities could undermine the use of AI and brain enhancement technology, bringing about the demise or suffering of conscious beings. To flourish, we must grasp the philosophical issues lying beneath the algorithms. At the heart of her exploration is a sober-minded discussion of what AI can truly achieve: Can robots really be conscious? Can we merge with AI, as tech leaders like Elon Musk and Ray Kurzweil suggest? Is the mind just a program? Examining these thorny issues, Schneider proposes ways we can test for machine consciousness, questions whether consciousness is an unavoidable byproduct of sophisticated intelligence, and considers the overall dangers of creating machine minds.
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Father Time - A Natural History Of Men And Babies

by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy

~~29,99€~~ 26,99€ 10% OFF

 This audiobook narrated by Katherine Fenton gives a sweeping account of male nurturing, explaining how and why men are biologically transformed when they care for babies It has long seemed self-evident that women care for babies and men do other things. Hasn't it always been so? When evolutionary science came along, it rubber-stamped this venerable division of labor: mammalian males evolved to compete for status and mates, while females were purpose-built to gestate, suckle, and otherwise nurture the victors' offspring. But come the twenty-first century, increasing numbers of men are tending babies, sometimes right from birth. How can this be happening? Puzzled and dazzled by the tender expertise of new fathers around the world—several in her own family—celebrated evolutionary anthropologist and primatologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy set out to trace the deep history of male nurturing and explain a surprising departure from everything she had assumed to be "normal." In Father Time, Hrdy draws on a wealth of research to argue that this ongoing transformation in men is not only cultural, but profoundly biological. Men in prolonged intimate contact with babies exhibit responses nearly identical to those in the bodies and brains of mothers. They develop caring potential few realized men possessed. In her quest to explain how men came to nurture babies, Hrdy travels back through millions of years of human, primate, and mammalian evolution, then back further still to the earliest vertebrates—all while taking into account recent economic and social trends and technological innovations and incorporating new findings from neuroscience, genetics, endocrinology, and more. The result is a masterful synthesis of evolutionary and historical perspectives that expands our understanding of what it means to be a man—and what the implications might be for society and our species.
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Living On Earth - Life, Consciousness And The Making Of The Natural World

by Peter Godfrey-Smith

~~14,72€~~ 13,25€ 10% OFF

 The eagerly anticipated conclusion to Peter Godfrey-Smith’s three-part exploration of the origins of intelligence on Earth, which began with the bestselling Other Minds in 2018 and continued with Metazoa in 2020.The eagerly anticipated conclusion to Peter Godfrey-Smith’s three-part exploration of the origins of intelligence on Earth, which began with the bestselling Other Minds in 2018 and continued with Metazoa in 2020.Peter Godfrey-Smith, the scuba-diving philosopher, examined the evolution of sentience in Other Minds. In Metazoa he asked how that consciousness shaped and was shaped by animal bodies. Now, in Living on Earth, he takes that line of questioning a step further, asking, how has life shaped and been shaped by our planet?He visits the largest living stromatolite fields, examples of how cyanobacteria began belching oxygen into the atmosphere as they converted carbon dioxide and water into living matter using the sun''s light. The extraordinary increase in oxygen in the atmosphere resulted in an explosion in the diversity of life. And so began a riotous tangle of coevolution between plants and animals, as each changed the environment around them allowing others to utilise these new ecosystems and thus new species to evolve. From cyanobacteria, through algae on to ferns or trees or grasses, and from protists , through invertebrates and fish through the dinosaurs and on to birds and mammals - our planet has seen an explosion of life forms, all reacting to their environment and all creating new environments that allow other life to evolve.In our own evolutionary line, an initially unremarkable mammal changed in new ways, evolving to come out of the trees to inhabit new savannas and then onto inhabit the whole planet. One of the most adaptable species ever found on Earth, and arguably the species causing the most change, humans are still part of this 3.8 billion year history of life forms changing the world around them.In Living on Earth, Godfrey-Smith takes us on a grand tour of the history of life on earth. He visits Rwandan gorillas and Australian bowerbirds, returns to coral reefs and octopus dens, considers the impact of language and writing, and weighs the responsibilities our unique powers bring with them, as they relate to factory farming, habitat preservation, climate change, and the use of animals in experiments. Living on Earth shows that Humans belong to the infinitely complex system that is the Earth, and our minds are products of that system, but we are also an acting force within it. We are creatures of Earth, but we hold Earth''s future in our hands. It is a responsibility that we must all understand and accept.
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