I Contain Multitudes
I Contain Multitudes

Author: Ed Yong

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2016-08-09

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 0062368621

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New York Times Bestseller New York Times Notable Book of 2016 • NPR Great Read of 2016 • Named a Best Book of 2016 by The Economist, Smithsonian, NPR's Science Friday, MPR, Minnesota Star Tribune, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, The Guardian, Times (London) From Pulitzer Prize winner Ed Yong, a groundbreaking, wondrously informative, and vastly entertaining examination of the most significant revolution in biology since Darwin—a “microbe’s-eye view” of the world that reveals a marvelous, radically reconceived picture of life on earth. Every animal, whether human, squid, or wasp, is home to millions of bacteria and other microbes. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ed Yong, whose humor is as evident as his erudition, prompts us to look at ourselves and our animal companions in a new light—less as individuals and more as the interconnected, interdependent multitudes we assuredly are. The microbes in our bodies are part of our immune systems and protect us from disease. In the deep oceans, mysterious creatures without mouths or guts depend on microbes for all their energy. Bacteria provide squid with invisibility cloaks, help beetles to bring down forests, and allow worms to cause diseases that afflict millions of people. Many people think of microbes as germs to be eradicated, but those that live with us—the microbiome—build our bodies, protect our health, shape our identities, and grant us incredible abilities. In this astonishing book, Ed Yong takes us on a grand tour through our microbial partners, and introduces us to the scientists on the front lines of discovery. It will change both our view of nature and our sense of where we belong in it.

The Energy of Life
The Energy of Life

Author: Guy C. Brown

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 0684862573

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One of the world's leading experts on bioenergetics unravels the deepest mystery of human physiology: biological energyQwhat it is, how we get it, how we expend it, and most importantly, how we can make more. 6 diagrams.

Life Inside Our Bodies
Life Inside Our Bodies

Author: Mehdi Alem, Ph.D.

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2013-12-17

Total Pages: 103

ISBN-13: 1493154028

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A scientist who has been originally trained as a biologist and has always been interested in life on Earth and outside the universe proposes a project to investigate the presence of a different form of life in the universe. This scientist has fifty years’ experiences in different aspects of life. He also has updated knowledge about our planet, our galaxy, our universe, and other possible universes. He is familiar with the latest findings and improvements in the field of theoretical physics and investigations that had been so far done and had been focused on finding lives in other solar systems. To obtain approval and funds for his project, he contacts one of the highly advanced scientific societies in the United States and presents a series of scientific talks. In his presentations, he states, “Why, out of over two million different species living on Earth, only humans (Homo sapiens) are considered the most advanced one, and why, if we are looking for lives outside our planet, are we always looking for some sort of humanlike creature?” He tries to convince the scientists that there must be billions of other types of beings in our universe and other universes. These different types of lives can be much smaller or much larger than us. They can be much more intelligent and highly advanced creatures when compared with humans on Earth. They may not necessarily need water, moderate temperature, simple energy sources, etc. They may not reproduce the way that we do and may not even die, which is the final chapter in our lives. Finally, he will convince several distinguished scientists to support his project. With the help of several additional young scientists who are experts in different fields of science, in a highly advanced scientific institution, finally they prove that lives could be much simpler and at the same time more advanced than us. By doing extensive research, they finally find creatures that are extremely smaller than us and start communicating with them. Although this book presents a science fiction story, the processes by which the scientists discover these small creatures are completely and purely based on the latest and updated scientific findings, which means the story may become a true story in the coming years.

The Wild Life of Our Bodies
The Wild Life of Our Bodies

Author: Rob Dunn

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2011-06-21

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 0062092278

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“Extraordinary. . . . takes the reader into the overlap of medicine, ecology, and evolutionary biology to reveal an important domain of the human condition.” —Edward O. Wilson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Anthill and The Future of Life We evolved in a wilderness of parasites, mutualists, and pathogens, but we no longer see ourselves as being part of nature. In the name of progress and clean living, we scrub much of nature off our bodies and try to remove whole kinds of life—parasites, bacteria, mutualists, and predators—to allow ourselves to live free of wild danger. Nature, in this new world, is the landscape outside, a kind of living painting that is pleasant to contemplate but nice to have escaped. The truth, though, according to biologist Rob Dunn, is that while “clean living” has benefited us in some ways, it has also made us sicker in others. As Dunn reveals, our modern disconnect from the web of life has resulted in unprecedented effects that immunologists, evolutionary biologists, psychologists, and other scientists are only beginning to understand. Diabetes, autism, allergies, many anxiety disorders, autoimmune diseases, and even tooth, jaw, and vision problems are increasingly plaguing bodies that have been removed from the ecological context in which they existed for millennia. In this eye-opening book, Dunn considers the crossroads at which we find ourselves. Through the stories of visionaries, Dunn argues that we can create a richer nature, one in which we choose to surround ourselves with species that benefit us, not just those that, despite us, survive. “A pleasure to read.” —Boston Globe “[Dunn’s] sure use of language, scientific research, and humor . . . keep the reader highly engaged.” —New York Journal of Books “Not merely interesting but gripping.” —Booklist, starred review

Probable Impossibilities
Probable Impossibilities

Author: Alan Lightman

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2022-04-19

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 0593081323

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The acclaimed author of Einstein’s Dreams tackles "big questions like the origin of the universe and the nature of consciousness ... in an entertaining and easily digestible way” (Wall Street Journal) with a collection of meditative essays on the possibilities—and impossibilities—of nothingness and infinity, and how our place in the cosmos falls somewhere in between. Can space be divided into smaller and smaller units, ad infinitum? Does space extend to larger and larger regions, on and on to infinity? Is consciousness reducible to the material brain and its neurons? What was the origin of life, and can biologists create life from scratch in the lab? Physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, whom The Washington Post has called “the poet laureate of science writers,” explores these questions and more—from the anatomy of a smile to the capriciousness of memory to the specialness of life in the universe to what came before the Big Bang. Probable Impossibilities is a deeply engaged consideration of what we know of the universe, of life and the mind, and of things vastly larger and smaller than ourselves.

Living with the Stars
Living with the Stars

Author: Karel Schrijver

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 0198727437

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Living with the Stars tells the fascinating story of what truly makes the human body. The body that is with us all our lives is always changing. We are quite literally not who we were years, weeks, or even days ago: our cells die and are replaced by new ones at an astonishing pace. The entire body continually rebuilds itself, time and again, using the food and water that flow through us as fuel and as construction material. What persists over time is not fixed but merely a pattern in flux. We rebuild using elements captured from our surroundings, and are thereby connected to animals and plants around us, and to the bacteria within us that help digest them, and to geological processes such as continental drift and volcanism here on Earth. We are also intimately linked to the Sun's nuclear furnace and to the solar wind, to collisions with asteroids and to the cycles of the birth of stars and their deaths in cataclysmic supernovae, and ultimately to the beginning of the universe. Our bodies are made of the burned out embers of stars that were released into the galaxy in massive explosions billions of years ago, mixed with atoms that formed only recently as ultrafast rays slammed into Earth's atmosphere. All of that is not just remote history but part of us now: our human body is inseparable from nature all around us and intertwined with the history of the universe.

The Secret Life of the Human Body
The Secret Life of the Human Body

Author: John Clancy

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2018-08-30

Total Pages: 425

ISBN-13: 1788400984

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Most of us take our body for granted and are never aware of its amazing capabilities. This book looks at how the seven octillion atoms that make up the human body are grouped into organs, tissues, nerves, fibres, fluids and more in such a way that the entire system runs smoothly without us ever knowing about it. It explains the hidden world of hormones and enzymes, the battleground of your immune system, the senses and much more. It also reveals the astonishing secrets of the human body, from the 15 'other senses' we have beyond the known five, to the reason we have eyes capable of seeing the Andromeda galaxy 2.5 million light years away. Chapters include: Cells, tissues and body structure The skin, skeleton and muscles The cardiovascular system Internal protectors: warriors behind the scenes The respiratory system