Biology

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells - taken without her knowledge - became one of the most important tools in medicine....

From the celebrated neurobiologist and primatologist, a landmark, genre-defining examination of human behavior, both good and bad, and an answer to the question: Why do we do the things we do? Sapolsky's storytelling concept is delightful but it also has a powerful intrinsic logic....

Steven R.Gundry, MD offers a definitive guide to the gut biome and its control over its home—us!—revealing the unimaginably complex and intelligent ecosystem controlling our health and teaching us how to heal our guts to prevent and reverse every type of disease....

Ambitious, eye-opening, myth-busting, and groundbreaking, Eve is a landmark book, offering a true paradigm shift in our thinking about what the female body is and why it matters....

One of our great behavioral scientists, the bestselling author of Behave, plumbs the depths of the science and philosophy of decision-making to mount a devastating case against free will, an argument with profound consequences.

A groundbreaking, richly informative exploration of the central yet underappreciated role of muscle in human life and health, Stronger sounds an urgent call for each of us to recognize muscle as “the vital, inextricable and effective partner of the soul.”

The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with 12 children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease....

Dr. Steven R. Gundry, the author of the groundbreaking Plant Paradox series, shares compelling evidence that our gut microbiome is driving our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and our mental, emotional, and neuronal health—and shows us how to heal our microbiomes to take back control of our minds.

A deep dive into the immune system that will forever change how you think about your body, from the creator of the popular science YouTube channel Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell....

The Blind Watchmaker is as prescient and timely a book as ever....

A riveting investigation of the myriad ways that parasites control how other creatures - including humans - think, feel, and act....

For over three decades, Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic The Age of Spiritual Machines, he argued that computers would soon rival the full range of human intelligence at its best....

The New York Times bestselling author of Genome and The Evolution of Everything revisits Darwin’s revelatory theory of mate choice through the close study of the peculiar rituals of birds, and considers how this mating process complicates our own view of human evolution.

In Mitochondria and the Future of Medicine, naturopathic doctor Lee Know tells the epic story of mitochondria - the widely misunderstood and often-overlooked powerhouses of our cells....

An illuminating biography of this extraordinary animal, Coyote America isn't just the story of an animal's survival - it is one of the great epics of our time....

A landmark book by marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols on the remarkable effects of water on our health and well-being....

A new literary classic, Second Nature has become a manifesto not just for gardeners but for environmentalists everywhere.....

An illuminating debut memoir of a woman in science; a moving portrait of a longtime collaboration, in work and in life; and a stunningly fresh look at plants....

For fans of Caitlin Doughty, Mary Roach, and CSI shows, renowned forensic scientist Professor Sue Black presents a deeply humane introduction to the reality of death in our lives, for anyone seeking a clear-eyed guide to a subject that touches us all....

An award-winning science writer tours the globe to reveal what makes birds capable of such extraordinary feats of mental prowess.

A provocative exploration of the tension between our evolutionary history and our modern woes, A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century outlines a science-based worldview that will empower you to live a better, wiser life....

Have you ever wondered what your dogs are thinking? What they're feeling? Now you can finally know! The answers will surprise and delight you....

The things we do every day to keep ourselves clean can have surprising and unintended effects, as this entertaining introduction to the new science of skin microbes and probiotics reveals....

The study of sexual physiology has been a paying career or a diverting sideline for scientists as far-ranging as Leonardo da Vinci and James Watson....

A fascinating tour of creatures from the surface to the deepest ocean floor: How Far the Light Reaches invites us to envision wilder, grander, and more abundant possibilities for the way we live.

Stronger tells a story of breathtaking scope, from the battlefields of the Trojan War in Homer’s Iliad, where muscles enter the scene of world literature; to the all-but-forgotten Victorian-era gyms on both sides of the Atlantic, where women build strength and muscle by lifting heavy weights; to a retirement home in Boston where a young doctor makes the astonishing discovery that frail ninety-year-olds can experience the same relative gains of strength and muscle as thirty-year-olds if they lift weights.

Sociogenomics brings together advances in molecular genetics and traditional social and behavioral science. The key tool is the polygenic index, which allows us to analyze DNA to measure a child's genetic potential. Today, we can estimate a child's adult height, how far they will go in school, and their weight as an adult—all from a cheek swab, finger prick, or vial of saliva. Dalton Conley and other researchers are using this new science to shed light on the ways in which genes shape our world, influencing how each person both creates and responds to the environment around them.

In all animals, mating is a deal. But few creatures behave as if sex is a simple, even mutually beneficial, transaction. Many more treat it with reverence, suspicion, angst, and violence. In the case of the Black Grouse, the bird at the center of Matt Ridley’s investigation, the males dance and sing for hours a day, for several exhausting months, in an arduous and even deadly ritual called a “lek.” To prepare for the ordeal, they grow, preen and display fancy, twisted, bold-colored feathers. When achieved, consummation with a female takes seconds.

Ambika Kamath and Melina Packer reveal how scientists studying animal behavior have long projected human norms and values onto animals while seeking to understand them. When scientific studies conclude that these norms and values are natural in animals, it makes it easier to think of them as natural in humans too. And because scientists, historically and to this day, largely belong to elite, powerful segments of society, the norms and values embedded into animal behavior science match those of the already powerful.

Si la historia de la Tierra se redujera a un año, nuestra especie surgiría en los últimos treinta minutos. Pero la vida ha existido durante 3.700 millones de años, la mayor parte de la historia de nuestro planeta y más de una cuarta parte de la edad del universo. ¿Qué hicieron esos organismos durante todo este tiempo?