Cosmosapiens
Human Evolution from the Origin of the Universe
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Narrated by:
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Gildart Jackson
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By:
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John Hands
About this listen
Cosmosapiens is a big-picture look at how human life emerged and evolved in the universe, incorporating the ideas of world-renowned experts from a wide range of intellectual disciplines.
Who are we, and how did we get here? These are two of the most fundamental and far-reaching questions facing scientists and cosmologists alike and have rested at the center of human intellectual endeavor since its beginning. They are questions that stretch across numerous disciplines. Philosophy, theology, evolutionary biology, and mathematics are just some of the fields looking to explain the emergence of human life. But with so many groups seeking answers using so many different methods, it can be nearly impossible to tell what sort of progress has been made without stepping back and looking at the whole interdisciplinary picture.
In Cosmosapiens, John Hands presents listeners with exactly such a synthesis, 10 years in the making and incorporating the ideas of world-renowned experts from wide array of fields. The book sifts the speculative from the firmly established, examining claims of all sorts, challenging the orthodox consensus in those branches of cosmology, biology, and neuroscience that have ossified into dogma. His striking analysis reveals underlying patterns of cooperation, complexification, and convergence that begin to tell the story of human emergence and consciousness. In the end, it will transform our understanding of what we are and how we evolved from the origin of the universe.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2015 John Hands (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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- Unabridged
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The cells in our bodies consist of molecules, made up of the same carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen atoms found in air and rocks. But molecules, such as water and sugar, are not alive. So how do our cells - assemblies of otherwise "dead" molecules - come to life, and together constitute a living being? In Life’s Ratchet, physicist Peter M. Hoffmann locates the answer to this age-old question at the nanoscale.
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For biologists to learn single molecule biophysics
- By A Synthetic Biologist on 09-04-14
By: Peter M. Hoffman
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Why Darwin Matters
- The Case for Evolution and Against Intelligent Design
- By: Michael Shermer
- Narrated by: uncredited
- Length: 4 hrs and 22 mins
- Abridged
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Columnist and publisher Michael Shermer, once an evangelical Christian and a creationist, argues that Intelligent Design proponents invoke a combination of ad science, political antipathy, and flawed theology in their new brand of creationism. He refutes their pseudoscientific arguments and then demonstrates why conservatives and people of faith can and should embrace evolution. Why Darwin Matters is an incisive examination of what is at stake in the debate over evolution.
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TOTAL MISREPRENTATION: WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE?
- By Theo Tsourdalakis on 09-04-11
By: Michael Shermer
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Knocking on Heaven's Door
- How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World
- By: Lisa Randall
- Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie
- Length: 14 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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The latest developments in physics have the potential to radically revise our understanding of the world: its makeup, its evolution, and the fundamental forces that drive its operation. Knocking on Heaven's Door is an exhilarating and accessible overview of these developments and an impassioned argument for the significance of science. There could be no better guide than Lisa Randall.
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Too Political
- By Allan on 12-14-11
By: Lisa Randall
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The Vital Question
- Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life
- By: Nick Lane
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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The Earth teems with life: in its oceans, forests, skies, and cities. Yet there's a black hole at the heart of biology. We do not know why complex life is the way it is, or, for that matter, how life first began. In The Vital Question, award-winning author and biochemist Nick Lane radically reframes evolutionary history, putting forward a solution to conundrums that have puzzled generations of scientists.
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Ouch!
- By Mark on 06-24-16
By: Nick Lane
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Creation
- How Science Is Reinventing Life Itself
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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What is life? Humans have been asking this question for thousands of years. But as technology has advanced and our understanding of biology has deepened, the answer has evolved. For decades, scientists have been exploring the limits of nature by modifying and manipulating DNA, cells, and whole organisms to create new ones that could never have previously existed on their own.
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The Goldilocks book on what is life
- By Gary on 07-11-13
By: Adam Rutherford
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Know This
- Today's Most Interesting and Important Scientific Ideas, Discoveries, and Developments
- By: John Brockman
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman, Dan John Miller
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Scientific developments radically alter our understanding of the world. Whether it's technology, climate change, health research, or the latest revelations of neuroscience, physics, or psychology, science has, as Edge editor John Brockman says, "become a big story, if not the big story". In that spirit this new addition to Edge.org's fascinating series asks a powerful and provocative question: What do you consider the most interesting and important recent scientific news?
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Pete and Repeat and Re-repeat
- By Daniel L on 02-25-18
By: John Brockman
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Exoplanets
- Diamond Worlds, Super Earths, Pulsar Planets, and the New Search for Life Beyond Our Solar System
- By: Michael Summers
- Narrated by: Jon Bennett
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Since its 2009 launch, the Kepler satellite has discovered more than 2,000 exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system. More exoplanets are being discovered all the time, remarkable in their variety. Astronomer Michael Summers and physicist James Trefil explore these remarkable recent discoveries: planets revolving around pulsars, planets made of diamond, planets that are mostly water, and numerous rogue planets wandering through the emptiness of space.
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FINALLY, an Attention-Grabbing Planet Book!
- By aaron on 05-11-17
By: Michael Summers
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The Big Picture
- On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself
- By: Sean Carroll
- Narrated by: Sean Carroll
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Already internationally acclaimed for his elegant, lucid writing on the most challenging notions in modern physics, Sean Carroll is emerging as one of the greatest humanist thinkers of his generation as he brings his extraordinary intellect to bear not only on the Higgs boson and extra dimensions but now also on our deepest personal questions. Where are we? Who are we? Are our emotions, our beliefs, and our hopes and dreams ultimately meaningless out there in the void?
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ABSOLUTE MUST READ!
- By serine on 05-12-16
By: Sean Carroll
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Until the End of Time
- Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe
- By: Brian Greene
- Narrated by: Brian Greene
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Until the End of Time is Brian Greene's breathtaking new exploration of the cosmos and our quest to find meaning in the face of this vast expanse. Greene takes us on a journey from the big bang to the end of time, exploring how lasting structures formed, how life and mind emerged, and how we grapple with our existence through narrative, myth, religion, creative expression, science, the quest for truth, and a deep longing for the eternal.
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Uneven
- By NJ on 03-03-20
By: Brian Greene
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Life's Engines
- How Microbes Made Earth Habitable
- By: Paul G. Falkowski
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Paul Falkowski looks "under the hood" of microbes to find the engines of life, the actual working parts that do the biochemical heavy lifting for every living organism on Earth. With insight and humor, he explains how these miniature engines are built - and how they have been appropriated by and assembled like Lego sets within every creature that walks, swims, or flies. Falkowski shows how evolution works to maintain this core machinery of life, and how we and other animals are veritable conglomerations of microbes.
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Best Science Book Ever Written. Period.
- By serine on 07-28-15
What listeners say about Cosmosapiens
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-23-23
a rare broad survey, give it a go!
While some will beg to differ on various points throughout the text, this book overall represents a rare broad survey of science as it applies to the question : where did we come from?
this is a serious attempt to ask a lot of very good basic questions about science in the world, and at the very least it is a wonderful book for inspiring thought and your own questions.
I hope that a future edition contains a bit more focus on the hypothico deductive process and even the statistics used with that to evaluate the legitimacy of results.
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- quinet
- 04-11-16
Much too long
John Hands has much to cover - too much - and he does not handle it well. I got some new knowledge from this book but to get there I had to be vitally interested in the topic and disciplined enough to plow through many hours of Hands reviewing the current state of scientific understanding of central issues in cosmology, evolution, and related science fields. Hands takes pains to undermine current orthodoxy on matters such as the Big Bang theory, string theory, and neo-Darwinism, and is perhaps a little too smug about this.
The amount of verbiage discussing current theories makes me worry that as our scientific understanding learns and evolves, the book will become dated.
In short there is useful stuff in here even for the scientifically literate but it might be written at too high a level for the lay person and too exhaustive to reward 31 hours of listening for someone with a science background.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Terri Fuqua
- 05-02-18
VERY THOROUGH
I enjoyed this book. The author introduced several viable theories to otherwise challenge the orthodox beliefs. As well, the material was researched, presented with open mindedness, and offered reasonable thought.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Purchaser
- 11-11-18
One of my all time favorites!!
I enjoyed this great book about connecting knowledge. Great book and enjoyable listen. Highly recommended!! #Inspiring #SelfDiscovery #Provocative #tagsgiving #sweepstakes
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- macGA
- 10-13-16
<br /><br />Overview of what we know, and what we don't know
excellent summary of what science has discovered so far, for lay people and scholars alike.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kevin M Lowe
- 07-31-16
May not be a fair treatment
Though a valuable perspective and counter to what may be acceptance of false precepts by established and respected scientists, the esoteric nature of the subject and the writing style come together such that a layman is left constantly wondering what the author is leaving out.
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- La Bookeria
- 03-16-16
encyclopedic and anarchistic
encyclopedic and anarchist in its impulse and delivery. it constitutes not only the latest report, but a manifesto of sorts. highly highly recommended
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- Richard
- 07-22-17
Very Comprehensive
This is a long, but exceedingly comprehensive treatment of the various theories currently advanced for the beginning of the universe, though the present. It contains explorations of many concepts which I had not considered. It is too comprehensive for me to grasp in one listening, especially because of the way I listen; that is, while driving or working out. For me to really absorb the content on the first pass, I need to take notes while listening and this is not possible. Overall, a lengthy but worthy listen.
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- Akhil Tandulwadikar
- 07-27-16
Long but worth it
This is a thoroughly researched and unbiased look at human history and how science has shaped us
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- Dan
- 03-11-16
A Stunningly Thorough Survey of Human Knowledge
This is perhaps the most complete survey of the current state of knowledge in the fields of cosmology, biochemistry, biology, and physics that is available for a lay reader. In addition to his careful attention to detail, Hands provides a uniquely critical and unbiased analysis of the mainstream orthodoxy of these fields, as they relate to human evolution. He is especially critical of mainstream cosmology and neo-Darwinian theories, but his critiques are so nuanced and evidence-based it is hard to disagree with his conclusions. In all, Cosmosapiens provides a careful analysis of how we got here, what we know, what we don't know, and what we may never know can hardly be imagined.
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6 people found this helpful