The Age of Living Machines
How the Convergence of Biology and Engineering Will Build the Next Technology Revolution
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Narrated by:
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Andrea Gallo
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By:
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Susan Hockfield
About this listen
From the former president of MIT, the story of the next technology revolution and how it will change our lives.
A century ago, discoveries in physics came together with engineering to produce an array of astonishing new technologies: radios, telephones, televisions, aircraft, radar, nuclear power, computers, the internet, and a host of still-evolving digital tools. These technologies so radically reshaped our world that we can no longer conceive of life without them.
Today, the world's population is projected to rise to well over 9.5 billion by 2050, and we are currently faced with the consequences of producing the energy that fuels, heats, and cools us. With temperatures and sea levels rising and large portions of the globe plagued with drought, famine, and drug-resistant diseases, we need new technologies to tackle these problems. But we are on the cusp of a new convergence, argues world-renowned neuroscientist Susan Hockfield, with discoveries in biology coming together with engineering to produce another array of almost inconceivable technologies - next-generation products that have the potential to be every bit as paradigm-shifting as the 20th century's digital wonders.
The Age of Living Machines describes some of the most exciting new developments and the scientists and engineers who helped create them. Virus-built batteries. Protein-based water filters. Cancer-detecting nanoparticles. Mind-reading bionic limbs. Computer-engineered crops. Together they highlight the promise of the technology revolution of the 21st century to overcome some of the greatest humanitarian, medical, and environmental challenges of our time.
©2019 Susan Hockfield (P)2019 Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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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
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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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Soonish
- Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything
- By: Kelly Weinersmith, Zach Weinersmith
- Narrated by: Kelly Weinersmith, Zach Weinersmith
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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In this smart and funny book, celebrated cartoonist Zach Weinersmith and noted researcher Dr. Kelly Weinersmith give us a snapshot of what's coming next - from robot swarms to nuclear fusion powered-toasters. By weaving their own research and interviews with the scientists who are making these advances happen, the Weinersmiths investigate why these technologies are needed, how they would work, and what is standing in their way.
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Really Good-ish!
- By See Reverse on 04-16-18
By: Kelly Weinersmith, and others
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Pandora's Seed
- The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization
- By: Spencer Wells
- Narrated by: Spencer Wells
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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This new book by Spencer Wells, the internationally known geneticist, anthropologist, author, and director of the Genographic Project, focuses on the seminal event in human history: mankind's decision to become farmers rather than hunter-gatherers.
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Short and unfocused, but often quite interesting.
- By Alan on 06-23-10
By: Spencer Wells
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Evolving Ourselves
- How Unnatural Selection and Nonrandom Mutation are Changing Life on Earth
- By: Juan Enriquez, Steve Gullans
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Why are conditions like autism, asthma, obesity, and allergies exploding at unprecedented rates? Why are we living longer, getting smarter, having far fewer kids? If Darwin were alive today, how would he explain this new world?
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fascinating ideas and science
- By Joel on 07-04-15
By: Juan Enriquez, and others
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EMF*D
- 5G, Wi-Fi & Cell Phones: Hidden Harms and How to Protect Yourself
- By: Dr. Joseph Mercola
- Narrated by: Christopher Ragland
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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The hazards of electronic pollution may once have been the stuff of science fiction, but now we know they're all too real. And with the advent of 5G ultra-wideband technology, the danger is greater than ever. Dr. Joseph Mercola, one of the world's foremost authorities on alternative health, has mined the scientific literature to offer a radical new understanding of how electromagnetic fields impact your body and mind.
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Top 10 best books ever
- By Priscilla Ferguson on 04-02-20
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The Neurogeneration
- The New Era in Brain Enhancement That Is Revolutionizing the Way We Think, Work, and Heal
- By: Tan Le
- Narrated by: Tan Le
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The human brain is perhaps the most powerful and mysterious arrangement of matter in the known universe. New discoveries that unravel this mystery and let us tap into this power offer almost limitless potential - the ability to reshape ourselves and our thought processes, to improve our health and extend our lives, and to enhance and augment the ways we interact with the world around us. In The NeuroGeneration, award-winning inventor Tan Le explores exciting advancements in brain science and neurotechnology that are revolutionizing the way we think, work, and heal.
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Chock full of eye opening information!
- By pondo on 02-29-20
By: Tan Le
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Editing Humanity
- The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing
- By: Kevin Davies
- Narrated by: Kevin Davies
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Engrossing and captivating, Editing Humanity takes listeners inside the fascinating world of a new gene editing technology called CRISPR, a high-powered genetic toolkit that enables scientists to not only engineer but to edit the DNA of any organism down to the individual building blocks of the genetic code. Davies introduces listeners to arguably the most profound scientific breakthrough of our time. He tracks the scientists on the front lines of its research to the patients whose powerful stories bring the narrative movingly to human scale.
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Excellent content, solid execution
- By Samuel Finlayson on 01-25-21
By: Kevin Davies
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Whiplash
- How to Survive Our Faster Future
- By: Joi Ito, Jeff Howe
- Narrated by: James Foster
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Today, not only is everything digital getting faster, cheaper, and smaller at an exponential rate, we also have the Internet. When these two revolutions - one in technology and the other in communications - joined, an explosive force was unleashed that changed the very nature of innovation. And with any change, we have seen many strategic blunders and extraordinary learning curves along the way.
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Just general advice on how to survive
- By A. Yoshida on 09-01-17
By: Joi Ito, and others
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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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On the Future
- Prospects for Humanity
- By: Martin Rees
- Narrated by: Martin Rees, Samuel West
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Humanity has reached a critical moment. Our world is unsettled and rapidly changing, and we face existential risks over the next century. Various outcomes - good and bad - are possible. Yet our approach to the future is characterized by short-term thinking, polarizing debates, alarmist rhetoric, and pessimism. In this short, exhilarating book, renowned scientist and best-selling author Martin Rees argues that humanity’s prospects depend on our taking a very different approach to planning for tomorrow.
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Science, the future, and great wisdom
- By Philomath on 10-29-18
By: Martin Rees
What listeners say about The Age of Living Machines
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- another know it all
- 10-30-19
fascinating
a great insight into how some techniques and products have come about and what else is coming.
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- AstroChicka
- 08-17-20
Awesome
Fascinating account by MIT president Dr Hockfield, I just wish it was longer! the narrator did a great job.
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- MemorizingPharmacology
- 10-29-19
A long MIT Advertisement with interesting stories
You'll enjoy the stories and the novel work they are doing at MIT, but it's clearly a president who lauds her college without any of the conflicts or challenges that make a great story.
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4 people found this helpful
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- eric fescenmeyer
- 12-04-19
Rambling and subtly elitist
After getting through the whole thing, I have to report that about 1/3 of this book is digression or marginally useful background that feels either like the author needed to hit a certain number of pages or had no real outline for writing the book. The last chapter almost feels like your reading a different book, it's so disconnected with what was talked about in the previous chapters.
My other issue is that the author goes through great effort to highlight Stanford or MIT alumnus but curiously does not mention the academic background of nearly every other person in the book regardless of spending the better part of chapters discussing what they've achieved. By about half way through the book, the lack of background annotation for non elite schools is deafening.
I would have expected better from someone of prominence from an elite university... or maybe I shouldn't going forward.
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2 people found this helpful
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- David
- 05-19-19
Interesting content, but...
While I found Dr. Hockfield’s points and examples very important and agreed with virtually all her conclusions, the book’s narrative seemed weak. Possibly a stronger editorial hand would have added structure to her thesis. The use of “I” and “my” was distracting.
The narration was stiff at points, with the narrator pausing before names and scientific terms.
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157 people found this helpful
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- G2
- 10-28-19
Good information. Poor delivery.
The information in this audiobook has a potential to be rich and insightful, but the reader felt clippy, abrupt, and seemed to pause and break in such strange places in a sentence, it was hard to keep focus.
I am sure the reader is a fine actress, but it felt like she knew nothing about this topic and therefore came across as insincere - for lack of better words - and just seemed to be reading words rather than delivering an interesting story to the listeners.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Book Buddy
- 10-23-19
Good Overview
I had been aware of all the innovations discussed in the book but liked that author presented the process of each, past present and potential future. Especially liked her summary for the future - hope that solutions to problems that effect us all can be solved, caution about lack of government funding and the current strangle hold on immigration which are already having a negative impact on our future as a nation of leaders and innovators.
I disliked the narration, slow and annoying, I almost quit the book until I increased the speed to 1.25 (which I have never done before). Despite loss of normal intonation it allowed me to bear through the audio.
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4 people found this helpful
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- xivera
- 05-19-20
the perfect read right now!
This book was a fantastic layman's terms read about the sciences getting together and creating our future.
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1 person found this helpful
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- neil stiles
- 02-26-21
MIT advertisement/ book
had a good bit of information. but a lot of MIT advertising and tooting of own horns. luckily not too lengthy
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- Daniel Firebanks
- 10-11-20
lnsightful and inspirational
Amazing stories, and didn't go as much into bragging/promoting MIT as other reviews say. I liked how not only she talks about the technologies but also the backgrounds of the scientists that originated them.
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