The Catalyst
RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life's Deepest Secrets
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Narrated by:
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Joshua Saxon
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By:
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Thomas R. Cech
About this listen
For over half a century, DNA has dominated science and the popular imagination as the "secret of life." But over the last several decades, a quiet revolution has taken place. In a series of breathtaking discoveries, the biochemist Thomas R. Cech and a diverse cast of brilliant scientists have revealed that RNA-long overlooked as the passive servant of DNA-sits at the center of biology's greatest mysteries: How did life begin? What makes us human? Why do we get sick and grow old? In The Catalyst, Cech finally brings together years of research to demonstrate that RNA is the true key to understanding life on Earth, from its very origins to our future in the twenty-first century.
A gripping journey of discovery, The Catalyst moves from the early experiments that first hinted at RNA's spectacular powers, to Cech's own paradigm-shifting finding that it can catalyze cellular reactions, to the cutting-edge biotechnologies poised to reshape our health. We learn how RNA may have jump-started life itself, and how, at the same time, it can cut our individual lives short through viral diseases and cancer. We see how RNA is implicated in the aging process and explore the darker depths of the supposed fountain of youth, telomerase. And we catch a thrilling glimpse into how RNA-powered therapies may enable us to improve and even extend life beyond nature's current limits.
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The charges of the proton and electron are opposite and equal, even though the proton is bigger. But why are they equal? This is one of the deepest unresolved puzzles of physics. Frank Close takes us on a journey into the quantum subatomic world of particles. He describes the strong and weak forces that operate alongside electromagnetism, the color and flavor charges, as well as the parallels between them, giving hints of a deeper unity.
By: Frank Close
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Gene Machine
- The Race to Decipher the Secrets of the Ribosome
- By: Venki Ramakrishnan
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Everyone has heard of DNA. But by itself, DNA is just an inert blueprint for life. It is the ribosome - an enormous molecular machine made up of a million atoms - that makes DNA come to life, turning our genetic code into proteins and therefore into us. Gene Machine is an insider account of the race for the structure of the ribosome, a fundamental discovery that both advances our knowledge of all life and could lead to the development of better antibiotics against life-threatening diseases.
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biochemistry+autobiography+science politics
- By Irina Bataeva on 02-15-19
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The Catalyst
- How to Change Anyone's Mind
- By: Jonah Berger
- Narrated by: Keith Nobbs, Fred Irby
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Everyone has something they want to change. Marketers want to change their customers' minds and leaders want to change organizations. Start-ups want to change industries and nonprofits want to change the world. But change is hard. Often, we persuade and pressure and push, but nothing moves. Could there be a better way? This book takes a different approach. Successful change agents know it's not about pushing harder, or providing more information, it's about being a catalyst.
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Was this book written to change my mind from a republican to a democrat?
- By Jack Shocklee on 10-02-20
By: Jonah Berger
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Evolutionary Intelligence
- How Technology Will Make Us Smarter
- By: W. Russell Neuman
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
It is natural for us to fear artificial intelligence. But does Siri really want to kill us? Perhaps we are falling into the trap of projecting human traits onto the machines we might build. In Evolutionary Intelligence, Neuman offers a surprisingly positive vision in which computational intelligence compensates for the well-recognized limits of human judgment, improves decision making, and actually increases our agency. Neuman takes the listener on an exciting, fast-paced ride, all the while making a convincing case about a revolution in computationally augmented human intelligence.
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Life as No One Knows It
- The Physics of Life's Emergence
- By: Sara Imari Walker
- Narrated by: Sara Imari Walker
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
What is life? This is among the most difficult open problems in science, right up there with the nature of consciousness and the existence of matter. All the definitions we have fall short. None help us understand how life originates or the full range of possibilities for what life on other planets might look like. In Life as No One Knows It, physicist and astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker argues that solving the origin of life requires radical new thinking and an experimentally testable theory for what life is.
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very interesting
- By Sequoia Spencer on 08-09-24
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How We Age
- The Science of Longevity
- By: Coleen T. Murphy
- Narrated by: Rosemary Benson
- Length: 19 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
All of us would like to live longer, or to slow the debilitating effects of age. In How We Age, Coleen Murphy shows how recent research on longevity and aging may be bringing us closer to this goal. Murphy, a leading scholar of aging, explains that the study of model systems, particularly simple invertebrate animals, combined with breakthroughs in genomic methods, have allowed scientists to probe the molecular mechanisms of longevity and aging.
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Excellent
- By Sotirios on 05-26-24
By: Coleen T. Murphy
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Charge
- Why Does Gravity Rule?
- By: Frank Close
- Narrated by: Perry Daniels
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The charges of the proton and electron are opposite and equal, even though the proton is bigger. But why are they equal? This is one of the deepest unresolved puzzles of physics. Frank Close takes us on a journey into the quantum subatomic world of particles. He describes the strong and weak forces that operate alongside electromagnetism, the color and flavor charges, as well as the parallels between them, giving hints of a deeper unity.
By: Frank Close
-
Gene Machine
- The Race to Decipher the Secrets of the Ribosome
- By: Venki Ramakrishnan
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone has heard of DNA. But by itself, DNA is just an inert blueprint for life. It is the ribosome - an enormous molecular machine made up of a million atoms - that makes DNA come to life, turning our genetic code into proteins and therefore into us. Gene Machine is an insider account of the race for the structure of the ribosome, a fundamental discovery that both advances our knowledge of all life and could lead to the development of better antibiotics against life-threatening diseases.
-
-
biochemistry+autobiography+science politics
- By Irina Bataeva on 02-15-19
-
The Catalyst
- How to Change Anyone's Mind
- By: Jonah Berger
- Narrated by: Keith Nobbs, Fred Irby
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone has something they want to change. Marketers want to change their customers' minds and leaders want to change organizations. Start-ups want to change industries and nonprofits want to change the world. But change is hard. Often, we persuade and pressure and push, but nothing moves. Could there be a better way? This book takes a different approach. Successful change agents know it's not about pushing harder, or providing more information, it's about being a catalyst.
-
-
Was this book written to change my mind from a republican to a democrat?
- By Jack Shocklee on 10-02-20
By: Jonah Berger
-
Evolutionary Intelligence
- How Technology Will Make Us Smarter
- By: W. Russell Neuman
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is natural for us to fear artificial intelligence. But does Siri really want to kill us? Perhaps we are falling into the trap of projecting human traits onto the machines we might build. In Evolutionary Intelligence, Neuman offers a surprisingly positive vision in which computational intelligence compensates for the well-recognized limits of human judgment, improves decision making, and actually increases our agency. Neuman takes the listener on an exciting, fast-paced ride, all the while making a convincing case about a revolution in computationally augmented human intelligence.
-
Life as No One Knows It
- The Physics of Life's Emergence
- By: Sara Imari Walker
- Narrated by: Sara Imari Walker
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is life? This is among the most difficult open problems in science, right up there with the nature of consciousness and the existence of matter. All the definitions we have fall short. None help us understand how life originates or the full range of possibilities for what life on other planets might look like. In Life as No One Knows It, physicist and astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker argues that solving the origin of life requires radical new thinking and an experimentally testable theory for what life is.
-
-
very interesting
- By Sequoia Spencer on 08-09-24
-
How We Age
- The Science of Longevity
- By: Coleen T. Murphy
- Narrated by: Rosemary Benson
- Length: 19 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All of us would like to live longer, or to slow the debilitating effects of age. In How We Age, Coleen Murphy shows how recent research on longevity and aging may be bringing us closer to this goal. Murphy, a leading scholar of aging, explains that the study of model systems, particularly simple invertebrate animals, combined with breakthroughs in genomic methods, have allowed scientists to probe the molecular mechanisms of longevity and aging.
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Excellent
- By Sotirios on 05-26-24
By: Coleen T. Murphy
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Being Human: Life Lessons from the Frontiers of Science
- By: Robert Sapolsky, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: The Great Courses
- Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Understanding our humanity - the essence of who we are - is one of the deepest mysteries and biggest challenges in modern science. Why do we have bad moods? Why are we capable of having such strange dreams? How can metaphors in our language hold such sway on our actions? As we learn more about the mechanisms of human behavior through evolutionary biology, neuroscience, anthropology, and other related fields, we're discovering just how intriguing the human species is.
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Somewhat Interesting but not Quite as Advertised
- By Adam J Duhame on 10-05-13
By: Robert Sapolsky, and others
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The Secret Life of the Universe
- An Astrobiologist's Search for the Origins and Frontiers of Life
- By: Nathalie A. Cabrol
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
We are living in a golden age in astronomy and in the search for life the universe. Over the last few decades, space exploration has shown that not only are there habitable environments within our solar system, but there are millions of exoplanets within our galaxy that could support life. We are on the cusp of breakthroughs that will revolutionize our understanding of our place in the cosmos in. In The Secret Life of the Universe, astrobiologist and the director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute Nathalie A. Cabrol takes us to the frontiers of the search for life.
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Incredible Book
- By Dennis T. on 09-20-24
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Superconvergence
- How the Genetics, Biotech, and AI Revolutions Will Transform our Lives, Work, and World
- By: Jamie Metzl
- Narrated by: James Anderson Foster, Jamie Metzl
- Length: 15 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Leading futurist and OneShared.World founder Jamie Metzl explores how genome sequencing, gene editing, artificial intelligence, and other technologies are not only changing our lives, but catalyzing each other in radical and accelerating ways. These technologies have the potential to improve our health, feed billions of people, supercharge our economies, and store essential information for millions of years, but can also—if we are not careful—do immeasurable harm.
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Great Book Somewhat Spoiled by Self-Promotion
- By Jack E. Koepke on 06-22-24
By: Jamie Metzl
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Making Sense of Chaos
- A Better Economics for a Better World
- By: J. Doyne Farmer
- Narrated by: J. Doyne Farmer
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Many books have been written about J. Doyne Farmer and his work, but this is the first in his own words. It presents a manifesto for how to do economics better. In this tale of science and ideas, Farmer fuses his profound knowledge and expertise with stories from his life to explain how we can bring a scientific revolution to bear on the economic conundrums facing society.
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Doyne Farmer is brilliant but...
- By dmh00000 on 08-25-24
By: J. Doyne Farmer
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Regenesis
- How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves
- By: George M. Church, Ed Regis
- Narrated by: Peter Lerman
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In Regenesis, George Church and science writer Ed Regis explore the possibilities of the emerging field of synthetic biology. Synthetic biology, in which living organisms are selectively altered by modifying substantial portions of their genomes, allows for the creation of entirely new species of organisms. These technologies - far from the out-of-control nightmare depicted in science fiction - have the power to improve human and animal health, increase our intelligence, enhance our memory, and even extend our life span.
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Brilliant! But please update!
- By Nick on 01-28-21
By: George M. Church, and others
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The Epigenetics Revolution
- How Modern Biology Is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease, and Inheritance
- By: Nessa Carey
- Narrated by: Donna Postel
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Epigenetics can potentially revolutionize our understanding of the structure and behavior of biological life on Earth. It explains why mapping an organism's genetic code is not enough to determine how it develops or acts and shows how nurture combines with nature to engineer biological diversity. Surveying the 20-year history of the field while also highlighting its latest findings and innovations, this volume provides a readily understandable introduction to the foundations of epigenetics.
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Begins Accessible, Then Becomes Too Technical
- By wbiro on 07-26-17
By: Nessa Carey
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Blood Memory
- The Tragic Decline and Improbable Resurrection of the American Buffalo
- By: Dayton Duncan, Ken Burns
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The American buffalo-our nation's official mammal-is an improbable, shaggy beast that has found itself at the center of many of our most mythic and sometimes heartbreaking tales. The largest land animals in the Western Hemisphere, they are survivors of a mass extinction that erased ancient species that were even larger. For nearly 10,000 years, they evolved alongside Native people who weaved them into every aspect of daily life; relied on them for food, clothing, and shelter; and revered them as equals.
By: Dayton Duncan, and others
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Our Future Is Biotech
- A Plain English Guide to How a Tech Revolution is Changing Our Lives and Our Health for the Better
- By: Andrew Craig
- Narrated by: Andrew Craig
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Apples, Amazons and Googles of the next few decades will be biotech companies. The tech companies of the last few years have changed how we do things but the businesses driving the biotech revolution are about making life better. These companies will solve many of our most intractable problems: cancer, dementia, diabetes, elderly care, mental health challenges, even power generation and agricultural production. The audiobook explains what biotech is, what is coming next, and in a final section, how interested investors can profit from it.
By: Andrew Craig
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Everything Is Predictable
- How Bayesian Statistics Explain Our World
- By: Tom Chivers
- Narrated by: Tom Chivers
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
At its simplest, Bayes’s theorem describes the probability of an event, based on prior knowledge of conditions that might be related to the event. But in Everything Is Predictable, Tom Chivers lays out how it affects every aspect of our lives. He explains why highly accurate screening tests can lead to false positives and how a failure to account for it in court has put innocent people in jail. A cornerstone of rational thought, many argue that Bayes’s theorem is a description of almost everything. But who was the man who lent his name to this theorem?
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I was looking forward to this. What a disappointment.
- By Alessandro Fadini on 06-28-24
By: Tom Chivers
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Impossible Monsters
- Dinosaurs, Darwin, and the Battle Between Science and Religion
- By: Michael Taylor
- Narrated by: Michael Langan
- Length: 15 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Impossible Monsters reveals the central role of dinosaurs and their discovery in toppling traditional religious authority, and in changing perceptions about the Bible, history, and mankind's place in the world.
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Repetitive and not that interesting
- By Michael on 09-09-24
By: Michael Taylor
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Reap the Whirlwind
- Violence, Race, Justice, and the Story of Sagon Penn
- By: Peter Houlahan
- Narrated by: Joshua Saxon
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
March 31, 1985. Two white patrol officers in search of a gang member followed a pickup truck carrying seven young Black men up a dirt driveway in the Encanto neighborhood of San Diego. Minutes later, gunshots rang out, and the truck's driver, Sagon Penn, fled the scene in an officer's patrol car. Penn was an idealist who believed in the power of Buddhist chants to bring about the oneness of humanity. The two police officers were rising stars in one of the most progressive police departments in the country, yet one that had suffered more officers killed in the line of duty than any other.
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Outstanding
- By DJ McCarty on 09-11-24
By: Peter Houlahan
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The Power of Hormones
- The New Science of How Hormones Impact Every Aspect of Our Health
- By: Max Nieuwdorp
- Narrated by: Joe Eyre
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Hormones rule our lives. From conception, to birth, to our last breath, hormones control the delicate processes that keep our bodies in balance. However, when this careful stasis is disturbed, our hormones can wreak havoc on our health. Max Nieuwdorp, MD, PhD, knows exactly what signals your hormones are sending you and how they impact how you look, feel, and behave. In this foundational guide to hormonal health, he breaks down how hormones impact every system in the body.
By: Max Nieuwdorp
What listeners say about The Catalyst
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 08-22-24
Disappointing reader!!
The reading is more robotic and most of the information is needless— wish it was more direct and accurate.
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-14-24
Disappointing
Given the author’s qualifications, I was expecting something way less superficial. It’s also full of dozens of unneeded and unilluminating analogies that largely serve only as a distraction. Also annoying was the increasingly common in audiobooks disclaimer that the narration refers to illustrations/charts that are found only in the paper/e-book versions of this book, instead of actually providing a PDF of those to refer to.
The narration also was disappointing. Among other things, the narrator could’ve spent a few minutes learning how to pronounce the words he was supposed to read. Or someone who actually understood the subject matter should’ve proof-listened to the narration and insisted on corrections. And it’s not just technical/biological terms that he mispronounces. He even mispronounces La Jolla (California), as “la-HOLE-a.” A truly slipshod effort.
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- Auinash Kalsotra
- 09-16-24
Captivating
Highly accessible to non experts. A wonderful weekend read. Will recommend to high school students and teachers
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- Trebla
- 08-23-24
Among the best at telling the story of science
As a biology major I was aware of much that Cech covers, but with the addition of much I did not know existed about RNA. Perhaps the best part is his descriptions of the visits, talks, papers, friends that actually drive basic science- it is a team sport.
The down mark is for the speaker who just murdered too many well-known bio words- very distracting.
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- Mom
- 07-31-24
a discredit to women scientists everywhere
I was so excited to read this book. I pre-ordered the hard copy and the audible version. Midway through chapter one I immediately stopped. I requested a refund for both books and WILL NOT read or recommend it to anyone. Thomas Cech has done a great dishonor to women scientists everywhere. He proudly discussed DNA, Watson and Crick, Kings College with NO mention of Rosalind Franklin, further proving that old, white male scientists go out of their way to discredit women in science.
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1 person found this helpful