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An Elegant Defense
- The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System: A Tale in Four Lives
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
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An Elegant Defense
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Publisher's summary
A magnificently reported and soulfully crafted exploration of the human immune system - the key to health and wellness, life and death. An epic, first-of-its-kind audiobook, entwining leading-edge scientific discovery with the intimate stories of four individual lives, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist.
“An Elegant Defense by Matt Richtel is one of those rare nonfiction books that transcends the genre. On one level it is a fascinating and engrossing account of the latest, and quite astonishing, discoveries involving the human immune system and how it works. But it is also a story about people facing mortality, about the passion of scientists searching for truth, and a meditation on death and how all of us struggle with the ultimate mystery. Heartfelt and moving, full of compassion, love, and the human drama, this is the work of a writer of high ethical character who is grappling with big issues and deep humanistic problems. What an inspiring and wonderful read. I highly recommend this extraordinary book.” (Douglas Preston, number-one best-selling author of The Lost City of the Monkey God)
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By: Martin J. Blaser
-
Plagues, Pandemics and Viruses
- From the Plague of Athens to COVID-19
- By: Heather E. Quinlan
- Narrated by: Samara Naeymi
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 49
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 39
It can come in waves - like tidal waves. It changes societies. It disrupts life. It ends lives. As far back as 3000 B.C.E. (the Bronze Age), plagues have stricken mankind. COVID-19 is just the latest example, but history shows that life continues. It shows that knowledge and social cooperation can save lives. Viruses are neither alive nor dead and are the closest thing we have to zombies. Their only known function is to replicate themselves, which can have devastating consequences on their hosts.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Somewhat elemental
- By Bertha Watkins on 10-23-21
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Plague of Corruption
- Restoring Faith in the Promise of Science
- By: Dr. Judy Mikovits, Kent Heckenlively, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
- Narrated by: Mariel Hemingway
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 796
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 710
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 708
Dr. Judy Mikovits is a modern-day Rosalind Franklin, a brilliant researcher shaking up the old boys' club of science with her groundbreaking discoveries. And like many women who have trespassed into the world of men, she uncovered decades-old secrets that many would prefer to stay buried.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
If only most of the public knew these facts
- By David Getoff, CCN on 06-18-20
By: Dr. Judy Mikovits, and others
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Ten Drugs
- How Plants, Powders, and Pills Have Shaped the History of Medicine
- By: Thomas Hager
- Narrated by: Angelo Di Loreto
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,858
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,205
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,187
Beginning with opium, the “joy plant,” which has been used for 10,000 years, Thomas Hager tells a captivating story of medicine. His subjects include the largely forgotten female pioneer who introduced smallpox inoculation to Britain, the infamous knockout drops, the first antibiotic, which saved countless lives, the first antipsychotic, which helped empty public mental hospitals, Viagra, statins, and the new frontier of monoclonal antibodies. This is a deep, wide-ranging, and wildly entertaining book.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Engrossing to physicians & lay persons alike
- By C. White on 03-08-19
By: Thomas Hager
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State of the Heart
- Exploring the History, Science, and Future of Cardiac Disease
- By: Haider Warraich
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 49
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
In State of the Heart, the journey to rid the world of heart disease is shown to be reflective of the journey of medical science at large. We are learning not only that women have as much heart disease as men, but that the type of heart disease women experience is diametrically different from that in men. We are learning that heart disease and cancer may have more in common than we could have imagined. And we are learning how human evolution itself may have led to the epidemic of heart disease
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3 out of 5 stars
-
Good information, bad organization
- By Conor Cox on 09-03-19
By: Haider Warraich
-
An Epidemic of Absence
- A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Diseases
- By: Moises Velasquez-Manoff
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 17 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 48
An Epidemic of Absence asks what will happen in developing countries, which, as they become more affluent, have already seen an uptick in allergic disease: Will India end up more allergic than Europe? Velasquez-Manoff also details a controversial underground movement that has coalesced around the treatment of immune-mediated disorders with parasites. Against much of his better judgment, he joins these do-it-yourselfers and reports his surprising results.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The point of view from a Veterinarian immunologist
- By rtgymnast on 11-03-17
-
p53: The Gene That Cracked the Cancer Code
- By: Sue Armstrong
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Jasicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 122
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 106
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 104
p53: The Gene That Cracked the Cancer Code reveals the tale of the search for this gene, as well as the excitement of the hunt for new cures - the hype, the lost opportunities, the blind alleys, and the thrilling breakthroughs. As the long-anticipated revolution in cancer treatment tailored to each individual patient's symptoms starts to take off at last, p53 is still at the forefront of the game. This is a timely tale of scientific discovery and advances in our understanding of a disease that still affects more than one in three of us at some point in our lives.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent story! Unfortunate narration at start
- By Adriana on 12-25-14
By: Sue Armstrong
-
The Emperor of All Maladies
- A Biography of Cancer
- By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 4,624
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 4,057
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 4,035
The Emperor of All Maladies reveals the many faces of an iconic, shape-shifting disease that is the defining plague of our generation. The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance but also of hubris, arrogance, paternalism, and misperception, all leveraged against a disease that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out "war against cancer".
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Incredible
- By S.R.E. on 03-02-16
-
Happy Accidents
- Serendipity in Major Medical Breakthroughs in the Twentieth Century
- By: Morton A. Meyers
- Narrated by: Richard Waterhouse
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 50
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 45
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 44
Happy Accidents is a fascinating, entertaining, and highly accessible look at the surprising role serendipity has played in some of the most important medical discoveries in the 20th century. What do penicillin, chemotherapy drugs, X-rays, Valium, the Pap smear, and Viagra have in common? They were each discovered accidentally, stumbled upon in the search for something else. In discussing medical breakthroughs, Dr. Morton Meyers makes a cogent, highly engaging argument for a more creative, rather than purely linear, approach to science. And it may just save our lives!
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1 out of 5 stars
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Don't waste your money!
- By Amazon Customer on 03-20-16
By: Morton A. Meyers
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COVID: The Politics of Fear and the Power of Science
- By: Marc Siegel MD
- Narrated by: Peter Van Norden
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
COVID-19 has stolen our security and our nation's peace of mind. There is a pandemic virus as well as a crippling epidemic of fear sweeping America. Why? The answer, according to nationally renowned health commentator Dr. Marc Siegel, is that we already lived in an artificially created culture of fear that was just waiting to be unleashed. In COVID: The Politics of Fear and the Power of Science, Siegel identifies three major catalysts of the culture of fear - government, the media, and our own psyche.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Informative and well sourced
- By A. Powers on 10-12-21
By: Marc Siegel MD
-
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
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 202
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 177
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 180
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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5 out of 5 stars
-
fascinating ideas and science
- By Joel on 07-04-15
By: Juan Enriquez, and others
-
The Compatibility Gene
- How Our Bodies Fight Disease, Attract Others, and Define Our Selves
- By: Daniel M. Davis
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
Most of the 25,000 genes we possess are the same for all of us. Compatibility genes are those that vary most from person to person and give each of us a unique molecular signature. These genes determine both the extent to which we are susceptible to a vast range of illnesses and the different ways each of us fights disease.
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5 out of 5 stars
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If interested in medicine, got to read
- By Howard Sterling on 06-29-16
By: Daniel M. Davis
-
Less Medicine, More Health
- 7 Assumptions That Drive Too Much Medical Care
- By: H. Gilbert Welch
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 100
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 90
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 90
The author of the highly acclaimed Overdiagnosed describes seven widespread assumptions that encourage excessive, often ineffective, and sometimes harmful medical care. You might think the biggest problem in medical care is that it costs too much. Or that health insurance is too expensive, too uneven, too complicated - and gives you too many forms to fill out. But the central problem is that too much medical care has too little value.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
The truth will set you free
- By Rene B Milner on 04-01-16
By: H. Gilbert Welch
-
The Cancer Chronicles
- Unlocking Medicine's Deepest Mystery
- By: George Johnson
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 52
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 52
When the woman he loved was diagnosed with a metastatic cancer, science writer George Johnson embarked on a journey to learn everything he could about the disease and the people who dedicate their lives to understanding and combating it. What he discovered is a revolution under way - an explosion of new ideas about what cancer really is and where it comes from. In a provocative and intellectually vibrant exploration, he takes us on an adventure through the history and recent advances of cancer research that will challenge everything you thought you knew about the disease.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
A quick read - hard to put down
- By Digital Dilema on 09-06-13
By: George Johnson
-
A Shot to Save the World
- The Inside Story of the Life-or-Death Race for a COVID-19 Vaccine
- By: Gregory Zuckerman
- Narrated by: Jack Armstrong
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 171
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 145
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 144
Few were ready when a mysterious respiratory illness emerged in Wuhan, China, in January 2020. Politicians, government officials, business leaders, and public-health professionals were unprepared for the most devastating pandemic in a century. Many of the world’s biggest drug and vaccine makers were slow to react or couldn’t muster an effective response. It was up to a small group of unlikely and untested scientists and executives to save civilization.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Wow! Do not miss this one.
- By Jacob on 11-18-21
-
The Family That Couldn't Sleep
- A Medical Mystery
- By: D.T. Max
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 481
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 265
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 268
For 200 years, a noble Venetian family has suffered from an inherited disease that strikes their members in middle age, stealing their sleep, eating holes in their brains, and ending their lives in a matter of months. In Papua New Guinea, a primitive tribe is nearly obliterated by a sickness whose chief symptom is uncontrollable laughter. Across Europe, millions of sheep rub their fleeces raw before collapsing. What these strange conditions share is their cause: prions.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
A great scientific mystery
- By David on 11-04-06
By: D.T. Max
-
The Language of Life
- DNA and the Revolution in Personalized Medicine
- By: Francis S. Collins
- Narrated by: Greg Itzin
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 148
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 99
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 97
A scientific and medical revolution has crept up on us, based on study after study, from hundreds of laboratories around the world. It is no longer just a theoretical shift: every one of us will be touched by it, and many of us already have been. The meaning of disease, our understanding of the human body, and crucial decisions about what we all need to know and what choices we make about our health are at stake. Welcome to the new world of personalized medicine.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The future of medicine
- By Ronald E on 04-12-10
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Surprisingly gripping
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Blood carries life, yet the sight of it makes people faint. It is a waste product and a commodity pricier than oil. It can save lives and transmit deadly infections. Each one of us has roughly nine pints of it, yet many don’t even know their own blood type. And for all its ubiquitousness, the few tablespoons of blood discharged by 800 million women are still regarded as taboo: menstruation is perhaps the single most demonized biological event.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Author goes on long unnecessary tangents
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The Inflamed Mind
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I can relate as a suffer
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Sickening
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great info, but I’m confused…
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Brimming with fascinating historical details and modern medical wonders, this important audiobook is a fascinating glimpse into the struggles and "eureka!" moments that people outside of the medical profession rarely see. Written with Dr. Mukherjee's signature eloquence and passionate prose, The Laws of Medicine is a critical book not just for those in the medical profession but for everyone who is moved to better understand how their health and well-being are being treated.
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Insightful, sincere and succinct. Not Mukherjee's best.
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In gripping prose, one of the world's leading cardiac surgeons lays bare both the wonder and the horror of a life spent a heartbeat away from death. When Stephen Westaby witnessed a patient die on the table during open-heart surgery for the first time, he was struck by the quiet, determined way the surgeons walked away. As he soon understood, this detachment is a crucial survival strategy in a profession where death is only a heartbeat away. In Open Heart, Westaby reflects on over 11,000 surgeries, showing us why the procedures have never become routine and will never be.
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Fascinating!
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 444
Vaclav Smil's mission is to make facts matter. An environmental scientist, policy analyst, and a hugely prolific author, he is Bill Gates' go-to guy for making sense of our world. In Numbers Don't Lie, Smil answers questions such as: What's worse for the environment - your car or your phone? How much do the world's cows weigh (and what does it matter)? And what makes people happy?
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3 out of 5 stars
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Strange book
- By Stephen on 05-25-21
By: Vaclav Smil
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The Emperor of All Maladies
- A Biography of Cancer
- By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 4,624
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 4,057
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Story5 out of 5 stars 4,035
The Emperor of All Maladies reveals the many faces of an iconic, shape-shifting disease that is the defining plague of our generation. The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance but also of hubris, arrogance, paternalism, and misperception, all leveraged against a disease that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out "war against cancer".
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5 out of 5 stars
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Incredible
- By S.R.E. on 03-02-16
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Everyday Ubuntu
- Living Better Together, the African Way
- By: Mungi Ngomane
- Narrated by: Nontombi Naomi Tutu
- Length: 6 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 58
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 51
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Story5 out of 5 stars 50
Ubuntu is a Xhosa word originating from a South African philosophy that encapsulates all our aspirations about how to live life well, together. It is the belief in a universal human bond: I am only because you are. And it means that if you are able to see everyone as fully human, connected to you by their humanity, you will never be able to treat others as disposable or without worth. By embracing the philosophy of ubuntu and living it out in daily life it’s possible to overcome division and be stronger together in a world where the wise build bridges, not walls.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Inspiring
- By Jack on 02-22-23
By: Mungi Ngomane
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I Contain Multitudes
- The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life
- By: Ed Yong
- Narrated by: Charlie Anson
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,780
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,271
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,253
Joining the ranks of popular science classics like The Botany of Desire and The Selfish Gene, 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.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Undoes what you've learned from the headlines
- By Tristan on 10-14-16
By: Ed Yong
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The Billion Dollar Molecule
- One Company's Quest for the Perfect Drug
- By: Barry Werth
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 24
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 20
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Story4 out of 5 stars 20
Join journalist Barry Werth as he pulls back the curtain on Vertex, a start-up pharmaceutical company, and witness firsthand the intense drama being played out in the pioneering and hugely profitable field of drug research. Founded by Joshua Boger, a dynamic Harvard- and Merck-trained scientific whiz kid, Vertex is dedicated to designing - atom by atom - both a new life-saving immunosuppressant drug and a drug to combat the virus that causes AIDS.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Book is interesting but narrator is not
- By Alexa on 05-05-23
By: Barry Werth
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Why You Are Who You Are
- Investigations into Human Personality
- By: Mark Leary, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Mark Leary
- Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,340
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,045
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,013
To understand the roots of personality is to understand motivations and influences that shape behavior, which in turn reflect how you deal with the opportunities and challenges of everyday life. That's the focus of these exciting 24 lectures, in which you examine the differences in people's personalities, where these differences come from, and how they shape our lives. Drawing on information gleaned from psychology, neuroscience, and genetics, Professor Leary opens the door to understanding how personality works and why.
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5 out of 5 stars
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As an addict, I listened to this book. Very Helpfu
- By Life Lover on 05-15-18
By: Mark Leary, and others
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The Gene
- An Intimate History
- By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 19 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,869
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5,153
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5,106
The extraordinary Siddhartha Mukherjee has written a biography of the gene as deft, brilliant, and illuminating as his extraordinarily successful biography of cancer. Weaving science, social history, and personal narrative to tell us the story of one of the most important conceptual breakthroughs of modern times, Mukherjee animates the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices.
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5 out of 5 stars
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It's a Wonderful Book
- By JKC on 06-02-16
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What listeners say about An Elegant Defense
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- C. Brieant
- 05-07-19
Good science but too much biography
Very good discussion of the immune system. Could have done without the personal accounts. M
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Karan
- 09-10-21
Laymen’s way to immunology
Inspiring and quite an informational book on immunology. Simplified for someone who doesn’t have a background in biology
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lauren
- 07-23-21
book of the year!
a story of life intermingled with the latest knowledge of the immune system: a book for those with no prior knowledge of medicine
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 07-24-20
fascinating
a fascinating story
a great narration
an accurate science
a must for anyone who wants to learn about immunotherapy
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Quique G
- 08-10-20
Book of the year
The best science and health book I have ever read, with story, emotional sometimes, funny other times, very interesting. A must read for everybody
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rene Lans
- 06-21-21
Brilliant
It’s been a while that I simply could not put a book down. Refreshing and sobbing
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- LilPup
- 05-20-19
Great book, great writing
Very few people can make a book on microbiology read like a gripping narrative. Richtel does. It’s fascinating and important.
And the narrator is superb.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jenny Jenkins
- 04-04-21
Great... if you can retain information
I loved this book! It had so much information that I didn't even know I had questions for. If you are like me, and you tend to doze off when things go slow, then I recommend listening at 1.4x speed... the narrator is a little bit slow and it's easy to miss a few minutes of material, which results in the next few minutes of you wondering what was just said. Overall, a great listen!
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Erin Brewer
- 08-28-19
worth reading
interesting but could have done without the politicalization of the immune response. good reading and interesting information.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dutchgirl
- 03-19-19
Excellent
Loved this book. I think everyone should read it! He did an amazing job of explaining a complicated subject.
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1 person found this helpful