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Life Ascending
- The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
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Publisher's summary
Where does DNA come from? What is consciousness? How did the eye evolve? Drawing on a treasure trove of new scientific knowledge, Nick Lane expertly reconstructs evolution's history by describing its 10 greatest inventions - from sex and warmth to death - resulting in a stunning account of nature's ingenuity.
Critic reviews
- Royal Society Prize for Science Books, 2010
"Original and awe-inspiring . . . an exhilarating tour of some of the most profound and important ideas in biology." (New Scientist)
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excellent book
- By Anonymous User on 05-10-21
By: Jim Al-Khalili
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The Physics of Climate Change
- By: Lawrence M. Krauss
- Narrated by: Lawrence M. Krauss
- Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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The first book to briefly and clearly present the science of climate change in a way that is accessible to laypeople, providing the perspective needed to understand and assess the foundations and predictions of climate change.
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Greatly Disappointing
- By J. R. Stauffer on 02-07-21
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The World Before Us
- The New Science Behind Our Human Origins
- By: Tom Higham
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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A fascinating investigation of the origin of humans based on incredible new discoveries and advanced scientific technology.
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Wonderfully Accessible
- By Deborah N on 11-02-21
By: Tom Higham
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Why We Die
- The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality
- By: Venki Ramakrishnan
- Narrated by: John Moraitis
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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The knowledge of death is so terrifying that we live most of our lives in denial of it. One of the most difficult moments of childhood must be when each of us first realizes that not only we but all our loved ones will die—and there is nothing we can do about it. Or at least, there hasn’t been. Today, we are living through a revolution in biology. Giant strides are being made in understanding why we age—and why some species live longer than others. Could we eventually cheat disease and death and live for a very long time, possibly many times our current lifespan?
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Excellent! So glad I found this book
- By Elenita on 08-16-24
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The Song of the Cell
- An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human
- By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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From the author of The Emperor of All Maladies, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and The Gene, a #1 New York Times bestseller, comes his most spectacular book yet, an exploration of medicine and our radical new ability to manipulate cells. Rich with Mukherjee’s revelatory and exhilarating stories of scientists, doctors, and the patients whose lives may be saved by their work, The Song of the Cell is the third book in this extraordinary writer’s exploration of what it means to be human.
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Beyond Words Wonderful
- By Lynn on 11-27-22
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Human Errors
- A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes
- By: Nathan H. Lents
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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We humans like to think of ourselves as highly evolved creatures. But if we are supposedly evolution's greatest creation, why do we have such bad knees? Why do we catch head colds so often - 200 times more often than a dog does? How come our wrists have so many useless bones? And are we really supposed to swallow and breathe through the same narrow tube? Surely there's been some kind of mistake. As professor of biology Nathan H. Lents explains in Human Errors, our evolutionary history is nothing if not a litany of mistakes, each more entertaining and enlightening than the last.
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From Pointless Bones to Broken Genes to...Aliens?
- By Katy.LED on 12-04-18
By: Nathan H. Lents
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Life on the Edge
- The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology
- By: Johnjoe McFadden, Jim Al-Khalili
- Narrated by: Pete Cross
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Life is the most extraordinary phenomenon in the known universe; but how did it come to be? Even in an age of cloning and artificial biology, the remarkable truth remains: Nobody has ever made anything living entirely out of dead material. Life remains the only way to make life. Are we still missing a vital ingredient in its creation?
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More woo than new
- By Gary on 09-09-15
By: Johnjoe McFadden, and others
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A Universe from Nothing
- Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing
- By: Lawrence M. Krauss
- Narrated by: Lawrence M. Krauss, Simon Vance
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Where did the universe come from? What was there before it? What will the future bring? And finally, why is there something rather than nothing? Krauss’ answers to these and other timeless questions, in a wildly popular lecture on YouTube, has attracted almost a million viewers. One of the few prominent scientists to have actively crossed the chasm between science and popular culture, Krauss reveals that modern science is indeed addressing the question of why there is something rather than nothing—with surprising and fascinating results.
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Read Review Before Buying
- By Nathan on 04-26-18
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The Case Against Reality
- Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes
- By: Donald Hoffman
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Challenging leading scientific theories that claim that our senses report back objective reality, cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman argues that while we should take our perceptions seriously, we should not take them literally. How can it be possible that the world we see is not objective reality? And how can our senses be useful if they are not communicating the truth? Hoffman grapples with these questions and more over the course of this eye-opening work.
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Don't buy - visual examples missing, no pdf
- By Richard Pickett on 08-26-19
By: Donald Hoffman
What listeners say about Life Ascending
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Blaine Byrum
- 11-20-23
Captivating
Great depth, wonderful explanation, I quite enjoyed the descriptor level, historical guidance, character sketches, and scientific defense.
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- Lucas
- 02-17-11
technical but enlightening
The most technical of the many science/biology books I've read to date--not for those who hated biology class.
It was particularly good on the theories origins of life/DNA, photosynthesis, and eukaryotic cells. Not so great on consciousness (I think it's hard to make a case that that is one of the greatest "inventions" of evolution from the overall picture of life) and death (really a chapter about how we can avoid the degenerations/infirmations of old age--SPOILER: eat less).
I thought I had, at last, a science book that doesn't try to persuade us that evolution is true but, alas, in the final chapter the author made his pitch. It was a powerful one, though, so I'll excuse it.
Definitely moments where I started to drift off but, overall, this is a good read for those who love biology.
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6 people found this helpful
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- ES
- 02-16-16
excellent
Any additional comments?
Lane provides an excellent and enjoyable narrative. It contains interesting and informative facts on evolution and genes in an easily understood manner.
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- Origin and Insertion
- 01-31-19
Excellent treatment of life's drivers
Lane does a great job organizing and discussing important events in life's history. If you love biology, then you will find this to be a great synthesis of big ideas.
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- nyquistJack
- 08-29-19
Absolutely Amazing
I loved this book. After nearly 2 decades of Physics being my science learning of choice I needed a change. After a particularly interesting Mindscape podcast episode with a physicist turned biologist, biology is what called out to me.
Before this book my only biology knowledge came from HS and a few YouTube videos here and there. I wanted a book that got into the details on a variety of biological topics as a starting off point. And on that this books seriously delivered.
Make no mistake, this book is dense. I had to listen to a chapter or even part of a chapter and then go watch YouTube videos and read articles to better understand what I just learned. But that is what I wanted. Biology is an enormous discipline and having this book gave me various grounding points so I could get started which is exactly what I needed.
I feel in the last month I’ve gone from a total biology noob to a biology novice. I cannot wait to learn more. As soon as I am done with this review I plan on listening to the entire book again, this time armed with considerable more knowledge before but undoubtedly i will find more detail that will send me on many more learning adventures.
As for the narration, once I bumped it to 1.25x speed it was perfect. I swear they slowed it down .25 as nobody talks THAT slow.
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- R. David Mintz
- 08-25-16
Remarkable book!
This is a truly remarkable piece of nonfiction. It is beautifully written, very well researched,and extremely well narrated. A truly fascinating read from start to finish.
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- Tristan
- 04-16-17
Brilliant writing + lapses of impenetrable writing
In its best moments, this book is beautiful and actually quite funny, delivered just right by Graeme Malcolm's wizardly British accent. It felt like hanging out with Newton in his study, listening to him reveal the secrets of the world.
And then, in moments, Lane seems to give up on any pretence of speaking to a wider audience, using terminology few outside of biology will follow. I found it baffling, because elsewhere, he takes such care to explain things in terms anyone could grasp. It's unclear to me whether he truly didn't realize what concepts others wouldn't know, or whether he just got lazy in places. From reading reviews of his other books, this seems to be an ongoing problem he has.
Unfortunately, these moments are most common in the earlier chapters, when he's discussing metabolism, the origin of life and photosynthesis. My advice? Just let the tangled bits glide past you, because there is a TON of fascinating material throughout the book, and the latter chapters offer few hiccups.
I do absolutely recommend this book, despite the caveats. Learning about the origin of life alone was worth the price, and the chapter on eyes is brilliant. The section on consciousness is also a nice speculative bonus.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Rakkhi
- 08-23-19
Well worth the listen
I enjoyed his next book on the more detailed look at the origin of life more but this is a great overview of that and other interesting developments in evolution including muscle, hot blood, consciousness and death. Well worth your time
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- Tibor
- 10-15-21
Great book !
Enjoyed this book a lot. Gave me a glimpse of how life may have originated, the good and bad part of having warm blood, and the advantages of sex and why we do not live forever. Highly recommended.
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- Dann
- 10-12-10
Good stuff, but ...
REALLY good info, fascinating expose' of the lines of creation, but like sitting in a boring classroom with a stuffy teacher.
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2 people found this helpful