Download or read book Life as We Made It written by Beth Shapiro and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the first dog to the first beefalo, from farming to CRISPR, the human history of remaking nature When the 2020 Nobel Prize was awarded to the inventors of CRISPR, the revolutionary gene-editing tool, it underlined our amazing and apparently novel powers to alter nature. But as biologist Beth Shapiro argues in Life as We Made It, this phenomenon isn’t new. Humans have been reshaping the world around us for ages, from early dogs to modern bacteria modified to pump out insulin. Indeed, she claims, reshaping nature—resetting the course of evolution, ours and others’—is the essence of what our species does. In exploring our evolutionary and cultural history, Shapiro finds a course for the future. If we have always been changing nature to help us survive and thrive, then we need to avoid naive arguments about how we might destroy it with our meddling, and instead ask how we can meddle better. Brilliant and insightful, Life as We Made It is an essential book for the decades to come.
Download or read book Life as Surplus written by Melinda E. Cooper and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2011-02-01 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on the period between the 1970s and the present, Life as Surplus is a pointed and important study of the relationship between politics, economics, science, and cultural values in the United States today. Melinda Cooper demonstrates that the history of biotechnology cannot be understood without taking into account the simultaneous rise of neoliberalism as a political force and an economic policy. From the development of recombinant DNA technology in the 1970s to the second Bush administration's policies on stem cell research, Cooper connects the utopian polemic of free-market capitalism with growing internal contradictions of the commercialized life sciences. The biotech revolution relocated economic production at the genetic, microbial, and cellular level. Taking as her point of departure the assumption that life has been drawn into the circuits of value creation, Cooper underscores the relations between scientific, economic, political, and social practices. In penetrating analyses of Reagan-era science policy, the militarization of the life sciences, HIV politics, pharmaceutical imperialism, tissue engineering, stem cell science, and the pro-life movement, the author examines the speculative impulses that have animated the growth of the bioeconomy. At the very core of the new post-industrial economy is the transformation of biological life into surplus value. Life as Surplus offers a clear assessment of both the transformative, therapeutic dimensions of the contemporary life sciences and the violence, obligation, and debt servitude crystallizing around the emerging bioeconomy.
Download or read book Leonard My Life as a Cat written by Carlie Sorosiak and published by Walker Books US. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He’s not a stray house cat, he’s an immortal being. And now he must choose whether to return to his planet or remain with his new human friend in a humorous, heart-tugging story from the author of I, Cosmo. The cat that Olive rescues from a flood has a secret: he’s not really a cat at all, but an alien who crashed to Earth on a beam of light. The cat, whom Olive names Leonard, was prepared to visit the planet as a human—but something went wrong. Now Leonard may never know what it’s like to hold an umbrella, go bowling, or host a dinner party. (And his human jokes still need some work: Knock, knock. Who’s there? Just Leonard. It is me.) While Olive worries about whether she will have to move after her mom and her new boyfriend get back from their summer vacation, Leonard tries to figure out how to get from South Carolina to Yellowstone National Park, because if he’s not there at the end of the month, he’ll miss his ride home. But as Olive teaches Leonard about the beautiful and confusing world of humans, he starts to realize how much he cares about this particular one. A sweet and dryly funny story about what it means to be human—and what it means to be home.
Download or read book Life as It Is written by Dr. William F. Loomis and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2008-03-03 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This concise, accessible book considers from a biological perspective the controversial issues of our day: abortion, euthanasia, engineered evolution, cooperativity, and the future of sustainable life on this planet. Exploring in fascinating detail the processes by which cells come into being and multiply, Loomis clearly and simply explains the latest in complex biological research. He reviews recent insights into molecular and human evolution, the role of DNA sequences in determining traits, and the biological basis for consciousness, all of which, he argues, need to be considered when making life-and-death decisions and wrestling with questions about the limits to intervention.
Download or read book Life as a Loser written by Will Leitch and published by Arriviste Press, Inc.. This book was released on 2005-05-15 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every company he works for goes bankrupt. His landlord just kicked him out. His parents think he's a failure. He can barely scrape up enough pennies to take the subway. And he's still dealing with his fiance leaving him on national TV. Welcome to the world of Will Leitch. In this hilarious collection, Leitch takes us on journey from small-town Illinois to the madness of Manhattan and back again.
Download or read book My Life as a Book written by Janet Tashjian and published by Henry Holt and Company (BYR). This book was released on 2010-07-20 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Summer's finally here, and Derek Fallon is looking forward to pelting the UPS truck with water balloons, climbing onto the garage roof, and conducting silly investigations. But when his parents decide to send him to Learning Camp, Derek's dreams of fun come to an end. Ever since he's been labeled a "reluctant reader," his mom has pushed him to read "real" books-something other than his beloved Calvin & Hobbes. As Derek forges unexpected friendships and uncovers a family secret involving himself (in diapers! no less), he realizes that adventures and surprises are around the corner, complete with curve balls. My Life as a Book is a 2011 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
Download or read book Designing Your Life written by Bill Burnett and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2016-09-20 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • At last, a book that shows you how to build—design—a life you can thrive in, at any age or stage • “Life has questions. They have answers.” —The New York Times Designers create worlds and solve problems using design thinking. Look around your office or home—at the tablet or smartphone you may be holding or the chair you are sitting in. Everything in our lives was designed by someone. And every design starts with a problem that a designer or team of designers seeks to solve. In this book, Bill Burnett and Dave Evans show us how design thinking can help us create a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling, regardless of who or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are. The same design thinking responsible for amazing technology, products, and spaces can be used to design and build your career and your life, a life of fulfillment and joy, constantly creative and productive, one that always holds the possibility of surprise.
Download or read book Life as We Knew it written by Susan Beth Pfeffer and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2008 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I guess I always felt even if the world came to an end, McDonald's still would be open. High school sophomore Miranda's disbelief turns to fear in a split second when an asteroid knocks the moon closer to Earth, like "one marble hits another." The result is catastrophic. How can her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis are wiping out the coasts, earthquakes are rocking the continents, and volcanic ash is blocking out the sun? As August turns dark and wintery in northeastern Pennsylvania, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove. Told in a year's worth of journal entries, this heart-pounding story chronicles Miranda's struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all--hope--in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world. An extraordinary series debut Susan Beth Pfeffer has written several companion novels to Life As We Knew It, including The Dead and the Gone, This World We Live In, and The Shade of the Moon.
Download or read book Nietzsche Life as Literature written by Alexander Nehamas and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1985 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than eighty years after his death, Nietzsche's writings and his career remain disquieting, disturbing, obscure. His most famous views--the will to power, the eternal recurrence, the bermensch, the master morality--often seem incomprehensible or, worse, repugnant. Yet he remains a thinker of singular importance, a great opponent of Hegel and Kant, and the source of much that is powerful in figures as diverse as Wittgenstein, Derrida, Heidegger, and many recent American philosophers. Alexander Nehamas provides the best possible guide for the perplexed. He reveals the single thread running through Nietzsche's views: his thinking of the world on the model of a literary text, of people as if they were literary characters, and of knowledge and science as if they were literary interpretation. Beyond this, he advances the clarity of the concept of textuality, making explicit some of the forces that hold texts together and so hold us together. Nehamas finally allows us to see that Nietzsche is creating a literary character out of himself, that he is, in effect, playing the role of Plato to his own Socrates. Nehamas discusses a number of opposing views, both American and European, of Nietzsche's texts and general project, and reaches a climactic solving of the main problems of Nietzsche interpretation in a step-by-step argument. In the process he takes up a set of very interesting questions in contemporary philosophy, such as moral relativism and scientific realism. This is a book of considerable breadth and elegance that will appeal to all curious readers of philosophy and literature.
Download or read book My Life as a Gamer written by Janet Tashjian and published by Henry Holt and Company (BYR). This book was released on 2015-04-07 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Derek Fallon gets the chance of a lifetime—to participate in a gaming company focus group and to test out a new video game called "Arctic Ninja." Together with his friends Carly, Matt, and Umberto, Derek thinks his gaming talents will be showcased. But he soon realizes that everyone has got him beat, including whiz kid El Cid. On top of that, school reading tests have begun and Derek feels doubly off his game. Isn't there anything he's good at?
Download or read book Life as Energy written by Alexis Mari Pietak and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To many modern scientists, a living thing is not significantly different from a lifeless object, understood in terms of its basic parts (genes and molecules). Whereas science has given us many wonderful things, it has also taken away something essential--our ability to consider life seriously as a unique form of energy. Alexis Pietak, an exciting new scientific thinker, argues that the "livingness" of a life form is a very real kind of energy that we must recognize along with other kinds of energy such as heat and light. In this book, Dr. Pietak builds an entirely new, holistic and rational science of life that could significantly enhance our understanding of individual life forms, ecological systems, and even human sustainability on our planet. This original and groundbreaking book highlights a crucial missing element in mainstream science.
Download or read book A Carpenter s Life as Told by Houses written by Larry Haun and published by Taunton Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "From one of Fine Homebuilding's best-loved authors, Larry Haun, comes a unique story that looks at American home building from the perspective of twelve houses he has known intimately. Part memoir, part cultural history, A Carpenter's Life as Told by Houses takes the reader house by house over an arc of 100 years. Along with period photos, the author shows us the sod house in Nebraska where his mother was born, the frame house of his childhood, the production houses he built in the San Fernando Valley, and the Habitat for Humanity homes he devotes his time to now. It's an engaging read written by a veteran builder with a thoughtful awareness of what was intrinsic to home building in the past and the many ways it has evolved. Builders and history lovers will appreciate his deep connection to the natural world, yearning for simplicity, respect for humanity, and evocative notion of what we mean by "home.""--
Download or read book My Life as a Chicken written by Ellen A. Kelley and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2007 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Pauline Poulet learns she'll be the next special of the day at Cock-a-Doodle-Doo Caf , she flies the coop faster than you can say "Chicken pie, delicious" Thus begins her journey of peril and catastrophe, courage and chance: She is chased. She is dunked. She is tossed tail over beak. But can Pauline escape the dinner plate? Kids everywhere will love clucking along with this chicken's battle cry: "Pauline, prevail "
Download or read book The End of Life as We Know It written by Michael Guillen and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-10-16 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "It's happening this second. Scientists are re-imagining and re-engineering the world forever. With brutal honesty and engaging story-telling, Michael Guillen gives us a clear-eyed look at a future that is already here. Consider this unsettling, brilliantly written, must-read book your official wake up call." -- ERIC METAXAS, #1 national bestselling author of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy "Michael Guillen has tackled an important subject in The End of Life as We Know It... This book is a sobering look at where we could be headed. A fascinating read." -- DAVID LIMBAUGH, bestselling author of Jesus is Risen and The True Jesus In all aspects of life, humans are crossing lines of no return. Modern science is leading us into vast uncharted territory—far beyond the invention of nuclear weapons or taking us to the moon.Today, in labs all over the world, scientists are performing experiments that threaten to fundamentally alter the practical character and ethical color of our everyday lives. In The End of Life as We Know It: Ominous News from the Frontiers of Science, bestselling author and Emmy award winning science journalist Michael Guillen takes a penetrating look at how the scientific community is pushing the boundaries of morality, including: • Scientists who detached the head of a Russian man from his crippled, diseased body, and stitching it onto a healthy new donated body. • Fertility experiments aimed at allowing designer babies to be conceived with the DNA from three or more biological parents. • The unprecedented politicization of science – for example, in the global discussion about climate change that is pitting “deniers” against “alarmists” and inspiring Draconian legislation, censorship, and legal prosecutions. • The integration of Artificial Intelligence into communications and the economy. The End of Life as We Know Ittakes us into labratories and boardrooms where these troubling advances are taking place and asks the question no scientists seem to be asking: What does this mean for the future of humanity? PREVIOUS PRAISE FOR MICHAEL GUILLEN: “Guillen succeeds triumphantly…He writes with extraordinary grace and clarity.” — CHRISTOPHER LEHMANN-HAUPT, The New York Times “Guillen knows how to tell a story.” — Wall Street Journal “Michael Guillen is ‘Winsomely brilliant.’” — ERIC METAXAS, #1 national bestselling author of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy “Michael Guillen bridges the seeming gap between science and faith better than anyone I know.” — CAL THOMAS, Syndicated and USA Today columnist/Fox News contributor
Download or read book My Life as a Meme written by Janet Tashjian and published by Henry Holt and Company (BYR). This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Book 8 of the much-loved My Life series Derek Fallon loves making funny memes, but when he finds himself the joke of a viral meme, he realizes how easy it is to offend others using this platform. Derek decides to confront the creator of the hurtful meme, all during the backdrop of a fire evacuation that has put him in the same place as his meme bully. Here is another thoughtful, funny, and timely adventure in the life of the ever-loving, ever-mischievous Derek Fallon. Christy Ottaviano Books
Download or read book My Life as a Diamond written by Jenny Manzer and published by Orca Book Publishers. This book was released on 2018-09-25 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A heartwarming, funny, fast-paced story about the bravery it takes to live as your true self, no matter the cost. Ten-year-old Caspar "Caz" Cadman loves baseball and has a great arm. He loves the sounds, the smells, the stats. When his family moves from Toronto to a suburb of Seattle, the first thing he does is try out for the local summer team, the Redburn Ravens. Even though Caz is thrilled when he makes the team, he worries because he has a big secret. No one in this city knows that before Caz told his parents he was a boy, he lived a very different life. It's nobody's business. Caz will tell his new friends when he's ready. But when a player on a rival team starts snooping around, Caz's past is revealed, and Caz worries it will be Toronto all over again. Will Caz's teammates rally behind their star pitcher? Or will Caz be betrayed once more?
Download or read book Life as a Unicorn A Journey from Shame to Pride and Everything in Between written by Amrou Al-Kadhi and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2020-06-09 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A heart-breaking and hilarious memoir about the author’s fight to be true to themself WINNER OF THE POLARI FIRST BOOK PRIZE 2020 WINNER OF A SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARD
