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Nature and Science December 2019
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Hacking Darwin : genetic engineering and the future of humanity
by Jamie Frederic Metzl
What it's about: At the dawn of the genetics revolution, our DNA is becoming as readable, writable, and hackable as our information technology. But as humanity starts retooling our own genetic code, the choices we make today will be the difference between realizing breathtaking advances in human well-being and descending into a dangerous and potentially deadly genetic arms race.
Why you might like this: Enter the laboratories where scientists are turning science fiction into reality. Look towards a future where our deepest beliefs, morals, religions, and politics are challenged like never before and the very essence of what it means to be human is at play. When we can engineer our future children, massively extend our lifespans, build life from scratch, and recreate the plant and animal world, should we?
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The Adoptee's Guide to DNA Testing : How to Use Genetic Genealogy to Discover Your Long-Lost Family
by Tamar Weinberg
From the cover: "Reconnect with your roots! Adoptees, foundlings, and others with unknown parentage face unique challenges in researching their ancestors. Enter this book: a comprehensive guide to adoption genealogy that has the resources you need to find your family through genetic testing. Inside, you'll find: strategies for connecting your genealogy to previous genealogists, detailed guides for using DNA tests and tools, plus how to analyze your test results and apply them to research, and real-life success stories that put the book's techniques into practice and inspire you to seek your own discoveries."--ONIX annotation
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The Gene: An Intimate History
by Siddhartha Mukherjee
What it's about: As the atom is to physics, so is the gene the fundamental unit of genetics. Describing the concept of heredity as a form of information transmission, physician and science writer Siddhartha Mukherjee considers the gene, its long and winding road to discovery, and its future in a world where bioengineering is becoming commonplace. From Mendel and Darwin to the Human Genome Project, this sweeping, thought-provoking book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author of The Emperor of Maladies artfully explores both the scientific and cultural significance of genes.
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The age of genomes : tales from the front lines of genetic medicine
by Steven Monroe Lipkin
What's in it: Immerses readers in the stories of real patients on the genomics frontier and explores the transformative potential and dangerous risks of genetic technology. It will inform anxious parents increasingly bombarded by offers of costly new prenatal testing products and demonstrate how genetic technology, when deployed properly, can prevent or treat genetic disorders such as neurological diseases or cancer. Lipkin explains the science in depth, but in terms a layperson can follow.
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| The Dinosaur Artist: Obsession, Betrayal, and the Quest for Earth's Ultimate Trophy by Paige WilliamsWhat it does: delves into the international fossil trade, both legal and illicit, by recounting a Florida man's attempt to sell a dinosaur skeleton smuggled out of the Gobi Desert, as well as paleontologists' efforts to have the specimen returned to Mongolia.
Why you might like it: This thoroughly researched account leaves no stone unturned as it explores a world unfamiliar to many.
For fans of: Kirk W. Johnson's The Feather Thief and other books that blend natural history and true crime. |
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Grave Secrets of Dinosaurs : Soft Tissues and Hard Science
by Phillip Manning
What it's about: A leading paleontologist draws on new scientific breakthroughs and cutting-edge analysis techniques to offer revealing new facts about the world of the dinosaurs, based on the discovery of remarkably intact dinosaur fossils and mummies, including one recently unearthed in the Badlands of North Dakota.
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Life on a Young Planet : the First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth
by Andrew H. Knoll
What it's about: The very latest discoveries in paleontology--many of them made by the author and his students--are integrated with emerging insights from molecular biology and earth system science to forge a broad understanding of how the biological diversity that surrounds us came to be. Moving from Siberia to Namibia to the Bahamas, Knoll shows how life and environment have evolved together through Earth's history. Innovations in biology have helped shape our air and oceans, and, just as surely, environmental change has influenced the course of evolution, repeatedly closing off opportunities for some species while opening avenues for others.
Why you might like it: Readers go into the field to confront fossils, enter the lab to discern the inner workings of cells, and alight on Mars to ask how our terrestrial experience can guide exploration for life beyond our planet.
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Rex appeal : the amazing story of Sue, the dinosaur that changed science, the law, and my life
by Peter L. Larson
What it is: The author tells the story of his Black Hills Institute's discovery of the world's largest and most complete T. rex skelton uncovered in the hills of South Dakota in 1990 and his fight to retain "Sue" and keep himself out of jail.
About the authors: Peter L. Larson is the founder and president of the Black Hills Institute of Geographical Research. He has personally collected and prepared fossil material from North and South America, Europe, and Asia. He lives in Hill City, South Dakota. Kristin Donnan is a writer who investigated controversial legal cases for NBC's Unsolved Mysteries and worked on a special magazine series on collecting dinosaurs. She lives in Hill City, South Dakota.
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Terrible lizard : the first dinosaur hunters and the birth of a new science
by Deborah Cadbury
What it's about: The author unearths the origins of "dinosaur science" at the dawn of the nineteenth century, introducing the naturalists who initially probed the meaning of the "monster" bones discovered all over the world. This is a dramatic story of the discovery that forever changed man's perception of his place in the universe.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Central Mississippi Regional Library System
100 Tamberline Street
Brandon, Mississippi 39042
601-825-0100
http://www.cmrls.lib.ms.us
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