Central Skagit Library District

"In the mid-1970s, scientists began using DNA sequences to reexamine the history of all life. Perhaps the most startling discovery to come out of this new field—the study of life’s diversity and relatedness at the molecular level—is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or the movement of genes across species lines. It turns out that HGT has been widespread and important. For instance, we now know that roughly eight percent of the human...

In setting out to answer his central question "Is evolution progressive?", Dawkins illustrates the human biases that continue to muddle our understanding of just what evolutionary 'progress' means; from early Victorian influences, to contemporary scientific texts which uncritically invoke 'evolutionary scales' and notions of 'higher' and 'lower' organisms. In turn, Dawkins demonstrates the 'human chauvinistic' definition of progress, and why, if progress...

"A ... exploration of how humans evolved to develop reason, consciousness, and free will"--Amazon.com. "Detailing our biological trajectory, Miller shows how we became the only species that could produce Mozart, da Vinci, and Darwin himself. A proper understanding of evolution, he says, reveals humankind in its glorious uniqueness--one foot planted firmly among all of the creatures we've evolved alongside, and the other in the special place of self-awareness...

"In an isolated chateau, as far north as north goes, the baron's doctor has died. The doctor's replacement has a mystery to solve: discovering how the Institute lost track of one of its many bodies. For hundreds of years the Interprovincial Medical Institute has grown by taking root in young minds and shaping them into doctors, replacing every human practitioner of medicine. The Institute is here to help humanity, to cure and to cut, to cradle and...

Published in 1872, thirteen years after On the Origin of Species, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals is devoted to documenting what Darwin believes is the genetically determined aspects of behavior. Together with The Descent of Man (1871), it sketches out Darwin's main thesis of human origins. Here he traces the animal origins of human characteristics such as pursing of the lips in concentration, tightening of the muscles around the...

Episode 4 - The Adult Brain: To Think By Feeling. A startling new map of the human brain has emerged during the past decade of neuroscience research, contradicting much of what was previously believed. Narrated by Blair Brown and directed by David Grubin, this series tells stories through a mix of personal histories, expert commentary, and cutting-edge animation. Viewers learn startling new truths about the brain as they journey inside about this...

A startling new map of the human brain has emerged during the past decade of neuroscience research, contradicting much of what was previously believed. Narrated by Blair Brown and directed by David Grubin, this series tells stories through a mix of personal histories, expert commentary, and cutting-edge animation. Viewers learn startling new truths about the brain as they journey inside about this complicated organ.

"For evolutionary biologists Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein, the cause of many modern woes is clear: the world is out of sync with humans' ancient brains and bodies. The authors cut through the disputes surrounding issues like sex, gender, diet, parenting, sleep, education, and more to outline a science-based worldview that will empower the reader to live a better, wiser life. They distill more than twenty years of research and first-hand accounts...

Bryson takes readers on a tour of his house, a rural English parsonage, showing how each room has figured in the evolution of private life.

Before the universe was formed, before time and space existed, there was ... nothing. But then ... BANG! Stars caught fire and burned so long that they exploded, flinging stardust everywhere. And the ash of those stars turned into planets. Into our Earth. And into us. In a poetic text, Marion Dane Bauer takes readers from the trillionth of a second when our universe was born to the singularities that became each one of us, while vivid illustrations...