Here is a sample of biology- and biotechnology-related books that are new to Gleeson Library. To view additional titles, see New Biology Books and New Biotechnology Books on the library website.
Our Future Is Biotech: A Plain English Guide to the Next Tech Revolution
“Our Future is Biotech” posits biotechnology as the next revolutionary industry, poised to address humanity’s most pressing biological challenges. The book highlights biotech’s potential to solve major health issues, enhance quality of life, and tackle environmental problems. It showcases the industry’s achievements in developing breakthrough treatments and emphasizes its future impact on various aspects of human existence. The authors aim to raise awareness about biotech’s progress and opportunities, positioning it as the successor to the tech revolution in driving human advancement and offering potential for investment.
The Genetic Book of the Dead: A Darwinian Reverie
Richard Dawkins’ new book presents a novel perspective on living organisms, viewing them as documents describing ancient worlds. He argues that an animal’s body, behavior, and genes can be read like a book, revealing its ancestral history. This approach allows scientists to decode the evolutionary past of species, uncovering how they adapted to their environments and developed similar solutions to life’s challenges. Dawkins illustrates this concept with examples like a camouflaged lizard whose skin “paints” its ancestral landscape. The book offers a groundbreaking exploration of Darwinian evolution’s power to illuminate the past, providing a vivid and nuanced view of evolutionary history.
The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human
“The Song of the Cell” by Siddhartha Mukherjee is a critically acclaimed book that explores the history and significance of cellular biology. It traces the discovery of cells in the 1600s by Robert Hooke and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, and how this revolutionized our understanding of living organisms. Mukherjee explains how cells form the basis of human physiology and how cellular dysfunction leads to various diseases. The book also delves into modern cellular therapies and their potential to transform medicine. With vivid storytelling and scientific depth, Mukherjee presents a comprehensive view of cellular biology and its impact on human health.
The Catalyst: RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life’s Deepest Secrets
“The Catalyst” by Thomas R. Cech highlights RNA’s pivotal role in biology, challenging DNA’s dominance as the “secret of life.” The book explores RNA’s significance in life’s origins, human uniqueness, and health. Cech traces RNA’s journey from a passive DNA servant to a central player in cellular reactions. He discusses its involvement in aging, diseases, and groundbreaking therapies like CRISPR and mRNA vaccines. The author presents RNA as key to understanding life’s mysteries and shaping the future of medicine, offering insights into potential life-extending technologies.
Into the Great Wide Ocean: Life in the Least Known Habitat on Earth
“Into the Great Wide Ocean” explores the mysterious world of open ocean life and the scientists who study it. Sönke Johnsen describes how marine organisms adapt to unique challenges like darkness, pressure, and finding food and mates in this vast environment. The book highlights the diverse creatures inhabiting this realm, from giant squid to bioluminescent anglerfish. Johnsen intertwines scientific insights with personal stories of researchers, emphasizing the joys and difficulties of studying this alien world. The author also addresses the threats facing this ecosystem due to human activity, underlining the urgency of understanding and preserving this crucial part of Earth’s biosphere.
Infinite Life: The Revolutionary Story of Eggs, Evolution, and Life on Earth
“Infinite Life” by Jules Howard explores the often-overlooked significance of eggs in Earth’s biological history. Eggs are the origin of 90% of Earth’s organisms, found from deep-sea volcanoes to space. Howard argues that eggs deserve more attention in evolutionary studies, as they can provide unique insights into Earth’s history and natural selection. The book examines eggs from their earliest forms to fossilized discoveries, covering topics like yolk evolution, dinosaur eggshells, and animals that both lay eggs and give birth to live young. Through this comprehensive exploration, Howard highlights the diversity and impact of eggs on life on Earth.
Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death
Nick Lane’s “Transformer” explores the Krebs cycle, a fundamental metabolic process, as the key to understanding life and death. The book challenges the focus on genetic information in biology, emphasizing the importance of our inherited metabolic network. Lane argues that the same simple chemistry driving the Krebs cycle both sustains life and leads to our demise. He investigates how this cycle, operating in reverse, created the building blocks for life’s origin, while its forward operation powers our cells and contributes to aging. “Transformer” connects cellular metabolism to broader questions about life’s origin, aging, and consciousness, presenting metabolism as the deep logic underlying biological phenomena.
Life As No One Knows It: The Physics of Life’s Emergence
“Life as No One Knows It” by Sara Imari Walker presents a groundbreaking scientific theory on the nature and emergence of life. Walker argues that current definitions of life are inadequate and proposes a new paradigm to understand life’s origins and potential forms beyond Earth. The book explores the work of innovative scientists tackling this complex problem and introduces a novel theory for identifying and classifying life universally. Walker’s approach aims to bridge the gap between physics and biology, offering a fresh perspective on one of science’s most challenging questions.
Slippery Beast: A True Crime Natural History, with Eels
Ellen Ruppel Shell’s “Slippery Beast” explores the enigmatic world of eels, blending true crime, natural history, and economics. The book delves into the eel’s 200-million-year history, their recent population decline, and their culinary appeal as unagi. Shell investigates the mysterious life cycle of eels, their valuable elvers, and the billion-dollar illegal trade surrounding them. She follows the eel’s journey from Maine to the Sargasso Sea, uncovering poaching operations and exploring potential solutions like America’s first commercial eel farm. This captivating narrative offers a unique perspective on an often-overlooked creature that reveals as much about human nature as it does about eels themselves.
“The Light Eaters” by Zoë Schlanger explores the hidden world of plants, revealing their remarkable abilities to communicate, remember, and adapt. This groundbreaking work challenges our understanding of intelligence and consciousness in the plant kingdom. Schlanger takes readers on a global journey, examining cutting-edge botanical research and the scientists behind it. The book highlights plants’ ingenious survival methods, from mimicry to social behavior, and questions our place in the natural hierarchy. It also delves into the ethical implications of these discoveries, prompting readers to reconsider their relationship with the green world. This critically acclaimed bestseller offers a fresh perspective on plant life, blending scientific insight with captivating storytelling.
Book summaries composed with AI-assistance.