Science - Biological

What happens when we die? Ten per cent of people whose hearts stop, and then restart, report near-death experiences. Stories of lights, tunnels and reunion with late loved ones have been relayed - and dismissed - since ancient times. But when Dr Bruce Greyson's patients started describing events that he simply could not dismiss, he began to investigate.

In After, he shares the scientific revelations of four decades of research into the dying process. He has become increasingly convinced that dying is less an ending than a transition, the threshold between one form of consciousness and another. Dr Greyson challenges us to consider what these lessons can teach us about the relationship between our brain and our mind, expanding our understanding of consciousness and of what it means to be human. This audiobook includes three bonus interviews with the author.

How much exercise do we need? Is eight hours the right amount of sleep? What is the 'average' libido? When does 'normal weight' become 'overweight' or 'obese'? And how do doctors decide if what's going on inside someone's head is normal?

When it comes to our health, what constitutes 'normal'? Who decides, and where do they draw the line? Is 'normal' the same for everyone? And if you don't tick the box marked 'normal', do you need treatment or are you simply different? In these 34 episodes, science writer and broadcaster Vivienne Parry attempts to answer these questions, and work out what 'normal' means with regard to our bodies and minds.

Talking to doctors, patients and a wealth of medical and scientific experts, she considers issues ranging from mental health and physical wellbeing to fitness, child development, parenting and sex.

Over the course of eight series, Vivienne explores topics including cancer, blood pressure, giving birth, dyslexia, drinking, depression, ageing and autism. As she tries to build up a picture of what normality looks like, she discovers that in defining 'normal', we create 'abnormal' - and that in reality, 'normal' is anything but.

This work, unsurprisingly, offers invaluable insights into the life and times of Charles Darwin, his personality and the formative influences that made him what he was. He tells of his childhood, his student days at Edinburgh and Cambridge, his love of beetles, shooting and geology, and; his grandfather, Josiah Wedgwood.

The bright lights, late nights and constant hustle of our modern world have detached us from the way we, as humans, were supposed to live, connect and thrive.

Be More Human will explore the importance of reconnecting with our natural state and help us learn how to meet our true needs and live more naturally.

Tony Riddle (@thenaturallifestylist) will explore how the majority of us do not sit, breathe, eat, sleep or move as nature intended and so we're actively going against our biology. This book will help us all to reassess our habits and tap back into our natural rhythms and ways of being to optimise our mental and physical wellbeing, reduce stress, sit correctly, breathe better and improve our quality of sleep.

Tony is committed to helping us reconnect with how we were built to live in a way that can be incorporated into our hectic, modern lifestyles. His expertise will make this a transformative, empowering and practical guide to getting back in tune with a happier, healthier self to discover physical, emotional, mental and spiritual strength and wellbeing.

We can't all live in nature, but we can all live more naturally and learn how to thrive instead of just survive.

We are a wonder of evolution. Powerful yet dextrous, instinctive yet thoughtful, we are expert communicators and innovators. Our exceptional abilities have created the civilisation we know today. But we're also deeply flawed. Our bodies break, choke and fail, whether we're kings or peasants. Diseases thwart our boldest plans. Our psychological biases have been at the root of terrible decisions in both war and peacetime. This extraordinary contradiction is the essence of what it means to be human - the sum total of our frailties and our faculties.

And history has played out in the balance between them. Now, for the first time, Lewis Dartnell tells our story through the lens of this unique, capricious and fragile nature. He explores how our biology has shaped our relationships, our societies, our economies and our wars, and how it continues to challenge and define our progress. Being Human is history made flesh. It will change the way you see the world.

From birth, genetic females are better at fighting viruses, infections and cancer. They do better at surviving epidemics and famines. They live longer, and even see the world in a wider variety of colours. These are the facts; they are simply stronger than men at every stage of life. Why? And why are we taught the opposite?

Drawing on his wide-ranging experience and cutting-edge research as a medic, geneticist and specialist in rare diseases, Dr Sharon Moalem reveals how the answer lies in our genetics: the female's double XX chromosomes offer a powerful survival advantage. And he calls for a long-overdue reconsideration of our one-size-fits-all view of the body and medicine - a view that still frames women through the lens of men.

Revolutionary, captivating and utterly persuasive, The Better Half will make you see women, men and the survival of our species anew.

What does it mean to be female? Mother, carer, the weaker sex? Think again.
In the last few decades a revolution has been brewing in zoology and evolutionary biology. Lucy Cooke introduces us to a riotous cast of animals, and the scientists studying them, that are redefining the female of the species.

Meet the female lemurs of Madagascar, our ancient primate cousins that dominate the males of their species physically and politically.

Or female albatross couples, hooking up together to raise their chicks in Hawaii.

Or the meerkat mothers of the Kalahari Desert - the most murderous mammals on the planet.

The bitches in BITCH overturn outdated binary expectations of bodies, brains, biology and behaviour. Lucy Cooke's brilliant new book will change how you think - about sex, sexual identity and sexuality in animals and also the very forces that shape evolution.

Blood is vital to most animals. In mammals it transports oxygen and food, carries away waste, and contains the white cells that attack invading microbes. Playing a central role in life, it has had profound cultural and historical significance and plays an important role in religious ritual. Blood was one of the four humours in early Western medicine and is still probably the major diagnostic tool in the doctor's armoury.

In this Very Short Introduction, Chris Cooper analyses the components of blood, explains blood groups, and looks at transfusions, blood tests, and blood-borne diseases. He considers what the future may hold, including the possibility of making artificial blood, and producing blood from stem cells in the laboratory. 

Here is the story of SARS-CoV-2 and its fierce journey through the human population, as seen by the scientists who study its origin, its ever-changing nature, and its capacity to kill us. David Quammen expertly shows how strange new viruses emerge from animals into humans as we disrupt wild ecosystems, and how those viruses adapt to their human hosts, sometimes causing global catastrophe. He explains why this coronavirus will probably be a 'forever virus,' destined to circulate among humans and bedevil us endlessly. As scientists labour to catch it, comprehend it, and control it, with their high-tech tools and methods, the virus finds ways of escape. Breathless takes us inside the frantic international effort to understand and control SARS-CoV-2 as if we were peering over the shoulders of the brilliant scientists who led the chase.

Why do so many diets lead to more weight gain? Do more active people have faster metabolisms? Is exercise essential for weight loss? Over the past twenty years, evolutionary biologist Herman Pontzer has conducted ground-breaking studies across a range of settings, including pioneering fieldwork with Hadza hunter-gatherers in northern Tanzania.

This book draws on his eye-opening research to show how, contrary to received wisdom, exercise does not increase our metabolism. Instead, we burn calories within a very narrow range: nearly 3,000 calories per day, no matter our activity level. By taking a closer look at what happens to the energy we consume, Pontzer explores the ways in which metabolism controls every aspect of our health - from fertility to immune function - and reveals the truth about the dynamic system that sustains us. Filled with facts and memorable anecdotes, Burn will change the way you think about food, exercise and life.

William Harvey’s theory on the circulation of the blood had a huge impact on anatomy and modern biology. This vivid biography shows how he drew inspiration from the world around him and features a cast of historical characters , including John Donne, Francis Bacon and Charles 1, Harvey’s patron and witness to many of his experiments.

Mental illness is one of the greatest causes of human suffering, but the reasons we bear this burden, and the nature of these diseases, have remained mysterious. Now, our understanding has reached a tipping point. In Connections, Professor Karl Deisseroth intertwines gripping case studies from his experience as an emergency psychiatry physician, with breakthrough scientific discoveries from astounding new technology. 

By linking insights from this technology to deeply moving stories of his patients and to our shared evolutionary history, Deisseroth tells a larger story about the origins of human emotion. A young woman with an eating disorder reveals how the mind can rebel against the brain's most primitive drives of hunger and thirst; an older man, smothered into silence by dementia, shows how humans evolved to feel joy and its absence; and a lonely Uyghur woman far from her homeland teaches both the importance - and challenges - of deep social bonds.

An urgent investigation into the brave new world of the microbiome and how it shapes our lives and health. The microbiome is the missing link in modern medicine: a vast genetic universe of bacteria, yeasts, viruses and parasites that live inside us, influencing every aspect of our health, even the way we think and feel. In this mindblowing book, scientist and surgeon James Kinross explains how the organisms that live within us have helped us evolve, shaped our biology and defined the success of our species.

But just as we have discovered this delicate and complex ecosystem within us, it is being irrevocably destroyed through the globalisation of our diets and lifestyles, our addiction to antibiotics, and the destruction of our environment. With dazzling science and fascinating stories spanning from the dawn of humankind to the current race to develop personalised healthcare, and practical advice on how to nurture your microbiome through your diet and lifestyle, this pioneering book will change the way you think about human health forever.

Peter Whitfield explains how Darwin came to his revolutionary views following his voyage on the Beagle, and his initial reluctance to publish his findings.

For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike - either free and equal, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a reaction to indigenous critiques of European society, and why they are wrong. In doing so, they overturn our view of human history, including the origins of farming, property, cities, democracy, slavery and civilization itself.

Drawing on path-breaking research in archaeology and anthropology, the authors show how history becomes a far more interesting place once we begin to see what's really there. If humans did not spend 95 per cent of their evolutionary past in tiny bands of hunter-gatherers, what were they doing all that time? If agriculture, and cities, did not mean a plunge into hierarchy and domination, then what kinds of social and economic organization did they lead to? The answers are often unexpected, and suggest that the course of history may be less set in stone, and more full of playful possibilities than we tend to assume.

The Dawn of Everything fundamentally transforms our understanding of the human past and offers a path toward imagining new forms of freedom, new ways of organizing society. This is a monumental book of formidable intellectual range, animated by curiosity, moral vision and faith in the power of direct action.

The Descent of Man applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details Darwin's theory of sexual selection, a form of biological adaptation distinct from, yet interconnected with, natural selection.This book presents a full explanation of Darwin's ideas, including his belief that many important characteristics of human beings and animals have emerged in response to competition for mates.

In the nineteenth century the study of geology was in its infancy and was dominated by a bitter rivalry between the two men dominating the subject. This book recreates the story of Gideon Mantell and Richard Owen.

Why do women live longer than men? Why do women have menopause? Why are women more likely to get Alzheimer's? Why do girls score better at every academic subject than boys until puberty, when suddenly their scores plummet? And does the female brain really exist? 

In Eve, Cat Bohannon answers questions scientists should have been addressing for decades. With boundless curiosity and sharp wit, she covers the past 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex.

Richard Mabey explores our landscape seeing nature as it is rather than for human convenience.

When Vanessa Potter woke up one morning blind and paralysed, she was astonished to discover that it was meditating, not drugs, that saved her, helping her on the road to recovery. Working with neuroscientists on a unique ‘citizen science’ experiment, wearing a portable EEG headset that records her brain activity, Vanessa becomes a human guinea pig, investigating whether meditation can transform her life, forever. Books on meditation normally teach us how to meditate – not what happens when we try. For the curious or sceptic alike, Vanessa provides an unusually voyeuristic and often humorous glimpse into how powerful the right practice can be.

The balance between life and death is so delicate; the heart surgeon walks that rope between the two. At the forefront of pioneering cardiac technology, Professor Steve Westaby has seen it all. This astounding memoir details some of his most remarkable cases, such as ‘the pulseless man,’ a woman who lived the nightmare of locked-in syndrome after surgery and a man whose life was powered by a battery for eight years.

By the end of this century, living beyond 100 will be the rule rather than the exception. What medical breakthroughs and new technologies will make this possible? In this brilliantly wide-ranging, one-stop guide WIRED journalist James Temperton outlines the medical revolutions that are transforming healthcare. He looks at the burgeoning immune therapies that could one day cure such life-threatening diseases as cancer. He explores the science - and ethics - of genetic engineering and its potential to create 'designer babies'. He considers the role that cutting-edge medical research could play in the treatment of mental and neurological disorders ranging from depression to autism. And he addresses the fundamental question: could medical technology become so sophisticated that we witness the end of ageing?

A vivid account by photographer Ponting of his journey with Captain Scott to the Antarctic, a voyage from which Scott did not return. The descriptions of these men's lives in harsh conditions, howling wind storms with sub zero temperatures, and the tragedy at the end is a reminder of our fragile existence in this harsh environment.

Our gut is as important as our brain or heart, yet we know very little about how it works and many of us are too embarrassed to ask questions. Here, Giulia Enders breaks this taboo, revealing the latest science on how much our digestive system has to offer. This entertaining and informative health handbook shows that we can all benefit from getting to know the wondrous world of our inner workings.

As a child Helen was determined to become a falconer. When her father dies and she is knocked sideways by grief, she becomes obsessed with the idea of training her own goshawk. She buys Mabel for £800 on a Scottish quayside and takes her home to Cambridge to embark on the long, strange business of trying to train this wildest of animals. Costa Book of the Year Winner.

No other life form on the planet has generated a brain like ours. How did a bundle of cells weighing just 1.2 kg give rise to conscious, self-aware beings capable of understanding time, language, mathematics and music, of exploring outer space and sequencing their own DNA? The answer to such questions is a 7 million year saga. How the Mind Changed is the definitive audiobook on human brain evolution: a sweeping natural history. Beginning with the first primate brain and the rise of our present-day, large human brain, it will describe the remarkable origin of our species' most mysterious organ, how it has developed, and how it will change in the future. To study the brain is to study the essence of what makes us human.

Before Bill Gates became an expert on climate science, he was known as one of the few who studied pandemics - how they start, how they spread, how they can be controlled. He warned us years ago in a now-famous TED Talk of their arrival in our future. The future, of course, is now, and now is when we have to plan against a next one.

HOW TO PREVENT THE NEXT PANDEMIC is a clear and upbeat plan of what every country, every government leader, and every individual can do in order to help prevent another pandemic, grounded in Bill's firsthand experience with the Gates Foundation's commitment to fighting Covid-19.

Where are we? Are we alone? Who are we? Why are we here? What is our future? Professor Brian Cox tackles some of the greatest questions that humans have asked to try and understand the very nature of ourselves and the Universe in which we live.

Humans have three or four colour-detecting cones in their retinas. Mantis shrimp have 16. In fact, their eyes seem to have more in common with satellite technology than with biological vision as we currently understand it. They have evolved to track movement with an acuity no other species can match by processing raw information; they may not 'see', in the human sense, at all.

Marine molluscs called chitons have eyes which are made of stone. Scorpions appear to see with their entire bodies. It isn't only vision that differs from species to species - some animals also have senses we lack entirely. Knifefish navigate by electrical charge.

An Immense World will take us on an insider's tour of the natural world by describing the biology, physics and chemistry animals use to perceive it. We may lack some of their senses, but our own super-sense lies in our ability to understand theirs. And in the face of the largest extinction event since the meteor that killed the dinosaurs, our only hope of saving other species is bound up with our ability to see what they see, and feel what they feel.

This is the dramatic story of the crisis that engulfed science and religion when we discovered the dinosaurs. It takes us into the lives and minds of the extraordinary men and women who made and grappled with these heretical discoveries, those who resisted them as well as those pioneering thinkers, Darwin most famous among them, who took great risks to construct a new account of the earth's and mankind's origins. Doing so had plunged Britain into a crisis of faith, liberated science from the authority of religion and ushered in the secular age.

Impossible Monsters is the riveting story of a group of people who not only thought impossible things but showed them to be true. In the process they revolutionised the way mankind thinks about itself, and so they changed the world.

In an age of social media and selfies, of pixel-perfect pictures and surgically-enhanced celebrities, the pressure to change our bodies can often seem overwhelming. We are told we should conceal the signs of ageing and get our bodies back after pregnancy. We ought to perfect our complexions, build our biceps, trim our waistlines, cure our disabilities, conceal our quirks. More than ever before, we should contort our physical selves to prejudiced standards of beauty and acceptability.

In this thought-provoking work, acclaimed political philosopher Clare Chambers argues that the unmodified body is a key principle of equality. While defending the right of anyone to change their bodies, she argues that the social pressure to modify sends a powerful message: you are not good enough. The body becomes a site of political importance: a place where inequalities of sex, gender, race, disability, age, and class are reinforced.

Through a clear-sighted analysis of the power dynamics that structure our society, and with examples ranging widely from body-building to breast implants, makeup to male circumcision, Intact stresses that we must break away from the oppressive forces that demand we alter our bodies. Instead, it offers a vision of the human body that is equal without expectation: an unmodified body that is not an image of perfection or a goal to be attained, but a valued end in itself.

A journey into the astonishing nature and true science of longevity

Molecular Biologist Nicklas Brendborg takes us on a journey from farthest reaches of the globe to the most cutting-edge research to explore what nature has to teach us about longevity.

From immortal lobsters, backwards-aging jellyfish, and the centuries-old Greenland shark to the woman who successfully edited her own DNA in search of immortality, Jellyfish Age Backwards brings together everything the natural world and science have to offer on the mystery of aging.

Ultimately, this audiobook will reshape everything you thought you knew about aging - and offer a Biologist's secrets to unlocking your own longevity.

Celebrated GP Dr Nighat Arif brings women's health to the forefront in this extensive guidebook designed to help everyone better understand each of the three key stages of a woman's life: the puberty years, the fertility years and the peri/menopausal years. Every step of the way, Dr Nighat will help you get to know the female body by explaining what is normal, what to expect, how to care for yourself and when to seek help. This book tackles many important topics: from the help available for people with conditions like endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome to the symptoms of heart disease to look out for in women.

The Knowledge is for everyone - and this book encompasses all experiences, including the perspectives of women of colour, people of all abilities and cultures, and the transgender community to ensure that all groups affected by female health concerns are a part of vital conversations.

Told through an examination of animal and plant life, this is David Attenborough’s astonishing celebration of the evolution of life on earth, with a cast of characters drawn from the whole range of organisms that have ever lived on this planet. His perceptive, dynamic approach to the evolution of millions of species of living organisms takes the reader on an unforgettable journey of discovery, from the very first spark of life to the blue and green wonder we know today.

Every second of the day, tiny biological clocks are ticking throughout your body, from the neural pathways of your brain to your very cells. But modern life is disrupting this ancient and delicate mechanism in ways we are only just beginning to understand. Artificial light, jet lag, night shifts, air pollution, and out-of-sync work and meal routines are conspiring to push us out of joint. This is not only exacerbating mental health issues such as depression and fatigue, but also increasing the risk of obesity, heart disease, dementia and even cancer.

In Life Time, Professor Russell Foster, a world-leading expert on circadian neuroscience, takes us on a fascinating journey through our days and nights. Using surprising examples and cutting-edge science, he busts long-standing myths about the best daily routine: from how to use light for a better night's sleep to using meal times to supercharge your metabolism, from the optimal time to have sex for conception to the extraordinary effects the time we take medication can have on our risk of life-threatening conditions such as strokes.

Holistic yet accessible, Professor Foster helps each of us achieve the optimum natural routine with insight into:

- How to sleep and wake in your natural rhythm from birth to old age
- The natural time to eat to supercharge your metabolism
- How medicating at certain times of day can improve immunity

After losing four pregnancies with no obvious cause Jennie Agg set out to understand why miscarriage remains such a profoundly misunderstood under-researched and under-acknowledged experience. Part-memoir part-scientific investigation Life Almost documents Agg's path to motherhood and her search for answers. Tracing each tentative step of her fifth pregnancy - as her body becomes a creature she does not wish to spook - Agg dismantles the myths that we unquestioningly accept about our reproductive lives:

A Why are we told miscarriage can't be prevented when half of all miscarriages are of perfectly healthy embryos?

A Why is it normal not to tell anyone you're pregnant for the first three months?

A Why don't we know why labour starts?

Drawing on pioneering research and interviews with world-leading experts Life Almost is a ground-breaking book that will change how you think about miscarriage and a moving reflection on grief and love at the edge of life as we understand it.