Evolving ourselves : how unnatural selection and nonrandom mutation are changing life on earth Cover Image

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Evolving ourselves : how unnatural selection and nonrandom mutation are changing life on earth / Juan Enriquez and Steve Gullans.

Enriquez, Juan, 1959- (author.). Gullans, Steve, (author.).

Summary:

Though these harbingers of change are deeply unsettling, the authors argue that we are also in an epoch of tremendous opportunity. New advances in biotechnology help us mitigate the cruel forces of natural selection, from saving prematurely born babies to gene therapies for sickle cell anemia and other conditions. As technology enables us to take control of our genes, we will be able to alter our own species and many others--a good thing, given that our eventual survival will require space travel and colonization, enabled by a fundamental redesign of our bodies. Future humans could become great caretakers of the planet, as well as a more diverse, more resilient, gentler, and more intelligent species--but only if we make the right choices now.

Record details

ISBN: 9781617230202
ISBN: 1617230200
Physical Description: ix, 371 pages ; 24 cm
Publisher: New York, New York : Current, [2015]

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 285-352) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

What would Darwin write today? -- Symptoms of real-time evolution -- Is autism a harbinger of our changing brains? -- The DarWa Theory revisited...and a glimpse at a new theory -- Twenty generations to domesticate humans -- Violence and the lack thereof -- Allergies : another harbinger of our evolving bodies? -- Our unnatural "all-natural" world -- Fat humans, fat animals : another symptom? -- Brave new sex -- How does evolution really work now? -- The nature versus nurture wars -- Missing heredity, mysterious toxins -- Transgenerational inheritance : aka "voodoo biology" -- WWIV : nuking our microbes -- The "yucky" stuff inside you -- Autism revisited : three potential drivers -- Viruses : the roadrunners of evolution -- A perfectly modern pregnancy -- Bringing it all together : destiny is propelling evolution -- A world of nonrandom mutation -- Playing with the building blocks of life -- Humans hijacking viruses -- Editing life on a grand scale -- Unnatural acts, designer babies, and sex 2.0 -- Boyden brains -- Evolving ourselves... -- Better living through chemistry -- Forever young, beautiful, and fearless? -- Unnatural attraction -- Sports quandaries and beyond... -- Designer organs and cloned humans -- Evolving brains revisited -- The robot-computer-human interface -- Perhaps an ethical question or two? -- Technically life, technically death -- Trust whom? -- The future of life -- I don't remember you...de-extinction -- Humanity's really short story -- Evolving hominins... -- Synthetic life -- Humans and hubris : does nature win in the end? -- Leaving Earth? -- Epilogue -- New evolutionary trees -- Appendix. Darwin, true or false : did he get it right?