Matthew Cobb Book order

The thrilling and terrifying history of genetic engineering In 2018, scientists manipulated the DNA of human babies for the first time. As biologist and historian Matthew Cobb shows in As Gods, this achievement was one many scientists have feared from the start of the genetic age. Four times in the last fifty years, geneticists, frightened by their own technology, have called a temporary halt to their experiments. They ought to be frightened: Now we have powers that can target the extinction of pests, change our own genes, or create dangerous new versions of diseases in an attempt to prevent future pandemics. Both awe-inspiring and chilling, As Gods traces the history of genetic engineering, showing that this revolutionary technology is far too important to be left to the scientists. They have the power to change life itself, but should we trust them to keep their ingenuity from producing a hellish reality?

In this masterful account, a historian of science surveys the molecular biology revolution and its lasting impact. Since the 1930s, a molecular vision has been transforming biology. The author provides an incisive history of this transformation, from early attempts to explain organisms through their chemical components to the birth and consolidation of genetics, and the latest technologies enabled by this new science of life. Revisiting previous analyses, the author offers fresh insights from the past two decades. The narrative reveals that the remarkable transformation of biology resulted not from a simple accumulation of new results, but from the molecularization of a significant portion of the field. The greatest biological achievements of recent decades remain rooted in the molecular paradigm. Rather than being displaced by other techniques, molecular biology has fused with genetics, physics, structural chemistry, and computational biology, leading to decisive changes. These include the discovery of regulatory RNAs, large-scale scientific initiatives like human genome sequencing, and the rise of synthetic biology, systems biology, and epigenetics. Original, persuasive, and expansive in scope, this work sets a new standard for understanding the ongoing molecular revolution.

Matthew Cobb explores the sense of smell - its complex evolutionary history, and its many functions in a wide variety of animals, including humans. He describes the latest scientific research into this remarkable faculty, involving the brain as much as the nose, and reveals surprising insights into animal and human life.

Shortlisted for the 2020 Baillie Gifford PrizeThis is the story of our quest to understand the most mysterious object in the universe: the human brain.Today we tend to picture it as a computer. Earlier scientists thought about it in their own technological terms: as a telephone switchboard, or a clock, or all manner of fantastic mechanical or hydraulic devices. Could the right metaphor unlock the its deepest secrets once and for all?Galloping through centuries of wild speculation and ingenious, sometimes macabre anatomical investigations, scientist and historian Matthew Cobb reveals how we came to our present state of knowledge. Our latest theories allow us to create artificial memories in the brain of a mouse, and to build AI programmes capable of extraordinary cognitive feats. A complete understanding seems within our grasp.But to make that final breakthrough, we may need a radical new approach. At every step of our quest, Cobb shows that it was new ideas that brought illumination. Where, he asks, might the next one come from? What will it be?

This thrilling account shows how discovering DNA has fundamentally influenced the way we think of life and affected every aspect of our lives. Now available in paperback.

A gripping and insightful history of the French Resistance and the men and women who opposed Nazi occupation during World War II.