Tag Archives: biology

She Has Her Mother’s Laugh

Posted on January 8, 2019 by smellincoffee

She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity© 2018 Carl Zimmer672 pages Overhearing discussion of heredity a few hundred years ago would have meant only one thing:  being in the presence of noblemen, who stood to … Continue reading →

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A Crack in Creation

Posted on July 11, 2018 by smellincoffee

A Crack in Creation:  Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution© 2017 Jennifer Doudna and Sam Sternberg “No longer at the mercy of the reptile brain, we can change ourselves. Think of the possibilities.” – Carl Sagan A … Continue reading →

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This Is Your Brain on Parasites

Posted on March 7, 2018 by smellincoffee

This is Your Brain on Parasites: How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Brains and Shape Society© 2016 Kathleen McAuliffe299 pages Are you under the influence?  There’s a chance that you may be, even if you haven’t darkened the door of a … Continue reading →

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Gut

Posted on February 28, 2018 by smellincoffee

Gut: The Inside Story Of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ© 2015 Giulia Enders271 pages Through the teeth, past the gums, look out stomach, here we come! Gut is a tour of your innards, of the surprisingly clean but bustling twists … Continue reading →

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I Contain Multitudes

Posted on October 27, 2017 by smellincoffee

I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes WIthin Us and a Grander View of Life © 2016 Ed Yong 268 pages For much of the 20th century, microbes were equivalent with germs – invisible threats that needed to eradicated.  As we move … Continue reading →

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A Devil’s Chaplain

Posted on September 6, 2017 by smellincoffee

A Devil’s Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love© 2003 Richard Dawkins263 pages Charles Darwin mused that a devil’s chaplain might write quite a book on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering low, and horridly cruel works of nature.  A Devil’s … Continue reading →

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A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science

Posted on January 31, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Canon: A whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science© 2007 Natalie Angier293 pages Science is amazing! Why is so much of the writing about it so lame?   Natalie Angier’s The Canon first reviews the principles of scientific thinking … Continue reading →

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TBR: And Then There was One

Posted on July 12, 2016 by smellincoffee

Dear readers,  we approach the end for the To be Read Takedown Challenge! Richard Francis’ Domesticated: Evolution in a Man-Made World proved disappointing, not because of the quality of content but the focus thereof.  Although Domesticated sells itself as a … Continue reading →

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10% Human

Posted on July 11, 2016 by smellincoffee

10% Human: How Your Body’s Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness© 2015 Alanna Collen336 pages Walt Whitman wasn’t thinking of bacteria when he mused — “I am large, I contain multitudes” — but Alanna Collen could have gotten … Continue reading →

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The Wild Weird World of Biology

Posted on February 22, 2016 by smellincoffee

So, it turns out The Lives of a Cell has little to do with cells.  I checked it out figuring to learn something about how cells work, since I’m a ways removed from fifth-grade life science, or even freshman bio.  I … Continue reading →

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