Charles Darwin (18091882) published in 1859 a vastly important work: On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Darwin in 1858 had coauthored (with Alfred Russel Wallace) the theory of natural selection, which says that "favourable (biological) variations tend to be preserved." In the struggle for existence, the fit are not those who survive but those who reproduce. Natural selection also leads to diversification as different organisms adapt to particular ecological circumstances. Darwin said all biological similarities and differences are caused by "descent with modification." He concluded that all organisms are descended from at most four or five ancestors, and perhaps only one. Evolution is the name for this biological process that (according to modern molecular biology) goes back to one common ancestor 31/2 billion years ago.
Cosmos is one of the bestselling science books of all time. In clear-eyed prose, Sagan reveals a jewel-like blue world inhabited by a life form that is just beginning to discover its own identity and to venture into the vast ocean of space. Featurin...
What is the nature of space and time? How do we fit within the universe? How does the universe fit within us? Theres no better guide through these mind-expanding questions than acclaimed astrophysicist and bestselling author Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Bu...
Narrator: Neil deGrasse Tyson Published: 05/02/2017
New York Times BestsellerA Summer Reading Pick for President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestsellerR...
A thrilling and accessible tour of the cosmos
Our true origins are not just human, or even terrestrial, but in fact cosmic. Drawing on scientific breakthroughs and the current cross-pollination among geology, biology, astrophysics, and cosmology, O...
FROM ONE OF THE MOST BRILLIANT MINDS OF OUR TIME COMES A BOOK THAT CLARIFIES HIS MOST IMPORTANT IDEAS Stephen Hawking’s worldwide bestseller A Brief History of Time remains a landmark volume in scientific writing. But for readers who ha...
Now a major motion picture from HBO® starring Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne.Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells&mdas...
Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity’s future, and our ques...
Simon Winchester, New York Times bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman, examines the legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa, which was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly forty thousand people. T...
A fascinating exploration of how computer algorithms can be applied to our everyday lives, helping to solve common decision-making problems and illuminate the workings of the human mindAll our lives are constrained by limited space and time, limits ...
