Brave New Humans

Author: Sarah Dingle
Publisher: Hardie Grant Publishing
ISBN: 1743587503
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 402

Book Description
An astonishing real-life whodunnit and investigative exposé, Brave New Humans reveals the uncomfortable realities of assisted reproduction and its very human fallout. Journalist Sarah Dingle was 27 when she learnt that her identity was a lie. Over dinner one night, her mother casually mentioned Sarah had been conceived using a sperm donor. The man who’d raised Sarah wasn’t her father; in fact, she had no idea who her father was. Or who she really was. As the shock receded, Sarah put her professional skills to work and began to investigate her own existence. Thus began a ten-year journey to understand who she was – digging through hospital records, chasing leads and taking a DNA test – that finally led her to her biological origins. What she discovered along the way was shocking: hospital records routinely destroyed, trading of eggs and sperm, women dead, donors exploited, and hundreds of thousands of donor-conceived people globally who will never know who they are. But there’s one thing this industry hasn’t banked on: the children of the baby business taking on their makers. In a profoundly personal way, Brave New Humans shines a light on the global fertility business today – a booming and largely unregulated industry that takes a startlingly lax approach to huge ethical concerns, not least our fundamental human need to know who we are, and where we come from. Now an SBS documentary: Inconceivable: The Secret Business of Breeding Humans.

Brief Candles. Four Stories.

Author: Aldous Huxley
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
ISBN: 1479457590
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 249

Book Description
Brief Candles (1930), Aldous Huxley's fifth collection of short fiction, consists of the following four short stories: "Chawdron" "The Rest Cure" "The Claxtons" "After the Fireworks" Brief Candles takes its title from a line in William Shakespeare's Macbeth, from Macbeth's famous soliloquy: "Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Around the World in 80 Spiritual Places

Author: Alice Peck
Publisher: Ryland Peters & Small
ISBN: 1800651503
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Book Description
Discover some of the world's most awe-inspiring and holy places, from Stonehenge to Uluru, and Walden Pond to Angkor Wat. Humans have always searched for and created meaning in the world around them, whether in breathtakingly stunning natural features and phenomena, acknowledging the ancient home of a particular faith or movement, or honouring the location of a significant event. In this beautifully illustrated guide, Alice Peck discusses what makes a place spiritual – whether reaches of time, geography, the provision of sustenance or inspiration, or mystery and magic – and then explores 80 such locations around the globe. Rather than a comprehensive travel guide, the description of each one includes a detail or tip – something beautiful, strange, relatively unknown or unfamiliar – to allow readers to deepen their focus and perhaps experience the place in a different way than they might expect. If you are unable to travel at this time, this book will help you plan your next adventure. And if you are trying to limit your carbon footprint, each destination is accompanied by a related meditation, prayer, practice or quotation to help you connect to the spirit of it from your own home.

Brave New World

Author: Aldous Huxley
Publisher: Rosetta Books
ISBN: 0795311257
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 246

Book Description
This classic novel of a perfectly engineered society is “one of the most prophetic dystopian works of the twentieth century” (The Wall Street Journal). Half a millennium from now, in the World State, the watchword is that every one belongs to every one else. No matter what class of human you are bred to be—from the intellectual Alphas to the Epsilons who provide the manual labor—you are a part of the efficient, well-oiled whole. You are nourished, secure, and blissfully serene thanks to the freely distributed drug called soma. And while sex is strongly encouraged, the old way of procreation is forbidden, eliminating even the pains of childbirth. But when a man and woman journey beyond these confines to where the “savages” reside, and bring back two outsiders, the cracks begin to show. Named as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the twentieth century by the Modern Library, Brave New World is one of the first truly dystopian novels. Influenced by the historic events of Huxley’s era yet as relevant today as ever, it is a remarkable depiction of the conflict between progress and the human spirit. “Chilling. . . . That he gave us the dark side of genetic engineering in 1932 is amazing.” —Providence Journal-Bulletin “It is a frightening experience, indeed, to discover how much of his satirical prediction of a distant future became reality in so short a time.” —The New York Times Book Review

Uprooted

Author: Peter J. Boni
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group
ISBN: 1626349088
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 313

Book Description
How a journey of self-discovery unearthed the scandalous evolution of artificial insemination By his forties, Peter J. Boni was an accomplished CEO, with a specialty in navigating high-tech companies out of hot water. Just before his fiftieth birthday, Peter’s seventy-five-year-old mother unveiled a bombshell: His deceased father was not biological. Peter was conceived in 1945 via an anonymous sperm donor. The emotional upheaval upon learning that he was “misattributed” rekindled traumas long past and fueled his relentless research to find his genealogy. Over two decades, he gained an encyclopedic knowledge of the scientific, legal, and sociological history of reproductive technology as well as its practices, advances, and consequences. Through twenty-first century DNA analysis, Peter finally quenched his thirst for his origin. In Uprooted, Peter J. Boni intimately shares his personal odyssey and acquired expertise to spotlight the free market methods of gamete distribution that conceives dozens, sometimes hundreds, of unknowing half-siblings from a single donor. This thought-provoking book reveals the inner workings—and secrets—of the multibillion-dollar fertility industry, resulting in a richly detailed account of an ethical aspect of reproductive science that, until now, has not been so thoroughly explored.

Saturdays at Noon

Author: Rachel Marks
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 1405940085
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 432

Book Description
Discover the emotionally gripping and uplifting page-turner that will put a smile on your face 'Heart-breaking and full of hope' WOMAN & HOME 'Wonderful, compassionate, unpredictable' GRAEME SIMSION, author of THE ROSIE PROJECT 'I genuinely couldn't recommend Saturdays At Noon enough' 5***** READER REVIEW ________ EMILY JUST WANTS TO KEEP THE WORLD AWAY. After getting into trouble yet again, she's agreed to attend anger management classes. But she refuses to share her deepest secrets with a room full of strangers. JAKE JUST WANTS TO KEEP HIS FAMILY TOGETHER. He'll do anything to save his marriage and bond with his six-year-old son, Alfie. But when he's paired with spiky Emily, he wonders whether opening up will do more harm than good. The two of them couldn't be more different. Yet when Alfie, who never likes strangers, meets Emily, something extraordinary happens. COULD ONE SMALL BOY CHANGE EVERYTHING? _________ 'Totally loveable and completely unforgettable' CLAIRE POOLEY 'I loved this book' KATIE FFORDE Readers LOVE Saturdays at Noon . . . 'Such a special book . . . the characters jump off the page and pull you immediately into their world' 5***** Reader Review 'This book was FANTASTIC. When I wasn't reading it I couldn't stop thinking about it' 5***** Reader Review 'Outstanding. I have goosebumps typing this review . . . The story telling is the best I have read in a long time' 5***** Reader Review Longlisted for the Guardian's 'Not The Booker' prize!

Consumer's Guide to a Brave New World

Author: Wesley J. Smith
Publisher: Encounter Books
ISBN: 1594034265
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 239

Book Description
" Scare headlines about the first human clones appear in our newspapers. Biotech companies brag about manufacturing human embryos as "products" for use in medical treatments. Events are moving so fast—and biotechnology seems so complicated—that many of us worry we can’t keep up. But now, Wesley J. Smith provides us with a guide to the brave new world that is no longer a figment of our imagination, but a reality just around the corner of our lives. Smith unravels the mystery of stem cells and shows what’s at stake in the controversy over using them for research. He describes the emerging science of human cloning—the most radical technology in history—and shows how it moves forward inexorably against the moral consensus of the world. But at the core of this highly readable and carefully researched book is a report on the gargantuan "Big Biotech" industry and its supporters in the universities and the science and bioethics establishments. Smith reveals how the lure of huge riches, mixed with the ideology of "scientism," threatens to impose on society a "new eugenics" that would dismantle ethical norms and call into question the uniqueness and importance of all human life. "At stake," he warns, "is whether science will continue to serve society, or instead dominate it." In Consumer’s Guide to a Brave New World, Smith presents a clear-eyed vision of two potential futures. In one, we will use biotechnology as a powerful tool to treat disease and improve the quality of our lives. But in another, darker scenario, we will be steered onto the antihuman path that Aldous Huxley and other prophetic writers warned against half a century ago. "

Evolving Human Nutrition

Author: Stanley J. Ulijaszek
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521869161
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 415

Book Description
Exploration of changing human nutrition from evolutionary and social perspectives and its influence on health and disease, past and present.

The Scientific American Brave New Brain

Author: Judith Horstman
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470602813
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Book Description
This fascinating and highly accessible book presents fantastic but totally feasible projections of what your brain may be capable of in the near future. It shows how scientific breakthroughs and amazing research are turning science fiction into science fact. In this brave new book, you'll explore: How partnerships between biological sciences and technology are helping the deaf hear, the blind see, and the paralyzed communicate. How our brains can repair and improve themselves, erase traumatic memories How we can stay mentally alert longer—and how we may be able to halt or even reverse Alzheimers How we can control technology with brain waves, including prosthetic devices, machinery, computers—and even spaceships or clones. Insights into how science may cure fatal diseases, and improve our intellectual and physical productivity Judith Horstman presents a highly informative and entertaining look at the future of your brain, based on articles from Scientific American and Scientific American Mind magazines, and the work of today’s visionary neuroscientists.

Frankenstein's Cat

Author: Emily Anthes
Publisher: Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 142994952X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

Book Description
Winner of 2014 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Best Young Adult Science Book Longlisted for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award One of Nature's Summer Book Picks One of Publishers Weekly's Top Ten Spring 2013 Science Books For centuries, we've toyed with our creature companions, breeding dogs that herd and hunt, housecats that look like tigers, and teacup pigs that fit snugly in our handbags. But what happens when we take animal alteration a step further, engineering a cat that glows green under ultraviolet light or cloning the beloved family Labrador? Science has given us a whole new toolbox for tinkering with life. How are we using it? In Frankenstein's Cat, the journalist Emily Anthes takes us from petri dish to pet store as she explores how biotechnology is shaping the future of our furry and feathered friends. As she ventures from bucolic barnyards to a "frozen zoo" where scientists are storing DNA from the planet's most exotic creatures, she discovers how we can use cloning to protect endangered species, craft prosthetics to save injured animals, and employ genetic engineering to supply farms with disease-resistant livestock. Along the way, we meet some of the animals that are ushering in this astonishing age of enhancement, including sensor-wearing seals, cyborg beetles, a bionic bulldog, and the world's first cloned cat. Through her encounters with scientists, conservationists, ethicists, and entrepreneurs, Anthes reveals that while some of our interventions may be trivial (behold: the GloFish), others could improve the lives of many species-including our own. So what does biotechnology really mean for the world's wild things? And what do our brave new beasts tell us about ourselves? With keen insight and her trademark spunk, Anthes highlights both the peril and the promise of our scientific superpowers, taking us on an adventure into a world where our grandest science fiction fantasies are fast becoming reality.