The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History Of Life
- Autor: David Quammen
- Narrador: Jacques Roy
- Editora: Simon & Schuster
- Duração: 13:48:20
Sinopse
Longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction
Nonpareil science writer David Quammen explains how recent discoveries in molecular biology can change our understanding of evolution and life’s history, with powerful implications for human health and even our own human nature.
In the mid-1970s, scientists began using DNA sequences to reexamine the history of all life. Perhaps the most startling discovery to come out of this new field—the study of life’s diversity and relatedness at the molecular level—is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or the movement of genes across species lines. It turns out that HGT has been widespread and important. For instance, we now know that roughly eight percent of the human genome arrived not through traditional inheritance from directly ancestral forms, but sideways by viral infection—a type of HGT.
In The Tangled Tree David Quammen, “one of that rare breed of science journalists who blends exploration with a talent for synthesis and storytelling” (Nature), chronicles these discoveries through the lives of the researchers who made them—such as Carl Woese, the most important little-known biologist of the twentieth century; Lynn Margulis, the notorious maverick whose wild ideas about “mosaic” creatures proved to be true; and Tsutomu Wantanabe, who discovered that the scourge of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a direct result of horizontal gene transfer, bringing the deep study of genome histories to bear on a global crisis in public health.
“Quammen is no ordinary writer. He is simply astonishing, one of that rare class of writer gifted with verve, ingenuity, humor, guts, and great heart” (Elle). Now, in The Tangled Tree, he explains how molecular studies of evolution have brought startling recognitions about the tangled tree of life—including where we humans fit upon it. Thanks to new technologies such as CRISPR, we now have the ability to alter even our genetic composition—through sideways insertions, as nature has long been doing. The Tangled Tree is a brilliant guide to our transformed understanding of evolution, of life’s history, and of our own human nature.
Capítulos
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TangledTree 001 Open
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TangledTree 002 Introduction
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TangledTree 003 Pt1 Ch1
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TangledTree 004 Ch2
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TangledTree 005 Ch3
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TangledTree 006 Ch4
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TangledTree 007 Ch5
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TangledTree 008 Ch6
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TangledTree 009 Ch7
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TangledTree 010 Ch8
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TangledTree 011 Pt2 Ch9
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TangledTree 012 Ch 10
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TangledTree 013 Ch11
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TangledTree 014 Ch12
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TangledTree 015 Ch13
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TangledTree 016 Ch14
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TangledTree 017 Ch15
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TangledTree 018 Ch16
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TangledTree 020 Ch18
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