Carl Zimmer Knihy

Pohled do světa nejnebezpečnějších tvorů planety Celá staletí byli paraziti většinou jen součástí našich úděsných snů, hororových vyprávění a temných zákoutí vědy. Teprve Carl Zimmer, autor oceněný řadou cen, podnikl fantastickou cestu do tajemného světa parazitů a odhalil nám jejich podivuhodný svět. Jeho čtivě napsaná kniha, první svého druhu u nás, shrnuje nejnovější a nejzajímavější přínos moderní parazitologie. Ukazuje nám svět, v němž paraziti ovládají mysl svých hostitelů. Svět, v němž jsou mistry chemické války a kamufláže. Svět, v němž paraziti zásadně ovlivňují evoluci. Svět, v němž jsou vlastně převládajícími druhy.

Kniha Jak se duše stala tělem je pozoruhodný, dosud nepopsaný příběh vyprávějící o dramatickém historickém zvratu - vzrušujícím objevu funkce lidského mozku. Autor vypráví o objevování mozku v Anglii 17. století, příběh, který se odvíjí ve smrtící perspektivě občanské války, moru a velkého londýnského požáru. Na počátku tohoto století nikdo nevěděl, jak mozek funguje, nikdo neměl ponětí, jak vypadá v nedotčeném stavu. Na konci století věda o mozku zapustila kořeny. Pomohla překonat většinu běžných mylných představ a převládajících filosofií týkajících se lidí, Boha a vesmíru.

"Celebrated New York Times columnist and science writer Carl Zimmer presents a profoundly original perspective on what we pass along from generation to generation. Charles Darwin played a crucial part in turning heredity into a scientific question, and yet he failed spectacularly to answer it. The birth of genetics in the early 1900s seemed to do precisely that. Gradually, people translated their old notions about heredity into a language of genes. As the technology for studying genes became cheaper, millions of people ordered genetic tests to link themselves to missing parents, to distant ancestors, to ethnic identities ... But, Zimmer writes, 'Each of us carries an amalgam of fragments of DNA, stitched together from some of our many ancestors. Each piece has its own ancestry, traveling a different path back through human history. A particular fragment may sometimes be cause for worry, but most of our DNA influences who we are--our appearance, our height, our penchants--in inconceivably subtle ways.' Heredity isn't just about genes that pass from parent to child. Heredity continues within our own bodies, as a single cell gives rise to trillions of cells that make up our bodies. We say we inherit genes from our ancestors--using a word that once referred to kingdoms and estates--but we inherit other things that matter as much or more to our lives, from microbes to technologies we use to make life more comfortable. We need a new definition of what heredity is and, through Carl Zimmer's lucid exposition and storytelling, this resounding tour de force delivers it. Weaving historical and current scientific research, his own experience with his two daughters, and the kind of original reporting expected of one of the world's best science journalists, Zimmer ultimately unpacks urgent bioethical quandaries arising from new biomedical technologies, but also long-standing presumptions about who we really are and what we can pass on to future generations"--Publisher's website

Celebrated science writer Carl Zimmer's classic book, updated in a new edition, is an eye-opening look at Covid-19 and the many other viruses that shape our planet and ourselves.

Award-winning writer, columnist, and journalists Carl Zimmer selects twenty science and nature essays that represent the best examples of the form published in 2022. A collection of the best science and nature articles written in 2022, selected by guest editor Carl Zimmer and series editor Jaime Green.

Carl Zimmer tells the story of the theory of evolution from Darwin's journey on the Beagle to the controversies of modern evolutionary theory, the understanding of the lethal resurgence of antibiotic resistant diseases and the wave of species extinctions that face us today. schovat popis

A Best Book of the YearSeed Magazine • Granta Magazine • The Plain-DealerIn this fascinating and utterly engaging book, Carl Zimmer traces E. coli's pivotal role in the history of biology, from the discovery of DNA to the latest advances in biotechnology. He reveals the many surprising and alarming parallels between E. coli's life and our own. And he describes how E. coli changes in real time, revealing billions of years of history encoded within its genome. E. coli is also the most engineered species on Earth, and as scientists retool this microbe to produce life-saving drugs and clean fuel, they are discovering just how far the definition of life can be stretched.

In this unprecedented history of a scientific revolution, award-winning author and journalist Carl Zimmer tells the definitive story of the dawn of the age of the brain and modern consciousness. Told here for the first time, the dramatic tale of how the secrets of the brain were discovered in seventeenth-century England unfolds against a turbulent backdrop of civil war, the Great Fire of London, and plague. At the beginning of that chaotic century, no one knew how the brain worked or even what it looked like intact. But by the century's close, even the most common conceptions and dominant philosophies had been completely overturned, supplanted by a radical new vision of man, God, and the universe.Presiding over the rise of this new scientific paradigm was the founder of modern neurology, Thomas Willis, a fascinating, sympathetic, even heroic figure at the center of an extraordinary group of scientists and philosophers known as the Oxford circle. Chronicled here in vivid detail are their groundbreaking revelations and the often gory experiments that first enshrined the brain as the physical seat of intelligence -- and the seat of the human soul. Soul Made Flesh conveys a contagious appreciation for the brain, its structure, and its many marvelous functions, and the implications for human identity, mind, and morality.

"We all assume we know what life is, but the more scientists learn about the living world-from protocells to brains, from zygotes to pandemic viruses-the harder they find it is to locate life's edge"--. Provided by publisher

"Body art meets popular science in this elegant, mind-blowing collection, written by renowned science writer Carl Zimmer. This fascinating book showcases hundreds of eye-catching tattoos that pay tribute to various scientific disciplines, from evolutionary biology and neuroscience to mathematics and astrophysics and reveals the stories of the individuals who chose to inscribe their obsessions in their skin. Best of all, each tattoo provides a leaping-off point for bestselling essayist and lecturer Zimmer to reflect on the science in question, whether it's the importance of an image of Darwin's finches or the significance of the uranium atom inked into the chest of a young radiologist."--from publisher's description