Bøger af Adam Rutherford

An illuminating manifesto for a twenty-first century understanding of human evolution and variation - and a weapon against scientific racism - by the author of A BRIEF HISTORY OF EVERYONE WHO EVER LIVED

A thrilling new examination of what sets us apart in the animal kingdom by the popular science broadcaster and author of A BRIEF HISTORY OF EVERYONE WHO EVER LIVED

Sorte mennesker er ikke bedre til at løbe langt eller hurtigt end hvide mennesker. Hvide mennesker er ikke mere intelligente end sorte. Østasiatiske studerende er ikke naturligt bedre til matematik, jøder har ikke et medfødt talent for penge, og din hudfarve fortæller ikke noget om, hvilken race du tilhører.Disse og mange andre stereotyper og myter om race er netop de fundamenter, strukturel racisme hviler på.Bogen her giver et videnskabeligt blik på, hvad moderne genetik kan og ikke kan fortælle os om menneskelig forskellighed. Videnskaben er historisk set blevet brugt som et værktøj til at institutionalisere racismen, men i denne bog forsøger Rutherford at vise, hvordan videnskaben kan og bør bruges som et antiracistisk værktøj.Videnskabelige argumenter mod racisme er et våben til at afmontere pseudovidenskabelige ideer om, at de forskelle, der er mellem os mennesker som individer, kan sige noget om os mennesker som større grupper. Et våben mod racisme.Hvad vores gener siger (og ikke siger)om forskelle mellem mennesker

From the acclaimed science writer and broadcaster, a dazzling tour of the latest genetic discoveries which are blurring the boundaries between science and history

This is a story about you. It is the history of who you are and how you came to be. It is unique to you, as it is to each of the 100 billion modern humans who have ever drawn breath. But it is also our collective story, because in every one of our genomes we each carry the history of our species--births, deaths, disease, war, famine, migration, and a lot of sex. Since scientists first read the human genome in 2001, it has been subject to all sorts of claims, counterclaims, and myths. In fact, as Adam Rutherford explains, our genomes should be read not as instruction manuals, but as epic poems. DNA determines far less than we have been led to believe about us as individuals, but vastly more about us as a species. In this captivating journey through the expanding landscape of genetics, Adam Rutherford reveals what our genes now tell us about history, and what history tells us about our genes. From Neanderthals to murder, from redheads to race, dead kings to plague, evolution to epigenetics, this is a demystifying and illuminating new portrait of who we are and how we came to be.

This is a new release of the original 1948 edition.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Control is a book about eugenics, what geneticist Adam Rutherford calls "a defining idea of the twentieth century." Inspired by Darwin's ideas about evolution, eugenics arose in Victorian England as a theory for improving the British population, and quickly spread to America, where it was embraced by presidents, funded by Gilded Age monopolists, and enshrined into racist American laws that became the ideological cornerstone of the Third Reich. Despite this horrific legacy, eugenics looms large today as the advances in genetics in the last thirty years-from the sequencing of the human genome to modern gene editing techniques-have brought the idea of population purification back into the mainstream.Eugenics has "a short history, but a long past," Rutherford writes. The first half of Control is the history of an idea, from its roots in key philosophical texts of the classical world all the way into their genocidal enactment in the twentieth century. The second part of the book explores how eugenics operates today, as part of our language and culture, as part of current political and racial discussions, and as an eternal temptation to powerful people who wish to improve society through reproductive control.With disarming wit and scientific precision, Rutherford explains why eugenics still figures prominently in the twenty-first century, despite its genocidal past. And he confronts insidious recurring questions-did eugenics work in Nazi Germany? And could it work today?-revealing the intellectual bankruptcy of the idea, and the scientific impossibility of its realization.

Inspired by the bestselling A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived and the Sunday Times bestseller How to Argue with a Racist, award-winning geneticist, writer and broadcaster, Adam Rutherford introduces children to evolution, race and the real human story.

A short, highly directed guide to an area of science that is little understood but increasingly part of public discourse by the Sunday Times bestselling author of HOW TO ARGUE WITH A RACIST

“Rutherford describes Humanimal as being about the paradox of how our evolutionary journey turned ‘an otherwise average ape’ into one capable of creating complex tools, art, music, science, and engineering. It’s an intriguing question, one his book sets against descriptions of the infinitely amusing strategies and antics of a dizzying array of animals.”—The New York Times Book Review Publisher’s note: Humanimal was published in the UK under the title The Book of Humans. Evolutionary theory has long established that humans are animals: Modern Homo sapiens are primates who share an ancestor with monkeys and other great apes. Our genome is 98 percent identical to a chimpanzee’s. And yet we think of ourselves as exceptional. Are we? In this original and entertaining tour of life on Earth, Adam Rutherford explores the profound paradox of the “human animal.” Looking for answers across the animal kingdom, he finds that many things once considered exclusively human are not: In Australia, raptors have been observed starting fires to scatter prey; in Zambia, a chimp named Julie even started a “fashion” of wearing grass in one ear. We aren’t the only species that communicates, makes tools, or has sex for reasons other than procreation. But we have developed a culture far more complex than any other we’ve observed. Why has that happened, and what does it say about us?Humanimal is a new evolutionary history—a synthesis of the latest research on genetics, sex, migration, and much more. It reveals what unequivocally makes us animals—and also why we are truly extraordinary.

National Book Critics Circle Award2017 Nonfiction Finalist ';Nothing less than a tour de forcea heady amalgam of science, history, a little bit of anthropology and plenty of nuanced, captivating storytelling.'The New York Times Book Review,Editors ChoiceA National Geographic Best Book of 2017 In our unique genomes, every one of us carries the story of our speciesbirths, deaths, disease, war, famine, migration, and a lot of sex. But those stories have always been locked awayuntil now. Who are our ancestors? Where did they come from? Geneticists have suddenly become historians, and the hard evidence in our DNA has blown the lid off what we thought we knew. Acclaimed science writer Adam Rutherford explains exactly how genomics is completely rewriting the human storyfrom 100,000 years ago to the present.A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived will upend your thinking on Neanderthals, evolution, royalty, race, and even redheads. (For example, we now know that at least four human species once roamed the earth.) Plus, here is the remarkable, controversial story of how our genes made their way to the Americasone that's still being written, as ever more of us have our DNA sequenced. Rutherford closes with ';A Short Introduction to the Future of Humankind,' filled with provocative questions that we're on the cusp of answering: Are we still in the grasp of natural selection? Are we evolving for better or worse? And . . . where do we go from here?

'You will not find a better, more balanced or up-to-date take on either the origin of life or synthetic biology. Essential reading' ObserverCreation by Adam Rutherford tells the entire spellbinding story of life in two gripping narratives.'Prepare to be astounded. There are moments when this book is so gripping it reads like a thriller' Mail on SundayThe Origin of Life is a four-billion-year detective story that uses the latest science to explain what life is and where it first came from, dealing with life's biggest questions and arriving at a thrilling answer.'A superbly written explanation' Brian CoxThe Future of Life introduces an extraordinary technological revolution: 'synthetic biology', the ability to create entirely new life forms within the lab. Adam Rutherford explains how this remarkable innovation works and presents a powerful argument for its benefit to humankind.'The reader's sense of awe at the well-nigh inconceivable nature of nature is suitably awakened. The extraordinary science and Rutherford's argument are worth every reader's scrutiny. Fascinating' Sunday Telegraph'One of the most eloquent and genuinely thoughtful books on science over the past decade. You will not find a better, more balanced or up-to-date take on the origin of life or synthetic biology. Essential reading for anyone interested in the coming revolution, which could indeed rival the Industrial Revolution or the internet' Observer'The perfect primer on the past and future of DNA' Guardian'Susenseful, erudite and thrilling' Prospect'A witty, engaging and eye-opening explanation of the basic units of life, right back to our common ancestors and on to their incredible synthetic future. The mark of a really good science book, it shows that the questions we still have are just as exciting as the answers we already know' Dara O Briain'This is a quite delightful two-books-in-one. Rutherford's lightness of touch in describing the dizzying complexity of life at the cellular level in The Origin of Life only serves to emphasise the sheer scale and ambition of the emerging field of synthetic biology' Jim Al Khalili'A fascinating glimpse into our past and future. Rutherford's illuminating book is full of optimism about what we might be able to achieve' Sunday Times'Fresh, original and excellent. An eye-opening look at how we are modifying and constructing life. Totally fascinating' PopularScience.co.uk'In this book of two halves, Rutherford tells the epic history of life on earth, and eloquently argues the case for embracing technology which allows us to become biological designers' Alice Roberts'An engaging account of both the mystery of life's origin and its impending resolution as well as a fascinating glimpse of the impending birth of a new, synthetic biology'' Matt Ridley, author of Genome'I warmly recommend Creation. Rutherford's academic background in genetics gives him a firm grasp of the intricacies of biochemistry - and he translates these superbly into clear English' Financial TimesDr Adam Rutherford is a geneticist, writer and broadcaster. He presents BBC Radio 4's weekly programme Inside Science and his documentaries include the award-winning series The Cell (BBC4), The Gene Code (BBC4), Horizon: 'Playing God' (BBC2) as well as numerous other programmes for BBC Radio 4. This is his first book.TGTCGTGAAGCTACTATTTAAAATGCCACAGTGAAAGATTAAACGCCCGAAAACGGGGTGATAAATGGACGGTAAGTTCCCGACTAAACGTGTTAAATG