"The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction returns to humanity's transformative impact on the environment, now asking: After doing so much damage, can we change nature, this time to save it? That man should have dominion "over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth" is a prophecy that has hardened into fact. So pervasive are human impacts on the planet that it's said we live in a new geological epoch:...

"Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door. The fault, argues this ingenious-even liberating-book, lies not in ourselves, but in product design that ignores the needs of users and the principles of cognitive psychology. The problems range from ambiguous and hidden controls to arbitrary relationships between controls and functions, coupled...

Lilith Iyapo has given birth to what looks like a normal human boy named Akin. But Akin actually has five parents: a male and female human, a male and female Oankali, and a sexless Ooloi. The Oankali and Ooloi are part of an alien race that rescued humanity from a devastating nuclear war, but the price they exact is a high one the aliens are compelled to genetically merge their species with other races, drastically altering both in the process. There...

This 2010 Falling Walls video lecture features Professor Yael Hanein, who is "on her way to building a nanotechnology model of the human brain that could reveal the essence of thought processes" (Tel Aviv University). Hanein's research focuses on the restoration of vision affected by retinal degeneration. Named Outstanding Young Scientist at Summer Davos of the InterAcademy Panel/World Economic Forum in 2009, Hanein is not only the vice president...

In "Who Will We Be?" Dr. Eagleman journeys into the future, and asks what's next for the human brain, and for our species. Mother nature has evolved a brain that is able to rewire itself according to its environment, which means that as technological advances continue apace, our technology is on a crash course with our biology. Dr. Eagleman describes ways in which we'll be able to plug new sensory inputs into our brains, to perceive more of physical...

Six kids on the run must face a villain who threatens the future of human existence . . . but winning comes at a high price.
Six children have escaped horrifying government experiments, a childhood in captivity, and a frightening brush with death. Living out in the world for the first time, they yearn to be reunited with Kit and Frannie, the couple who saved their lives. And Max, the leader of the flock, is seized by an overpowering...

"The Matrix meets an Afro-futuristic retelling of Persephone set in a science fiction underworld of aliens, refugees, and genetic engineering in Jennifer Marie Brissett's Destroyer of Light. Having destroyed Earth, the alien conquerors resettle the remains of humanity on the planet of Eleusis. In the three habitable areas of the planet--Day, Dusk, and Night--the haves and have nots, criminals and dissidents, and former alien conquerors irrevocably...

Introduces young readers to robots, with Dash who responds to voice, navigates objects, dances, and can sing.

"Genetic engineering isn't some far-off fantasy. It's arriving faster than most of us understand or are prepared for. When we can engineer our future children, massively extend our lifespans, build life from scratch, and recreate the plant and animal world, should we? At the dawn of the genetics revolution, our DNA is becoming as readable, writable, and hackable as our information technology. But as humanity starts retooling our own genetic code,...