Audiobook9 hours
Life as We Made It: How 50,000 Years of Human Innovation Refined - And Redefined - Nature
Written by Beth Shapiro
Narrated by Beth Shapiro
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
In 2020, the inventors of CRISPR, the revolutionary gene-editing tool, won the Nobel Prize for medicine. It seemed like the capstone of an astounding fifty-year run: we have turned bacteria into factories for insulin, used viruses to insert genes
for pesticide resistance into plants, and now learned to rewrite our own DNA.
Once, we humans could only observe evolution. Suddenly, we had conquered it.
And yet, in Life as We Made It, evolutionary biologist Beth Shapiro argues that—despite how amazing our new technologies are—our ability to alter the course of evolution isn’t new. Humans have been reshaping the world around us for ages,
from the first dogs to genetically modified Enviropigs. Indeed, she argues, resetting the course of evolution is what our species does, by domesticating, as with dogs and wheat; by hunting, as with wolves and mammoths; and by protecting, as with bison and mountain lions.
What is new is that where once we shaped evolution through brute force, we can now do it as artisans. That power comes not a moment too soon. If we are going to survive in the next few centuries, we must revise the book of life. Instead
of rehashing arguments about genetic engineering, let’s embrace the fact that we can shape evolution to create a world in which we want to live. The question isn’t should we meddle, but how? Life as We Made It is an essential book for charting a better course into a risky future.
for pesticide resistance into plants, and now learned to rewrite our own DNA.
Once, we humans could only observe evolution. Suddenly, we had conquered it.
And yet, in Life as We Made It, evolutionary biologist Beth Shapiro argues that—despite how amazing our new technologies are—our ability to alter the course of evolution isn’t new. Humans have been reshaping the world around us for ages,
from the first dogs to genetically modified Enviropigs. Indeed, she argues, resetting the course of evolution is what our species does, by domesticating, as with dogs and wheat; by hunting, as with wolves and mammoths; and by protecting, as with bison and mountain lions.
What is new is that where once we shaped evolution through brute force, we can now do it as artisans. That power comes not a moment too soon. If we are going to survive in the next few centuries, we must revise the book of life. Instead
of rehashing arguments about genetic engineering, let’s embrace the fact that we can shape evolution to create a world in which we want to live. The question isn’t should we meddle, but how? Life as We Made It is an essential book for charting a better course into a risky future.
Related to Life as We Made It
Related audiobooks
The Hidden Life of Ice: Dispatches from a Disappearing World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret Lives of Bats: My Adventures with the World's Most Misunderstood Mammals Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Social Instinct: How Cooperation Shaped the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wild Life of Our Bodies: Predators, Parasites, and Partners That Shape Who We Are Today Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Cheating Cell: How Evolution Helps Us Understand and Treat Cancer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sentient: How Animals Illuminate the Wonder of Our Human Senses Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mosquito: The Story of Man's Deadliest Foe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Every Living Thing: Man's Obsessive Quest to Catalog Life, from Nanobacteria to New Monkeys Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oxygen: The molecule that made the world Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Spike: An Epic Journey Through the Brain in 2.1 Seconds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Serengeti Rules: The Quest to Discover How Life Works and Why It Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Butterflies: A Scientist's Quest to Save a Rare and Vanishing Creature Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2022 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mutant Project: Inside the Global Race to Genetically Modify Humans Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Half-Earth: Our Planet's Fight for Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beasts Before Us: The Untold Story of Mammal Origins and Evolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What Is Life?: Five Great Ideas in Biology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A World Without Soil: The Past, Present, and Precarious Future of the Earth Beneath Our Feet Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Biography of Resistance: The Epic Battle Between People and Pathogens Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Biology For You
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hot Zone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lifespan: Why We Age—and Why We Don't Have To Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Radiolab: Journey Through The Human Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind: My Tale of Madness and Recovery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Second Nature: A Gardener's Education Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Uncertain Sea: Fear is everywhere. Embrace it. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love & Wisdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Genius Foods: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Confident Mind: A Battle-Tested Guide to Unshakable Performance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How the Mind Works Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Longevity Paradox: How to Die Young at a Ripe Old Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Womb: The Inside Story of Where We All Began Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Inner Life of Animals: Love, Grief, and Compassion: Surprising Observations of a Hidden World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Life as We Made It
Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
4 ratings1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Too many stories that I was already familiar with. > Wolbachia don’t kill the insects that they infect but they do cause fertility problems. When an uninfected female mosquito breeds with an infected male, their offspring don’t survive … it’s difficult to produce only males in a laboratory environment. Because offspring of Wolbachia-infected females survive, the accidental release of Wolbachia-infected females along with males would allow Wolbachia to spread through the population, ruining its potential as a mosquito sterilizer. Second, any reduction of the mosquito population might not last very long if, for example, mosquitoes can easily recolonize from nearby. Finally, Wolbachia are already present in some of the most important disease-vector species, meaning that this approach simply won’t work to control them.> The self-limiting aspect of the sterility gene works like this: Males that develop from OX5034 eggs have a copy of tTAV on both of their chromosomes. When they mate with wild females, all their offspring inherit one chromosome with tTAV. The female offspring will express tTAV and die, and the males will develop normally. When these males, which have one normal chromosome and one with tTAV, breed with wild females, half their offspring inherit tTAV. Of this half, the females die and the males develop normally. After ten or so generations during each of which the proportion of males in the population with tTAV is reduced by half, tTAV will disappear. Because the number of individuals carrying tTAV reduces in every generation, the population-reducing effect of self-limiting sterility declines over time. This strategy nevertheless has a much longer-term impact than one that requires repeated releases of sterile males.> The gene-edited moth competed successfully with wild-type diamondback moths, and many fewer caterpillars were produced compared to control fields. Oxitec has also developed self-limiting strains of the fall armyworm, the soybean looper moth, and several other agricultural pests. The self-limiting sterility approach to reducing populations of crop pests could save farmers billions of dollars of losses globally every year while also reducing reliance on chemical pesticides. Intriguingly, it may also help shift the conversation around genetically engineered food, since genetically engineered crop pests (which people don’t eat) could be used in place of genetically engineered, insect-resistant crops with similar gains in crop yield.