What makes us Human?

What makes us human? is based on the talks presented at a
symposium with that title, organised by the Oxford International
Biomedical Centre in conjunction with the Royal
Institution, in Oxford in March 2006. The five distinguished speakers
on that occasion have now been joined by a further ten experts, giving
the subject the broadest coverage possible. The background of the
contributors, from Italy and New Zealand, from UK and USA,
ranges across anthropology, biochemistry, medicine, neuroscience,
philosophy, psychology, and religion. It is not often that you get writers
of the calibre of Susan Blackmore, Walter Bodmer, Michael
Corballis, Robin Dunbar, Maurizio Gentilucci, Richard Harries,
David Hulme, Stephen Oppenheimer, Charles Pasternak, Thomas Suddendorf, Ian Tattersall, Andrew Whiten, Lewis Wolpert, and Richard Wrangham under one cover. Click on any of these names on
the internet and the breadth of their erudition will be obvious.

Genome- The autobiography of a species in 23 chapters- Matt Ridley

Science writer Matt Ridley has found a way to tell someone else's story without being accused of plagiarism. Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters delves deep within your body (and, to be fair, Ridley's too) looking for dirt dug up by the Human Genome Project. Each chapter pries one gene out of its chromosome and focuses on its role in our development and adult life, but also goes further, exploring the implications of genetic research and our quickly changing social attitudes toward this information. Genome shies away from the "tedious biochemical middle managers" that only a nerd could love and instead goes for the A-material: genes associated with cancer, intelligence, sex (of course), and more.

Readers unfamiliar with the jargon of genetic research needn't fear; Ridley provides a quick, clear guide to the few words and concepts he must use to translate hard science into English.

The story of Evolution

An ingenious student of science once entertained his generation
with a theory of how one might behold again all the stirring
chapters that make up the story of the earth. The living scene of
our time is lit by the light of the sun, and for every few rays
that enter the human eye, and convey the image of it to the human
mind, great floods of the reflected light pour out, swiftly and
indefinitely, into space. Imagine, then, a man moving out into
space more rapidly than light, his face turned toward the earth.
Flashing through the void at, let us say, a million miles a
second, he would (if we can overlook the dispersion of the rays
of light) overtake in succession the light that fell on the
French Revolution, the Reformation, the Norman Conquest, and the
faces of the ancient empires. He would read, in reverse order,
the living history of man and whatever lay before the coming of
man.  Few thought, as they smiled over this fairy tale of science,

The Mating mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature

Why have humans evolved such costly and complex brains? And further, why do we use our brains to produce such seemingly useless behaviors as art or music? Evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller suggests that the reason might lie in what he considers to be Darwin’s most significant contribution to evolution: sexual selection. Sexual selection is different than natural, or “survival” selection, which refers to environmental factors such as climate or predators that affect reproductive success. Sexual selection is much more direct and potentially powerful; it is shaped by the mate preferences of the opposite sex. For these reasons, Miller believes that the inherently awesome power of sexual selection has profoundly affected the equally awesome trajectory of our own species mental evolution through mate choice. The Mating Mindprovides a thorough analysis of how this devil lurks in the details.

WHAT IS DEATH?- A Scientist Looks at the Cycle of Life

They are the questions that have challenged philosophers, theologians, artists, and ordinary human beings for millennia: Why are we born only to die? Does death have meaning? What happens to our "selves" after we die? In What Is Death?, biologist Tyler Volk considers these piercing questions from a unique perspective that allows him to offer readers alternatives to many traditional religious explanations.
Inspired by his own confrontation with mysterious neurological problems, Volk embarks on a personal exploration of the meaning of death and its powerful implications about the meaning of life. The answers–and further questions–that he discovers by asking "What is death?" are surprising, diverse, uplifting, and extraordinarily life-affirming.
What Is Death? examines the phenomenon of death from organic, personal, and social points of view. It sheds light upon the life spans of creatures and the role of cell death in bodily health; contemplates the links among the personal confrontation with death, our brain, and consciousness; and probes the customs and rituals that surround death in various cultures.