Summary
A neurosurgeon explores the connection between evolution and intelligence.
Customer Reviews
Be the first to review this book!
Bibliographic Details
Publisher: Harcourt
Published date: 2002
Edition: 1th edition
Size: 6.5 x 9.25 inches
Weight: 1.4 pounds
Pages: 354
Publisher's Notes
A gifted writer and author of the widely praised WHY WE HURT, Vertosick shows us that intelligence--the ability to react to the outside world, to change behavior, and survive--can be found wherever life exists. He demonstrates the keen intelligence of our immune system, how lowly bacteria mutate and outwit antibiotics, and how canny cancer cells elude our natural defenses.
A fascinating journey through worlds of unknown science and an unsettling argument against our valuing of brain intelligence above all else, THE GENIUS WITHIN tells a fascinating scientific story, one that could shake our ethical foundation to its core.
Similar books
Evolving Health
by Noel Thomas Boaz
Human illnesses can be understood as damage to those adaptations that we took on at various stages in our evolution from pre-life molecules to modern Homo sapiens. Preventing these illnesses entails avoiding what causes the damage–– which too frequently are the everyday hazards of twenty-first-century life, as the chart below shows:
Developmental Plasticity and Evolution
by Mary Jane West-Eberhard
Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems
by John H. Holland
"Read this book, and even if you don't read it, buy it and display it proudly. Scientists, engineers, and coffee tables the world over should be interested in the revised edition of the seminal book that first gathered and developed the critical mass of ideas from mathematics, computational science, and systems theory necessary to launch and fuel the ongoing revolution in complex innovating systems. From mathematical optimization to the immune system, from machine learning to the central nervous system, from automatic control systems to even something as complex as human society itself, all innovating systems fall under the spell of Holland's mathematical-computational magic, and all individuals interested in understanding or engineering such systems ignore Holland at their peril." --David E. Goldberg, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Genetic algorithms are playing an increasingly important role in studies of complex adaptive systems, ranging from adaptive agents in economic theory to the use of machine learning techniques in the design of complex devices such as aircraft turbines and integrated circuits. Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems is the book that intitiated this field of study, presenting the theoretical foundations and exploring applications.
The First Word
by Christine Kenneally
A history of the quest for human language origins is comprised of two intertwined narratives that respectively trace the development of language and the process through which scientists have explored the subject, in an account that also documents the contributions of such figures as Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker.
Summer for the Gods
by Edward J. Larson
|
0 items in cart
Muze Inc. For personal non-commercial use only. All rights reserved. Some content for books is owned by Baker & Taylor, Inc. or its licensors and is subject to copyright and all other protections provided by applicable law.
