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Title details for The Seeds of Life by Edward Dolnick - Available

The Seeds of Life

by Edward Dolnick
Ben Sullivan
Audiobook (Includes supplementary content)
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Why cracking the code of human conception took centuries of wild theories, misogynist blunders, and ludicrous mistakes
Throughout most of human history, babies were surprises. People knew the basics: men and women had sex, and sometimes babies followed. But beyond that the origins of life were a colossal mystery. The Seeds of Life is the remarkable and rollicking story of how a series of blundering geniuses and brilliant amateurs struggled for two centuries to discover where, exactly, babies come from.
Taking a page from investigative thrillers, acclaimed science writer Edward Dolnick looks to these early scientists as if they were detectives hot on the trail of a bedeviling and urgent mystery. These strange searchers included an Italian surgeon using shark teeth to prove that female reproductive organs were not 'failed' male genitalia, and a Catholic priest who designed ingenious miniature pants to prove that frogs required semen to fertilize their eggs.
A witty and rousing history of science, The Seeds of Life presents our greatest scientists struggling-against their perceptions, their religious beliefs, and their deep-seated prejudices-to uncover how and where we come from.
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Publisher: Hachette Audio Edition: Unabridged, 1

OverDrive Listen audiobook

  • ISBN: 9781478920564
  • File size: 254185 KB
  • Release date: June 6, 2017
  • Duration: 08:49:33

MP3 audiobook

  • ISBN: 9781478920564
  • File size: 254212 KB
  • Release date: June 6, 2017
  • Duration: 08:55:32
  • Number of parts: 8
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Formats

OverDrive Listen audiobook
MP3 audiobook

subjects

History Science Nonfiction

Languages

English

Why cracking the code of human conception took centuries of wild theories, misogynist blunders, and ludicrous mistakes
Throughout most of human history, babies were surprises. People knew the basics: men and women had sex, and sometimes babies followed. But beyond that the origins of life were a colossal mystery. The Seeds of Life is the remarkable and rollicking story of how a series of blundering geniuses and brilliant amateurs struggled for two centuries to discover where, exactly, babies come from.
Taking a page from investigative thrillers, acclaimed science writer Edward Dolnick looks to these early scientists as if they were detectives hot on the trail of a bedeviling and urgent mystery. These strange searchers included an Italian surgeon using shark teeth to prove that female reproductive organs were not 'failed' male genitalia, and a Catholic priest who designed ingenious miniature pants to prove that frogs required semen to fertilize their eggs.
A witty and rousing history of science, The Seeds of Life presents our greatest scientists struggling-against their perceptions, their religious beliefs, and their deep-seated prejudices-to uncover how and where we come from.
Expand title description text
History Science Nonfiction