Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book, free of charge,from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing,for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it
This next book is perfect for nature week, as it deal with the "Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes, aka an illuminating, entertaining tour of the physical imperfections—from faulty knees to junk DNA—that make us human".
Synopsis:
We humans like to think of ourselves as highly evolved creatures. But if we are supposedly evolution’s greatest creation, why do we have such bad knees? Why do we catch head colds so often—two hundred times more often than a dog? How come our wrists have so many useless bones? Why is the vast majority of our genetic code pointless? And are we really supposed to swallow and breathe through the same narrow tube? Surely there’s been some kind of mistake.
As professor of biology Nathan H. Lents explains in Human Errors, our evolutionary history is nothing if not a litany of mistakes, each more entertaining and enlightening than the last. The human body, perhaps evolution’s greatest creation, is one big pile of compromises. But that is also a testament to our greatness: as Lents shows, humans have so many design flaws precisely because we are very, very good at getting around them.
A rollicking, deeply informative tour of humans’ four-billion-year-long evolutionary saga, Human Errors both celebrates our imperfections and offers an unconventional accounting of the cost of our success.
As professor of biology Nathan H. Lents explains in Human Errors, our evolutionary history is nothing if not a litany of mistakes, each more entertaining and enlightening than the last. The human body, perhaps evolution’s greatest creation, is one big pile of compromises. But that is also a testament to our greatness: as Lents shows, humans have so many design flaws precisely because we are very, very good at getting around them.
A rollicking, deeply informative tour of humans’ four-billion-year-long evolutionary saga, Human Errors both celebrates our imperfections and offers an unconventional accounting of the cost of our success.
Review:
WOW. I'm not one for biology/anatomy books, but THIS book will have you unable to put it down! It reads more lie a fiction piece, but unfortunately is all too honest and truthful, about the fallicies of nature, including our bodies! Ever wonder why your back KILLS you after all day walking and standing? Maybe it's because our skeletal structure STILL hasn't adapted to us walking UPRIGHT, and the result is aches and pains! Ever wondered why we seem to suffer colds and allergies 100% more than our pets? Blame our sinus cvities that drain UPWARDS and not down like theirs! Did you know that EVERY human has CANCER cells in their body, but they just haven't 'activated'?
This book might scare you, as much as it enlightens you! But I can guarantee, you will NOT be able to put it down, and you just might find yourself telling random facts from it, to EVERYONE you know and meet! Course they might NOT want to hear those tidbits, but they will be stunned with them! I woudl highly recommend this book for all high school students as well. It not only makes cells and antaomy interesting, they can LEARN more by the down to earth narrative! Ive already added it to Miss Grace's kindle app, and yoou may find yourself sharing it with all your family members too!
About the Author:
Nathan H. Lents is a professor of biology at John Jay College at CUNY, and is the author of Not So Different: Finding Human Nature in Animals. He has appeared as a scientific expert in national media, including The Today Show, National Public Radio, Al-Jazeera America, Chinese Central Television, Primer Impacto, and others.
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