Biology All books
Pierre Roubertoux
Existe-t-il des gènes du comportement ?
Recent advances in genetic research have had widespread and far-reaching influences in fields as varied as animal and plant biology and medicine. They have also upset some ethical rules. Genetics today is in a triumphant, seductive phase, but its limits are yet to be defined. In this book, the eminent French geneticist Pierre Roubertoux argues that genetics has strayed too far from its justifiable areas of application. Soon, genetics may even be applied to the mind and to consciousness, just as it is already being applied to behaviour by scientists who contend that each type of conduct has its corresponding gene (this is tantamount to saying a specific gene is responsible for each virtue and each vice). Scientists who defend this theory say that they have discovered genes linked to various degrees of activity in mice and flies. Thus, intemperance and gluttony would be linked to a genetic partiality to alcohol, sugar or fats. Pride could be explained by a gene for dominance which has allegedly been found in mice. Greed, too, could be explained by a gene. The supposed existence of an infidelity gene was much in the news three years ago. This is a sound scientific synthesis which will enable readers to grasp the contribution of genetics to our comprehension of who and what we are. It should also help them resist the temptation of reducing everything to genetics. Pierre Roubertoux is a professor at the University of Aix-Marseille and a research fellow at the Institute of Physiological and Cognitive Neuroscience at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).
Albert Goldbeter
Oscillating Life At the Heart of Life Rhythms
This book offers the first synthesis of existing knowledge on the rhythms of life, as observed at different levels of biological organisation.
Pascale Cossart
The New Microbiology
New essential data about the life of bacteria, their resistance to antibiotics, inter-bacterial communication, etc.
Alexandre Moatti
The Roots of Transhumanism France 1930-1980
Transhumanism and “augmented man” were already controversial subjects in the Belle Époque… An invaluable history for an understanding of what is truly at play behind this technoscientific fantasy.
Jean-Paul Lévy
The Making of Man
Jean-Paul Lévy's book is marked by a resolutely materialistic reflexion, characteristic of biologists : the only thing that distinguishes man from all other living things is the capacity to reason. From this prospective, he explains how a human body is constructed, how and why it produces thoughts and why, one day, it finally ceases to function and dies. His thought process leads to a materialistic solution of the problem of the union of the body and soul. Jean-Paul Lévy is a hematologist and immunologist. He heads France's National Agency for AIDS Research
Francis Waldvogel
A Tableau of Life Exchanges, Emergences, Complexity
A strong thesis that is applied to the entire visible and invisible world: the exchange that is the essence of the living being.
Philippe Kourilsky
A Game of Chance and Complexity
A fascinating history of the struggle for survival, which is central to our lives
Gerald M. Edelman
The Biology of Consciousness
How do we think? What makes us beings that are endowed with conscience, capable of memory, of perceiving the surrounding world, of feeling passion? This book presents an ensemble of mechanisms that compose the human spirit and addresses the progress of the neuroscientific revolution: the biology of the brain and the study of its evolution are in the process of surrendering to us the key to conscience itself. Gerald. M. Edleman, winner of the Nobel Prize for medicine, heads the Institute of Neurosciences at La Jolla, California.
Patrice Debré
Microbiotic Man Humans and microbes: thousands of years of a shared history — for better or for worse.
A book that will interest readers who wish to learn more about such issues as epidemics, the current vaccination controversy, the recent flare-up of the Ebola virus and hopes of eradicating Ebola.
Georges Chapouthier
Saving Humans through Animals
An original thesis that connects in a paradoxical, but reasoned way, the development of morality in humans to their animal nature.
Pascale Cossart, Fabrice Hyber
The Great Voyage among Microbes
A wonderful introduction to microbiology by an eminent scientist. A richly illustrated work by Fabrice Hybert, very instructive.
Patrice Debré
Revolutions in Biology and the Human Condition
A reflection on the prowess and the promises of biotechnologies, this text also casts a critical light on the transhumanist project.
Joël Bockaert
The Communication of living things
A unique theme, communication, which encompasses all the kingdoms of life: a great opportunity to see them in a different light. If living is about communication, how is hyper-communication shaping the human being of tomorrow?
Michel Fardeau
A Neurological Passion Jules and Augusta Dejerine
The pioneering couple in neurology. An atypical story of science (and love). Belated recognition of an unfairly ignored female scientist.
Pierre Karli
The Brain and Freedom
What is the relationship of man with the world, the others, with himself? To this perpetual question, many answers have been given by the various, religious or philosophical systems of thought. Pierre Karli, a neurophysiologist, proposes to look in the direction of science. He shows, by synthesizing the most advanced scientific works, how individual freedom finds its roots at the very heart of the brain.
François Gros
From Penicillin to genomics
The life of a scientist, one of the discoverers of how genes function, and an explorer of the future of biology
Luca Cavalli-Sforza
Genes, People and Languages (Work of the Collège de France)
How is culture passed on ? Is it possible to reconstruct the history of the evolution of the human species using genetic information from existing populations ?
Antoine Danchin
The Delphic Boat What Genomes Tell Us
What is it that constitutes the unity and identity of a living creature ? This is the fundmental question of biology. The recent sequencing techniques provide a completely new response to this question, notably thanks to the knowledge of whole genomes. Antoine Danchin establishes a clear picture of this important biological discovery. He shows in particular that, just like the boat of Delphi, life is beyond prediction, and at the same time has an infinite capacity to create the unexpected. Antoine Danchin is the director of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the Institut Pasteur.
Maxime Schwartz
How the Cows Became Mad
Fear of the condition popularly known as mad cow disease has created a state of collective hysteria: some consumers are so afraid of contracting the disease that they have stopped eating beef; others havent stopped eating beef simply because they believe it is too late to do anything to prevent catching the illness. This book examines the outbreak of this disease and concludes with the reply to the question that is on everyones lips: Should we be afraid? Maxime Schwartz teaches at the Institut Pasteur, in Paris.
Bernard Sablonnière
Hopes For a Long and Good Life
A very accessible, clear book with rigorous scientific explanations, enabling the reader to see the differences between false miraculous recipes and true possibilities to act against aging.
