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

The Seeds of Life

by Edward Dolnick
ebook
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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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 6, 2017

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780465094967
      • File size: 30391 KB

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780465094967
      • File size: 30391 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

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Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English
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