Synthetic Biology: Life’s Extraordinary New Worlds
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Narrated by:
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Milton Muldrow Jr.
About this listen
Synthetic Biology: Life’s Extraordinary New Worlds is an introduction to synthetic biology for non-scientists, covering the exciting field that is transforming health care, agriculture, environmental science, and many other areas. Using the molecules of life to answer scientific questions and manipulate life for human benefit, synthetic biology encompasses a wide range of applications—from gene editing and metabolic engineering to food synthesis and green technologies. Researchers are also working on an array of problems such as DNA computers, the resurrection of extinct species, life-support systems for space missions, and the creation of non-DNA forms of life, among other mind-boggling ventures.
The 18 half-hour lectures are taught by Professor Milton Muldrow Jr., of Wilmington University, whose research includes the genomic engineering of corals to help reverse their steep decline in the world’s oceans. In the course, Professor Muldrow discusses how a DNA molecule is decoded, including a review of the pathbreaking human genome project and how it is possible to “write” DNA, assembling the code of life for tailor-made purposes. He delves into the 2020 Nobel-prize winning discovery CRISPR, which allows gene editing with amazing precision, and he shows how synthetic biology played a key role in vaccine development to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aside from its uses in medicine and for curing disease, synthetic biology touches on anything that can be grown, raised, or produced with microorganisms, which gives it roles in textiles, nutrition, and the energy industry, not to mention fighting climate change. Professor Muldrow also examines prospects for the misuse of synthetic biology, which could have devastating consequences for humanity and the biosphere, and looks at steps that can be taken to lessen that risk.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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How do today's most successful tech companies - Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Tesla - design, develop, and deploy the products that have earned the love of literally billions of people around the world? Perhaps surprisingly, they do it very differently from the vast majority of tech companies. In Inspired, technology product management thought leader Marty Cagan provides listeners with a master class in how to structure and staff a vibrant and successful product organization and how to discover and deliver technology products that your customers will love.
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Great book, terrible audio wanted to ask a refund
- By Srikanth Ramanujam on 11-15-18
By: Marty Cagan
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Ranger Confidential
- Living, Working, and Dying in the National Parks
- By: Andrea Lankford
- Narrated by: Julia Motyka
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The real stories behind the scenery of America’s national parks. For 12 years, Andrea Lankford lived in the biggest, most impressive national parks in the world, working a job she loved. She chaperoned baby sea turtles on their journey to sea. She pursued bad guys on her galloping patrol horse. She jumped into rescue helicopters bound for the heart of the Grand Canyon. She won arguments with bears. She slept with a few too many rattlesnakes. Hell yeah, it was the best job in the world! Fortunately, Andrea survived it.
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Depressing from Cover to Cover
- By Drew (@drewsant) on 04-13-15
By: Andrea Lankford
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The Blind Watchmaker
- Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
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The Blind Watchmaker, knowledgably narrated by author Richard Dawkins, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the 18th-century theologian William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery challenged the creationist arguments; but only Richard Dawkins could have written this elegant riposte.
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Challenging textbook more than an enjoyable listen
- By Eric on 01-15-12
By: Richard Dawkins
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Cosmic Queries
- StarTalk’s Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going
- By: James Trefil, Lindsey N. Walker - editor, Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
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In this illuminating audiobook, Tyson and coauthor James Trefil, a renowned physicist and science popularizer, take on the big questions that humanity has been posing for millennia - How did life begin? What is our place in the universe? Are we alone? - and provide answers based on the most current data, observations, and theories.
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Not worth it
- By Daniel Earl on 03-15-21
By: James Trefil, and others
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Helpful
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Great primer for hard SF fans and physics laymen
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The World of J.R.R. Tolkien
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In The World of J.R.R. Tolkien, you will join Dr. Dimitra Fimi to delve into Tolkien’s complex and multilayered mythology, examining all these ingredients and more. In these 10 lectures, you will explore and appreciate Middle-earth as medieval, mythological, and modern, a literary creation that was shaped by forces old and new. And you may be surprised to discover just how much of Tolkien’s legendarium was constructed posthumously, with his son Christopher compiling and publishing many of Tolkien’s later works after his death.
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Calls Tolkien a racist and sexist
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What listeners say about Synthetic Biology: Life’s Extraordinary New Worlds
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Dima
- 09-29-23
Great knowledge dive but not in a likable way
There are parts of this lecture I really enjoying learning about, especially towards the end. However the science portrayed is an ever evolving story of dystopian life and corporate greed. From modified plants to human embryos. From advance computers to to creating mutagens. All while the logic is to replace, destroy and conquer. The sustainability of biodiversity - the analog - that is the forgotten story missing here!
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- Anonymous User
- 04-24-23
Really Great book !!
Want the really new science?
This is the future now, very exciting stuff for any up-to-date science audiophile.
This Great Courses book is second to none on this topic.
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- Troy
- 08-13-23
Fascinating
This provided a thorough and fascinating introduction to synthetic biology. I have no experience in the field and found the information accessible and understandable.
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- Michael
- 12-18-23
Too high level
Not enough detail or interesting specifics. Mostly just a non technical list of recent things in syn bio
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- pebenito
- 02-07-24
Disservice to subject matter by not making account of hurdles in the research.
Devoid of color and contrasts, pauses too frequently for no purpose, read in most places one word at a time as in lazily reading lists.
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