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Upgrade : a novel / by Crouch, Blake,author.;
"An ordinary man undergoes a startling transformation--and fears that all of humanity may be next--in the mindblowing new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter and Recursion. Logan Ramsay can feel his brain ... changing. And his body too. He's becoming something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human. As he sets out to discover who did this to him, and why, his transformation threatens everything--his family, his job, even his freedom. Because the truth of what's happened to him is more disturbing than he could possibly imagine. His DNA has been rewritten with a genetic-engineering breakthrough beyond anything the world has seen--one that could change our very definitions of humanity. And the battle to control this unfathomable power has already begun. But what if humankind's only hope for survival lies in embracing this change--whatever the cost? Which side will Logan take? And by the time it's over, will he--and the people he loves--even recognize him? Upgrade is a stunningly inventive, ferociously plotted science-fiction thriller that explores the limits of our humanity--and asks what's at risk when technology lets us reengineer not just the world around us, but ourselves"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Novels.; Genetic engineering; Genetic transformation; Good and evil;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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Big baby [videorecording] / by Davitian, Ken,1953-; Langford, Stephen,1958-; Lawrence, Andrew,1988-; McCormick, Maureen,1956-; Screen Media Films (Firm),production company.;
Maureen McCormick, Andrew Lawrence, Ken Davitian.A mad scientist grandfather invents a genetic transformation machine and his 4 year old grandson accidentally turns his body into that of a 30 year old man. Baby Bobby escapes and runs around town as his siblings try to catch him before their parents get back from vacation AND before the bad guys get to him first. The machine is worth a lot of money and they only have a day before the machine loses its capabilities to change baby bobby back.MPAA Rating: R.DVD, NTSC, region 1; 5.1 surround sound ; Anamorphic widescreen (1.85).
Subjects: Babies; Children's films.; Comedy films.; Feature films.; Grandfathers; Inventors; Video recordings for children.; Video recordings for the hearing impaired.;
For private home use only.
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Black dove : a novel / by McAdam, Colin,author.;
"In a tall and narrow house, on a stained and busy street, live twelve-year-old Oliver and his father, a story-loving writer. Haunted by the ghost of his alcoholic mother, Oliver finds comfort in his father's impromptu tales: the Black Dove, an elusive flower that gives strength; the girl who consumes it as she battles attackers and yearns for happier realms. Stories where lonely souls keep searching despite their losses and grief. Running from a bully one night, Oliver finds refuge in a junk shop owned by an enigmatic man. Soon, instead of hiding in the janitor's closet after school, Oliver spends afternoons in the shop, a cavernous place full of storied oddities and grubby wonders where creatures rise up from the basement. A snake in the shape of a boy. A hunter named Night, part panther, part hound, who proves to Oliver that the world holds invisible wonder. Wanting to forget his mother, afraid of his own genes, constantly harassed by bullies, Oliver decides to follow the shop-owner down the path of genetic editing. As he begins his transformation he meets the girl from across the street, and their friendship grows in a neighbourhood where magic is real, where murderers gather, and where the darker consequences of fantasies play out. A twisting story of grief and revenge, Black Dove is a thrilling read with its own kind of magic. In rich but tightly reined prose, McAdam celebrates the value and shortfalls of storytelling, finding a light in all the darkness to conjure a tender portrait of childhood's end"--
Subjects: Magic realist fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Authors; Boys; Fathers and sons; Genetic engineering; Revenge; Storytelling; Victims of bullying;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The skeptics' guide to the future : what yesterday's science and science fiction tell us about the world of tomorrow / by Novella, Steven,author.; Novella, Bob,author.; Novella, Jay,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Our predictions of the future are a wild fantasy, inextricably linked to our present hopes and fears, biases and ignorance. Whether they be the outlandish leaps predicted in the 1920s, like multi-purpose utility belts with climate control capabilities and planes the size of luxury cruise ships, or the forecasts of the '60s, which didn't anticipate the sexual revolution or women's liberation, the path to the present is littered with failed predictions and incorrect estimations. The best we can do is try to absorb the lessons from futurism's checkered past, perhaps learning to do a little better. In THE SKEPTICS' GUIDE TO THE FUTURE, Steven Novella and his co-authors build upon the work of futurists of the past by examining what they got right, what they got wrong, and how they came to those conclusions. By exploring the pitfalls of each era, they give their own speculations about the distant future, transformed by unbelievable technology ranging from genetic manipulation to artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Applying their trademark skepticism, they carefully extrapolate upon each scientific development, leaving no stone unturned as they lay out a vision for the future"--
Subjects: Science; Science.; Technological forecasting.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Some assembly required : decoding four billion years of life, from ancient fossils to DNA / by Shubin, Neil,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The author of the best-selling Your Inner Fish, now gives us a lively and accessible account of the great transformations in the history of life, that enable us to further understand whether our presence on this planet is an accident or inevitable. The great transformations in the history of life brought about whole scale shifts in how animals live and how their bodies are organized: the evolution of fish to land-living creature, the origin of birds, the beginnings of bodies in single-celled creatures. Shubin describes how over the last half-century, scientists have been able to explore how genetic recipes build bodies during embryological development--how these inventions and adaptations occur in a nonprogressive manner in different contexts, at different speeds. Paleontology has been transformed over the last 50 years by tools and techniques of molecular biology--and it is that revolution in our understanding of the evolution of life that Shubin traces here. Each of us is a mosaic of precursors that came about at different times and places, with deep rooted connections across species that Darwin, for all he understood, could never even have imagined"--
Subjects: Life; Paleontology.; Human evolution.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Mother Code / by Stivers, Carole,author.;
"In this mind-bending debut novel, Carole Stivers explores what it means to be a mother in a world that is more chilling and precarious than ever. It is 2049. When a U.S. attempt at stealth biowarfare goes awry, a team of scientists is engaged to ensure human survival on earth. Their best efforts fail, and they must turn to their last resort: a plan to place genetically engineered children inside the cocoons of large-scale robots--to be incubated, birthed, and raised by these machines, which have been programmed with the latest advances in artificial intelligence: the Mother Code. Kai is born in America's desert Southwest, his only companion his robotic Mother, Rho-Z. Equipped with the knowledge and intuition of a human mother, Rho-Z raises Kai and teaches him how to survive. As children like him come of age, their Mothers transform too--in ways that were never predicted. When government survivors decide that the machines who raised the children must be destroyed, Kai must fight to save the only parent he has ever known"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Dystopian fiction.; Artificial intelligence; Motherhood;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The invention of good and evil : a world history of morality / by Sauer, Hanno,author.; Heinrich, Jo,translator.; translation of:Sauer, Hanno.Moral.English.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."What makes us moral beings? How do we decide what is good and what is evil? In the vein of Sapiens comes a grand history of our universal moral values at the moment of their greatest crisis. How did we learn to distinguish good from evil? Have we always been capable of doing so? And will we still be in the world to come? In this breathtaking book, ethics expert Hanno Sauer offers a great universal history of morality in the era of its darkest crisis. He finds that morality existed long before there was talk of God, religion, or philosophy. Its history is, first of all, the fruit of a process of natural selection, going back to the dawn of humanity, in the forests of East Africa which, five million years ago, thinned out owing to climate change. Among the early humans that came down from the trees, there were also our ancestors, who adapted to open spaces by organizing themselves into large groups. Under the pressure of environmental factors, morality emerges as the foundation for cooperation, a quality that is as precarious as it is essential to the survival of the species. Moving between paleontology and genetics, psychology and cognitive science, philosophy and evolutionism, Sauer traces a genealogy of morality and along the journey, marks the main moral transformations in the history of humanity. In the end, he concludes that millions of years of stratifications has led to the moral crisis of our present--and the only way to build a future together is to retrace our history."--
Subjects: Ethics;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The end of mental illness : how neuroscience is transforming psychiatry and helping prevent or reverse mood and anxiety disorders, ADHD, addictions, PTSD, psychosis, personality disorders, and more / by Amen, Daniel G.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."New hope for those suffering from conditions like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, addictions, PTSD, ADHD and more. Though incidence of these conditions is skyrocketing, for the past four decades standard treatment hasn't much changed, and success rates in treating them have barely improved, either. Meanwhile, the stigma of the "mental illness" label-damaging and devastating on its own-can often prevent sufferers from getting the help they need. Brain specialist and bestselling author Dr. Daniel Amen is on the forefront of a new movement within medicine and related disciplines that aims to change all that. In The End of Mental Illness, Dr. Amen draws on the latest findings of neuroscience to challenge an outdated psychiatric paradigm and help readers take control and improve the health of their own brain, minimizing or reversing conditions that may be preventing them from living a full and emotionally healthy life. The End of Mental Illness will help you discover: - Why labeling someone as having a "mental illness" is not only inaccurate but harmful - Why standard treatment may not have helped you or a loved one -and why diagnosing and treating you based on your symptoms alone so often misses the true cause of those symptoms and results in poor outcomes -At least 100 simple things you can do yourself to heal your brain and prevent or reverse the problems that are making you feel sad, mad, or bad - How to identify your "brain type" and what you can do to optimize your particular type - Where to find the kind of health provider who understands and uses the new paradigm of brain health"--
Subjects: Mental health.; Mental illness.; Mental illness;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Pathogenesis : a history of the world in eight plagues / by Kennedy, Jonathan,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A sweeping look at how the major transformations in history--from the rise of Homo sapiens to the birth of capitalism--have been shaped not by humans but by germs. According to the accepted narrative of progress, humans have thrived thanks to their brains and brawn, collectively bending the arc of history. But in this revelatory book, professor Jonathan Kennedy argues that the myth of human exceptionalism overstates the role that we play in social and political change. Instead, it is the humble microbe that wins wars and topples empires. Drawing on the latest research in fields ranging from genetics and anthropology to archaeology and economics, Pathogenesis takes us through 60,000 years of history, exploring eight major outbreaks of infectious disease that have made the modern world. Bacteria and viruses were protagonists in the demise of the Neanderthals, the growth of Islam, the transition from feudalism to capitalism, the devastation wrought by European colonialism, and the evolution of the United States from an imperial backwater to a global superpower. Even Christianity rose to prominence in the wake of a series of deadly pandemics that swept through the Roman Empire in the second and third centuries: Caring for the sick turned what was a tiny sect into one of the world's major religions. By placing disease at the center of his wide-ranging history of humankind, Kennedy challenges some of the most fundamental assumptions about our collective past--and urges us to view this moment as another disease-driven inflection point that will change the course of history. Provocative and brimming with insight, Pathogenesis transforms our understanding of the human story"--
Subjects: Diseases and history.; Epidemics; Plague;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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