Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes

by Nathan H. Lents

Book Overview

A biology professor's illuminating tour of the physical imperfections--from faulty knees to junk DNA--that make us human. "A funny, fascinating catalog of our collective shortcomings that's tough to put down."--Discover 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 does? 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 indeed nothing if not a litany of mistakes, each more entertaining and enlightening than the last. The human body 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-and-counting evolutionary saga, Human Errors both celebrates our imperfections and offers an unconventional accounting of the cost of our success.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1328974693
• ISBN13: 9781328974693
• Release Date: May 2018
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.2" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

The Wonderful Flaws of Humans

This book is well written and manages to make the science in the book easy to understand for those who might not know a lot about genetics or evolution. The book overall is entertaining and I enjoy the style the author chose. It's a good casual read.