Human Errors cover art

Human Errors

A Panorama of Our Glitches, From Pointless Bones to Broken Genes

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Human Errors

By: Nathan Lents
Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
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About this listen

We like to think of ourselves as highly evolved creatures. But if we are evolution's greatest creation, why are we so badly designed? We have retinas that face backward, the stump of a tail, and way too many bones in our wrists. We must find vitamins and nutrients in our diets that other animals simply make for themselves. Millions of us can't reproduce successfully without help from modern science. We have nerves that take bizarre paths, muscles that attach to nothing, and lymph nodes that do more harm than good. And that's just the beginning of the story.

As biologist Nathan H. Lents explains, our evolutionary history is a litany of mistakes, each more entertaining and enlightening than the last. As we will discover, by exploring human shortcomings, we can peer into our past, because each of our flaws tells a story about our species' evolutionary history.

A rollicking, deeply informative tour of our four-billion-year-long evolutionary saga, Human Errors both celebrates our imperfections - for our mutations are, in their own way, a testament to our species' greatness - and offers an unconventional accounting of the cost of our success.

©2018 Nathan H. Lents (P)2018 Tantor Media Biological Sciences Biology Science Physiology Genetics

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All stars
Most relevant  
Puts paid to any ideas about intelligent design. This is a fascinating insight into our built in flaws.

This is great!

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Enjoyable and interesting facts
I learnt a lot of essential information for my degree although it only gives an insight . An enjoyable read throughout

Amazing

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I struggle with the notion of unnecessary bones in wrists and ankles.
Surely they are arranged in such a way to attenuate forces, transfer load and provide shock “absorption”.
LOVED the latter two thirds of the book. 👍🏼

Pointless bones?

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Strong American accent, but very listenable. Written in a light, conversational style so suits audible very well.

Fascinating

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This book is a gem of well proportioned and brilliantly delivered interesting facts and view points about human beings and evolution. Accessible, enjoyable, amusing, and leaves you wanting more.

Fascinating and gripping

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Some great examples and fascinating stories. It’s so interesting to discover the hodge podge history of humans.

Wonderful

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I’m not as perfect as I thought. Apparently, I have 8 more words to write but my brain is flawed. Sorry 😞

A ‘must read’

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Really good book. I found it fascinating how many flaws we humans still have, despite aeons of evolution. I found the book humerous while being informative and quite thought-provoking. The mention of pandemics in the epilogue seems ironically well-timed (seeing as I'm writing this amidst autumn 2020), but I found the variety of predictions he brings up with relation to the future of humanity quite interesting.
All-in-all, good book. Would recommend. Especially for anyone interested in biology?

Concerned about our species

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Good narrator, the historic information help to give an understanding of how the human features have evolved in their sophisticated ways.

what a journey

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A book you won't stop reading due to the entertainment of being bombarded with constant surprising facts

Great read with amazing facts while adding humour

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