The seeds of life : from Aristotle to da Vinci, from shark's teeth to frogs' pants, the long and strange quest to discover where babies come from

The Resource The seeds of life : from Aristotle to da Vinci, from shark's teeth to frogs' pants, the long and strange quest to discover where babies come from

Label

The seeds of life : from Aristotle to da Vinci, from shark's teeth to frogs' pants, the long and strange quest to discover where babies come from

Title remainder

from Aristotle to da Vinci, from shark's teeth to frogs' pants, the long and strange quest to discover where babies come from

Statement of responsibility

Edward Dolnick

Title variation

Seeds of life

Title variation remainder

from Aristotle to Da Vinci, from sharks teeth to frogs pants, the long and strange quest to discover where babies come from

Language

eng

Summary

"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"--

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Provided by publisher

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

612.6

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Context

Context of The seeds of life : from Aristotle to da Vinci, from shark's teeth to frogs' pants, the long and strange quest to discover where babies come from

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