Book description
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…
Why read it?
1 author picked The Seeds of Life as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Here's a simple question: when did people learn exactly where babies come from?
As a historian and father of three, I'm embarrassed to say it never occurred to me to ask, despite all the times I've spent tracing the lives of people in the past and all the pre-natal visits I joined my wife for. The answer is it was shockingly recent.
Until the late nineteenth century, the only certainties were that sex sometimes led to pregnancy, that women had a monthly cycle that was somehow involved, and that men contributed a fluid "seed."
Everyone knows that ultrasounds are a…
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Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
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