The Seeds of Life: From Aristotle to Da Vinci, from Sharks' Teeth to Frogs' Pants, the Long and Strange Quest to Discover Where Babies Co (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780465082957)

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.

Author: Edward Dolnick
ISBN-10: 0465082955
ISBN-13: 9780465082957
Publisher: Basic Books
Language: English
Published: 06/06/2017
Pages: 320
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.19lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.00w x 1.30d
Award: Kirkus Prize - Finalist

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 04/01/2017 pg. 64
Publishers Weekly 04/03/2017
Library Journal 05/01/2017 pg. 89
Booklist 05/15/2017 pg. 4
Shelf Awareness 06/27/2017
Choice 11/01/2017