
Letters to a Young Scientist
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Narrated by:
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Joe Barrett
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By:
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Edward O. Wilxon
About this listen
Pulitzer Prize–winning biologist Edward O. Wilson imparts the wisdom of his storied career to the next generation.
Edward O. Wilson has distilled sixty years of teaching into a book for students, young and old. Reflecting on his coming-of-age in the South as a Boy Scout and a lover of ants and butterflies, Wilson threads these twenty-one letters, each richly illustrated, with autobiographical anecdotes that illuminate his career - both his successes and his failures - and his motivations for becoming a biologist. At a time in human history when our survival is more than ever linked to our understanding of science, Wilson insists that success in the sciences does not depend on mathematical skill, but rather a passion for finding a problem and solving it. From the collapse of stars to the exploration of rain forests and the oceans’ depths, Wilson instills a love of the innate creativity of science and a respect for the human being’s modest place in the planet’s ecosystem in his readers.
©2013 Edward O. Wilson (P)2013 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Naturalist
- By: Edward O. Wilson
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- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
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Edward O. Wilson - winner of two Pulitzer prizes, champion of biodiversity, and Faculty Emeritus at Harvard University - is arguably one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century. Yet his celebrated career began not with an elite education but from an insatiable curiosity about the natural world and drive to explore its mysteries. Called "one of the finest scientific memoirs ever written" by the Los Angeles Times, Naturalist is a wise and personal account of Wilson's growth as a scientist and the evolution of the fields he helped define.
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insightful journey of the scientific life
- By Glenn A. Martinez on 10-21-20
By: Edward O. Wilson
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Tales from the Ant World
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
"Ants are the most warlike of all animals, with colony pitted against colony.... Their clashes dwarf Waterloo and Gettysburg", writes Edward O. Wilson in his most finely observed work in decades. In a myrmecological tour to such far-flung destinations as Mozambique and New Guinea, the Gulf of Mexico's Dauphin Island and even his parents' overgrown yard back in Alabama, Wilson thrillingly evokes his nine-decade-long scientific obsession with more than 15,000 ant species.
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Terrible narration, pointless rambling writing.
- By Kara on 12-09-21
By: Edward O. Wilson
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On Human Nature: Revised Edition
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
This revised edition of Human Nature begins a new phase in the most important intellectual controversy of this generation: Is human behavior controlled by the species' biological heritage? Does this heritage limit human destiny?
With characteristic pungency and simplicity of style, the author of Sociobiology challenges old prejudices and current misconceptions about the nature-nurture debate.
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A Heralding Voice...
- By Douglas on 07-22-14
By: Edward O. Wilson
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Consilience
- The Unity of Knowledge
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 17 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In Consilience (a word that originally meant "jumping together"), Edward O. Wilson renews the Enlightenment's search for a unified theory of knowledge in disciplines that range from physics to biology, the social sciences and the humanities. Using the natural sciences as his model, Wilson forges dramatic links between fields. Presenting the latest findings in prose of wonderful clarity and oratorical eloquence, and synthesizing it into a dazzling whole, Consilience is science in the path-clearing traditions of Newton, Einstein, and Richard Feynman.
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A Singular Achievement!
- By The Saint on 02-25-19
By: Edward O. Wilson
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In Search of Nature
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 4 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Perhaps more than any other scientist of our century, Edward O. Wilson has scrutinized animals in their natural settings, tweezing out the dynamics of their social organization, their relationship with their environments, and their behavior, not only for what it tells us about the animals themselves, but for what it can tell us about human nature and our own behavior. He has brought the fascinating and sometimes surprising results of these studies to general readers through a remarkable collection of books.
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narration speed way too fast
- By Margaret on 10-12-15
By: Edward O. Wilson
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Genesis
- The Deep Origin of Societies
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 3 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Asserting that religious creeds and philosophical questions can be reduced to purely genetic and evolutionary components, and that the human body and mind have a physical base obedient to the laws of physics and chemistry, Genesis demonstrates that the only way for us to fully understand human behavior is to study the evolutionary histories of nonhuman species. Of these, Wilson demonstrates that at least 17 - among them the African naked mole rat and the sponge-dwelling shrimp - have been found to have advanced societies based on altruism and cooperation.
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Simply awful
- By Mike A Klotz on 02-07-20
By: Edward O. Wilson
-
Naturalist
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edward O. Wilson - winner of two Pulitzer prizes, champion of biodiversity, and Faculty Emeritus at Harvard University - is arguably one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century. Yet his celebrated career began not with an elite education but from an insatiable curiosity about the natural world and drive to explore its mysteries. Called "one of the finest scientific memoirs ever written" by the Los Angeles Times, Naturalist is a wise and personal account of Wilson's growth as a scientist and the evolution of the fields he helped define.
-
-
insightful journey of the scientific life
- By Glenn A. Martinez on 10-21-20
By: Edward O. Wilson
-
Tales from the Ant World
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Ants are the most warlike of all animals, with colony pitted against colony.... Their clashes dwarf Waterloo and Gettysburg", writes Edward O. Wilson in his most finely observed work in decades. In a myrmecological tour to such far-flung destinations as Mozambique and New Guinea, the Gulf of Mexico's Dauphin Island and even his parents' overgrown yard back in Alabama, Wilson thrillingly evokes his nine-decade-long scientific obsession with more than 15,000 ant species.
-
-
Terrible narration, pointless rambling writing.
- By Kara on 12-09-21
By: Edward O. Wilson
-
On Human Nature: Revised Edition
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This revised edition of Human Nature begins a new phase in the most important intellectual controversy of this generation: Is human behavior controlled by the species' biological heritage? Does this heritage limit human destiny?
With characteristic pungency and simplicity of style, the author of Sociobiology challenges old prejudices and current misconceptions about the nature-nurture debate.
-
-
A Heralding Voice...
- By Douglas on 07-22-14
By: Edward O. Wilson
-
Consilience
- The Unity of Knowledge
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 17 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Consilience (a word that originally meant "jumping together"), Edward O. Wilson renews the Enlightenment's search for a unified theory of knowledge in disciplines that range from physics to biology, the social sciences and the humanities. Using the natural sciences as his model, Wilson forges dramatic links between fields. Presenting the latest findings in prose of wonderful clarity and oratorical eloquence, and synthesizing it into a dazzling whole, Consilience is science in the path-clearing traditions of Newton, Einstein, and Richard Feynman.
-
-
A Singular Achievement!
- By The Saint on 02-25-19
By: Edward O. Wilson
-
In Search of Nature
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 4 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Perhaps more than any other scientist of our century, Edward O. Wilson has scrutinized animals in their natural settings, tweezing out the dynamics of their social organization, their relationship with their environments, and their behavior, not only for what it tells us about the animals themselves, but for what it can tell us about human nature and our own behavior. He has brought the fascinating and sometimes surprising results of these studies to general readers through a remarkable collection of books.
-
-
narration speed way too fast
- By Margaret on 10-12-15
By: Edward O. Wilson
-
Genesis
- The Deep Origin of Societies
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 3 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Asserting that religious creeds and philosophical questions can be reduced to purely genetic and evolutionary components, and that the human body and mind have a physical base obedient to the laws of physics and chemistry, Genesis demonstrates that the only way for us to fully understand human behavior is to study the evolutionary histories of nonhuman species. Of these, Wilson demonstrates that at least 17 - among them the African naked mole rat and the sponge-dwelling shrimp - have been found to have advanced societies based on altruism and cooperation.
-
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Simply awful
- By Mike A Klotz on 02-07-20
By: Edward O. Wilson
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The Double Helix
- A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
- By: James D. Watson
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner, Roger Clark
- Length: 4 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
By identifying the structure of DNA, the molecule of life, Francis Crick and James Watson revolutionized biochemistry and won themselves a Nobel Prize. At the time, Watson was only 24, a young scientist hungry to make his mark. His uncompromisingly honest account of the heady days of their thrilling sprint against other world-class researchers to solve one of science's greatest mysteries gives a dazzlingly clear picture of a world of brilliant scientists with great gifts, very human ambitions, and bitter rivalries.
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Star for Watson, Crick, Wilkins, AND for FRANKLIN
- By Darwin8u on 04-26-14
By: James D. Watson
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Scientist
- E. O. Wilson: A Life in Nature
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Lincoln Hoppe
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Fascinated from an early age by the natural world in general and ants in particular, Edward Osborne Wilson's field work on them and on all social insects has vastly expanded our knowledge of their many species and fascinating ways of being. This work led to his 1975 book Sociobiology, which created an intellectual firestorm from his contention that all animal behavior, including that of humans, is governed by the laws of evolution and genetics. Subsequently, Wilson has become a leading voice on the crucial importance to all life of biodiversity.
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A wonderful Biography, I feel like I know him.
- By Nebbie on 12-18-21
By: Richard Rhodes
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Anthill
- By: E. O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Inspirational and magical, here is the story of a boy who grows up determined to save the world from its most savage ecological predator: Man himself. "What the hell do you want?" snarled Frogman at Raff Cody, as the boy stepped innocently onto the reputed murderer's property. Fifteen years old, Raff, along with his older cousin, Junior, had only wanted to catch a glimpse of Frogman's 1,000-pound alligator. Thus, begins the saga of Anthill....
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You just have to love ants
- By Kathryn on 10-27-10
By: E. O. Wilson
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Half-Earth
- Our Planet's Fight for Life
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
History is not a prerogative of the human species, Edward O. Wilson declares in Half-Earth, a brave work that becomes a radical redefinition of human history. Demonstrating that we blindly ignore the histories of millions of other species, Wilson warns of a point of no return that is imminent.
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Important book, but..
- By Rasmus on 09-02-18
By: Edward O. Wilson
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The Social Conquest of Earth
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Edward O. Wilson is one of the world’s preeminent biologists, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and the author of more than 25 books. The defining work in a remarkable career, The Social Conquest of Earth boldly addresses age-old questions (Where did we come from? What are we? Where are we going?) while delving into the biological sources of morality, religion, and the creative arts.
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Wow, Wilson has a lot to say and boy can he write.
- By Gary on 05-21-12
By: Edward O. Wilson
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A Sand County Almanac
- And Sketches Here and There
- By: Aldo Leopold, Barbara Kingsolver - introduction
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 4 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
First published in 1949 and praised in the New York Times Book Review as "full of beauty and vigor and bite", A Sand County Almanac combines some of the finest nature writing since Thoreau with an outspoken and highly ethical regard for America's relationship to the land.
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Great in some ways; in others, wtf!
- By RG on 06-22-20
By: Aldo Leopold, and others
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The Meaning of Human Existence
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Searching for meaning in what Nietzsche once called “the rainbow colors” around the outer edges of knowledge and imagination, Edward O. Wilson bridges science and philosophy to create a 21st century treatise on human existence. Once criticized for his over-reliance on genetics, Wilson unfurls here his most expansive and advanced theories on human behavior, recognizing that, even though the human and spider evolved similarly, the poet’s sonnet is wholly different than the spider’s web.
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Pleasant Humble Simple Rationalism
- By Michael on 03-14-15
By: Edward O. Wilson
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Power, Sex, Suicide
- Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life
- By: Nick Lane
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 15 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this fascinating and thought-provoking book, author Nick Lane brings together the latest research findings in the exciting field of mitochondria research to reveal how our growing understanding of mitochondria is shedding light on how complex life evolved, why sex arose (why don't we just bud?), and why we age and die. This understanding is of fundamental importance, both in understanding how we and all other complex life came to be, but also in order to be able to control our own illnesses, and delay our degeneration and death.
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Possibly the heaviest Nick Lane book I've read
- By Mic Mises on 05-20-19
By: Nick Lane
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Outliers
- The Story of Success
- By: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this stunning audiobook, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers" - the best and the brightest, the most famous, and the most successful. He asks the question: What makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: That is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing.
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Engaging, but overrated
- By Scott T. Hards on 12-13-08
By: Malcolm Gladwell
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Grit
- The Power of Passion and Perseverance
- By: Angela Duckworth
- Narrated by: Angela Duckworth
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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In this must-listen book for anyone striving to succeed, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows parents, educators, students, and businesspeople - both seasoned and new - that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a focused persistence called "grit". Why do some people succeed and others fail? Sharing new insights from her landmark research on grit, MacArthur "genius" Angela Duckworth explains why talent is hardly a guarantor of success.
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Two different books
- By Tristan on 06-11-16
By: Angela Duckworth
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A Short History of Nearly Everything
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Richard Matthews
- Length: 18 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Bill Bryson has been an enormously popular author both for his travel books and for his books on the English language. Now, this beloved comic genius turns his attention to science. Although he doesn't know anything about the subject (at first), he is eager to learn, and takes information that he gets from the world's leading experts and explains it to us in a way that makes it exciting and relevant.
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The Only Book I reread imediatley after reading
- By Andrew on 11-09-09
By: Bill Bryson
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Mastery
- By: Robert Greene
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In Mastery, Robert Greene's fifth book, he mines the biographies of great historical figures for clues about gaining control over our own lives and destinies. Picking up where The 48 Laws of Power left off, Greene culls years of research and original interviews to blend historical anecdote and psychological insight, distilling the universal ingredients of the world's masters.
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Focus on passion=Less stress and more success
- By Mark on 05-04-15
By: Robert Greene
What listeners say about Letters to a Young Scientist
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- Catherine Puma
- 12-27-20
Short Advice Series from Famous Scientist
In this part-discussion of science careers, part-memoir, Dr. Edward O. Wilson offers advice and support for young scientists. I loved listening to this, as it is pretty much exactly what I was searching for, and as a budding scientific researcher myself, it was exactly what I needed to hear at this point in my career.
Edward O. Wilson is famous for his expertise in ants, co-founding the terminology "Evolutionary Biology", and with MacArthur describing the Theory of Island Biogeography. In addition to the advice he gives to young scientists, Wilson frames his wisdom through stories of his youth, early career, research triumphs and toils, and experience as a mentor. It was so refreshing to hear of his exploits and extremely heartening to hear such a renown scientist speak about the potential and encouragement of new professionals without being patronizing or overly judgmental.
This is a great short read for anyone in the sciences or STEM career, whether pre-science career, early career, or even later in their career. I think there is a lot to gain from this, and is good food for thought. I am so glad I listened to this at this point in my life, while I am in graduate school studying Tropical Marine Ecosystem Management, and I can see myself coming back to this in order to re-read its wise words some day.
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- Ryan sweet
- 01-04-23
great read for someone who is questioning
recently switched my major to biology and this made me feel so much better about that decision
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- Katie
- 01-21-17
Inspiring and thought provoking
Dry details but overall reassuring for someone questioning whether or not to pursue a career in science.
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3 people found this helpful
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- jc 550m
- 12-13-19
great candid guidance to have a rewarding career
content and candidness are great . very good to listen to on way to work
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 09-04-18
Genuinely changed and enriched my life and career
I cannot put into words what this book and it's excellent narration means to people like or even unlike myself.
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-16-19
odd voice changes
It was very obvious that there was a second reader chiming in to complete some statements and trying to match the voice of the main reader. While it wasn't offputting or bad it pulled me from story briefly every time.
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- Diego Zárrate
- 10-23-17
love it
Great book for either beginning or continuing biology and ecology professionals. a lot of great advices to move forward.
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2 people found this helpful
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- History Lover
- 07-09-18
Very pronunciation
I absolutely loved the book, but the reading left a lot to be desired. Ecosystem is not pronounced Echosystem. There were a number of other similar words that were grossly mispronounced.
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- deanna taylor
- 02-24-20
Inspiring and Motivating
So many times I've said " I wish I could absorb all the knowledge and wisdom of influential people in science". This book provides that opportunity
and gives some amazing advise to young scientist as well as to seasoned scientist. In the beginning the narrator is hard to understand but by the middle of the book he does become easier to understand.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Abhigyan
- 01-13-17
Good for budding researchers
Gives you a good framework of researching , as well as an interesting read for anyone amateur.
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