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Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts
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Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts Hardcover - 2000

by Burnham, Terry; Phelan, Jay


From the publisher

Short, sassy, and bold, Mean Genes uses a Darwinian lens to examine the issues that most deeply affect our lives: body image, money, addiction, violence, and the endless search for happiness, love, and fidelity. But Burnham and Phelan don't simply describe the connections between our genes and our behavior; they also outline steps that we can take to tame our primal instincts and so improve the quality of our lives.Why do we want (and do) so many things that are bad for us? We vow to lose those extra five pounds, put more money in the bank, and mend neglected relationships, but our attempts often end in failure. Mean Genes reveals that struggles for self-improvement are, in fact, battles against our own genes--genes that helped our cavewoman and caveman ancestors flourish but that are selfish and out of place in the modern world. Why do we like junk food more than fruit? Why is the road to romance so rocky? Why is happiness so elusive? What drives us into debt? An investigation into the biological nature of temptation and the struggle for control, Mean Genes answers these and other fundamental questions about human nature while giving us an edge to lead more satisfying lives.

Details

  • Title Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts
  • Author Burnham, Terry; Phelan, Jay
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition First Edition
  • Pages 263
  • Publisher Perseus Publishing, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.
  • Date 2000-08
  • ISBN 9780738202303

About the author

Terry Burnham is an economics professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where he studies the Darwinian origin of economic behaviors. He received a Ph.D. in business economics from Harvard in 1997. He has worked on Wall Street and is the co-founder of Progenics, a publicly traded biotechnology firm with promising treatments for cancer and AIDS. He studied chimpanzees in the African rainforest and drove a tank in the U.S. Marine Corps.Jay Phelan is a biology professor at UCLA. He received a Ph.D. in biology from Harvard in 1995, and master's and bachelor's degrees from Yale and UCLA. His main area of research is evolutionary genetics and aging. He has been featured on the BBC and on "Talk of the Nation" as well as in magazines and newspapers. An accomplished educator, he has received accolades and numerous awards for his teaching. Terry Burnham is an economics professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where he studies the Darwinian origin of economic behaviors. He received a Ph.D. in business economics from Harvard in 1997. He has worked on Wall Street and is the co-founder of Progenics, a publicly traded biotechnology firm with promising treatments for cancer and AIDS. He studied chimpanzees in the African rainforest and drove a tank in the U.S. Marine Corps.Jay Phelan is a biology professor at UCLA. He received a Ph.D. in biology from Harvard in 1995, and master's and bachelor's degrees from Yale and UCLA. His main area of research is evolutionary genetics and aging. He has been featured on the BBC and on "Talk of the Nation" as well as in magazines and newspapers. An accomplished educator, he has received accolades and numerous awards for his teaching.
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Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts

by Terry Burnham, Jay Phelan

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Mean Genes : From Sex to Money to Food, Taming Our Primal Instincts
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Mean Genes : From Sex to Money to Food, Taming Our Primal Instincts

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Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts
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Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts

by Burnham, Terry; Phelan, Jay

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Mean Genes : From Sex to Money to Food, Taming Our Primal Instincts

Mean Genes : From Sex to Money to Food, Taming Our Primal Instincts

by Terry Burnham; Jay Phelan

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Mean Genes : From Sex to Money to Food, Taming Our Primal Instincts

Mean Genes : From Sex to Money to Food, Taming Our Primal Instincts

by Terry Burnham; Jay Phelan

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Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts
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Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts

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Mean Genes : From Sex to Money to Food, Taming Our Primal Instincts
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Mean Genes : From Sex to Money to Food, Taming Our Primal Instincts

by Phelan, Jay, Burnham, Terry

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
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Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts
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Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts

by Terry Burnham; Jay Phelan

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
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Mean Genes From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts

by Burnham, Terry

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Mean genes : from sex to money to food, taming our primal instincts
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Mean genes : from sex to money to food, taming our primal instincts

by Burnham, Terry

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