 Ashet audio presents denial, self-deception, false beliefs, and the origins of the human mind, written by Ajit Bharki and Danny Brower, read by Bob Walter. Denial An unconscious defense mechanism characterized by refusal to acknowledge painful realities, thoughts, or feelings. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Introduction An Improbable but True Story Truth is stranger than fiction. Lord Byron in Don Juan. Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't. Mark Twain in following The Equator. The story behind this book is strange and improbable. Two individuals from very different backgrounds converged on a single question happened to meet just once, disgusted briefly, parted company, and would never see each other again. One of them, Danny Brower, died suddenly at the age of fifty-five in two thousand seven. The other person, I, a physician-turned-scientist, was left to complete our story. From our single chance conversation grew this book, which should interest anyone who cares about the universally human questions, who are we, how did we get here, why are we the way we are, and where are we going. The improbability of it all becomes starker when you consider what different circumstances the two of us came from. Danny was born in November of 1951, was raised in the United States, and worked his way up from modest means to the prestigious position of professor and chair of molecular and cellular biology at the University of Arizona at Tucson. By the time I met him, he was already well known for his pioneering work on protein molecules called integrins, which play key roles in how cells recognize and respond to their environment. Danny was using a popular fruit fly model to study these processes, and from this same work he was even able to contribute to our understanding of human cancer. As it turned out, Danny had another interest related to his research. He was fascinated by evolutionary biology, the study of the processes by which all life on this planet emerged over the last three billion years or so. A natural progression of such thinking made him wonder about the... Sample complete, ready to continue?