National Book Award finalist
A "New York Times" notable book
"One knows early on one is reading a classic--a text so necessary and abundant and true that all efforts of its kind, for decades before and after it, will be measured by it."--Thomas Lynch, "Los Angeles Times"
After fifteen years in print, "Woman "remains an essential guide to everything from organs to orgasms and hormones to hysterectomies. With her characteristic clarity, insight, and sheer exuberance of language, bestselling author Natalie Angier cuts through the still prevalent myths and misinformation surrounding the female body, that most enigmatic of evolutionary masterpieces. "Woman "is a witty and assured narrative tour de force with a reliable grasp of science.
Updated throughout and with a new introduction bringing readers up to date on the latest science in evolutionary psychology and hormone replacement therapy, this new edition of Woman reinvigorates Angier's joyful vision of womanhood.
"Ultimately, this grand tour of the female body provides a new vision of the role of women in the history of our species."--"Washington Post"

One of a series of more than 20 volumes resulting from the World Archaeological Congress, September 1986, which brought together archaeologists and anthropologists from many parts of the world, academics from contingent disciplines, and non-academics from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. This book considers prehistoric and more recent manifestations of human hunting behaviour, with a general emphasis on communal hunting. It demonstrates that the combination of archaeological, ethnographic and ethnohistorical approaches provides a researched basis for consideration of the topic on worldwide, regional, and local scales. It includes theoretical and methodological issues, within a context of enquiry, original data presentation, and discussion. It is of interest to archaeologists, anthropologists and ethnohistorians.

Obesity, autism, mental health problems, IBS, allergies, auto-immunity, cancer. Does the answer to the modern epidemic of 'Western' diseases lie in our gut? You are 10% human. For every one of your cells, there are nine impostors hitching a ride. You are not just flesh and bone, but also bacteria and fungi. And you are more 'them' than you are 'you'. Your gut alone hosts 100 trillion of them and until recently we thought that our microbes didn't matter. This is all set to change as the latest scientific research tells a very different story, one where microbes run our bodies and becoming healthy is impossible without them. In this ground-breaking book, biologist Alanna Collen reveals how our personal colony of microbes influence our weight, immune system, mental health and even our choice of partner. This is a new way of understanding modern diseases - obesity, autism, mental health problems, gut disorders, allergies, auto-immunity and even cancer - as she argues they have their root in our failure to cherish our most fundamental and enduring relationship: that with our microbes. Illuminating many of the questions still unanswered by the human genome project 10% Human completely changes our understanding of diet, modern disease and medicine. The good news is that unlike our human cells, we can change our microbes for the better and this book shows you how. A revelatory and indispensable guide: life - and your body - will never seem the same again.

The Diabetes LIFEMAP changes the way chronic diabetes care is delivered forever. The LIFEMAP raises diabetes care for the primary care and ancillary healthcare provider to the level of world renown diabetes expert, David Bleich, MD. For patients, the LIFEMAP provides real-time diabetes care that changes a "tough-to-manage" disease into a shared, personal, and efficient management experience. The LIFEMAP can be used as a stand-alone diabetes management tool or can be combined with our cloud based LIFEMAP platform through GoMo Health. Now care can be delivered seamlessly at home for both provider and patient. The Diabetes LIFEMAP is the playbook for 21st century diabetes care. It starts with an understanding of the basic principles of insulin secretion and moves to a discussion of how the LIFEMAP evolved and why it is such a powerful management tool. Finally, case studies are provided to reinforce basic concepts of LIFEMAP diabetes care with real world examples. Taken together, The Diabetes LIFEMAP succeeds in helping healthcare providers overcome a difficult to manage disease and provides patients with an optimal diabetes outcome with the least amount of effort necessary to achieve high level results.

As many as 100 billion neurons make up the human nervous system - a system that is incredibly complex, and a fundamental part of what makes us who we are. But there is far more to human beings than biology. Many academic disciplines study the human condition and there are many schools of thought within that study. We must also appreciate that the study of human nature did not begin in contemporary times. History is full of texts that offer detailed explorations of the human condition. However, no consensus has yet emerged. Consensus or not, those working towards religious and spiritual formation pursue the transformation of their communities. This book offers a fuller understanding of some of the common views of human nature and also insights into how we might utilise this knowledge in our ministries - ministries that strive towards the spiritual being and becoming of our world.

Spotting a face in a crowd is so easy, you take it for granted. But how you do it is one of science's great mysteries. Vision is involved in nearly a third of everything a brain does and explaining how it works reveals more than just how we see. It also tells us how the brain processes information - how it perceives, learns and remembers. In We Know It When We See It, pioneering neuroscientist Richard Masland covers everything from what happens when light hits your retina, to the increasingly sophisticated nerve nets that turn that light into knowledge, to what a computer algorithm must be able to do before it can truly be called 'intelligent'. It is a profound yet accessible investigation into how our bodies make sense of the world.

Metabolism, behaviour, sleep, mood swings, the immune system, fighting, fleeing, puberty and sex: these are just a few of the things our bodies control with hormones. Armed with a healthy dose of wit and curiosity, medical journalist Randi Hutter Epstein takes us on a journey through the unusual history of these potent chemicals from a basement filled with jarred nineteenth-century brains to a twenty-first-century hormone clinic in Los Angeles. Brimming with fascinating anecdotes, illuminating new medical research and humorous details, Aroused introduces the leading scientists who made life-changing discoveries about the hormone imbalances that ail us, as well as the charlatans who used those discoveries to peddle false remedies.

Our Human Story is a guide to our fossil relatives, from what may be the earliest hominins such as Sahelanthropus, dating back six to seven million years, through to our own species, Homo sapiens. Over the past 25 years there has been an explosion of species' names in the story of human evolution, due both to new discoveries and to a growing understanding of the diversity that existed in the past. Drawing on this new information, as well as their own considerable expertise and practical experience, Louise Humphrey and Chris Stringer explain in clear and accessible terms what each of the key species represents and how it contributes to our knowledge of human evolution.

This monograph provides a comprehensive overview of the latest advances in the field of vasopressin and oxytocin. In the summer of 1997, scientists from over 20 countries congregated in Montreal for the 1997 World Congress of Neurohypophysial Hormones, a conference that united the fields of vasopressin, neurohypophysis, and oxytocin in a single joint meeting that gave rise to this book. The organization of a joint meeting was prompted by several developments. Specifically the molecular characterization of the vasopressin/oxytocin receptor family made it mandatory to adopt an integrated view and to discuss the vasopressin/oxytocin ligand/receptor family as a whole. To ensure emphasis on novelty, the conference focused on advances made in the late-1990s and also included important contributions by scientist that had not previously been associated with the vasopressin/oxytocin field.

As recent articles about "the graying of America" suggest, a demographic revolution is well underway. The number of people living into extreme old age is increasing dramatically. By the year 2050 one in five of the world's population, including the developing countries, will be 65 or older, a fact which presages profound medical, biological, philosophical, and political changes in the coming century.

In Time of Our Lives, Tom Kirkwood unfolds some of the deepest mysteries of medical science while demolishing some of the most persistent misconceptions. He overturns the almost universally held belief that aging is either necessary or inevitable--it isn't--and debunks the idea that there exists a "death gene" that evolved to inhibit population growth. Instead, Kirkwood shows that we age because our genes, evolving at a time when life was "nasty, brutish, and short," placed little priority on the long-term maintenance of our bodies. With such knowledge, along with new insights from genome research, we can devise ways to target the root causes of aging and of age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's and osteoporosis. Expanding the thesis of the "disposable soma," developed over twenty years of research, Kirkwood makes sense of the evolution of aging, explains how aging occurs, and answers fundamental questions like why women live longer than men. He even considers the possibility that human beings will someday have greatly extended life spans or even be free from senescence altogether.

Beautifully written by one of the world's pioneering researchers into the science of aging, Time of Our Lives is a clear, original and, above all, inspiring investigation of a process all of us experience but few of us understand.

This book bridges the gap between a clinician's and material scientists' knowledge by elucidating upon the different biomaterials used in anatomical systems and how those materials react to the human body. It explores both established and future prospective of biomaterial types/designs, and considerations in material selection and synthesis, to guide students from non-clinical background in understanding the relations of material science and the human body.

When you were a baby, you didn't have any teeth at all. Then as you grew, your teeth started to come in. First one, then two - and finally, twenty teeth in all!

But you won't keep these teeth forever. First one, then two, will wiggle loose. Maybe you've lost some of your first teeth already. When the little teeth come out and the big teeth come in, everyone can see - you're growing up.

It is said that the skull is the only human body part that is as powerful dead as it was when living. Skulls takes the reader on an eerie journey through history seen through the hollow eye sockets of this crown jewel of the human skeleton. The book is made up of a series of short illustrated stories laced with fascinating facts, historical and medical references and compelling anecdotes. The testimonials of thirty-plus skull collectors reveal what is known of - or speculated about - the often gruesome history of the skulls, as well as how they were acquired and what makes them so highly prized.

In The Descent of Man Darwin addresses many of the issues raised by his notorious Origin of Species: finding in the traits and instincts of animals the origins of the mental abilities of humans, of language, of our social structures and our moral capacities, he attempts to show that there is no clear dividing line between animals and humans. Most importantly, he accounts for what Victorians called the 'races' of mankind by means of what he calls sexual selection. This book presents a full explanation of Darwin's ideas about sexual selection, including his belief that many important characteristics of human beings and animals have emerged in response to competition for mates. This was a controversial work. Yet Darwin tried hard to avoid being branded as a radical revolutionary. He is steeped in Victorian sensibilities regarding gender and cultural differences: he sees human civilization as a move from barbarous savagery to modern gentlefolk, and women as more emotional and less intellectual than men, thus providing a biological basis for the social assumptions and prejudices of the day. The Descent of Man played a major role in the emergence of social Darwinism. This complete version of the first edition gives the modern reader an unparalleled opportunity to engage directly with Darwin's proposals, launched in the midst of continuing controversy over On the Origin of Species. Janet Browne is the author of the prize-winning biography, Charles Darwin: Voyaging and Charles Darwin: The Power of Place.

Biology of Sex is a lively and intellectually challenging textbook. Mills analyzes the biological basis of sex by considering genetic, physiological, and evolutionary principles. In order to explain the biological aspects of human sex, he uses direct and intriguing comparisons with the many variations in sexual systems among non-human organisms. Text boxes provide fascinating examples: non-human species that cannibalize their partners during copulation, organisms that do not fall within one of two biological sexes, and species that “trick” others into raising their young. The author also explores questions such as: “Is sex only for reproduction?”, “Why is sex pleasurable?”, and “What are the roots of sexual conflict?” Intended primarily for readers without a science background, Biology of Sex provides novel content from the human and non-human worlds to introduce the complex subject of sex and reproduction.

The "New York Times" bestseller - with a new afterword about early specialization in youth sports.
The debate is as old as physical competition. Are stars like Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, and Serena Williams genetic freaks put on Earth to dominate their respective sports? Or are they simply normal people who overcame their biological limits through sheer force of will and obsessive training?
In this controversial and engaging exploration of athletic success and the so-called 10,000-hour rule, David Epstein tackles the great nature vs. nurture debate and traces how far science has come in solving it. Through on-the-ground reporting from below the equator and above the Arctic Circle, revealing conversations with leading scientists and Olympic champions, and interviews with athletes who have rare genetic mutations or physical traits, Epstein forces us to rethink the very nature of athleticism.

The first comprehensive look at menopause from prehistory to today Are the ways we look at menopause all wrong? Historian Susan Mattern says yes, and The Slow Moon Climbs reveals just how wrong we have been. Taking readers from the rainforests of Paraguay to the streets of Tokyo, Mattern draws on historical, scientific, and cultural research to reveal how our perceptions of menopause developed from prehistory to today. For most of human history, people had no word for menopause and did not view it as a medical condition. Rather, in traditional foraging and agrarian societies, it was a transition to another important life stage. This book, then, introduces new ways of understanding life beyond fertility. Mattern examines the fascinating "Grandmother Hypothesis"-which argues for the importance of elders in the rearing of future generations-as well as other evolutionary theories that have generated surprising insights about menopause and the place of older people in society. She looks at agricultural communities where households relied on postreproductive women for the family's survival. And she explores the emergence of menopause as a medical condition in the Western world. It was only around 1700 that people began to see menopause as a dangerous pathological disorder linked to upsetting symptoms that rendered women weak and vulnerable. Mattern argues that menopause was another syndrome, like hysterical suffocation or melancholia, that emerged or reemerged in early modern Europe in tandem with the rise of a professional medical class. The Slow Moon Climbs casts menopause, at last, in the positive light it deserves-not only as an essential life stage, but also as a key factor in the history of human flourishing.

Focusing on the roles of different segments of DNA, Statistics in Human Genetics and Molecular Biology provides a basic understanding of problems arising in the analysis of genetics and genomics. It presents statistical applications in genetic mapping, DNA/protein sequence alignment, and analyses of gene expression data from microarray experiments.

The text introduces a diverse set of problems and a number of approaches that have been used to address these problems. It discusses basic molecular biology and likelihood-based statistics, along with physical mapping, markers, linkage analysis, parametric and nonparametric linkage, sequence alignment, and feature recognition. The text illustrates the use of methods that are widespread among researchers who analyze genomic data, such as hidden Markov models and the extreme value distribution. It also covers differential gene expression detection as well as classification and cluster analysis using gene expression data sets.

Ideal for graduate students in statistics, biostatistics, computer science, and related fields in applied mathematics, this text presents various approaches to help students solve problems at the interface of these areas.

A surprising look at the role of menopause in human history-and why we should change the ways we think about it Are the ways we look at menopause all wrong? Susan Mattern says yes and, in The Slow Moon Climbs, reveals just how wrong we have been. From the rainforests of Paraguay to the streets of Tokyo, Mattern draws on historical, scientific, and cultural research to show how perceptions of menopause developed from prehistory to today. Introducing new ways of understanding life beyond fertility, Mattern examines the fascinating "Grandmother Hypothesis," looks at agricultural communities where households relied on postreproductive women for the family's survival, and explores the emergence of menopause as a medical condition in the Western world. The Slow Moon Climbs casts menopause in the positive light it deserves-as an essential juncture and a key factor in human flourishing.

Parasites have been infecting humans throughout our evolution. When complex societies developed, the greater population density provided new opportunities for parasites to spread. In this interdisciplinary volume, the author brings his expertise in medicine, archaeology and history to explore the contribution of parasites in causing flourishing past civilizations to falter and decline. By using cutting edge methods, Mitchell presents the evidence for parasites that infected the peoples of key ancient civilizations across the world in order to understand their impact upon those populations. This new understanding of the archaeological and historical evidence for intestinal worms, ectoparasites, and protozoa shows how different cultures were burdened by contrasting types of diseases depending upon their geographical location, endemic insects, food preferences and cultural beliefs.

A biology professor's illuminating tour of the physical imperfections--from faulty knees to junk DNA--that make us human. "A funny, fascinating catalog of our collective shortcomings that's tough to put down."--Discover We humans like to think of ourselves as highly evolved creatures. But if we are supposedly evolution's greatest creation, why do we have such bad knees? Why do we catch head colds so often--two hundred times more often than a dog does? How come our wrists have so many useless bones? Why is the vast majority of our genetic code pointless? And are we really supposed to swallow and breathe through the same narrow tube? Surely there's been some kind of mistake? As professor of biology Nathan H. Lents explains in Human Errors, our evolutionary history is indeed nothing if not a litany of mistakes, each more entertaining and enlightening than the last. The human body is one big pile of compromises. But that is also a testament to our greatness: as Lents shows, humans have so many design flaws precisely because we are very, very good at getting around them. A rollicking, deeply informative tour of humans' four-billion-year-and-counting evolutionary saga, Human Errors both celebrates our imperfections and offers an unconventional accounting of the cost of our success.

Race, while drawn from the visual cues of human diversity, is an idea with a measurable past, an identifiable present, and an uncertain future. The concept of race has been at the center of both triumphs and tragedies in American history and has had a profound effect on the human experience. "Race Unmasked" revisits the origins of commonly held beliefs about the scientific nature of racial differences, examines the roots of the modern idea of race, and explains why race continues to generate controversy as a tool of classification even in our genomic age.

Through rigorous historical research, "Race Unmasked" reveals how genetics and related biological disciplines formed and preserved ideas of race and, at times, racism throughout the twentieth century. Surveying the work of some of the twentieth century's most notable scientists, the book tests and then proves the limitations of a racial worldview. This new work is a gripping history of science and scientists that throws the contours of our current and evolving understanding of human diversity into sharp relief.