Why do diets fail? Is it because of genetic disposition? A sluggish metabolism? An underactive thyroid?

A behavioural psychologist reveals the truth about dieting, including how she lost over 100lb in one year.

After years of failed diets Dr Nadja Hermann weighed over 23 stone at the age of 30. All her life, she had heard and read about hundreds of reasons why diets wouldn't work for her. But when her weight started to seriously affect her health, she took a hard look at the science and realised that most of what she believed about dieting was a myth. What was more, those very myths were preventing her from losing weight.

Forget clean eating, paleo, or fasting ― it was conquering these elements of ‘Fat Logic’ that finally led to Hermann achieving a healthy weight. One and a half years later, she weighed 10 stone, and has maintained that weight to this day. Now, using humour, the insight she’s acquired, and a dose of science, Hermann debunks widespread lies about weight loss, and shows how it is possible to attain a healthy weight.

The science of language evolution appeared at the end of the last century but topically belongs to language origins - the domain of investigation that is concerned with the beginnings and diversification of language. Language evolution as a research area contrasts with the antiquity of language origins, which can be traced back to the earliest forms of traditional reflection. Language evolution emphasises its scientific orientation, whereas throughout most of its history language origins constituted a complex mixture of mythology, philosophy of language, as well as religiously and scientifically inspired speculation. This work is the first book-long attempt to document the whole history of language origins and situate language evolution in this wide intellectual context.

Immunology: A Comparative Approach discusses the immunological features of a wide range of living organisms. It considers the merits of the laboratory mouse as an immunological representative; opportunities for bypassing technical obstacles in one model by using another; the immunological implications of changes in overall structure, physiology and way of life; and progress made in the study of defence mechanisms in animals and plants of commercial importance. This book is written for students and research workers with some knowledge of mainstream immunology who are curious about the advances, opportunities and challenges in comparative work.

This book summarizes and explains the main approaches to age estimation in the living, defining when a parameter may be of use and raising awareness of its limitations. This text ensures that practitioners recognize when an assessment is beyond their area of expertise or beyond verification depending upon the clinical data available. Each key approach to age evaluation has been allotted a single chapter, written by an international leader in the particular field. The book also includes summary chapters that relay readily accessible data for use by the practitioner, and includes important "ageing milestones."

This book is indispensable where problems of immigration and legal standing, juvenile vs. adult criminal status, and responsibilities of law enforcement to protect vulnerable persons are key issues on a daily basis. Medical practitioners, forensic practitioners such as pathology, odontology, anthropology and nursing, lawyers, and police would find this book incredibly useful.

Sex has no history, but sexual science does. Starting in the late nineteenth century, people all over the world suddenly began to insist that understandings of sex be based on science. As Japanese and Indian sexologists influenced their German and American counterparts, and vice versa, sexuality, modernity, and imaginings of exotified "Others" became intimately linked. The first anthology to provide a worldwide perspective on the birth and development of the field, A Global History of Sexual Science contends that actors outside of Europe-in Asia, Latin America, and Africa-became important interlocutors in debates on prostitution, birth control, and transvestism. Ideas circulated through intellectual exchange, travel, and internationally produced and disseminated publications. Twenty scholars tackle specific issues, including the female orgasm and the criminalization of male homosexuality, to demonstrate how concepts and ideas introduced by sexual scientists gained currency throughout the modern world.

The nanotechnology revolution that will transform human health and longevity Nano Comes to Life opens a window onto the nanoscale-the infinitesimal realm of proteins and DNA where physics and cellular and molecular biology meet-and introduces readers to the rapidly evolving nanotechnologies that are allowing us to manipulate the very building blocks of life. Sonia Contera gives an insider's perspective on this new frontier, revealing how nanotechnology enables a new kind of multidisciplinary science that is poised to give us control over our own biology, our health, and our lives. Drawing on her perspective as one of today's leading researchers in the field, Contera describes the exciting ways in which nanotechnology makes it possible to understand, interact with, and manipulate biology-such as by designing and building artificial structures and even machines at the nanoscale using DNA, proteins, and other biological molecules as materials. In turn, nanotechnology is revolutionizing medicine in ways that will have profound effects on our health and longevity, from nanoscale machines that can target individual cancer cells and deliver drugs more effectively, to nanoantibiotics that can fight resistant bacteria, to the engineering of tissues and organs for research, drug discovery, and transplantation. The future will bring about the continued fusion of nanotechnology with biology, physics, medicine, and cutting-edge fields like robotics and artificial intelligence, ushering us into a new "transmaterial era." As we contemplate the power, advantages, and risks of accessing and manipulating our own biology, Contera offers insight and hope that we may all share in the benefits of this revolutionary research.

In this authoritative three-volume reference work, leading researchers bring together current work to provide a comprehensive analysis of the comparative morphology, development, evolution, and functional biology of the skull.

Having studied medicine at Guy's Hospital, London, John Kidd (1775 1851) established himself as a physician and educator at Oxford, where he lectured widely on chemistry, anatomy, mineralogy and geology. Regius professor of medicine and a fellow of the Royal Society from 1822, he rooted his scientific understanding and teaching in natural theology. Published in 1833 as the second Bridgewater Treatise, the present work attempted to bring science and religion into harmony, drawing on such disciplines as anthropology and comparative anatomy. Seeking to demonstrate the superiority of humans in the natural world, Kidd argues that animals, minerals and plants had been adapted by God to serve mankind. Founded upon a belief in the antediluvian world and the revealed existence of God in nature, the work exemplifies the influence of natural theology within the scientific establishment before the era of Darwin."

Why does chocolate taste so good? Why do we seek 'the one'? How do traits such as intelligence, creativity and violence arise and what purpose do they serve? This book links these characteristics to the origins of life, showing that the conditions necessary to bring life into existence echo through our modern day behaviour. The chemistry of the body is not only fascinating but also highly relevant to everyone, since we are all concerned with maximising our health and enjoyment of life. Currently, there are not many popular science books concerned with biochemistry. One reason for this might be the particularly complex nature of the science involved. This book starts with the fundamentals and then works towards a deeper understanding of the chemistry of human nature. Essential reading for anyone with an interest in this science and written at a level accessible to experts and non-experts alike.

Developmental Juvenile Osteology was created as a core reference text to document the development of the entire human skeleton from early embryonic life to adulthood. In the period since its first publication there has been a resurgence of interest in the developing skeleton, and the second edition of Developmental Juvenile Osteology incorporates much of the key literature that has been published in the intervening time. The main core of the text persists by describing each individual component of the human skeleton from its embryological origin through to its final adult form. This systematic approach has been shown to assist the processes of both identification and age estimation and acts as a core source for the basic understanding of normal human skeletal development. In addition to this core, new sections have been added where there have been significant advances in the field.

Human children grow at a uniquely slow pace by comparison with other mammals. When and where did this schedule evolve? Have technological advances, farming and cities had any effect upon it? Addressing these and other key questions in palaeoanthropology and bioarchaeology, Simon Hillson examines the unique role of teeth in preserving detailed microscopic records of development throughout childhood and into adulthood. The text critically reviews theory, assumptions, methods and literature, providing the dental histology background to anthropological studies of both growth rate and growth disruption. Chapters also examine existing studies of growth rate in the context of human evolution and primate development more generally, together with implications for life history. The final chapters consider how defects in the tooth development sequence shed light on the consequences of biological and social transitions, contributing to our understanding of the evolution of modern human development and cognition.

"Adventures in Human Being, with its deft mix of the clinical and the lyrical, is a triumph of the eloquent brain and the compassionate heart."--Wall Street Journal We assume we know our bodies intimately, but for many of us they remain uncharted territory, an enigma of bone and muscle, neurons and synapses. How many of us understand the way seizures affect the brain, how the heart is connected to well-being, or the why the foot holds the key to our humanity? In Adventures in Human Being, award-winning author Gavin Francis leads readers on a journey into the hidden pathways of the human body, offering a guide to its inner workings and a celebration of its marvels. Drawing on his experiences as a surgeon, ER specialist, and family physician, Francis blends stories from the clinic with episodes from medical history, philosophy, and literature to describe the body in sickness and in health, in life and in death. When assessing a young woman with paralysis of the face, Francis reflects on the age-old difficulty artists have had in capturing human expression. A veteran of the war in Iraq suffers a shoulder injury that Homer first described three millennia ago in the Iliad. And when a gardener pricks her finger on a dirty rose thorn, her case of bacterial blood poisoning brings to mind the comatose sleeping beauties in the fairy tales we learn as children. At its heart, Adventures in Human Being is a meditation on what it means to be human. Poetic, eloquent, and profoundly perceptive, this book will transform the way you view your body.

The present volume continues Koopman's book on the systematics of the Chiroptera from 1994 with three further contributions, namely on the Biology of Flight, the Sensory Organs, and on Chronobiology. Written by internationally wellknown authors these contributions present information on their topics in unique breadth and depth, all of them furnished with an extensive bibliography. The language is either English or German; contributions in the German language having an English summary.

Converging evidence from disciplines including sociobiology, evolutionary psychology and human biology forces us to adopt a new idea of what it means to be a human. As cherished concepts such as free will, naive realism, humans as creation's crowning glory fall and our moral roots in ape group dynamics become clearer, we have to take leave of many concepts that have been central to defining our humanness. What emerges is a new human, the homo novus, a human being without illusions. Leading authors from many different fields explore these issues by addressing a range of illusions and providing evidence for the need, despite considerable reluctance, to relinquish some of our most cherished ideas about ourselves.

This manual not only provides reliable, up-to-date protocols for lab use but also the theoretical background of molecular biology, allowing users to better understand the principles underlying these techniques. It covers a wide range of methods, including the purification of nucleic acids, enzymatic modification of DNA, isolation of specific DNA fragments, PCR, cloning techniques, and gene expression. A Springer Lab Manual

Thousands of different microbial species colonize the human body, and are essential for our survival. This book presents a review of the current understanding of human microbiomes, the functions that they bring to the host, how we can model them, their role in health and disease and the methods used to explore them. Current research into areas such as the long-term effect of antibiotics makes this a subject of considerable interest. This title is essential reading for researchers and students of microbiology.

Evolutionary science is critical to an understanding of integrated human biology and is increasingly recognised as a core discipline by medical and public health professionals. Advances in the field of genomics, epigenetics, developmental biology, and epidemiology have led to the growing realisation that incorporating evolutionary thinking is essential for medicine to achieve its full potential. This revised and updated second edition of the first comprehensive textbook of evolutionary medicine explains the principles of evolutionary biology from a medical perspective and focuses on how medicine and public health might utilise evolutionary thinking. It is written to be accessible to a broad range of readers, whether or not they have had formal exposure to evolutionary science. The general structure of the second edition remains unchanged, with the initial six chapters providing a summary of the evolutionary theory relevant to understanding human health and disease, using examples specifically relevant to medicine. The second part of the book describes the application of evolutionary principles to understanding particular aspects of human medicine: in addition to updated chapters on reproduction, metabolism, and behaviour, there is an expanded chapter on our coexistence with micro-organisms and an entirely new chapter on cancer. The two parts are bridged by a chapter that details pathways by which evolutionary processes affect disease risk and symptoms, and how hypotheses in evolutionary medicine can be tested. The final two chapters of the volume are considerably expanded; they illustrate the application of evolutionary biology to medicine and public health, and consider the ethical and societal issues of an evolutionary perspective. A number of new clinical examples and historical illustrations are included. This second edition of a novel and popular textbook provides an updated resource for doctors and other health professionals, medical students and biomedical scientists, as well as anthropologists interested in human health, to gain a better understanding of the evolutionary processes underlying human health and disease.

Researchers have long had an interest in dental morphology as a genetic proxy to reconstruct population history. Much interest was fostered by the use of standard plaques and associated descriptions that comprise the Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System, developed by Christy G. Turner, II and students. This system has served as the foundation for hundreds of anthropological studies for over 30 years. In recognition of that success, this volume brings together some of the world's leading dental morphologists to expand upon the concepts and methods presented in the popular The Anthropology of Modern Human Teeth (Cambridge University Press, 1997), leading the reader from method to applied research. After a preparatory section on the current knowledge of heritability and gene expression, a series of case studies demonstrate the utility of dental morphological study in both fossil and more recent populations (and individuals), from local to global scales.

Few things are as interesting to us as our own bodies and, by extension, our own identities. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the relationship between the body, environment and society. Reflecting upon these developments, this book examines the role of the body in human identification, in the forging of identities, and the ways in which it embodies our social worlds. The approach is integrative, taking a uniquely biological perspective and reflecting on current discourse in the social sciences. With particular reference to bioarchaeology and forensic science, the authors focus on the construction and categorisation of the body within scientific and popular discourse, examining its many tissues, from the outermost to the innermost, from the skin to DNA. Synthesising two, traditionally disparate, strands of research, this is a valuable contribution to research on human identification and the embodiment of identity.

The study of signal transduction mechanisms has become one of the most important branches of biomedical science, indispensable to understanding the normal actions of hormones, neurotransmitters and other extracellular signaling molecules as well as many pathophysiological processes, including inflammation and cancer. In this volume, the various techniques for measuring Ca2+ in the cytosol, in the various organelles, and in the immediate surroundings of individual cells are described in practical detail by experts. Also included is a chapter on tracking calmodulin inside cells using fluorescence technology. A Springer Lab Manual

Biolinguistics is a highly interdisciplinary field that seeks the rapprochement between linguistics and biology. Linking theoretical linguistics, theoretical biology, genetics, neuroscience and cognitive psychology, this book offers a collection of chapters situating the enterprise conceptually, highlighting both the promises and challenges of the field, and chapters focusing on the challenges and prospects of taking interdisciplinarity seriously. It provides concrete illustrations of some of the cutting-edge research in biolinguistics and piques the interest of undergraduate students looking for a field to major in and inspires graduate students on possible research directions. It is also meant to show to specialists in adjacent fields how a particular strand of theoretical linguistics relates to their concerns, and in so doing, the book intends to foster collaboration across disciplines.

This handbook offers guidance on selections of appropriate computational methods and software packages for specific genetic problems. Coverage strikes a balance between methodological expositions and practical guidelines for software selections. Wherever possible, comparisons among competing methods and software are made to highlight the relative advantages and disadvantage of the approaches.

The emergence of the genus Homo is widely linked to the colonization of 'new' highly seasonal savannah habitats. However, until recently, our understanding of the possible impact of seasonality on this shift has been limited because we have little general knowledge of how seasonality affects the lives of primates. This book documents the extent of seasonality in food abundance in tropical woody vegetation, and then presents systematic analyses of the impact of seasonality in food supply on the behavioural ecology of non-human primates. Syntheses in this volume then produce broad generalizations concerning the impact of seasonality on behavioural ecology and reproduction in both human and non-human primates, and apply these insights to primate and human evolution. Written for graduate students and researchers in biological anthropology and behavioural ecology, this is an absorbing account of how seasonality may have affected an important episode in our own evolution.