Somatotyping is a method of description and assessment of the body on three shape and composition scales: endomorphy (relative fatness), mesomorphy (relative musculoskeletal robustness), and ectomorphy (relative linearity). This book (the first major account of the field for thirty years) presents a comprehensive history of somatotyping, beginning with W. J. Sheldon's introduction of the method in 1940. The controversies regarding the validity of Sheldon's method are described, as are the various attempts to modify the technique, particularly the Heath-Carter method, which has come into widespread use. The book reviews present knowledge of somatotypes around the world, how they change with growth, ageing and exercise, and the contributions of genetics and environment to the rating. Also reviewed are the relationships between somatotypes and sport, physical performance, health and behaviour. Students and research workers in human biology, physical and biological anthropology and physical education will all find valuable information in this book.

Until now, studies of dental and skeletal growth and development have often been treated as independent disciplines within the literature. Human Growth in the Past takes a fresh perspective by bringing together these two related fields of inquiry in a single volume whose purpose is to place methodological issues of growth and development in past populations within a strong theoretical framework. Contributions examine a variety of aspects of human growth in the past, drawing from both paleoanthropological and bioarchaeological data. The book covers a wide spectrum of topics, from patterns of growth in humans and their close relatives, innovative methods and applications of techniques and models for the study of growth, to estimation of age-at-death in subadults and infant mortality in archaeological samples. Human Growth in the Past will be of interest to biological anthropologists, and those in the related fields of dental anatomy, evolutionary biology, and developmental biology.

Anthropometry is the measurement of human morphology and is used in a wide range of applied and research contexts. In this volume, distinguished contributors including anthropologists, human biologists, physiologists, nutritionists and clinical scientists describe many of the ways in which anthropometry is used, and discuss problems associated with different methods of assessment. Topics include the measurement of growth asymmetry and variability in adult body size, measurement error and statistical issues in anthropometry and the construction and use of growth charts in growth monitoring. In addition, the use of anthropometry in assessments of body composition, physical performance and fitness is discussed. This book will be of interest to graduates and researchers in human biology, anthropology and nutrition. It will also be useful to workers in sports medicine, ergonomics, orthopaedics and paediatrics.

Considerable attention is being paid to the use of molecular evidence in studies of human diversity and origins. Much of the early work was based on evidence from mitochondrial DNA, but this has been supplemented by important information from nuclear DNA from both the Y chromosomes and the autosomes. The bulk of the material available is also from living populations, but this is being extended by the study of DNA from archaic populations. The underlying models used in interpreting this evidence are developments of the neutral theory of molecular evolution, but also consider the possible role of selection. This 1996 volume brings together evidence from an international group of research workers. It will be an important reference for researchers in human biology, molecular biology and genetics alike.

Many physical anthropologists study populations using data that come primarily from the historical record. For this volume's authors, the classic anthropological 'field' is not the glamour of an exotic locale, but the sometimes tedium of the dusty back rooms of libraries, archives and museum collections. This book tells of the way in which archival data inform anthropological questions about human biology and health. The authors present a diverse array of human biological evidence from a variety of sources including the archaeological record, medical collections, church records, contemporary health and growth data and genetic information from the descendants of historical populations. The papers demonstrate how the analysis of historical documents expands the horizons of research in human biology, extends the longitudinal analysis of microevolutionary and social processes into the present and enhances our understanding of the human condition.

The development of populations over time, and, on longer timescales, the evolution of species, are both influenced by a complex of interacting, underlying processes. Computer simulation provides a means of experimenting within an idealised framework to allow aspects of these processes and their interactions to be isolated, controlled, and understood. In this book, computer simulation is used to model migration, extinction, fossilisation, interbreeding, selection and non-hereditary effects in the context of human populations and the observed distribution of fossil and current hominoid species. The simulations described enable the visualisation and study of lineages, genetic diversity in populations, character diversity across species and the accuracy of reconstructions, allowing new insights into human evolution and the origins of humankind for graduate students and researchers in the fields of physical anthropology, human evolution, and human genetics.

The Metaphysics of Apes, first published in 2005, traces the discovery and interpretation of the human-like great apes and the ape-like earliest ancestors of present-day humans. It shows how, from the days of Linnaeus to recent research, the sacred and taboo-ridden animal-human boundary was time and again challenged and adjusted. The unique dignity of humans, a central idea and value in the West, was, and to some extent still is, centrally on the minds of taxonomists, ethnologists, primatologists, and archaeologists. It has guided their research to a considerable extent. The basic presupposition was that humans are not entirely part of nature but, as symbolizing minds and as moral persons, transcend nature. This book was the first to offer an anthropological analysis of the burgeoning anthropological disciplines in terms of their own cultural taboos and philosophical preconceptions.

Discover everything you need to know about biology, with the simplest most visual guide to the science of life. How do vaccines work? What is special about stem cells? How did we evolve from bacteria? The science of life can be dauntingly complex, and it can be hard to separate "good" science from "bad", fundamental truths from the much-hyped breakthroughs reported in the media. With clear, easy-to-understand graphics and packed with fascinating facts, How Biology Works demystifies both the core biology that may have eluded us at school, and the cutting-edge life science that makes the news, answering the questions that spark our curiosity. With power to every page, this striking science book: - Is illustrated entirely by specially commissioned, boldly coloured, distinctive, flat, vector graphics that explain each topic clearly and engagingly. - Supports the curriculum up to GCSE, but also includes some higher-level topics and cutting-edge biology that makes the news. - Uses clear, distinctive, eye-catching graphics to make even complex biology easy to understand. -Offers a practical, no-nonsense approach to each subject. Building from life's fundamental ingredients, such as carbon and water, the book explains chemical processes in living cells, controlled by the ultimate biochemical, DNA. It shows how DNA is made of units called genes, which are shuffled in each generation of offspring, leading to variation and evolution. It covers topics from school biology, such as how plants work and how animals, including humans, work, and goes on to ecology and biotechnology. Beyond school science, however, it covers the background to the latest medical technology and biotechnology: how gene therapy works, what stem-cell research is achieving, and how our immune systems, boosted by vaccines, are in an arms race with ever-mutating viruses and other pathogens. At DK, we believe in the power of discovery. So why stop there? How Biology Works is part of DK's widely successful How Stuff Works series. Discover the inner workings of the mind with How the Brain Works, succeed in all things science with How Science Works and discover the cosmos like you've never known before with How Space Works. Whatever topic sparks your interests, there's a plethora of knowledge to discover!

Neanderthals and Modern Humans develops the theme of the close relationship between climate change, ecological change and biogeographical patterns in humans during the Pleistocene. In particular, it challenges the view that Modern Human 'superiority' caused the extinction of the Neanderthals between 40 and 30 thousand years ago. Clive Finlayson shows that to understand human evolution, the spread of humankind across the world and the extinction of archaic populations, we must move away from a purely theoretical evolutionary ecology base and realise the importance of wider biogeographic patterns including the role of tropical and temperate refugia. His proposal is that Neanderthals became extinct because their world changed faster than they could cope with, and that their relationship with the arriving Modern Humans, where they met, was subtle.

Assuming that the earliest human ancestors grew more like apes than current-day humans, when, how and why did our modern growth pattern evolve? Covering growth patterns within available Plio-Pleistocene Hominids, including juvenile fossil specimens, and individuals assigned to the newest species, Homo antecessor, this book provides a rich data source for anthropologists and evolutionary biologists exploring these questions.

Human Population Dynamics introduces theoretical frameworks and methodologies from different traditional disciplines to demonstrate how changes in human population structure can be addressed from several different academic perspectives. The book contains contributions from world-renowned researchers in demography, social and biological anthropology, genetics, biology, sociology, ecology, history and human geography. In particular, the contributors emphasize the lability of many population structures and boundaries, as viewed from their area of expertise.

An all-in-one illustrated guide to human anatomy with encyclopedic coverage from bones and muscles to systems and processes. This in-depth manual to the human body's physical structure, chemical workings, and potential problems is a must-have reference to help further your studies or knowledge of how our bodies work.

Each page of The Human Body Book, updated to reflect the latest medical advances, is illustrated with colourful and comprehensive diagrams, which are thoroughly annotated to take you right into the cells and fibres that are responsible for keeping the human body ticking.

The opening chapter, Integrated Body, explains how the parts of the body work together at various levels of size and hierarchy to produce the living whole. It also contains an overview of the major body systems, enlivened by real-life 3D medical scans of the entire body. The chapters that follow provide coverage of the body function by function, system by system. Eleven main body systems are covered in turn, with each section ending on common injuries, diseases, and disorders afflicting that system. The book concludes with a chapter on Growth and Development which looks in detail at how the body changes over the course of a human lifespan.

As we enter the twenty-first century, a number of medical, environmental, and social changes have profoundly affected human reproduction. This book discusses some of the more dramatic changes in an accessible manner, illustrating the ways in which human biology and culture can affect fertility. It provides a unique interdisciplinary perspective on the subject. Topics of discussion include medical technological advances that equip us with potential cures for many causes of infertility; diseases, such as AIDS, that have a devastating impact on the reproductive and social lives of humans; increasing industrialization and the development of fabricated materials that pollute our environment in unforeseen ways with possibly devastating effects on human health and fertility; and social revolutions that profoundly alter human relationships, such as nonmarital unions between heterosexual couples, same-sex relationships, and adoption and surrogacy.

Peppered with wit and controversial topics, this is a refreshing new look at the co-evolution of mind and culture. Bestselling authors Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen (The Collapse of Chaos, 1994) eloquently argue that our minds evolved within an inextricable link with culture and language. They go beyond conventional views of the function and purpose of the mind to look at the ways that the mind is the response of an evolving brain that is constantly adjusting to a complex environment. Along the way they develop new and intriguing insights into the nature of evolution, science, and humanity that will challenge conventional views on consciousness. The esteemed authors tantalize the reader with these bold new outlooks while putting a revolutionary spin on such classic philosophical problems as the nature of free will and the essence of humanity. This clearly written and enjoyable book will inspire any educated reader to critically evaluate the existing notions of the nature of the human mind.

By showing how and why human nature is what it is, evolutionary theory can help us see better what we need to do to improve the human condition. Following evolutionary theory to its logical conclusion, Death, Hope and Sex uses life history theory and attachment theory to construct a model of human nature in which critical features are understood in terms of the development of alternative reproductive strategies contingent on environmental risk and uncertainty. James Chisholm examines the implications of this model for perspectives on concerns associated with human reproduction, including teen pregnancy, and young male violence. He thus develops new approaches for thorny issues such as the nature-nurture and mind-body dichotomies. Bridging the gap between the social and biological sciences, this far-reaching volume will be a source of inspiration, debate and discussion for all those interested in the evolution of human nature and the potential for an evolutionary humanism.

It is widely recognized that men and women in societies all over the world have very different experiences of sickness and health. This collection brings together biological and social anthropologists whose work illustrates how these subdisciplines have approached the task of explaining such differences. It demonstrates that an understanding of science and culture, using the notions of biological "sex" and socio-culturally constructed "gender" are both essential for furthering analyses of men's and women's, boys' and girls' experiences of health and disease. It addresses the important topics of gender differences in parental care, cardiovascular disease, reproductive health, and psychological illness, and looks at how the medicalization of women and their relative absence from models of population health might affect their experiences of preventative health measures. This book will be particularly useful for students in human sciences or anthropology courses, or anyone wishing to gain an interdisciplinary perspective on the subject.

Drug resistance in cancer, whereby a proportion of cancer cells evades chemotherapy, poses a profound and continuing challenge for the effective treatment of cancer. The principles underlying the biological mechanisms behind this phenomenon are clearly understood and explained in this volume. However, a deeper understanding of drug resistance requires a quantitative appreciation of the dynamic forces that shape tumour growth, including spontaneous mutation and selection processes. The authors seek to explain and to simplify these complex mechanisms, and to place them in a clinical context. Clearly explained mathematical models are used to illustrate the biological principles and provide an insight into tumour development and the effectiveness and limitations of drug treatment. It is suitable for those with a non-mathematical background and aims to enhance the effectiveness of cancer therapy.

Childhood is a uniquely human life-stage, and is both a biological phenomenon and a social construct. Research on children is currently of wide-ranging interest. This groundbreaking book presents reviews of childhood from four major areas of interest--human evolution, sociology/social anthropology, biomedical anthropology and developmental psychology--to form a biosocial, cross-cultural understanding of childhood. The book places a strong emphasis on how childhood varies from culture to culture, offering examples from developed and developing countries, as well as from other animal species. It will be of interest to students and scholars within the fields of human biology, anthropology, sociology, health studies, and developmental psychology.

In anaesthetist Dr Kevin Fong's television programmes he has often demonstrated the impact of extremes on the human body by using his own body as a 'guinea pig'. So Dr Fong is well placed to share his experience of the sheer audacity of medical practice at extreme physiological limits, where human life is balanced on a knife edge. Through gripping accounts of extraordinary events and pioneering medicine, Dr Fong explores how our body responds when tested by the extremes of heat and cold, vacuum and altitude, age and disease. He shows how science, technology and medicine have taken what was once lethal in the world and made it survivable. This is not only a book about medicine, but also about exploration in its broadest sense - and about how, by probing the very limits of our biology, we may ultimately return with a better appreciation of how our bodies work, of what life is, and what it means to be human.

This text is part of a series of topic books suitable for students studying a wide range of biological subjects at advanced level, or as part of a vocational course. The series brings together topics that are now part of many advanced level courses. Medical physiology discusses a range of medical issues that affect the way we live our lives. Topics covered include infectious and inherited diseases, cancer, and diseases of the respiratory system and kidneys. The functions of the immune system and the brain are studied in some detail, as are the effects on our health of ageing, diet and exercise. The text concludes by discussing recent advances in genetics and biotechnology and their impact on the treatments available for many diseases.

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.

For over thirty years, rodents have been used in the study of many human and animal diseases. The rat in particular continues to serve as an experimental model for drug safety and efficacy tests for the treatment of neurological disorders, heart disease, diabetes, breast, liver and other cancers. With the more recent advent of transgenic technology, an impressive amount of new knowledge about transmissible spongiform encephalopathies has been accumulated. It is likely that the principles learned from the study of these prion diseases will be applicable to elucidating the causes of more common neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. As a result of this and, more importantly, because of increasingly complicated legislation governing the use of animals in regulated procedures, there is a need for experimenters (both experienced and those new to the laboratory) to improve their skills continuously and to become au fait with all aspects of preparatory techniques. The Rat Nervous System provides an accessible guide to the dissection and perfusion of rats, placing particular emphasis on the preparation of nervous tissue for further study in the laboratory including biochemical analysis and microscopic study. Logically structured with highly illustrated chapters covering gross anatomy, anatomy of the nervous system, anaesthesia, biological fixation and tissue extraction, the book provides a comprehensive introduction to those techniques required to provide consistent, high-quality tissues for subsequent investigation. Animal husbandry of a high standard, together with minimisation of discomfort, is essential if the information sought by the investigator is to be valid and reproducible; an overview of these topics is therefore also incorporated in this volume.

This book is about the social life of monkeys, apes and humans. The central theme is the importance of social information and knowledge to a full understanding of primate social behavior and organization. Its main purpose is to stress evolutionary continuity, i.e. that there are direct connections between human and nonhuman society. This view is often downplayed elsewhere in the anthropological literature where the notion that humans have culture and animals do not is prevalent. Topics covered include an overview of the contexts of behavior; a comparison of blind strategies and tactical decision-making; social cognition; a review of intentionalist interpretations of behavior; kinship; language and its social implications; and the constraints of culture.

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.

Anthropometry is the measurement of human morphology. In this volume, distinguished contributors including anthropologists, human biologists, physiologists, nutritionists, and clinical scientists describe many of the ways in which anthropometry is used, and discuss problems associated with different methods of assessment. Topics include the measurement of growth asymmetry and variability in adult body size, measurement error and statistical issues in anthropometry and the construction and use of growth charts in growth monitoring. The use of anthropometry in assessments of body composition, physical performance and fitness is also discussed. The book will be of interest to graduates and researchers in human biology, anthropology and nutrition. It will also be useful to workers in sports medicine, ergonomics, orthopedics, and pediatrics.