"Original, important, moving, witty and exquisitely-written. WHAT a feat." - BERNARDINE EVARISTO "Incredible... beautiful and funny and humane." - EMILIE PINE "Pristine poetry and prose." KATHERINE MAY, AUTHOR OF WINTERING "I've read a beautiful perfect book. If you are straight or gay, read it." PHILIPPA PERRY "Babies who are this small, he says, have a good chance of survival. Small is not good for babies. It is not whimsical or cute or the cause of admiration. It is the first time it occurs to us that they might not survive. Babies die from smallness." Claire Lynch knew that having children with her wife would be complicated but she could never have anticipated the extent to which her life would be redrawn by the process. This dazzling debut begins with the smallest of life's substances, the microscopic cells subdividing in a petri dish in a fertility treatment centre. She moves through her story in incremental yet ever growing steps, from the fingernail-sized pregnancy test result screen which bears two affirmative lines to the premature arrival of her children who have to wear scale-model oxygen masks in their life-saving incubators. Devastatingly poignant and profoundly observant - and funny against the odds - Claire considers whether it is our smallness that makes our lives so big.

"Advanced Analysis of Motor Development" explores how research is conducted in testing major issues and questions in motor development. It also looks at the evolution of research in the field, its current status, and possible future directions. This text is one of the few to examine motor development models and theories analytically while providing a context for advanced students in motor development so they can understand current and classic research in the field.

Traditionally, graduate study in motor development has been approached through a compilation of readings from various sources. This text meets the need for in-depth study in a more cohesive manner by presenting parallels and highlighting relationships among research studies that independent readings might not provide. In addition, "Advanced Analysis of Motor Development" builds a foundation in the theories and approaches in the field and demonstrates how they drive contemporary research in motor development.

A valuable text for graduate students beginning their own research projects or making the transition from student to researcher, this text focuses on examining and interpreting research in the field. Respected researchers Haywood, Roberton, and Getchell explain the history and evolution of the field and articulate key research issues. As they examine each of the main models and theories that have influenced the field, they share how motor development research can be applied to the fields of physical education, special education, physical therapy, and rehabilitation sciences.

With its emphasis on critical inquiry, "Advanced Analysis of Motor Development" will help students examine important topics and questions in the field in a more sophisticated manner. They will learn to analyze research methods and results as they deepen their understanding of developmental phenomena. For each category of movement skills covered (posture and balance, foot locomotion, ballistic skills, and manipulative skills), the authors first offer a survey of the pertinent research and then present an in-depth discussion of the landmark studies. In analyzing these studies, students will come to appreciate the detail of research and begin to explore possibilities for their own future research. Throughout the text, special elements help students focus on analysis. Tips for Novice Researchers sidebars highlight issues and questions raised by research and offer suggestions for further exploration and study. Comparative tables detail the differences in the purpose, methods, and results of key studies to help students understand not only what the studies found but also the relevance of those findings.

With "Advanced Analysis of Motor Development," readers will discover how research focusing on the major issues and central questions in motor development is produced and begin to conceptualize their own research. Readers will encounter the most important models and theories; dissect some of the seminal and recent articles that test these models and theories; and examine issues such as nature and nurture, discontinuity and continuity, and progression and regression. "Advanced Analysis of Motor Development" will guide students to a deeper understanding of research in life span motor development and enable them to examine how the complexities of motor development can be addressed in their respective professions.

One out of every six patients in the United States is treated in a Catholic hospital that follows the policies of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. These policies prohibit abortion, sterilization, contraception, some treatments for miscarriage and gender confirmation, and other reproductive care, undermining hard-won patients’ rights to bodily autonomy and informed decision-making. Drawing on rich interviews with patients and providers, this book reveals both how the bishops’ directives operate and how people inside Catholic hospitals navigate the resulting restrictions on medical practice. In doing so, Bishops and Bodies fleshes out a vivid picture of how The Church’s stance on sex, reproduction, and “life” itself manifests in institutions that affect us all.

Developmental biologists have been driven to investigate growth factor signaling in embryos in order to understand the regulatory mechanisms underlying a given developmental process. Thus, it is critical to explore the technical methods and experimental designs for growth factor signaling in embryos.

Focusing on specific pathways or pathway components, Analysis of Growth Factor Signaling in Embryos provides the methods and guidelines for experimental design to study major aspects of cell signaling in vertebrate embryos. The book covers a broad range of topics in signaling and a variety of current model organisms. Section I explores specific signaling pathways or pathway components. In this section, some chapters highlight the biochemistry of signaling pathways during development, which is often distinctive from that observed in cell culture systems. Section II discusses ionic regulatory mechanisms and the two chapters in Section III examine ways of investigating gene regulation in response to extracellular signals. Finally, Section IV addresses emerging strategies that facilitate integrated analyses of cell signaling" in vivo" in embryonic systems.

Featuring contributions from expert researchers, Analysis of Growth Factor Signaling in Embryos will provide a foundation for further explorations of the cellular regulatory mechanisms governing vertebrate embryonic development.

"Jim Carey's fine monograph is the first single-authored exposition on the 'the biodemography of aging' This important new trans-disciplinary subject seeks to explain the actuarial trends of aging at all levels of biological mechanisms. Carey draws heavily from his pioneering studies of medflies that, like humans, show declining mortality rates at later ages. His medfly gerotron continues to generate challenging mysteries, such as the bimodal mortality pattern of infertile flies. The book is rich in its clear expositions of complex questions in aging and well-designed illustrations, which I predict will give it a long shelf life."--Caleb E. Finch, ARCO Professor in the Neurobiology of Aging, University of Southern California

"This is an important book. It provides a timely critical account of a fundamental body of work on aging and sets the stage for a new set of paradigms about senescence generally and human aging in particular, taking the first serious look at this development."--Shripad Tuljapurkar, Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley

"In this book, James Carey summarizes about a dozen years of his work on medfly demography and its implications. The overarching themes are important and innovative. And the careful attention to detail, both biological and statistical, is excellent."--Marc Mangel, University of California, Santa Cruz

""Longevity" synthesizes a huge body of data collected over a long period of time, making this work unquestionably without parallel. Furthermore, "Longevity" is an exceptionally well-written and thoroughly analyzed treatise on some of the most important general questions in biodemography."--Thomas B. L. Kirkwood

Since the first "test tube baby" was born over 40 years ago, In Vitro Fertilization and other Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) have advanced in extraordinary ways, producing millions of babies. An estimated 20% of American couples use infertility services to help them conceive, and that number is growing. Such technologies permit thousands of people, including gay and lesbian couples and single parents, to have offspring. Couples can now transmit or avoid passing on certain genes to their children, including those for chronic disease and, probably sometime soon, height and eye color as well. Prospective parents routinely choose even the sex of their future child and whether or not to have twins. The possibilities of this rapidly developing technology are astounding-especially in the United States, where the procedures are practically unregulated and a large commercial market for buying and selling human eggs is swiftly growing. New gene-editing technology, known as CRISPR, allows for even more direct manipulation of embryos' genes. As these possibilities are increasingly realized, potential parents, doctors, and policy-makers face complex and critical questions about the use-or possible misuse-of ARTs. Designing Babies confronts these questions, examining the ethical, social, and policy concerns surrounding reproductive technology. Based on in-depth interviews with providers and patients, Robert Klitzman explores how individuals and couples are facing quandaries of whether, when, and how to use ARTs. He articulates the full range of these crucial issues, from the economic pressures patients face to the moral and social challenges they encounter as they make decisions which will profoundly shape the life of their offspring. In doing so, he reveals the broader social and biological implications of controlling genetics, ultimately arguing for closer regulation of procedures which affect the lives of generations to come and the future of our species as a whole.

'This book is an absolute game-changer' - Dr Xand Van Tulleken 'Everyone concerned about their fertility should read this book' - Dr Raj Mathur, Chair of the British Fertility Society The book you can trust to help you achieve a healthy pregnancy. Whether you are trying for a baby now or preparing for a family in future, The Fertility Book is the no-nonsense guide you need to help you to optimize your chances of a healthy pregnancy. World-renowned fertility consultant Adam Balen and reproductive biologist Grace Dugdale dispel the myths in this comprehensive guide to reproductive health, explaining in easy-to-understand terms the genetic and lifestyle factors at play. They take an honest look at the evidence for both conventional and alternative approaches, equipping you with powerful tools to improve your chances of a natural conception and an understanding of how to create the best environment for a healthy pregnancy. If you do decide to seek help through assisted conception, this book will be with you every step of the way, explaining what treatments are available and how to approach them, so that you can come to an informed decision about what is right for you. Professor Adam Balen and Grace Dugdale have decades of experience helping couples on their journey to conception and beyond. Now in this, their first book for a general readership, they explain everything you need to know to understand your own fertility.