First published in 1980, The Survivors is a detailed and original study of the experiences of homeless young people in central London. The book is based on in-depth interviews with 107 'newcomers', who were selected at two nightshelters and a government reception centre. Their views and experiences are recorded, their backgrounds described and their reasons for coming to London examined. We learn how they coped with the interventions of both those who want to hinder and those who want to help, and how in general they survived - and sometimes even enjoyed themselves - in an extreme environment. The authors also examine the ways in which the various helping agencies view the 'problem'. They claim that the agencies tend to present a pessimistic picture - one that understates the resilience and resourcefulness of these young people, dismisses their spirit of their adventure, and concentrates almost exclusively on the dangers, difficulties and hardships. This book will be of interest to students of sociology, urban studies, public policy and economics.

The burgeoning new science of epigenetics offers a cornucopia of insights some comforting, some frightening. For example, the male fetus may be especially vulnerable to certain common chemicals in our environment, in ways that damage not only his own sperm but also the sperm of his sons. And it s epigenetics that causes identical twins to vary widely in their susceptibility to dementia and cancer. But here s the good news: unlike mutations, epigenetic effects are reversible. Indeed, epigenetic engineering is the future of medicine."

Respiratory care is a beginner's guide to care of patients with respiratory illness. It contains evidence-based guidelines to enable students and newly qualified staff to develop the essential clinical skills needed to care for all patients with respiratory disease.
Respiratory Care explores the anatomy and physiology of the respiratory system, examines assessment of respiratory function, and addresses day-to-day management of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchitis, lung cancer and respiratory infections including TB and pneumonia, in order to improve quality of life.

The wolf evolved into the Pekingese, the wildcat into the tabby cat and the auroch into the milk-producing cow. This happened through the process called "domestication". Domesticated creatures have served us well- without them, civilisation as we know it would not exist. Richard C. Francis weaves history, archaeology and anthropology, while seamlessly integrating the most cutting-edge ideas in twenty-first-century biology, to create a fascinating narrative. Each domesticated species is a case study in evolution, and two key themes emerge: that domestication often results in the retention of juvenile traits and that evolution remains fundamentally a conservative process. Francis also explores the ways in which these themes apply to human evolution.

Much of the evolutionary biology that has grabbed headlines in recent years has sprung from the efforts of sociobiologists and evolutionary psychologists to explain sexual features and behavior--even differences between how men and women think--as evolutionary adaptations. They have looked to the forces of natural selection to explain everything from the mimicry of male mockingbirds to female orgasms among humans. In this controversial book, Richard Francis argues that the utility of this approach is greatly exaggerated. He proposes instead a powerful alternative rooted in the latest findings in evolutionary biology as well as research on the workings of our brains, genes, and hormones.

Exploring various sexual phenomena, Francis exposes fundamental defects in sociobiology and evolutionary psychology, which he traces to their misguided emphasis on "why" questions at the expense of "how" questions. Francis contends that this preoccupation with "why" questions (such as, "Why won't men ask for directions"?) results in a paranoiac mindset and distorted evolutionary explanations. His alternative framework entails a broader conception of what constitutes an evolutionary explanation, one in which both evolutionary history, as embodied in the tree of life, and developmental processes are brought to the foreground. This alternative framework is also better grounded in basic biology.

Deeply learned, consistently persuasive, and always engaging, this book is a welcome antidote to simplistic sociobiological exegeses of animal and human behavior.