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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.
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Stealing Minds
C. Francis
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R518
Discovery Miles 5 180
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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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.
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