Conventional medical science confirms what Tai Chi masters have known for centuries: regular practice leads to longer life, more vigor and flexibility, better balance and mobility, and a sense of well-being. Cutting-edge research from Harvard Medical School now also supports the long-standing claims that Tai Chi has a beneficial impact on the health of the heart, bones, nerves and muscles, immune system, and the mind. This research also provides insight into the underlying physiological mechanisms that explain how Tai Chi works. Dr. Peter Wayne, a longtime Tai Chi teacher and a researcher at Harvard Medical School, developed the simplified program in this book, similar to protocols that have been scientifically demonstrated to work in a number of clinical trials, and which is suited to people of all ages and can be done in just a few minutes a day. The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chiincludes: • The basic program, illustrated by 52 halftones of the author • Practical tips for integrating Tai Chi into everyday activities • A readable introduction to the traditional principles of Tai Chi as viewed through the lens of medical science • How Tai Chi can improve work productivity, enhance creativity, and boost sports performance

Touching This Leviathan asks how we might come to know the unknowable--in this case, whales, these animals so large yet so elusive, revealing just a sliver of back, a glimpse of a fluke, or, if you're lucky, a split-second breach before diving away. It's a pressing question, given how frequently whales are in the news: Japan just withdrew from the International Whaling Commission's ban on whaling; the Makah Tribe seeks to resume hunts; in 2019 there was a rash of dead gray whales along the west coast (some 200 of them); in 2018, an orca attracted international attention when she pushed her dead calf through the water 17 days before finally letting go. But other whale books sit in disciplinary silos: the history books, the science books, the literary books. There's no conversation between them, which is where Touching This Leviathan intervenes. Drawing upon biology, theology, local history, literary studies, environmental studies, and composition theory, Touching This Leviathan is necessarily interdisciplinary: literary nonfiction that gestures toward science and literary criticism as it invites readers into the belly of the whale.