Book Description
Hole's Human Anatomy and Physiology assumes no prior science knowledge and places emphasis on the fundamental concepts without overwhelming students with too much detail. The text supports main concepts with clinical applications, making them more relevant to students pursuing careers in the allied health field. The learning aids throughout the text, along with the reader-friendly writing style, create a highly-effective learning system for understanding the concepts of anatomy and physiology.
Customer Reviews:
Hole's Anatomy & Physiology.......2006-03-20
I ordered this text book through Amazon because the school book store was out. In my past experiences with Amazon, I have been able to receive the same product, faster and sometimes cheaper. In this case, all was true except the book store book came with a very necessary CD, the book with Amazon did not.
Nursing Student Review.......2006-03-04
Take this as a prereq into nursing! This is a great course and a great texbook. It explains things well and in language you can understand. I very much enjoyed this course.
Very Good Book.......2005-09-19
This is a very informative book and has really helped in my A&P class.
Not the best A&P book.......2004-07-30
This book has a lot of vague points and skims over a lot of important facts and functions - the only reason my school switched to this book was because there was one tiny flaw in the nervous system chapter of the prior book.
But buy it on amazon because the bookstore will overprice it (they wanted $195 at my school for JUST the book and that was used - not including lab manual).
MP: Hole's Human Anatomy & Physiology with OLC bind-in card.......2004-06-06
very good book, buy at amazon. com for better deal, the bookstore at my school charges $210 for this book
Book Description
KEY BENEFIT:
Human Biology: Concepts and Current Issues, Third Edition sparks readers' interest in science and encourages active learning. Author Michael D. Johnson seeks to make readers better consumers of health and science information. Instead of presenting facts to memorize, the inspired narrative and magazine-style design give students a truly engaging learning tool.
KEY TOPICS: Human Biology, Science, and Society, The Chemistry of Living Things, Structure and Function of Cells, From Cells to Organ Systems, The Skeletal System, The Muscular System, Blood, Heart and Blood Vessels, The Immune System and Mechanisms of Defense, The Respiratory System: Exchange of Gases, The Nervous System-Integration and Control, Sensory Mechanisms, The Endocrine System, The Digestive System, The Urinary System, Reproductive Systems, Cell Reproduction and Differentiation, Cancer: Uncontrolled Cell Division and Differentiation, Genetics and Inheritance, DNA Technology and Genetic Engineering, Development and Aging, Evolution and the Origins of Life, Ecosystems and Populations, Human Impacts, Biodiversity, and Environmental Issues.
For all readers interested in becoming better consumers of health and science information.
Customer Reviews:
helpful but I believe there was a picture of the actual book.......2007-01-04
I think when I bought the workbook I had a misconception that it was the actual textbook.
Misrepresented item.......2006-11-06
The way the description read for this book was very misleading. I thought I was buying the actual textbook. I was very dissappointed when it arrived less than a week prior to my class starting and it was a review book. Live and learn - if the price looks too good to be true, it probably is!!
thoughts about Human Biology: Concepts and Current Issues.......2006-03-23
This is a great book. It gives a perfect amount of information, not too much, but not too little. I love the pictures and the diagrams. I have the newest edition, 3rd. It's only about 5 pages more than the 2nd edition, so if you need to save money, you won't be missing out on much if you get the 2nd edition.
All Of The Biology Of The Human Body.......2005-05-19
This wonderful book gives the reader a comprehensive presentation of the biology of the workings of the human body. The book comes with a CD ROM inside the cover and a free registration number for the tutor center which offers the learner internet and telephone support.
Book Description
Read it.
You're already living it.
Was diabetes evolution's response to the last Ice Age? Did a deadly genetic disease help our ancestors survive the bubonic plagues of Europe? Will a visit to the tanning salon help lower your cholesterol? Why do we age? Why are some people immune to HIV? Can your genes be turned on -- or off?
Joining the ranks of modern myth busters, Dr. Sharon Moalem turns our current understanding of illness on its head and challenges us to fundamentally change the way we think about our bodies, our health, and our relationship to just about every other living thing on earth, from plants and animals to insects and bacteria.
Through a fresh and engaging examination of our evolutionary history, Dr. Moalem reveals how many of the conditions that are diseases today actually gave our ancestors a leg up in the survival sweepstakes. When the option is a long life with a disease or a short one without it, evolution opts for disease almost every time.
Everything from the climate our ancestors lived in to the crops they planted and ate to their beverage of choice can be seen in our genetic inheritance. But Survival of the Sickest doesn't stop there. It goes on to demonstrate just how little modern medicine really understands about human health, and offers a new way of thinking that can help all of us live longer, healthier lives.
Survival of the Sickest is filled with fascinating insights and cutting-edge research, presented in a way that is both accessible and utterly absorbing. This is a book about the interconnectedness of all life on earth -- and, especially, what that means for us.
Customer Reviews:
Very,very, interesting.......2007-09-21
This is one of those books that is a delightful read, educating, interesting, and entertaining. The author puts forth his theories that many modern diseases are variations of evolutionary traits that were held by our ancestors that enabled them to survive the ice age and bubonic plague. He goes on to describe how viruses cause certain behavior in their carriers to help the viruses survival. The common cold leaves you well enough to stay moving and go to work so you can spread the virus to others, while the parasitic malaria wants you immobile and in bed because mosquitos can continue to carry it even better with you immobile.
The author also presents a case currently making head way in evolutionary science that is challenging the savannah theory. He proposes that we are evolved form aquatic apes as opposed to grassland dwellers, which would explain our hairlessness like other aquatic mammals and being bipedal. We also have fat stored at the skin like water dwellers and our infants have swimming instincts at birth that have been proven by water birthing that is very successful.
And finally I was really fascinated by the finding that what scientists have believed were "junk DNA" is slowly being shown to actually be a creative force that causes mutations in DNA for the benefit of survival of the species. I have always had trouble believing in the evolutionary theory because no mechanism could be created with causing it outside of God, and God would not need it. I also believed that the key was in DNA. Now I have a cause, the DNA itself creates and casues beneficial mutations.
I really can not do this book justice in a review with out making it far to long so buy the book if the above sounds interesting. The book presents an excellent case and has made me a believer.
Evolution in a way you never knew!.......2007-09-08
Everything out there is influencing the evolution of everything else. The bacteria and viruses and parasites that cause disease in us have affected our evolution as we have adapted in ways to cope with their effects. In response they have evolved in turn, and keep on doing so.
There are many dietary diseases that have had an evolutionary advantage in our ancestors but that today do more harm than good. In a person with hemochromatosis, for example, the body always thinks that it doesn't have enough iron and continues to absorb iron unabated. The excess iron can lead to liver failure, heart failure, diabetes, and even cancer.
Why would a disease so deadly be bred into our genetic code? Remember how natural selection works. If a given genetic trait makes you stronger--especially if it makes you stronger before you have children--then you're more likely to survive, reproduce, and pass that trait on. People with hemochromatosis have therefore an evolutionary advantage--protection against the bubonic plague!
On one set of experiments, macrophages from people who had hemochromatosis and macrophages from people who did not were matched against bacteria in separate dishes to test their killing ability. The hemochromatic macrophages crushed the bacteria. They are thought to be significantly better at combating bacteria by limiting the availability of iron than the nonhemochromatic macrophages. So though hemochromatosis will kill those inflicted with it decades later, they are much more likely than people without hemochromatosis to survive plagues, reproduce, and pass the mutation on to their children.
Diabetes also provided an evolutionary advantage to our ancestors by providing superior ability to withstand the cold by eliminating water and driving up sugar levels (like alcohol, sugar is a natural antifreeze). As a theory, it's hotly controversial, but diabetes may have helped our European ancestors survive the sudden cold, including the ice-age.
Malaria is an infectious disease that infects as many as 500 million people every year, killing more than 1 million of them. But not everyone who gets bit by malaria-carrying mosquitoes gets infected. And not everybody who gets infected dies. So what's helping the malaria survivors? People with a genetic tendency for sickle-cell anemia, another inherited blood disorder, had better natural resistance to malaria.
As you've seen with hemochromatosis, diabetes, and sickle-cell anemia, one generation's evolutionary solution is another generation's evolutionary problem.
At the end of the day, every living thing shares two hardwired imperatives: Survive. Reproduce. To achieve this, some organisms have inherited ingenious techniques to manipulate their hosts--the phenomenon that occurs when a parasite provokes its host to behave in a way that helps the parasite to survive and reproduce.
Orb weavers are a family of spiders that experience host manipulation. A wasp bites the spider, temporarily paralyzing it, then deposits its egg in its abdomen. The spider then goes on with his life oblivious to the egg in him. The egg then hatches, and the larva slowly feeds off the blood of the spider. When it is ready to cocoon, it injects chemicals into the spider's bloodstream to manipulate the spider into building a special web for it--instead of building circular webs, it goes back and forth building a rectangular web. Once the web is completed, the larva kills the spider by sucking off all its blood, and then throwing its carcass to the jungle floor below. It then uses the specially built web for it to cocoon by hanging on it.
A worm that infects ants is a classic example of another host manipulator. As the worms being carried by the ant develop, one of them makes its way to the ant's brain where it manipulates the ant's nervous system. Suddenly, the ant behaves in completely uncharacteristic fashion. At night, it leaves its colony and hangs on the tip of a grass, waiting to be eaten by a sheep. If it does not, it returns to its colony only to resume again its journey at night to the tip of a grass waiting to be eaten. Once eaten by a sheep, the worm would have succeeded in its manipulation, and would grow inside the sheep's stomach, its intended host.
The rabies Virus is another interesting host manipulator. It manipulates its host into becoming aggressive, which will make its host bite others and thus also infecting others.
Here is one amazing example of host manipulation: One researcher has discovered that women infected with T. gondii spend more money on clothes and are consistently rated as beings more attractive than women without the infection. Infected women were more easy-going, more warm-hearted, had more friends, and cared more about how they looked. However, they were also less trustworthy and had more relationships with men. Infected men, on the other hand, were less well groomed, more likely to be loners, and more willing to fight. They were also more likely to be suspicious and jealous and less willing to follow rules.
A normal sneeze occurs when the body's self-defense system senses a foreign invader trying to get in through your nasal passages and acts to repel the invasion by expelling it with a sneeze. But sneezing when you've got a cold? There's obviously no way to expel the cold virus which is already lodged in you. The cold virus has learned this reflex so it can infect your colleagues, family and your friends. Your body is actually being manipulated by the virus into sneezing!
The herpes virus may heighten sexual feeling, which will increase the probability of transmission. In other words, sometimes the herpes virus may want you to get some action in order for it to spread to other hosts.
So what if we made it easier for a given type of bacteria to survive in a healthy human than to survive in a sick human? Would this create evolutionary pressure against behavior that harms us? In fact there is an evolutionary advantage for the malaria parasite to push its hosts toward the brink of death. The more parasites swarming through our blood, the more parasites the mosquito is likely to ingest; the more parasites the mosquito ingests, the more likely it will cause an infection when it bites someone else. Cholera is similar--it doesn't need us moving around to find new hosts, so there's no reason for the bacteria to select against virulence. The bottom line is that if an infectious client has allies (such as mosquitoes) or good delivery systems (such as unprotected water supplies), peaceful coexistence with its host becomes a lot less important. In those cases evolution is likely to favor versions of the parasite that best exploit its host's resources, allowing the parasite to multiply as much as possible. Some researchers believe that we can use this understanding to influence the evolution of parasites away from virulence. The basic theory is this: shut down the modes of transmission that don't require human participation and suddenly all the evolutionary pressure is directed at allowing the human host to get up and get out. According to this theory, the virulence of a cholera outbreak in a given population should be directly related to the quality and safety of that population's water supply. If sewage flows easily into rivers that people wash in or drink from, then the cholera strain would evolve toward virulence--it can multiply freely, essentially using up its hosts, relying on its access to the water supply for transmission. But if the water supply is well protected, the organism should evolve away from virulence--the longer it remains in a more mobile host, the better its chance of transmission.
A series of cholera outbreaks that began in Peru in 1991 and spread across South and Central America over the next few years provide compelling evidence that this theory might actually work. The water supply systems from country to country ranged from relatively advanced to seriously rudimentary. Sure enough, when the bacteria invaded nations with poorly protected water supplies, such as Ecuador, the virus became more harmful as it spread. But in countries with safe water supplies, such as Chile, the bacteria evolved downward in virulence and killed fewer people. The implications of this are huge. Instead of challenging bacteria to become stronger and more dangerous through an antibiotic arms race (which we are currently losing), we could essentially challenge them to get along. If mosquitoes didn't have access to bedridden malaria patients, the microbe would be under evolutionary pressure to evolve in a way that allowed the infected person to remain mobile, increasing the opportunity for it to spread.
A series of groundbreaking research has shown that certain compounds can attach themselves to specific genes and suppress their expression. Let's take a look at a few examples. Depending upon the time of year the vole (a type of mouse) is due to give birth, baby voles are born with either a thick coat or a thin coat. The gene for a thick coat is always there--it's just turned on or off depending on the level of light the mother senses in her environment around the time of conception.
One species of lizard is born with a long tail and large body or a small tail and small body depending on one thing only--whether their mother smelled a lizard-eating snake while pregnant. When her babies are entering a snake-filled world, they are born with a long tail and big body, making them less likely to be snake food.
This is a fascinating book and I highly recommend it. I truly enjoyed reading it and I have learnt things I never imagined! Now that's what I call precious reading!
Understanding genetic disease from an evolutionary point of view.......2007-09-01
We really don't "need" disease. This is a bit misleading. It just so happens that some genetic disorders, such as sickle-cell anemia, favism, diabetes, hemochromatosis, the tendency to obesity, etc., confer on the afflicted compensatory advantages. Thus a predilection for getting fat is adaptive if a drought or a long winter beckons, or a person with a genetic tendency toward sickle-cell anemia is less likely to get malaria, and so on. Note that it is only diseases caused by genetic mutations that Dr. Moalem is talking about.
One of the techniques our bodies use when fighting infection is to reduce the amount of iron available to the invaders. Bacteria need iron to reproduce. If there is a lot of it available their numbers can grow quickly. Without iron they can't reproduce at all. Iron is a limiting factor for many kinds of life. Vast stretches of ocean support little in the way of life because the microorganisms that begin the food chain can't grow where there is so little iron. As Dr. Moalem reports in this wide-ranging and eyebrow-lifting book, sprinkle some iron onto those patches of ocean and they will quickly turn green with microorganisms.
So it is a bit of an irony that people who have hemochromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes them to retain large amounts of iron in their bodies, are able to survival infections like the plague. This is because they starve the invading microbes through "iron locking." They have a lot of iron in their bodies, but they keep it away from the bacteria. Other people who have low levels of iron in their bodies are able to withstand bacterial attacks because they also keep what little iron they have away from the germs. In fact, one of the body's initial responses to microbial invasion is to limit the amount of free iron in the system.
Genetic coding for levels of iron in the body is an example of evolutionary adaptation, part of the ongoing arms race between us and the microbes that live in and on our bodies. This is just one of several interesting and new ideas coming from the growing science of evolutionary medicine that I found in Survival of the Sickest. Incidentally, one way to manage hemochromatosis is through donating blood on a regular basis, which explains in part why physicians of old were sometimes successful when they bled their patients.
This got me to thinking about "only women bleed" which led me to think about hemorrhoids (which prove that it isn't only women who bleed). Perhaps bleeding instead of retaining blood, which seems like the more natural thing for our bodies to do, has adaptive value in some people in some environments.
Another interesting idea is this from page 58: "ACHOO syndrome--its full name is autosomal dominant compelling heliopthalmic outburst syndrome." It is a "disorder that causes uncontrolled sneezing when someone is exposed to bright light, usually sunlight, after being in the dark." Dr. Moalem suggests that "way back when our ancestors spent more time in caves, this reflex helped them to clear out any molds or microbes that might have lodged in their noses or upper respiratory tract." Now this may sound a bit far fetched, but I have suffered from low grade allergies all my life, and used to have asthmatic attacks. I came to believe that the buildup in my lungs and the sneezing were signals to me to move on! Of course now I clean and vacuum like a germaphobe, but the idea is the same. My symptoms were adaptive. They more or less forced me to reduce the level of potential irritants and microbes in my environment.
But there is more. I noticed long ago that sometimes the sun in the morning would cause me to sneeze. I never figured out why until I read the above from Dr. Moalem. I am just the kind of person who would need to sneeze those molds out.
Later on in the book Moalem returns to an evolutionary idea that has been kicking around for decades. Beginning with the work of Elaine Morgan from the 1970s the public became aware of the notion that we humans had an aquatic past. She got the idea from marine biologist Alister Hardy. Through such books as The Descent of Woman (1972) and The Aquatic Ape: A Theory of Human Evolution (1982) Morgan argued that some of our unusual adaptations came about because we had an aquatic past. Taking up the idea, Moalem writes, "Every hairless mammal is aquatic or at least plays in the mud--think of hippos, elephants and the African warthog. But there aren't any hairless primates." (p. 198) Furthermore we have fat directly under our skin to help keep us warm just as aquatic mammals do. Also, Moalem notes, "the ability to survive on land and sea" gives us adaptive flexibility. If "chased by a leopard, the semiaquatic ape could dive into the water; chased by a crocodile, it could run into the forest." (p. 199)
These ideas are familiar but what I didn't know was that an aquatic past could have figured in our evolution toward bipedalism. "[S]tanding upright in water allowed...[aquatic apes] to venture into deeper water and still breathe, and the water helped to support their upper bodies, making it easier to support them on two feet." (p. 199)
This is an easy to read book, aimed at a general readership. An earlier, slightly more technical book that covers some of the same territory is Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine (1994) by Randolph M. Nesse and George C. Williams, which I also recommend.
Razzle dazzle them.......2007-08-27
This book embodies much of what I dislike in popular cience books, while having few of the qualities I admire in such books. It relies more on sleigh of the hand and razzle dazzle, you-wouldn't-have-thought-of-it than on throughly thought out, well substantiated lines of thought.
Let's start with the subtitle: "A medical maverick discovers why we need disease". That is a clear case of fiction: nowhere in the book does the author "discover" anything; he merely retells the study of others. This, of course, is not a demerit, as many interesting scientists have difficulties in explaining their work in clear terms, acessible to the layman. However, the author must be hyped as the "discoverer", as the center figure in the tale.
Since James Burke's "Connections", it seems that popular science must explore all the crossroads, no matter how irrelevant. So Moalem goes on long tangents that have little to do with the theory he is trying to substantiate. In order to show how diabetes works to protect the body against cold, the reader is taken through the mechanism of an ice age, how ice core samples are removed and so on. If one were to remove all this "extra" material, this book would be thin indeed.
The book seems to revolve around this material and the author's use of jokes. Unfortunately, his sense of humour tends more towards ha-ha than funny, which helped to further fray my patience towards this book.
All of this is indeed a pity, as the subject is very interesting. If more pages had been dedicated to developing a central line of thought and substantiation and to showing the debate behind all these ideas (in a real light, instead of "the thickheaded traditionalists who won't accept new ideas"), it would be well worth the read.
Somewhat difficult subject matter for those lacking a background in science or medicine.........2007-07-08
From time to time I pick up a book on a subject I know virtually nothing about. Ordinarily I devour books about history or politics or current events. These are topics I am well versed in and comfortable with.
Dr. Sharon Moalem's "The Survival of the Sickest: sounded like a fascinating departure from my ordinary fare. So I thought I would give it a whirl. Unfortunately for me the results were somewhat mixed. Although Dr. Moalem and her co-author have written this book in fairly simple language that most should be able to follow pretty easily I found myself overwhelmed at times by the number of terms I was simply not familiar with at all. I'm afraid my lack of education in the sciences was showing. Blame me not the good doctor. Yet in spite of these difficulties I was still able to glean some important information from this book. I now have a somewhat better understanding of the whole business of why disease exists in the first place. I also discovered the important role viruses play in our ability to survive and reproduce. I also found out that the development of diabetes in human beings probably emerged as natures response to people having to cope with conditions in regions with extremely cold temperatures. This makes perfect sense and was interesting to me because a number of people in my family have battled this disease. Perhaps the most fascinating thing I learned in "Survival of the Sickest" is that exposure to the sunshine actually helps to convert the cholestorol in our bodies into the vitamin D we all need to ensure strong bones and help avoid osteoperosis. I had never heard this before and found this revelation to be quite interesting indeed!
For me, attempting to read "Survival of the Sickest" was a little like visiting a foreign country and not knowing the language. I was simply unprepared to get the most out of this book. As you can see, other reviewers continue to heap praise on Dr. Sharon Moalem for her book. I suspect their evaluation of this book is right on the money. In the end I found that reading "Survival of the Sickest" was time well spent anyway. After all, it is impossible to expand your horizons if you never make the attempt.
Book Description
Often imitated, never duplicated.
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New! Lay-flat binding makes coloring easier.
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New! 8 plates have been added: Accessory Structures of the Skin, Temporomandibular Joint, Upper Limb: Shoulder (Glenohumeral) Joint, Upper Limb: Elbow Joints, Lower Limb: Male and female Pelves, Lower Limb: Sacroiliac and Hip Joints, Lower Limb: Knee Joints, Somatic Visceral Receptors.
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New! 7 additional sections: Skeletal and Articular Systems, Skeletal Muscular System, Central Nervous System, Central Nervous System: Cavities and Coverings, Peripheral Nervous System, Autonomic Nervous System, Human Development.
For over 23 years, The Anatomy Coloring Book has been the leading human anatomy coloring book, offering concisely written text and precise, extraordinary hand-drawn figures. Organized according to body systems, each of the 170 plates featured in this book includes an ingenious color-key system anatomical terminology is linked to detail illustration of the structures of the body.
Wynn Kapit graduated in 1955 from the University of Miami, Florida with honors in Business Administration and Law. He then attended Art Center School in Los Angeles and worked in New York as a graphic designer and advertising art director from 1960-66. He moved to California to pursue a painting career and was given a one-man show at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco in 1968. He then attended the University of California at Berkeley and received a Masters in Painting and worked as a portraitist and teacher of figure drawing.
While taking a class in human anatomy at San Francisco City College, he discovered a way to effectively learn the subject by coloring in drawings, diagrams and names. The teacher of the course, Lawrence Elson, Ph.D. agreed to help him produce a coloring book. Elson wrote and Kapit designed and illustrated
The Anatomy Coloring Book, which was published in 1977 and has been a widely-translated bestseller ever since.
The Physiology Coloring Book was published in 1987, with the assistance of two professors from Berkeley: Robert Macey and Esmail Meisami.
The Geography Coloring Book was published in 1991; Kapit drew the maps and wrote the text.
The Anatomy Coloring Book was published in a second edition in 1993, and second editions of Geography and Physiology Coloring Books will be published in 1997.
Lawrence M. Elson received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley in Zoology (Pre-Med), and completed his graduate and Ph.D. work in Human Anatomy also at the University of California, Berkeley. Elson has served as an instructor in human anatomy at the City College of San Francisco, an assistant professor of anatomy at Baylor College of Medicine, and as a lecturer at numerous additional universities and professional organizations.
Elson is the founder and president of Coloring Concepts, Inc. (CCI), producer and packager of college level, educational, scientific directed-coloring texts. He is the author/co-author of
the Anatomy Coloring Book, Human Brain Coloring Book, Zoology Coloring Book, and
Microbiology Coloring Book.
Presently, he is principally functioning as a clinical and forensic anatomist retained as a consultant to governments, provinces, insurance and other corporations, and law firms on causation of injury issues in cases in or anticipated to be involved in litigation.
Future plans include expanding CCI by developing new titles in the physical sciences and other education-related disciplines.
Customer Reviews:
Anatomy Coloring Book.......2007-09-17
This was a required book for my sons 11th grade anatomy class. This is most helpful to learn not only the bodyparts, but also the function and spelling of the terms. Highly recommended!!!!!!
Easy to learn from.......2007-09-12
This was a big help while I was in teacher training for Pilates. We have to know anatomy so this was a huge help, because anatomy books are very boring. This one was kind of fun.
GREAT book!.......2007-09-09
This was a GREAT purchase! I received it quickly and it was in top condition! Thank you very mcuh!
well worth the coloring.......2007-08-29
The Anatomy Coloring Book is very helpful in the learning process. Since this book is very detailed,students can more easily determine where our body parts are located.
Excellent Condition..........2007-08-23
I am a first time buyer and now im hooked. I am very pleased with the condition of the book and this is one of the books I needed to learn more about the body.
Book Description
An astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable. Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Norman Doidge, M.D., traveled the country to meet both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity and the people whose lives they've transformed—people whose mental limitations or brain damage were seen as unalterable. We see a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole, blind people who learn to see, learning disorders cured, IQs raised, aging brains rejuvenated, stroke patients learning to speak, children with cerebral palsy learning to move with more grace, depression and anxiety disorders successfully treated, and lifelong character traits changed. Using these marvelous stories to probe mysteries of the body, emotion, love, sex, culture, and education, Dr. Doidge has written an immensely moving, inspiring book that will permanently alter the way we look at our brains, human nature, and human potential.
Customer Reviews:
Very interesting.......2007-10-05
Although this book gives a lot of valuable information, you will have to wade through the usual psychological jargon.
Superb writing on a complex and fascinating subject.......2007-09-12
What a fantastic and absorbing subject, so very well explained and defended by the author.
I believe this book to be a must read for everyone interested in, or subject to, some of the strange and intricate brain disorders we see developing and spreading in Amercian society.
Doctor Doidge has done an excellent job in brining this material to life while breaking down a complex subject into a highly readable format.
Great and easy to read.......2007-09-02
One of the best "brain" books out there.
Each chapter introduces it's own seperated brain related topic. Felt like I read many book--for my many interests, this is a good thing.
As an educator this helps explains many different behaviors and learning styles.
I have recomm this book to many.
When Change is Possible - Miracles Can Happen.......2007-08-27
If you're like me - a rank amateur in the field of brain science - you'll find that Dr. Doidge has authored an interesting and compelling text to explain the science of neuroplasticity. More importantly, you'll discover the implications of the "new" discoveries that show that the human brain is malleable throughout our lifetime.
While I sometimes got lost in the details, Dr. Doidge provided enough easy to understand nuggets to allow me to grasp that the science of neuroplasticity has life altering applicability to all human beings. The text provides many stories of personal triumph that could be seen as unimaginable miracles to those who have no background in this exciting science. The stories have not only been useful in my own life, they have shown themselves to be useful to others as I share these exciting discoveries with friends who have children who struggle with similar stories as those depicted in the text.
I would not classify this text in the self-help genre. It is a detailed exploration of the brains ability to change itself and it prepares the reader with sufficient knowledge and encouragement to seek solutions that just a few years ago were thought to be the stuff of miracles.
Fascanating.......2007-08-20
The Brain That Changes Itself is a collection of fascinating stories that shows the plasticity of the brain. For much of history, it was believed that the brain you were born with was hardwired and you were pretty much stuck with what you had at birth. Doidge has put together an interesting collection of stories that demonstrate that 1) the brain is indeed very plastic and 2) we have just begun to understand the capacity of the brain to change itself.
Woven in with the different stories is the history of the scientific and medical community theories about the brain. For most of history, it was accepted theory that the brain was hardwired. The scientists that advanced new theories were met with collective resistance. There was a real effort to cast the new theories as so much baloney.
Fortunately for everyone, the new theory about the plasticity of the brain has proven correct. There are stories of a woman who was born with half a brain but has learned to function in life. There are heart warming stories of stroke victims who had gone through traditional rehabilitation but after extensive rehab based on the theory of the brain's plasticity have made remarkable additional improvements.
It is well worth reading. We truly do need a better understanding of our brain, how it works and what can be done when it is not functioning properly. This book provides a great lesson in how the brain can change itself.
Book Description
For over three decades, Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic The Age of Spiritual Machines, he argued that computers would soon rival the full range of human intelligence at its best. Now he examines the next step in this inexorable evolutionary process: the union of human and machine, in which the knowledge and skills embedded in our brains will be combined with the vastly greater capacity, speed, and knowledge-sharing ability of our creations.
Customer Reviews:
Fantastic insight into a possible, plauible future of humans and the universe.......2007-10-07
This is one the the favorite books I have ever read. It is not an easy read for a non-scientist, but absolutely rewarding. It is surprisingly accessible, despite the technical and intellectual scope. The logical and insightful nature of Kurzweil's arguments make it a compelling and inspirational read. The book has had a huge impact on my thinking and introduced me to the whole subject of futurism. It is affecting my investment and career decisions. There were numerous mind-bending, mind-expanding moments during reading this as the gravity of the concepts sank in. Garreau's book, Radical Evolution, is a great follow-up read, comparing and contrasting Kurzweil's optimism with the pessimism of others. It is a joy and luxury to be exposed to the visions such "big thinkers".
Look-out future here we come.......2007-09-10
I read this book with such optimism for our future. I only hope to live long enough to see some of the exciting events in our future on this planet. Just when you think you have seen it all, you "ain't seen nutt'n yet". Come on world let's work together and solves some of the mysteries that are tearing us apart.
hold onto your hat.......2007-08-29
the future is going to be wild.
ray kurzweil is the leading guru of the not so far off world where key technologies merge to allow us to turn ourselves into non biological humans.
no crack pot he. when kurzweil presented his thesis at MIT the arguments centered on the when, not the if of kurzweils predictions
Not for non geeks!.......2007-07-26
Although the reading is tedious for someone who is not that scientifically or computer oriented, the concepts and ideas the book presents are fascinating and a bit scary!
Most important book of the next 50 yrs.......2007-07-25
At some point I hope that people will stop paying attention to Paris Hilton and read this book. Our species is at a crossroads and we have some very important decisions to make in the next few decades. This book more than any other will prepare us to make the right choices. Read it now, or be devoured by a swarm of nanobots in 2029 when Skynet takes over.
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Ruth Bernstein , and
Stephen Bernstein
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ASIN: 0697151050 |
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This text is especially appropriate for your one-semester or one-quarter introductory courses.
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- If you think you know all about sex, think again!
- Good Book and Great Class!
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Human Sexuality Today (5th Edition)
Bruce M. King
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ASIN: 0131891642 |
Book Description
This appealing, readable and humanistic guide to human sexuality achieves a sound balance between facts and understanding, giving readers the information they need to make responsible decisions and helping them feel comfortable about themselves while learning about their sexuality.
A wide range of chapter topics discuss hormones and sexuality, similarities and differences in our sexual responses, sexually transmitted and sexually related diseases, birth control, pregnancy and childbirth, communicating about sex, gender identity and gender roles, sexual orientation, love and relationships, sexual problems and therapy, sexual victimization, and sex and the law.
For individuals seeking to learn more about human sexuality and its most current issues.
Customer Reviews:
If you think you know all about sex, think again!.......2006-05-24
I had to use this textbook when I took Dr King's Psychology class at the University of New Orleans (Spring '06). I found it to be a very informative eye-opener. Dr King presents information in a clear, concise, just-the-facts way, yet it doesn't read like a 'boring old textbook.' The information really makes the reader think twice about the West's cultural, historical, and scientific perspectives on the nature of sexuality.
Read this book, for a class or personal education or whatever reason. At the very least you'll come out with some interesting facts about human behavior, but more likely you'll change your entire perspective on human sexual behavior.
Good Book and Great Class!.......2005-09-27
I recently had Dr. King's class at the University of New Orleans during the Spring semester of 05, his class is the best! I enjoyed every minute of sitting through his lectures! He's is a great professor and a great writer! Keep up the good work!
Great.......2005-09-19
The book arrived in timely manner. Also, the book was in good condition
thanks
Book Description
Marc Hauser's eminently readable and comprehensive book Moral Minds is revolutionary. He argues that humans have evolved a universal moral instinct, unconsciously propelling us to deliver judgments of right and wrong independent of gender, education, and religion. Experience tunes up our moral actions, guiding what we do as opposed to how we deliver our moral verdicts.
For hundreds of years, scholars have argued that moral judgments arise from rational and voluntary deliberations about what ought to be. The common belief today is that we reach moral decisions by consciously reasoning from principled explanations of what society determines is right or wrong. This perspective has generated the further belief that our moral psychology is founded entirely on experience and education, developing slowly and subject to considerable variation across cultures. In his groundbreaking book, Hauser shows that this dominant view is illusory.
Combining his own cutting-edge research with findings in cognitive psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, economics, and anthropology, he examines the implications of his theory for issues of bioethics, religion, law, and our everyday lives.
Customer Reviews:
Natural Morality.......2007-09-17
Over the last decade the study of the human brain has moved out of the leafy halls of academia into many different fields, including ethics and the law. If socially unacceptable behavior is being driven by some wiring problem in the brain, is a person legally liable? Or is the brain just one part of the chain of causes with learning and experience playing a larger part? The lion's share of the evidence indicates that genes and the brain determine how we interact with the environment rather than determining how we behave, but there is still a great deal of research that needs to be done.
This book has been getting a lot of attention and for a very good reason: not only is it a well-written account by someone who is an exceptionally clear thinker, but the implications of his book stretch far beyond simple academic discussions: they have implications not only for neuroscience, but for ethics, spirituality and the law.
Marc Hauser is a biologist at Harvard and in this book he argues that the human moral sense is inbuilt and the product of evolution, much like our capacity for language. He suggests that the structure of our minds - or at least our brains - reflect our egalitarian hunter-gatherer past and reveals "left over circuitry from the cavemen."
Hauser begins by contrasting three approaches to moral thinking:
The first was espoused by the philosopher Immanuel Kant in the late eighteenth century, who proposed that we follow a categorical imperative. In Kant's view, we could and should live by the Golden Rule, treating others as we would have them treat us, and never using people merely as a means to something else.
The second approach was proposed by the eighteen century Scottish philosopher David Hume, who came to the conclusion that reason is and ought to be the slave of the passions. So if we do something because we are frustrated or angry, we should be castigated and punished because we failed to express out true nature.
The third approach is that of the political philosopher John Rawls. Rawls - like the Harvard linguist Noam Chomsky - proposed that there are deep similarities between language and morality. Chomsky believes that we are hardwired to understand and produce language, while Rawls believes that we all have an innate moral faculty. What that means is that we are all born with an ability to form moral judgments, and that we do not simply embrace the views of our family, tribe or church. The rub is this: because it is an innate ability bred of countless millennia of evolution, we often have no idea why we hold the views they we do.
The parallels between our innate morality and language are explored in this book.
When a twenty-nine year old Chomsky produced his first book in 1957 it created a firestorm of protest as well as some enthusiastic acceptance. We know that people the world over utter grammatical sentences in their own language, but it had been assumed that it began as simple mimicry: children copied the language, syntax and grammar of their parents and others. But Chomsky proposed that the ability is hardwired into the structure of the brain, and that is why we have little or no insight into how grammar works. By analogy, Hauser proposes that children and adults construct moral codes and make judgments without any insight into their reasons for doing so.
Hauser is an acclaimed academic, and it is no surprise that he supports his hypothesis with an array of thought-provoking examples, some better known than others.
One of the better known has been used in psychology and philosophy classes for years. It is the Trolley Problem, taken from a classic set of moral dilemmas proposed by the philosopher Phillipa Foot. The story goes like this. A bystander named Denise is a passenger on an out-of-control railway trolley, which is speeding down the track with an incapacitated driver. The vehicle is heading directly toward five people on the track ahead, bringing with it certain death. Denise can flip a switch that would turn the trolley onto a sidetrack with just one person on it. That one person will die, saving the other five. Should she flip the switch? Hauser's own intuition is that she should, and he marshals various moral arguments to support him.
But now comes the second part. Consider another bystander named Frank. He is on a footbridge over the same railway trolley with the same five endangered people. On the bridge is a large man whom Frank can push off the bridge and so stop the trolley and save the five. Should he do so? Should he sacrifice one man to save five?
Here Hauser's view is that he should not. But exactly why not? Is it because of Denise and Frank's intentions? Is it because Frank would be using the man as a means? In each case the result is the same, one person is killed and five are saved. This is interesting, not as an academic exercise, but because most people come up with similar responses to the dilemma.
Here is another example: what if a surgeon can save the lives of five dying people by taking organs from one perfectly healthy person? Almost no one says that this action is justified, but why not? In fact when such a thing was actually done during the Holocaust, the prosecutors at Nuremberg considered it to be one of the most egregious of all the crimes committed. The utter breakdown of agreed moral norms during those dark years and continuing depravity in some parts of the world remains a challenge for philosophers and scientists to this day; including the author of this book.
Hauser is evidently a good teacher, and he constructs a number of variations of these themes to show us that, with the kinds of exceptions that I just mentioned, the intuitions of very different people are usually much the same. Second. He shows how difficult it is to provide logical justifications for those intuitions. Like all good teachers he includes some personal disclosures, and tells an amusing tale about his own father, who, despite being an intelligent and well-educated physicist, became confused and frustrated when he tried to find logical justifications for his immediate responses.
Hauser reviews evidence from different cultures and from his own research using an online Moral Sense Test, to show how little judgments vary between people of different backgrounds and cultures.
This leads to another important similarity between language and morality. Languages are not chaotic: they follow certain constraints. All known languages follow a set of universal principles. But there are also a set of variable parameters that include the order of words, different ways of making plurals, gender attributions and all those other nuances that can frustrate anyone trying to master a foreign language. Hauser argues that it is the same with morality: there are universal principles and culture-bound parameters. He continues the parallels to point out that as with a language, once people acquire their specific moral grammar, other grammars may seem as incomprehensible as does Japanese to a native English speaker.
He illustrates his thesis with valuable discussions about murder and manslaughter, the treatment of women in different cultures, attitudes to abortion, euthanasia, pedophilia and incest, together with notions of fairness and punishment.
The book is illustrated by some delightful little drawings that do an excellent job of breaking up the narrative.
Marc Hauser if a very good writer and the book is not a difficult read, despite weighing in at over 400 closely reasoned pages. He makes many points that need to be heard. Not only by his colleagues and by people curious to understand more about themselves and those around them, but also by politicians, lawyers and ethicists.
Highly recommended.
Richard G. Petty, MD, author of Healing, Meaning and Purpose: The Magical Power of the Emerging Laws of Life
A poor collection of sophomoric philosophy.......2007-04-01
In a grand way Marc Hauser represents centuries of philosophy intermingled with anecdotes from psychological, anthropological, and economic research. Unfortunately, what he doesn't do is provide a scientific grounding for understanding moral choice.
To understand why people call things right and wrong you need to start with the biology of learning, expectation, and cognition. Given that we are just barely now scratching the surface of these topics Hauser's attempt was bound to fail. His own morals pervade the book and act as logical starting points for his arguments, but rarely does he act as a scientist and dismiss his own morality to seek out the real question which is, "How does the brain create a sense of right and wrong, and is there any definitive proof that there is a universal biological morality?"
Neuroscience tells us that there are very few things we are hardwired to do that we cannot unlearn or adapt to deal with our environments. Hauser spectacularly fails to convince that any moral code is anything other than a learned societal norm.
great idea, poor execution.......2007-03-31
I agree with Rick: great idea, poor execution. Various moral and social systems have long tried to codify and explain away through religious and other naratives what is only natural to us. Kudos to Mark Hauser for bringing our innate "moral organ" to broad attention.
His writing however is another matter. I suggest, read his introductory chapter "What Is Wrong?" and then cherry-pick from the rest of the book as much of the following material is highly repetitive. This is topic waiting to be tackled again by another, stronger writer.
Placing morals into the biological realm where they belong.......2007-03-23
This book affirms something that I have thought true for some time now - that morality is governed by instinctual paradigms in healthy individuals. Hearing from birth and from right-wing sources on the news daily that our morality can only be saved by a reversion to "biblical" mores, I had always wondered why the statistics do not back this "moral majority" up. For instance, in countries like Sweden and Iceland and many other European nations where secularism is high, they have much lower rates of crime and their citizens are just as happy if not more so than the average Sunday-bible-toting-American who thinks they have a "higher" version of morality than the "godless heathen."
Hauser cites empirical data that shows that morality is often operating at an unconscious level in human beings as evidenced by tests where subjects make a moral choice but then can offer only incoherent justifications. Hauser's parallel to our "Language Instinct" here is spot on, given that most native speakers can form perfectly grammatical sentences, but if asked about detailed grammatical structures and relationships, they fail miserably. This, I think, is one reason that religion enjoys its ascendant status (at least in America) in regards to morality. Religion is an overt manifestation of moral principles, something people otherwise have little or no conscious access to. It doesn't matter how outdated or ridiculous religious "morals" are, people will cling to them because in their minds it is the only available source of a description of morality. The faster that science can describe these principles, the better off humanity will be.
Taking in relevant topics from moral philosophy, economics, psychology, and of course, the meat of his argument, socio-biological findings from our primate and animal cousins, Hauser shows that the precursors of human morality, at least in rudimentary form, are present in many other animals. This presence gives science a strong foothold in the arena of ethics. These findings must be to the chagrin of such writers as Francis Collins who invoked the god of the gaps in "The Language of God" to explain that human morality must be due to divine fiat. Indeed it is not.
It's just not written well.......2007-03-21
I got this book after hearing Hauser give a very illluminating and fascinating interview on NPR. Sadly his book is not as nearly interesting as his interview technique is. He repeats his thesis into the ground many times. His clever examples are sometimes not so clever. The book is too long and wordy. Being a lover of philosophy, I of all people never thought I would say that about a book. That can be a good thing in capable hands, but Hauser is definitely a scientist and not a writer. Some better editing and tightening of the text would've made this book a real winner. Finally, the link to linguistics, a main theme of the book, is a turn off for me personally as the linguistics field in no way interests me. However, one refreshing aspect is that he amdits its a theory. Sometimes I feel contemporary science books are too ready to start claiming themselves to be fact. Only get it if you can find it cheap, and hopefully Hausers honesty, enthusiasm and knowledge will get you past the poor writing, sadly it wasn't the case for me.
Book Description
This fascinating and comprehensive book is the first to explore the complex biological process leading to orgasm. Here, sexuality researcher and nurse Beverly Whipple, coauthor of the international best-selling book The G Spot and Other Discoveries about Human Sexuality, joins neuroscientist Barry R. Komisaruk and endocrinologist Carlos Beyer-Flores to view orgasm through the lenses of behavioral neuroscience along with cognitive and physiological sciences.
The authors explain how and why orgasms happen, why they fail to happen, and what brain and body events are put into play at the moment of orgasm. No topic is left unexplored, as the book describes the genital-brain connection, how the brain produces orgasms, how aging affects orgasm, and the effects of prescription medication, street drugs, hormones, disorders, and diseases.
Covering every type of sexual peak experience in women and men -- from intense to phantom -- this informative and entertaining work illuminates the hows, whats, and wherefores of orgasm.
Customer Reviews:
Well... *that* sorta took all the fun out of it!.......2007-08-08
OK... I was wandering through the library aisles (really!), and this book sorta jumped out at me... The Science of Orgasm by Barry R. Komisaruk, Carlos Beyer-Flores, and Beverly Whipple. I thought it might be fun to learn a little more about what happens at that "YES!" moment. But this book really takes all the fun out of it. You pretty much have to have a medical degree to understand a majority of it, and there's little spractical material for the layman (pun not intended... much).
Contents: Definitions of Orgasm; Different Nerves, Different Orgasmic Feelings; Bodily Changes at Orgasm; Are Orgasms Good for Your Health?; When Things Go Wrong; Diseases That Affect Orgasm; How Aging Affects Orgasm; Pleasure and Satisfaction with and without Orgasm; The Nervous System Connection; The Neurochemistry of Orgasm; Effects of Medication; Counteracting Medication Side Effects; Recreational Stimulant Drugs and Orgasm; Depressant Drugs and Orgasm; Herbal Therapies; Hormones and Orgasm; Mechanism of Action of Sex Steroids; Nonreproductive Hormones in Orgasm; Atypical Orgasms; The Genital-Brain Connection; Orgasms after Brain Surgery or Brain Damage; Imaging the Brain during Sexual Arousal and Orgasm; The Cast of Characters - How Brain Components Contribute to Orgasm; Consciousness and Orgasm; Glossary; References; Index
Anyway... this is an extremely clinical look at the physiological and psychological components that make up the, you guessed it, human orgasm. If you ever wanted to know exactly what role 5-alpha-DHT or dehydroepiandrosterone play in your body, this book will tell you... in detail. Probably every study on human sexuality in the past 50 years that's ever been published is referenced in here... multiple times. After a couple pages of explanation on evidence that a genital sensory pathway goes directly to the brain, bypassing the spinal cord, I was ready to switch over to something much lighter... like Reinventing Project Management. This was one of those library books that got renewed a number of times, as I just couldn't bear to read more than 10 to 15 pages at a time. Maybe I need a book on why I feel I have to finish a book if I start it. :)
Seriously, I can see how someone in the medical field would find this very useful. Also, if you're dealing with major issues like a spinal cord injury or severe reactions to medication, you'd probably be motivated to dig through the information to find answers and solutions. But for the average male or female with relatively normal functioning parts, this is written at a level that requires far more work than it's worth.
And now I think I'll go find something a bit more readable...
A Masterpiece In Its Field & Springboard for Future Studies.......2007-06-04
This book is technically challenging to wade through, and unless a person has a strong personal interest in the subject matter, or is doing a college level research paper, be aware it is difficult reading. I expected the 'psychology' of orgasm and a better understanding of the relationship between men and women but this book is almost exclusively about the purely physical mechanisms of desire, arousal and orgasm; in other words, the nuts and bolts of how it actually happens. It is like reading a car manual when the reader may be expecting a driver's guide.
Every paragraph, and many times every sentence, is loaded with parenthetical citations to other books, authors and researchers, and/or definitions of the medical terms for physiological body parts and functions, which admittedly are necessary considering it is a scientifically technical assessment of orgasm; however, it seriously impedes the natural flow of the steps in acquiring a new thought, assimilating that thought into one's schema, and retaining the new information into the subsequent overall emergent pattern that the authors are striving to bring to a point. This is not the authors' fault however, but rather the current style for citation as opposed to an earlier style of footnotes which in my opinion is preferable because it leaves to the reader whether to make use of the extended information in the footnote or to have an unimpeded reading experience.
I can imagine that those readers familiar with physiologically technical terms and/or whose discipline or field of study this is will also find it laborious to suffer through the multitude of parenthetical definitions for the benefit of those of us unfamiliar with the advanced medical terminology used throughout the book.
On a positive note, it probably brings together into one source every piece of important data on the physiology of orgasm from a medical perspective accumulated over time in many other venues such as books, studies, and research papers submitted to medical magazines and conferences, and it is no doubt an invaluable tool for the library of a professional who deals with the phenomenon of orgasm in the human species.
The reasons for my interest being subjective rather than academic, I was disappointed initially in the strict adherence to professional jargon employed by the authors to lend scholarly credibility to their work, and to the prevalence of the purely physiological aspects of orgasm; however, I did glean a few gems of personal interest hidden in the profuse amount of detail.
One such piece of data reveals women in general can have many motives other than orgasm for engaging in sex with their partner, while men are linear in their efforts to satisfy their drive with defined steps of desire, arousal, and orgasm following a standard pattern with an intentional ultimate end result. My conclusions after completing this book are that there is now a scientific basis for the paradigm and age old belief that "men give affection to get sex and women give sex to get affection" in the vast majority of women. I am hopeful that there will now be a new round of psychological studies to find other common traits in those women who have a more linear purpose for engaging in sex, and in the majority of women who do not. For example, there are some insights in one chapter of the book about natural herbs that stimulate desire, arousal, and orgasm in humans that have been confirmed by studies, so it would be interesting for future studies to investigate whether those in the minority have taken these herbal remedies over time. I for one have been a health nut since my teenage years and one of my daily regimen is Gingko Biloba, one of the herbs sited in the book, as well as ginseng among others, as having been conclusively found by studies to increase desire, arousal, orgasm, and overall sexual satisfaction.
The book cited many studies dealing with various physical impacts on orgasm but nothing on how light affects the positive or negative aspects of the human sexual response. I would be very interested in future studies about light's effects (as in our solar spectrum) on orgasm, and in particular how exposure to specific colors in light affect sensuality. I have slept with a blue light in my bedroom for over thirty years since I was twenty-nine. I believe this has had an anti aging effect on me as well, since I look, act, and feel much younger than I am. The Universal Mind that channels through me has many dictums on light therapy and the nutritional value of different colors. Over the last decade there have been many discoveries about light and its effects on us which have validated information I have been channeling and documenting for years; it would be fascinating for future studies to determine what effects light, and the individual colors in light, might have on the complex biological process leading to orgasm and the human sexual response.
In one of a few rare excursions away from the 'physical' into the 'psychological' regarding women and their ability to reach climax, studies are cited in the book that reveal women need to be given "permission" to enjoy sex. I believe this is probably more of a cultural problem in America than in other areas of the world because our societal moors have deleterious psychological effects on the physiological process of orgasm. In my opinion, Americans have an aberrant negative fascination with sex as reflected by pornographic demand, a staggering divorce rate and a huge incidence of violent crimes against women such as rape and domestic violence, and Americans are among the most depressed and unhappy culture of people on earth. God does not, and never did, intend this negative perspective about sex. When the Angel told Sarah she would have a son, her immediate response was to ask if she was to have pleasure in her old age, and instead of going in the tent to start knitting a pair of baby booties, she went in and started getting dolled up for Abraham. Women - and men - need to understand that sex is a healthy, natural phenomenon and is to be enjoyed in a monogamous relationship only to prevent the negative side effects of promiscuity, not because sex in itself is wrong. It does beg the question of why women are physically hot wired to experience orgasm if they were not meant to do so joyfully since orgasm is not a requisite for becoming pregnant.
If one is more interested in the psychological and social aspects of sex, there are probably better choices than this book which deals with the brain's relationship to orgasm in a purely physiological way and not much in terms of psychological behavioral factors. It is definitely not a 'how to get it more and do it better' type of book, although the effects of drugs, both legal and illegal, on achieving an orgasmic response is discussed, as well as the aforementioned herbs, but again in a medical application and not a social application.
The single most surprising statement in the book for me was that a few women have reported the ability to have orgasm just by thinking about it and without genital stimulation, for which the authors cited their own study in 1992. I would have been interested in other common traits among those women, but that too would have taken the authors outside this book's scope of the purely physiological aspects of orgasm, its processes, and the positive and negative effects of various environmental factors on desire, arousal, and orgasm such as illness, drugs, and disabilities. I hope future studies will look at what traits those who fall within a particular set of parameters have in common, such as right brain expressions like art, writing, and music, or, like myself for which creativity is but a hobby while my functional daily life is more left brain both receptively and expressively. I am looking forward to many new studies utilizing the science in this book.
I'm glad I did finish the book because the last segment of the last chapter was of utmost surprise and fascination for me in which the authors acknowledged nobody knows exactly where orgasm originates, and they speculate it may be in a fifth dimension which they also attribute to possibly being the home of consciousness! They offer the information that many physicists are comfortable with there being as many as ten dimensions. Most people differentiate between the four dimensions we are aware of as 'science' and all other dimensions as 'faith'. This is the first time I have read of a group of people that are swayed by 'science' alluding to something that lends credibility to what I have been channeling for fifteen years. A very exciting "find" for me.
The book is fascinating, albeit difficult to read, and I learned a lot about both women and men that I did not know. I expect this book to be a cornerstone in future knowledge and enlightenment through studies on this subject. I have no doubt it will be a masterpiece in its field.
book review.......2007-05-08
This book was overkill on the scientific explanation and not enough on the practical side for those having problems.
The Science of Sex Hasn't Yet... Peaked .......2007-04-27
So many people and organizations over-emphasize sex for their own agendas, while for others sex is a source of unhappiness and guilt. But the fact is that for most people a balanced sex life is an essential part of healthy living. Yet despite the deluge of information about sex, it is amazing how much ignorance still exists. Most people working in psychology will have seen people who were convinced that they had an illness because he or she had failed to have an orgasm or had sometimes been less interested in sex.
This is the kind of book that will probably get thumbed through a lot at the local lending library, but it is not in any way a "how to" book. It is instead a scholarly work on what is known about orgasm. It is a book of facts and figures, a few diagrams and a lot of scientific references.
I have some minor gripes: the proofing could have been better: bromocriptine is one of a number of words that is misspelled. There is only a short discussion about why female orgasm exists at all. The male orgasm seems to have a straightforward evolutionary function, making males want to have sex more often, which in turn makes them more likely to have offspring. But how to account for female orgasm, when nearly three-quarters of women don't always reach orgasm during sexual intercourse? If the female orgasm had developed because of the same evolutionary pressures, females should have adapted to be as consistently orgasmic as males. (There is an excellent discussion of this issue in the recent book by Elisabeth Lloyd from Indiana University, which is referenced in this book). At some points in this book there is not enough of a distinction made between orgasm and arousal. For instance some women report that arousal rather than orgasm is what drives them to enjoy sex. There is also an over-emphasis on biochemical theories of orgasm, and an under-emphasis on the psychological, subtle and spiritual aspects. Even the topic of consciousness and orgasm gets only a brief chapter.
If you are interested in a more comprehensive view of orgasm, you may want to supplement this book with the works of David Deida, Jenny Wade, Mabel Iam and Mantak Chia.
But all that being said, this is the best single book on the physiology, biochemistry and pathology of orgasm. It also highlights that there is still a great deal that is known.
The book also gives quite a good summary of some of the approaches that may help people who feel that they have a problem with achieving orgasm. It is essential reading for anyone working with relationship problems. And if the only thing that comes from this book is a greater understanding that orgasm is not the only consideration in intimate relationships, that would be worthwhile in itself.
This book is almost unique, and apart from the points that I have raised, I recommend it to anyone who needs a reliable account of the physical aspects of orgasm, and suggestions for helping with problems.
Fernando Camacho MD........2006-12-24
A must have for everyone who is interested in sexuality and its scisnce.
Books:
- Human Development
- In Search of Dark Matter (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration)
- Intermolecular and Surface Forces, Second Edition: With Applications to Colloidal and Biological Systems (Colloid Science)
- Investigating Biology Lab Manual (5th Edition)
- Ion Channels of Excitable Membranes (3rd Edition)
- Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil
- Lichens of North America
- Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day Program to Lose 5000 Pounds--Be Part of the Global Warming Solution!
- Microbiology: An Introduction (9th Edition)
- Microbiology: Principles and Explorations
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