Based on more than 60 personal interviews and supported by scholarly research, this book shows the varied attitudes and approaches that make up the rich experience of living with disability in a changing society. Covering Down syndrome from conception to old age, this historical analysis touches upon a variety of themes, including education, friendship, health, recreation, sexuality, employment, and independence. This moving, partly autobiographical account is a must read for all parents, ...

From the furthest reaches of the universe to the microscopic world of our genes, science offers writers the kind of scope other subjects simply can't match. Good writing about science can be moving, funny, exhilarating or poetic, but it will always be honest and rigorous about the research that underlies it.Now in its sixth year, The Best Australian Science Writing 2016 brings together knowledge and insights from Australia's brightest thinkers as they explore the intricaci...

What do you need to know to prosper as a people for 65,000 years or more? The First Knowledges series provides a deep understanding of the expertise, wisdom and ingenuity of Indigenous Australians. For thousands of generations the wellbeing of Australia's First Peoples was grounded in the sacred lands of Mother Earth. Good health occurred naturally because lifestyle and diet were connected to Country and culture. Colonisation damaged this connection, but much is being done to rebuild it. H...

Perched on an island off the shores of Cornwall, England, the soaring castle of St. Michael’s Mount has been home to the St. Aubyn family since 1647. For nearly thirty years, Stanley Ager, one of the most esteemed butlers of the twentieth century, ensured that St. Michael’s Mount was an impeccable place to live and a gracious and welcoming one for guests to visit.Revered by everyone from royalty to the estate staff, Stanley Ager considered it his calling to run a home gracefully an...

How I Found Livingstone recounts Henry M. Stanley's 1871 expedition into East Africa in search of the missing missionary-explorer David Livingstone. Combining travel narrative, journalistic dispatch, imperial adventure, and ethnographic observation, the book moves from Zanzibar into the interior with a dramatic sense of hardship, logistics, and encounter. Its famous climax at Ujiji—"Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"—belongs to the literature of Victorian exploration, while its prose reflects bo...

30 leading cultural figures choose an artwork from the Museum of Modern Art's collection, and discuss the response it provokes in themArt critic and broadcaster Alastair Sooke, accompanied by some of the world's leading creative thinkers, takes an in-depth look at the outstanding exhibits in New York's MoMA, exploring how the way we 'see' art is shaped by our experiences and perspectives. His guests include some of the sharpest minds of our time - artists, writers,...

In this extensively revised and enlarged edition of his best-selling book, David Suzuki reflects on the increasingly radical changes in nature and science — from global warming to the science behind mother/baby interactions — and examines what they mean for humankind’s place in the world. The book begins by presenting the concept of people as creatures of the Earth who depend on its gifts of air, water, soil, and sun energy. The author explains how people are genetically p...

Ten thousand years ago, our species made a radical shift in its way of life: We became farmers rather than hunter-gatherers. Although this decision propelled us into the modern world, renowned geneticist and anthropologist Spencer Wells demonstrates that such a dramatic change in lifestyle had a downside that we’re only now beginning to recognize. Growing grain crops ultimately made humans more sedentary and unhealthy and made the planet more crowded. The expanding population and the need ...

The global temperature is rising, the ice caps are melting, and levels of pollution across the world have reached unprecedented heights. According to eminent scientist James Lovelock, in order to survive an assault from her dependents, the Earth is lurching ever closer to a permanent "hot state." Within the next century, we will almost certainly be forced to give up many of the comforts of western living as supplies are threatened. Only the fittest -- and the smartest -- will survive....

In the history of planet earth, mass species extinctions have occurred five times, about once every 100 million years. A "sixth extinction" is known to be underway now, with over 200 species dying off every day. Not only that, but the cause of the sixth extinction is also the source of single biggest threat to human life: our own inventions.What this bleak future will truly hold, though, is much in dispute. Will our immune systems be attacked by so-called super bugs, always evolvin...

I am not a climatic scientist; I am an experienced electrical engineer, drawn to study this subject by the peculiarity of the news I was observing. And it became obvious, very quickly, that something weird was going on. So I began to collect data, news, and other factual information that gradually became available. I have now assembled a wide range of proven, factual details on global warming (which became climate change when warming stopped in 1998 and temperatures began to drop), the cla...

How did the replication bomb we call ”life” begin and where in the world, or rather, in the universe, is it heading? Writing with characteristic wit and an ability to clarify complex phenomena (the New York Times described his style as ”the sort of science writing that makes the reader feel like a genius”), Richard Dawkins confronts this ancient mystery.