Did you ever wonder if you could really die laughing? A Danish doctor did when his heartbeat accelerated from a normal 60 bpm to over 250 while watching A Fish Called Wanda! With an eye for the intriguing and bizarre, Stephen Juan has assembled a corpus of body facts and exposed some fallacies. From top to bottom, inside to out and everywhere in between the Essential Odd Body gives you all of the facts about your odd body.

This second edition concentrates on various philosophers and theologians from the medieval Arabian, Jewish, and Christian worlds. It principally centers on authors such as Abumashar, Saadiah Gaon and Alcuin from the eighth century and follows the intellectual developments of the three traditions up to the fifteenth-century Ibn Khaldun, Hasdai Crescas and Marsilio Ficino. The spiritual journeys presuppose earlier human sources, such as the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, and Porph...

Getting certified to teach high school mathematics typically requires completing a course in real analysis. Yet most teachers point out real analysis content bears little resemblance to secondary mathematics and report it does not influence their teaching in any significant way. This textbook is our attempt to change the narrative. It is our belief that analysis can be a meaningful part of a teacher's mathematical education and preparation for teaching. This book is a companion text. It is...

The Middle Ages is often viewed as a period of low intellectual achievement. The name itself refers to the time between the high philosophical and literary accomplishments of the Greco-Roman world and the technological advances that were achieved and philosophical and theological alternatives that were formulated in the modern world that followed. However, having produced such great philosophers as Anselm, Peter Abelard, John Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, Peter Lombard, and the towering ...

The mysteries of our weird bodies explained.Body and behaviour mysteries explained. Can kissing make you live longer, even help prevent a food allergy? Does reading about yawning make you yawn? Can picking your nose kill you? Will garlic breath make you sexy? And why do men and women 
doodle differently? In the latest book from Dr Stephen Juan - Australia's award-winning WIZARD OF ODD - you'll find curious mysteries and strange facts about our body and behaviour. From thunder headac...

The truth about the potions, lotions, pills and needles, pummelling and energizing that lie beyond the realms of conventional medicine.Whether you are an ardent believer in alternative medicine, a skeptic, or are simply baffled by the range of services and opinions, this guide lays to rest doubts and contradictions with authority, integrity, and clarity. In this groundbreaking analysis, over thirty of the most popular treatments—acupuncture, homeopathy, aromatherap...

A revelatory depiction of what animals can teach us about the human body and mind, exploring how animal and human commonality can be used to diagnose, treat, and heal patients of all species."Full of fascinating stories.” —Atul Gawande, M.D.Do animals overeat? Get breast cancer? Have fainting spells? Inspired by an eye-opening consultation at the Los Angeles Zoo, which revealed that a monkey experienced the same symptoms of heart failure as human patients, ...

"Ridley leaps from chromosome to chromosome in a handy summation of our ever increasing understanding of the roles that genes play in disease, behavior, sexual differences, and even intelligence. . . . . He addresses not only the ethical quandaries faced by contemporary scientists but the reductionist danger in equating inheritability with inevitability." — The New YorkerThe genome's been mapped. But what does it mean? Matt Ridley’...

The next time you get sick, consider this before picking up the aspirin: your body may be doing exactly what it's supposed to. In this ground-breaking book, two pioneers of the science of Darwinian medicine argue that illness as well as the factors that predispose us toward it are subject to the same laws of natural selection that otherwise make our bodies such miracles of design. Among the concerns they raise:When may a fever be beneficial?Why do pregnant women get morning ...

In this book, a geneticist who studies identical twins "treats the view that genes are destiny with skepticism" ( The New York Times).How much are the things you choose to do every day determined by your genes and how much is your own free will? Drawing on his own cutting-edge research of identical twins, leading geneticist Tim Spector shows us how the same upbringing, the same environment, and even the same exact genes can lead to very different outcomes....

Against the backdrop of unprecedented concern for the future of health care, this Very Short Introduction surveys the history of medicine from classical times to the present. Focussing on the key turning points in the history of Western medicine, such as the advent of hospitals and the rise of experimental medicine, Bill Bynum offers insights into medicine's past, while at the same time engaging with contemporary issues, discoveries, and controversies. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very ...

Ever wondered how vaccines work, why whales strand themselves or if luck exists? The Explainer: From Déjà Vu to Why the Sky Is Blue, and Other Conundrums is a collection of around 100 of the best articles published in ‘The Explainer’ and ‘Monday’s Medical Myths’ sections of The Conversation. The book answers questions on everyone's mind about a diverse range of topics, abstract concepts, and popular and hard core science. Sections include: animals and agriculture, body, climate and energy, me...