Dr. Ruth Grobstein, a caring physician who has treated thousands of breast cancer patients, offers in this book clear and reassuring information on the disease, its prevention, and its treatment. Emphasizing how informed patients can be their own best advocates, this jargon-free book provides a wealth of information for making the best health decisions.

In this riveting account of medical sleuthing, Dr. Jonathan A. Edlow tells the history of the discovery of Lyme disease over centuries and continents. He also provides the latest information about the disease and its treatment, explaining the recent widespread outbreaks and examining the controversies that have swirled over the diagnosis, vaccine, treatment, and even definition of Lyme disease.

This book is an invaluable resource for every woman who wishes she could have an unhurried armchair conversation with a sympathetic doctor about reproductive health. Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, a gynecologist in practice for more than 25 years, presents a complete, up-to-date, and readable guide explaining how the female body works, what problems may arise, and what solutions are available.

Based on the experience of a woman gynecologist who has been in practice for twenty years, this helpful and user-friendly book provides a practical guide to physical and emotional well-being during the premenopausal, menopausal, and post-menopausal years. Using a question-and-answer format, the book presents thorough, unbiased information about this crucial time in women's lives.

Two prominent experts explain the workings of memory and offer practical advice on dealing with the memory changes that come with age. Drawing on the latest scientific evidence, they discuss techniques for improving memory, the efficacy of specific drugs and nutritional supplements, and the symptoms and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

How do millions of people cope with hearing loss? How can medicine and technology help? In this engaging and practical book, social psychologist David G. Myers explores the problems of the hard of hearing from a first-hand perspective. He offers advice for those with hearing problems and their families and friends as well as hopeful information on new technology and surgical procedures.

Drawing on in-depth interviews with people who were dying and with the physicians who cared for them, as well as on his own experiences as a physician, Dr. Charles McKhann argues persuasively that physician-assisted dying should be made legally available under certain circumstances.

As physicians are faced with new and wonderful options for saving lives, transplanting organs, and furthering research, they also must wrestle with new and troubling choices—who should receive scarce and vital treatment, how we determine when life ends, what limits should be placed on care for the dying, and more. This book by renowned theologian Paul Ramsey, first published thirty years ago, anticipated these moral and ethical issues and addressed them with cogency and power, providing th...

The dramatic explosion of information brought about by recent advances in genetic research brings welcome scientific knowledge. Yet this new knowledge also raises complex and troubling issues concerning privacy and confidentiality. This thought-provoking book is the first comprehensive exploration of these ethical, legal, and social issues.

In this important book on the American health care system, a physician and expert in health care management, who helped draft the Medicare legislation, discusses the dimensions of the current crisis and the financial and medical implications of alternative proposals and offers long term strategies for addressing the problem.

In this provocative new book a philosopher-physician explores issues of medical ethics involved in a physician's use of power. Drawing from literary works dealing with medical power—from Dostoevsky's "The Grand Inquisitor" to stories by Richard Selzer—Dr. Howard Brody argues that proposals to reduce or eliminate the power of the physician are misguided; instead, guidelines should be developed for the use of medical power so that the physician shares with the patient both information ...

This book—indispensable for every snorer—is the first in-depth coverage of sleep apnea. An authority in sleep research explains this debilitating syndrome’s history, symptoms, risk factors, and treatments, discusses the breathing disorders of sleeping children, tells how to get a consultation and diagnosis, and gives recommendations on living with sleep apnea.

This primer on anorexia and bulimia is aimed directly at patients and the people who care about them. Written in simple, straightforward language by two experts in the field, it describes the symptoms and warning signs of eating disorders, explains their presumed causes and complexities, and suggests effective treatments.

This important book of advice for survivors of a heart attack and others suffering from heart disease is co-written by distinguished medical professionals and by eleven cardiac patients. The book includes information on risk factors for heart disease, diets, diagnosis, treatment, strategies for reversing coronary artery disease, choosing a cardiac rehabilitation program, and much more.

In this book an eminent physician explores how patients and caring doctors can help lessen suffering when illness occurs. Dr Howard Spiro encourages physicians to treat the whole patient and not just the disease and to integrate a scientific approach to medicine with alternative approaches that may alleviate pain.

This profound and eloquent book brings together health professionals and distinguished authorities in the humanities to reflect on medical, cultural, and religious responses to death. Physicians and other caregivers describe their experiences witnessing death, and theologians, historians, anthropologists, literary scholars, and pastors tell how other cultures and religions perceive death and mourn. For medical personnel and for patients, this collection affirms that death is less an adversary th...

In this book, an anthropologist and epidemiologist examines how culture influences the definition, experience, and treatment of sickness in Western and non-Western societies. Hahn develops a definition of sickness based on the patient's perception of suffering rather than the physician's assessment of biomedical signs and shows how applying anthropological principles to medical training and practice can remedy some of the ills of contemporary Western medicine.

This lavishly illustrated book chronicles our planetary travels, explains the creation and evolution of each planet, and tells how our understanding of the solar system has developed from the first stargazers in ancient times to the present. A companion volume to a highly regarded eight-part Arts and Entertainment television series, the book draws on space race archives, interviews with scientists and astronauts, and computer graphics to reveal fascinating details about the wonders of th...

This groundbreaking book argues that the political collapse of East Germany in the 1980s could have been predicted by analyzing the country’s natural landscape. Arvid Nelson records the history of the East German government’s disregard for its landscape and shows how forest and ecosystem change can serve as a reliable barometer to the health of a political system.

How does a nongovernmental organization (NGO) empower itself in today’s world? In this insightful book, the author applies a new theoretical perspective in case studies of NGOs in the Philippines. Raymond Bryant focuses on the concept of moral capital and analyzes how perceptions of NGOs as moral and altruistic can translate into social power.

As the twenty-first century dawns, public land policy is entering a new era. This timely book examines the historical, scientific, political, legal, and institutional developments that are changing management priorities and policies—developments that compel us to view the public lands as an integrated ecological entity and a key biodiversity stronghold. Arguing that we must integrate the new imperatives of ecosystem science with our devolutionary political tendencies, Keiter outlines a coh...

This enlightening book diagnoses problems in natural resources policy in the U.S. and examines how community-based initiatives can help to solve them. Through four case studies involving bison management, wolf reintroduction, forest policy, and river management, the authors show how participants in local initiatives can search for common ground on divisive issues and advance the common interest.

Why do modern cities, suburbs, and industrial and farming landscapes all tend to look alike despite their regional settings? In this generously illustrated and provocative book, a landscape architect argues that the monotony of the modern landscape is a reflection of indifference on the part of society to the diversity inherent in ecological systems and in human communities. In case studies drawn from all parts of the world—Turkey and Hong Kong to northern England and Edinburgh, to Kentuck...

Centuries of pollution and other abuse have gradually been killing off the marine life of beautiful Long Island Sound, bringing it to the brink of environmental disaster. This lively and accessible book traces the history of the Sound and explains the lessons learned by the scientists and citizens who have been working to restore and preserve it.

This book is a lively account of a community working to combat suburban sprawl and discover how to live responsibly on the land. A founder of the Land’s Sake community farm in Weston, Massachusetts, Brian Donahue describes the joys and sorrows of farming in the suburbs. He calls for every community to protect its common land, establish community farms, and engage citizens with the land on which they live.

We live in a new “full” world—a world of six billion people who are making overwhelming demands on the earth and its forests. This book presents a concise, accessible view of the current global status of forests and of their importance in maintaining the human habitat. Forests in a Full World calls for local and global planners to weigh the spiraling competitive demands for forest resources and to redefine what is in the public interest in the context of forests.

This book presents a revolutionary vision of how we can create a sustainable planet. Focusing on two critical global issues—rapid population growth and a human-induced climate change—it prescribes steps and a view of the future that we can adopt to stabilize both population and climate.

This invaluable guide for natural resources professionals distills the knowledge and experience of one of the most highly regarded experts in the field. Tim W. Clark explains how to improve the substance and process of policy analysis and decision making and how to take into account not only scientific, social, political considerations but also moral and human rights issues.

The rivers of the Colorado Front Range, like other mountain rivers throughout the world, may appear to be pristine natural systems even when they have been impaired by human activities ranging from beaver trapping to railroad construction. This strikingly illustrated book documents two hundred years of land-use patterns on the Front Range, showing how rivers have changed in form and function and why it is crucial to understand these changes.

Efforts to improve natural resources management practices must take into account not only the scientific aspects of an issue, but also political and emotional dimensions. This practical book uses ten case studies to show how the policy sciences can address and resolve the human issues underlying natural resource problems. The policy sciences approach proves flexible, widely applicable, and useful in diverse situations. 

How can ecosystem management achieve a balance between the need to produce commodities and sustain biodiversity and the desire for such amenities as recreation and aesthetics? In this book, leading experts in the field clarify key elements of sound ecosystem management and offer concrete prescriptions for implementing them.

All ecosystems have a history of past human impacts, some obvious, others subtle, Emily Russell contends in this fascinating exploration of historical ecology. To understand the lingering consequences of human history on current ecosystems and landscapes, and conversely to understand the role that changing environments have played in human history, the author urges an interdisciplinary approach.

This important book—the first to discuss in detail the consequences of global warming for ecosystems—includes commentary by distinguished scientists on many aspects of this critical problem. Considering a variety of specific ecosystems, experts describe responses of animals and plants to previous climate changes, interactions between various environmental components, and synergisms between climate change and human activities such as deforestation.

In this important book, a widely known authority in atmospheric research describes the causes of acid rain, ozone depletion, and global warming and the evidence for each one's recent acceleration, and he provides practical and long-range suggestions for controlling these and other forms of atmospheric deterioration.

How has the concept of wild nature changed over the millennia? And what have been the environmental consequences? In a wide-ranging work of intellectual history, Max Oelschlaeger presents a stimulating new examination of humankind's relationship with the natural world through the ages—from early totemism through Egyptian, Greco-Roman, and Judeo-Christian supernaturalism to the rise of materialism and modernism.

This entertaining volume provides for the first time a mini-biography of each of the 1,400 people after whom a bird has been named in the English vernacular. Arranged in the style of an encyclopedia, the book tells the stories of how birds came to be named after certain individuals—an array of heroes, romantics, fanatics, naturalists, and others.

This monumental book is a comprehensive and profusely illustrated exploration of all that is known about the origin of birds and of avian flight. Alan Feduccia, a leading ornithologist and evolutionary biologist, draws on fossil evidence and studies of the structure and biochemistry of living birds to present current knowledge and fresh data on avian evolution and to propose a major new model of this evolutionary process.

This appealing book provides a complete and up-to-date overview of all the world’s penguin species. Illustrated with scores of photographs and drawings, the book offers new insights into the biology of penguins and the challenges they face as they balance their two worlds—the land for breeding and the sea for feeding.

Tom Gundling examines a period in anthropological history when ideas about what it means to be human were severely tested. Drawing on extensive primary sources, many never before published, he argues that the reinterpretation of early human fossils came about at last because of changes in theoretical approach, not simply because new and more complete fossils had been recovered. Gundling concludes with a review of the most significant post-1950 events in the field of paleoanthropology.

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Remembered primarily as captain of the Beagle, Robert FitzRoy emerges in this exceptional biography as much more than Charles Darwin’s shipmaster. A British naval commander, a governor of New Zealand, the inventor of weather forecasting—FitzRoy was all of these and more during a life of high adventure and accomplishment but also tragic disappointment.

Through detailed studies of six preeminent scientists of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, Frederic Lawrence Holmes explores the nature of scientific discovery and creativity in this fascinating book. Following the research pathways of these men, he uncovers common features in their careers and discoveries that lead to new understandings of the scientific process.