Best of
Genetics

2010

Human Behavioral Biology


Robert M. Sapolsky - 2010
    How to approach complex normal and abnormal behaviors through biology. How to integrate disciplines including sociobiology, ethology, neuroscience, and endocrinology to examine behaviors such as aggression, sexual behavior, language use, and mental illness.36 hours lectures

Hypermobility, Fibromyalgia and Chronic Pain


Alan J. Hakim - 2010
    It asks the reader to consider the possibility of JHS, identify it clinically, understand its co-morbidities, including interdependencies with Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, while managing the condition appropriately.Hypermobility, Fibromyalgia and Chronic Pain takes a multi-specialty and multidisciplinary approach to understanding JHS and its management, drawing together expertise from a broad group of internationally-recognized authors. The book is split into two sections. Section 1 deals with the clinical manifestations of JHS and Fibromyalgia, their epidemiology and pathophysiology. Section 2 covers clinical management. Here the reader will find chapters covering pharmacotherapeutics, psychotherapy and physical therapies that address the needs of patients from childhood to adulthood.It is hoped that Hypermobility, Fibromyalgia and Chronic Pain will advance knowledge of therapies and provoke further research while stimulating interest and encouraging debate.Comprehensively relates practical therapy to the nature of the underlying pathology Covers in one single text both the scientific and practical management aspect of Joint Hypermobility Syndrome and its allied pathologies Contributions from over 30 leading international experts Multidisciplinary approach will support all health professionals working in this field

Saving Henry: A Mother's Journey


Laurie Strongin - 2010
    Saving Henry is a memoir of the author's struggle to save the life of her son Henry, who suffered from a rare childhood illness. Henry was born with a heart condition that was operable, but which proved to be a precursor for a rare, almost-always fatal illness: Fanconi anemia.  Laurie, Henry's mom, decided to do everything in her power to fight the course of the disease. She and her husband signed on for a brand new procedure called PGD that, through in vitro fertilization combined with genetic testing, was supposed to be able to produce a new baby who was a carrier of the gene, but who would not become ill with it. The stem cells from the umbilical cord could then be implanted into Henry's body and ultimately save him. As Laurie puts it, "I believe in love and science, nothing more and nothing less."Laurie and her husband had a second child who was healthy but not an FA carrier, and then went through nine failed courses of PGD before they had to give up. Meanwhile, the feisty little boy who loved Batman, Cal Ripken, and root beer-flavored anesthesia captivated everyone who came in contact with him, from New York City to Minneapolis, with his spunk and "never give up" attitude.   Henry was the little kid who, when the nurses came to take blood samples, brandished his Harry Potter sword and said, "Bring it on!" and when he lost his hair after a chemo treatment, he declared, "Hey, I look like Michael Jordan!" Laurie became a lobbyist for stem cell research, testifying before Congress, written up by Lisa Belkin in the New York Times and other media, and appearing on Nightline to discuss Henry's case and the importance of the research. Throughout it all, Henry's courage and bravery were a source of inspiration for the many nurses, doctors, friends and family who interacted with him-- and he has saved many lives through his participation in groundbreaking research. This is the moving and incredibly inspiring story of this family's search for a cure, and the impact their amazing son had on the lives of so many.

Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas


Forest Rohwer - 2010
    As Earth's most biodiverse ecosystem-surpassing even the rainforests-they are home to a cooperative network ranging from immense fish to sunlight-capturing algae to invisible microbes. Just how critical the microbes in particular are for coral reef health is finally understood thanks to recent discoveries. Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas is the first book to unveil the complete story of how these relationships uphold coral reef health and what impact human activity has on this delicate balance.

Science 1001: Absolutely Everything That Matters about Science in 1001 Bite-Sized Explanations


Paul Parsons - 2010
    From the physics of black holes to cloning therapy, Science 1001 demystifies the most important scientific ideas and disciplines in the simplest language with a minimum of jargon, making them easier to understand and, thus, more entertaining for any general reader.

The Perils of Diversity: Immigration and Human Nature


Byron M. Roth - 2010
    Roth argues that the current debate over immigration policy is unlikely to produce a satisfying outcome since it takes place uninformed by the science of human nature. Any policy of mass immigration will be profoundly constrained by fundamental features of human psychology, prominent among them is a natural bias toward one’s own kind and a wariness and suspicion of – if not hostility towards – others. The prospect for social harmony in multi-ethnic societies is thus problematic at best, and difficulties are compounded when groups differ in ability and temperament in non-trivial ways.Roth explores the history of immigration to the United States, revealing that the earlier, pre-war immigration experience was so different from current patterns that it cannot provide a useful template for understanding and assessing them. In addition, Roth addresses the disturbingly undemocratic nature of the regime of mass immigration imposed by authorities on the citizens of all Western nations in defiance of their clearly expressed wishes. He shows that the chasm between elite views and public opinion is so deep that current policies can only be maintained by an increasingly totalitarian suppression of dissent that undermines the very foundations of Western society.

Bite-Size Science


Robert Dinwiddie - 2010
    Two chapters that open the book explain the very small and the very large, starting with the structure of atoms and then going on to describe the composition of the solar system, stars, galaxies and black holes. Author Robert Dinwiddie next describes modern science’s understanding of the Big Bang, which scientists believe first brought all of physical reality into existence. A chapter on the planet Earth discusses plate tectonics, continental drift, volcanoes, earthquakes, and extreme weather systems. An overview of the Earth’s environment explains the hazards of pollution, the challenges posed by global warming, and the efforts to reverse those patterns by developing renewable energy sources and alternative fuels. Two chapters that follow carry science to a more personal level describing human body functions, the components of good health, disease prevention and control, DNA, the human genome, cloning, and DNA profiling. A concluding chapter translates Einstein’s relativity, quantum mechanics, and science’s general theories of everything into terms understandable to laypersons. The author’s goal in every chapter is to bring his readers up to speed on modern science’s most important issues. His intensely readable text is supplemented with more than 400 color illustrations.

Evolutionary Behavioral Ecology


David Westneat - 2010
    Chaptersare written by leading experts in the field, providing a core foundation, a history of conceptual developments, and fresh insight into the controversies and themes shaping the continuing development of the field. Essays on adaptation, selection, fitness, genetics, plasticity, and phylogeny as theypertain to behavior place the field in the broader context of ecology and evolution. These concepts, along with a diversity of theoretical approaches are applied to the evolution of behavior in a many contexts, from individual decision-making of solitary animals through to complex socialinteractions.Chapters integrate conceptual and theoretical approaches with recent empirical advances to understand the evolution of behavior, from foraging, dealing with risk, predator avoidance, and an array of social behaviors, including fighting and cooperation with conspecifics and conflict and cooperationbetween the sexes. The material emphasizes integrative and novel approaches to behavior, including cognitive ecology, personality, conservation biology, the links between behavior and evolution, the evolution of human social behavior, and ways in which modern genetic analyses can augment the studyof behavior.

Celtic from the West: Alternative Perspectives from Archaeology, Genetics, Language and Literature


Barry Cunliffe - 2010
    This 'Celtic Atlantic Bronze Age' theory represents a major departure from the long-established, but increasingly problematic scenario in which the story of the Ancient Celtic languages and that of peoples called Keltoi 'Celts' are closely bound up with the archaeology of the Hallstatt and La Tene cultures of Iron Age west-central Europe. The 'Celtic from the West' proposal was first presented in Barry Cunliffe's Facing the Ocean (2001) and has subsequently found resonance amongst geneticists. It provoked controversy on the part of some linguists, though is significantly in accord with John Koch's findings in Tartessian (2009). The present collection is intended to pursue the question further in order to determine whether this earlier and more westerly starting point might now be developed as a more robust foundation for Celtic studies. As well as having this specific aim, a more general purpose of Celtic from the West is to bring to an English-language readership some of the rapidly unfolding and too often neglected evidence of the pre-Roman peoples and languages of the western Iberian Peninsula. Celtic from the West is an outgrowth of a multidisciplinary conference held at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth in December 2008. In addition to 11 chapters, the book includes 45 distribution maps and a further 80 illustrations. The conference and collaborative volume mark the launch of a multi-year research initiative undertaken by the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies [CAWCS]: Ancient Britain and the Atlantic Zone [ABrAZo]. Contributors: (Archaeology) Barry Cunliffe; Raimund Karl; Amilcar Guerra; (Genetics) Brian McEvoy & Daniel Bradley; Stephen Oppenheimer; Ellen Rrvik; (Language & Literature) Graham Isaac; David Parsons; John T. Koch; Philip Freeman; Dagmar S. Wodtko.

Carrier: Untangling the Danger in My DNA


Bonnie J. Rough - 2010
    Rough receives the test results that confirm she is a carrier of the genetic condition "hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia," or H.E.D., it propels her on a journey deep into her family's past in the American West.At first glance, H.E.D. seems only to be a superficial condition: a peculiar facial bone structure, sparse hair, few teeth, and an inability to sweat. But a closer look reveals the source of a lifetime of infections, breathing problems, and drug dependency for Bonnie's grandfather Earl, who suffered from the disorder. After a boyhood as a small-town oddity and an adulthood fraught with disaster, Earl died penniless and alone at the age of 49. Bonnie's mother was left with an inheritance that included not just the gene for H.E.D., but also the emotional pain that came from witnessing her father's misery.As Bonnie and her husband consider becoming parents themselves, their biological legacy haunts every decision. The availability of genetic testing gives them new choices to make, choices more excruciating than any previous generation could have imagined. Ultimately, Carrier is a story of a modern moral crisis, one that reveals the eternal tension between past and future."

The People of the Eye: Deaf Ethnicity and Ancestry


Harlan Lane - 2010
    Arguing against the common representation of ASL signers as a disability group, the authors discuss the many challenges to Deaf ethnicity in this first book-length examination of these issues.Stepping deeper into the debate around ethnicity status, The People of the Eye also describes, in a compelling narrative, the story of the founding families of the Deaf World in the US. Tracing ancestry back hundreds of years, the authors reveal that Deaf people's preference to marry other Deafpeople led to the creation of Deaf clans, and thus to shared ancestry and the discovery that most ASL signers are born into the Deaf World, and many are kin.In a major contribution to the historical record of Deaf people in the US, The People of the Eye portrays how Deaf people- and hearing people, too- lived in early America. For those curious about their own ancestry in relation to the Deaf World, the figures and an associated website presentpedigrees for over two hundred lineages that extend as many as three hundred years and are unique in genealogy research. The book contains an every-name index to the pedigrees, providing a rich resource for anyone who is interested in Deaf culture.

Designer Genes: A New Era in the Evolution of Man


Steven Potter - 2010
    The fact is that, until now, human evolution has been exceedingly slow. But there’s about to be a profound change in this process, with a perfect storm of revolutions in the fields of genetic modification, stem cells, DNA sequencing, and embryo manipulation. The result is that it will soon be possible for parents to consciously choose the genes of their children, defining their intelligence, appearance, athletic ability, and health. The ramifications could be enormous, with each generation smarter, more technologically proficient, and better able to design the genes of their offspring. Where will this evolution on steroids take us?Designer Genes presents a balanced view, describing the underlying science in accessible terms and discussing the pros and cons of implementing this new technology. A leading expert in the field, Steven Potter covers a broad range of topics on this challenging subject, presenting fascinating details of case histories and ongoing discoveries:  • the true story of “Adam,” who as an early embryo was genetically selected to save his sickly sister• the surprising human genome—and DNA sequence comparisons across species • dogs, an informative example of human-driven evolution • the sequencing revolution, with the price of determining a person’s complete DNA sequence becoming much more affordable• genetic diseases and what is being discovered about them every day • stem cells and their almost magical powers Designer Genes also investigates such controversial questions as: When is an embryo a person? Are we smart enough to pick optimal gene combinations? What will the government’s role be? Science has brought us an astonishing understanding of the genetic basis of life, as well as potent new power to guide the genetic destiny of humanity. What will we do next?From the Hardcover edition.