Here, he leads readers on an unforgettable journey into the bizarre yet oddly beautiful world of parasites. In a narrative that is by turns frightening, disgusting, and laugh-out-loud funny, Kaplan describes how drinking contaminated water can cause a three-foot-long worm to burst from your arm; how he gave birth to a parasite the size and thickness of a pencil while working in Israel; why you should never wave a dead snake in front of your privates; and why fleas are attracted to his wife. Kaplan tells stories about leeches feasting on soldiers in Vietnam; sea cucumbers with teeth in their anuses that seem to encourage the entry of symbiotic fish; the habits of parasites that cause dysentery, river blindness, and other horrifying diseases--and much, much more. Along the way, he explains the underlying science, including parasite evolution and host-parasite physiology.

    Now Terry Tempest Williams, the author of the environmental classic Refuge and the beloved memoir When Women Were Birds, returns with The Hour of Land, a literary celebration of our national parks, an exploration of what they mean to us and what we mean to them.From the Grand Tetons in Wyoming to Acadia in Maine to Big Bend in Texas and more, Williams creates a series of lyrical portraits that illuminate the unique grandeur of each place while delving into what it means to shape a landscape with its own evolutionary history into something of our own making. Part memoir, part natural history, and part social critique, The Hour of Land is a meditation and a manifesto on why wild lands matter to the soul of America.

    Is the apple sitting on your kitchen counter alive, or is only the apple tree it came from deserving of the word? If we can't answer that question here on earth, how will we know when and if we discover alien life on other worlds? The question hangs over some of society's most charged conflicts--whether a fertilized egg is a living person, for example, and when we ought to declare a person legally dead.Charting the obsession with Dr. Frankenstein's monster and how Coleridge came to believe the whole universe was alive, Zimmer leads us all the way into the labs and minds of researchers working on engineering life from the ground up.

    Targeted, Focused Review – Study Only What You Need to KnowWritten by an EMS Program Director and NREMT paramedic with first-hand experience and classroom instruction, our targeted review chapters in outline style cover all the official test categories found on the EMT exam: airway and breathing, cardiology, medical, obstetrics and pediatrics, and trauma. The author explains the structure of the exam and shows you how to answer questions quickly and correctly.Expert Test-taking StrategiesOur author explains the structure of the NREMT Certification Exam, so you know what to expect on test day. He also shares question-level strategies and shows you the best way to answer questions. By following our expert tips and advice, you can score higher on the exam. Must-know Key TermsKnowing the right medical terminology can make a real difference in your test score. That’s why we give you a glossary of more than 400 EMT terms you need to know before you take your exam.Take REA’s Online Practice ExamAfter studying, go online and test what you’ve learned. Our practice exam features timed testing, diagnostic feedback, detailed answers, and automatic scoring. The exam is balanced to include every topic and type of question found on the actual EMT exam, so you know you’re studying the smart way.No matter how or when you prepare for the EMT exam, REA’s EMT Crash Course will show you how to study efficiently and strategically, so you can get a great score.

    If you’re intrigued by any of these topics, or just want to know about women’s health from an OBGYN who tells it like it is, this book is for you.“Confessions of a Male Gynecologist” reveals not only what your gynecologist is thinking when your feet are in the stirrups, but provides women with some frank advice. Dr. Bellanger provides readers with an education, gets on his high horse, and shares some unbelievable (and in many cases), “laugh-out-loud” stories.

    Then, one day he falls out of an oak tree and everything changes. He suddenly perceives the world in a different way, where spoken words appear as vibrant colors and minute details emerge from everything. Most surprising, he can foresee outcomes, for instance, knowing which horse will win a race. He considers what to do with this extraordinary ability, and that takes him on an expedition across America and eventually to Europe. Along the way, he encounters intimidating foes, and ultimately, he makes a startling discovery leading him to a confrontation with his greatest adversary. Follow the journey of this fascinating young person who lacks social skills and doesn’t experience emotions in a normal way. At the same time, he has profound insights about the world, as he attempts to find out who he is, and the basis of his identity. The book is also a captivating spiritual journey, as the boy struggles to fathom the meaning of love, and the reasons why things are good or bad. He even uses his prophetic abilities to understand where history is going and its ultimate end. Cass Tell is the author of numerous novels on various themes. The SAVANT deviates from the others. For instance, his last novel, The COOKBOOK is a delightful and fun action thriller about a young woman whose life is shockingly changed because of mysteries she finds in her grandmother's old cookbook. Equally enjoyable, The SAVANT goes in another direction, as it deals with the riches we find in those who are different from the normal. This fiction book is an exploration of the uniqueness of the individual, containing a profound questioning of how and why we perceive and react as we do. Packed with humor and emotion, this story provides insights at a rare level. The Savant is fun and enjoyable, full of adventure, relationships, mystery, and prophecy.

    Duc Vuong returns with his latest weight loss surgery guide, this time for Gastric Sleeve patients. Written in an easy-to-understand manner, he explains some of the anatomical and surgical aspects of this newer surgical procedure, while providing practical strategies on how to be successful long-term. Anatomical drawings are provided for reference. He delves into some of the most elusive topics that plague weight loss surgery patients, such as weight loss plateaus, social eating, and long-term follow-up testing requirements. Maintaining the quiz and answer format of his previous books, this book is a must read for all weight loss surgery patients who are looking to maximize their weight loss surgery tool. See also www.ultimategastricsleeve.com

    From the Himalayan slopes of Bhutan to the most isolated mountain ranges of New Guinea, The Kingdom of Rarities takes us to some of the least-traveled places on the planet to catch a glimpse of these unique animals and many others. As he shares stories of these species, Eric Dinerstein gives readers a deep appreciation of their ecological importance and the urgency of protecting all types of life—the uncommon and abundant alike.An eye-opening tour of the rare and exotic, The Kingdom of Rarities offers us a new understanding of the natural world, one that places rarity at the center of conservation biology. Looking at real-time threats to biodiversity, from climate change to habitat fragmentation, and drawing on his long and distinguished scientific career, Dinerstein offers readers fresh insights into fascinating questions about the science of rarity and unforgettable experiences from the field.

    In simple but powerful text, the ethical way to hunt is described from preparation to shooting to care after the shot.

    In 1903, while on a three-day camping trip with President Theodore Roosevelt, he convinced the president of the importance of a national conservation program, and he is widely recognized for saving the Grand Canyon and Arizona's Petrified Forest. Muir's writing, based on journals he kept throughout his life, gives our generation a picture of an America still wild and unsettled only one hundred years ago. In The Wildernesss World of John Muir Edwin Way Teale has selected the best of Muir's writing from all of his major works—including My First Summer in the Sierra and Travels in Alaska—to provide a singular collection that provides to be "magnificent, thrilling, exciting, breathtaking, and awe-inspiring" (Kirkus Reviews).

    Many people think of microbes as germs to be eradicated, but those that live with us—the microbiome—build our bodies, protect our health, shape our identities, and grant us incredible abilities. In this astonishing book, Ed Yong takes us on a grand tour through our microbial partners, and introduces us to the scientists on the front lines of discovery. Yong, whose humor is as evident as his erudition, prompts us to look at ourselves and our animal companions in a new light—less as individuals and more as the interconnected, interdependent multitudes we assuredly are. The microbes in our bodies are part of our immune systems and protect us from disease. Those in cows and termites digest the plants they eat. In the deep oceans, mysterious creatures without mouths or guts depend on microbes for all their energy. Bacteria provide squids with invisibility cloaks, help beetles to bring down forests, and allow worms to cause diseases that afflict millions of people. I Contain Multitudes is the story of these extraordinary partnerships, between the creatures we are familiar with and those we are not. It reveals how we humans are disrupting these partnerships and how we might manipulate them for our own good. It will change both our view of nature and our sense of where we belong in it.

    As people made in the image of God, we are entrusted to look after what he has created: to share in God’s joy and ingenuity in making a difference for good. Ruth Valerio imaginatively draws on the Days of Creation (Genesis 1) as she relates themes of light, water, land, the seasons, other creatures, humankind, Sabbath rest and resurrection hope to matters of environmental, ethical and social concern.Foundational to Saying Yes to Life is what it means to be human and, in particular, to be a follower of Jesus. Voices from around the world are heard throughout, and each chapter ends with discussion questions and a prayer to aid action and contemplation. e

    Five months earlier, logger-turned-activist Grant Hadwin had plunged naked into a river in British Columbia's Queen Charlotte Islands, towing a chainsaw. When his night's work was done, a unique Sitka spruce, 165 feet tall and covered with luminous golden needles, teetered on its stump. Two days later it fell.As vividly as John Krakauer puts readers on Everest, John Vaillant takes us into the heart of North America's last great forest.

    Spending nearly half the year in a 7' x 7' tower, 10,000 feet above sea level in remote New Mexico, his tasks were simple: keep watch over one of the most fire-prone forests in the country and sound the alarm at the first sign of smoke.Fire Season is Connors's remarkable reflection on work, our place in the wild, and the charms of solitude. The landscape over which he keeps watch is rugged and roadless — it was the first region in the world to be officially placed off limits to industrial machines — and it typically gets hit by lightning more than 30,000 times per year. Connors recounts his days and nights in this forbidding land, untethered from the comforts of modern life: the eerie pleasure of being alone in his glass-walled perch with only his dog Alice for company; occasional visits from smokejumpers and long-distance hikers; the strange dance of communion and wariness with bears, elk, and other wild creatures; trips to visit the hidden graves of buffalo soldiers slain during the Apache wars of the nineteenth century; and always the majesty and might of lightning storms and untamed fire.Written with narrative verve and startling beauty, and filled with reflections on his literary forebears who also served as lookouts — among them Edward Abbey, Jack Kerouac, Norman Maclean, and Gary Snyder — Fire Season is a book to stand the test of time.