Bodies, Commodities, and Biotechnologies: Death, Mourning, and Scientific Desire in the Realm of Human Organ Transfer (Leonard Hastings Schoff Lectures)

Book Description

In the United States today, the human body defines a lucrative site of reusable parts, ranging from whole organs to minuscule and even microscopic tissues. Although the medical practices that enable the transfer of parts from one body to another most certainly relieve suffering and extend lives, they have also irrevocably altered perceptions of the cultural values assigned to the body.

Organ transfer is rich terrain to investigate& mdash;especially in the American context, where sophisticated technological interventions have significantly shaped understandings of health and well-being, suffering, and death. In Bodies, Commodities, and Biotechnologies, Lesley Sharp probes the ideological assumptions underlying the transfer of body parts, the social significance of donors' deaths, and the medico-scientific desires surrounding complex forms of body repair. Sharp also considers the experimental realm, in which nonhuman species and artificial devices present further opportunities for recovery and for controversy.

A compelling scientific investigation and social critique, Bodies, Commodities, and Biotechnologies explores the pervasive, and at times pernicious, practices shaping American biomedicine in the twenty-first century.

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10 stars for this book
A poetic underwater journey!
A Must Read for Fin Fans!

Secrets of the Ocean Realm
Michele Hall , and Howard Hall
Manufacturer: Atria Books/Beyond Words
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0786704535

Book Description

A photographic celebration of the spectacular drama of exotic marine creatures' lives and the otherworldly beauty of the deep-sea ecosystems that shelter them.

Written and photographed by Emmy award-winning couple Michele and Howard Hall, Secrets of the Ocean Realm is more than just a collection of stunning photographs: it is a revelation of the sea creatures' complex and mysterious cycles and patterns of behavior. The reader is presented with striking images of all manner of marine life--sharks, opalescent squid, molting lobsters, dolphins, giant whales--engaged in the vital activities of mating, threat displays, hunting and feeding.

Based on a five-part series of public television specials, the remarkable photographs of Secrets of the Ocean Realm are complemented with fascinating and engaging stories that take the reader behind the scenes and reveal the state-of-the-art equipment and techniques used to capture these exquisite scenes of underwater life.

Customer Reviews:

10 stars for this book.......2004-08-16

This is one of the best books I have ever read about the underwater world. Incredibly beautiful underwater photography of high quality. The photos do not only depict animals swimming around but, for example, sarcastic fringehead males in a showy territorial "fight," close up.

I also like the authors' sensible view about animals and diving in the ocean. No show-off accounts of near-shark-escapes but an honest experience, mostly good but sometimes scary, of working under water. The authors recount some extraordinary events, such as a ride on a manta after freeing him from entangling fishing nets, or unexpectedly finding themselves surrounded by a school of fish that is being slaughtered by marlins.

With this book we get a wonderful view into the ocean world but also a fascinating account of what it is like spending many hours a day waiting, scouting, decompressing, refilling tanks and back to waiting so one can capture a never seen one-minute event on film that made it worth all the work.

A poetic underwater journey!.......2000-08-30

Stare at the beautiful underwater photographs. Sitback, relax and gently discover the Ocean Realm with the still images of Howard Hall and his wife Michele, images that, as Peter Benchley (Jaws, The Deep) writes in the foreword, are among the finest in the world. Dive. Wander through the Kelp forests of the northern Pacific. Get a close-up of sharks and squids in magic detail. Enjoy the vivid colors of the reef and watch lobsters and sea turtles, dolphins and whales in an exciting photographic journey! Since this book is not a reference work, you will also enjoy reading it slowly and in the direction of your choice, diving at pleasure through the light text that describes the Hall's adventures as filmmakers and marine photographers. And then you will also find some information about the sea-life captured in the images and poetic hints about scuba-diving and underwater photography. A nice dive, a pleasant reading and, at the price that Amazon.com is offering it, a real gift. Buy the book!

A Must Read for Fin Fans!.......1999-12-04

For those of us who read everything we can on underwater photography, this book provides an added dimension and delightful reprieve from the technical how-to's of most underwater photography books. This book is a series of fascinating stories about the adventures and mis-adventures Howard and Michelle and their staff encountered when shooting different subjects. A fascinating and stimulating book, it provides anecdotal insight into how they approach certain projects without dwelling on the technical "how to's" found in most underwater photography books. Everyone studying underwater photography or just enjoying the sport of diving should surface long enough to give themselves this present. It sure made me want to grab my fins and camera and head off to points all around the world. Thanks to Howard and Michelle for putting together such a compelling read. And of course, it has beautiful photographs.

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Realms of the Sea
National Geographic Society (U. S.)
Manufacturer: Natl Geographic Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0870448552

The Biosphere: Realm of Life (Earth's Spheres)

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The Biosphere: Realm of Life (Earth's Spheres)
Gregory Vogt
Manufacturer: Twenty-First Century Books (CT)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 0761328408

Life Itself: Exploring the Realm of the Living Cell

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The best of all biology books
Very detailed, yet clear and absorbing.
A GREAT SUPPLEMENTAL TEXT!
More of a review of Trueskeptic
Would be great without the religion

Life Itself: Exploring the Realm of the Living Cell
Boyce Rensberger
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0195125002

Book Description

Hidden in a nondescript red-brick building in Rockville, Maryland, is the most unusual warehouse in the world, a bank of living cells called the American Type Culture Collection. Here, at 321 degrees below zero--a temperature at which life abandons its vital dance and enters limbo, but without dying--are some 30,000 vials holding 60 billion living forms in suspended animation, including mouse kidney cells, turkey blood cells, armadillo spleen cells, and some 40 billion human cells. These cultured cells are essential to modern biological research--in fact, cells today are the most intimately studied life forms in all of science, for both practical and philosophical reasons. For one, all disease--from cancer and the common cold, to arthritis and AIDS--stems from cells gone awry. And cell research not only promises a cure for a wide variety of disease--it also holds the key to the mystery of life itself. In Life Itself, Boyce Rensberger, science writer for The Washington Post, takes readers to the frontlines of cell research with some of the brightest investigators in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology. Virtually all the hottest topics in biomedical research are covered here, such as how do cells and their minute components move? How do the body's cells heal wounds? What is cancer? Why do cells die? And what is the nature of life? Readers discover that--contrary to what we may have concluded from pictures in our high school textbooks--cells teem with activity and that, inside, they "are more crowded with components than the inside of a computer." We learn that scientists now know of at least ten molecular motors that move things about inside the cell--in most cells, this motion is short because the cell is tiny, but in the single-celled nerve fibers that run from the base of the spinal cord to the toes (measuring three or four feet in an adult human), molecular motors can take several days to make the trip. Rensberger describes the many fascinating kinds of cells found in the body, from "neural crest cells" (early in embryonic development, these cells crawl all over the embryo to the sites where they will pursue their fate--as nerve cells, or cartilage, or skin), to "dust cells" (nomadic cells in the lung that swallow and store indigestible particles, then migrate to the gullet where they themselves are swallowed and digested), to "natural killer cells" (millions of which roam the body looking for cancerous cells). We meet many of the scientists who have pioneered cell research, such as Rita Levi-Montalcini--an Italian who, shut out of her lab during World War II, continued to experiment in her bedroom at home, making the discovery ("nerve growth factor") for which she won the Nobel Prize--and American Leonard Hayflick, who proved that all human cells (except cancer cells) invariably die after about fifty divisions. Rensberger also provides an illuminating discussion of AIDS--revealing exactly why this virus is so difficult to defeat--and of cancer, explaining that before cancer can start, a whole series of rare events must occur, events so unlikely that it seems a wonder that anyone gets cancer at all. The solutions to the most pressing challenges facing scientists today--from the efforts to conquer disease to the quest to understand life itself--will be found in the innermost workings of the cell. In Life Itself, Boyce Rensberger paints a colorful and fascinating portrait of modern research in this vital area, an account which will enthrall anyone interested in state-of-the-art science or the incredible workings of the human body.

Customer Reviews:

The best of all biology books.......2006-09-17

I have been looking for this book my whole life! Rensberger connects the most basic chemical reactions to how we're alive as human beings. I just read the description of human conception and it gripped me like a thriller novel, even though I know how it turns out. This book is my new "foundation" recommendation for friends who know I'm a biology buff and want to know where to start.

The only hesitation I have is the date; the book is eight years old, and some of the information is notably dated. I am reading a library copy and holding out for an updated edition.

Very detailed, yet clear and absorbing........2005-05-19

This is a remarkable book on the biology of the human cell in that it goes into a level of detail you would expect only in a textbook - without boring or confusing the reader, and in a relatively short book. How does Rensberger pull this off? Certainly with logical organization and clear writing, but there is more to it. He eliminates all but a whiff of organic chemistry. He takes advantage of the fact that evolution so often utilizes existing molecules and pathways to do new things: if you ignore some of the minor chemical modifications, one description covers many different processes. Most human cells can function on their own in a cell culture; a recurrent theme of the book is that human cells retain most of the capabilities of their free living ancestors, yet are coordinated into a single effective organism. From previous reading, I do know that Rensberger omitted some very interesting material on the learning and sensory capabilities of individual cells; e.g. many all over the body are sensitive to light. This topic would have benefited from his talent, and if necessary there is other material which could have been omitted. Development of the embryo is certainly interesting, but I don't quite see how it fits in with the rest of the book (as contrasted to cell reproduction); also, perhaps there was a little too much on molecular motors. The field of cellular biology is very dynamic, and Rennsberger gives the reader a good historical perspective, historical being like 20 years, to better appreciate what we now know. While theoretically this book requires no background, I would suggest it only for readers who already have some superficial knowledge of DNA and genetics - and who are truly interested in the subject area.

A GREAT SUPPLEMENTAL TEXT!.......2003-10-27

A great text to supplement boring textbook descriptions of the cell organelles. Honors/AP Bio students have truly enjoyed reading about the inner workings of the cells, the molecular motors that drive movement, and the genetic basis of life. A great book that brings contemporary biology to life. Highly recommended!

More of a review of Trueskeptic.......2002-11-17

I must compliment the oxymoronically titled "trueskeptic" (I think "trueseptic" would be more appropriate) for a wonderful review. I doubt I will enjoy the book half as much as the entertaining, but a little amateurish, exercise in rhetoric. One can practically imagine trueskeptic rubbing his/her hands together in glee, thinking, "I will use their jargon against them!" It is interesting hearing masturbatory statements like "But the further one reads, the more the skeptical mind is inclined to question, "How," "When," and "Why"." This statement is meant to show that our hard-line skeptic/scientific mind in question (cough, cough) objects to being presented the theory of evolution without hardcore support for all positions. This leads one to wonder why our favorite fiery sword of reason is reading what is essentially a popularization of science, instead of a hardcore graduate level exposition of the "how", "when", and "why" evidence for evolution. My humble guess, based on the reviewers previous reading (Darwin's Black Box), is that the reviewer is not quite up to par with that level of scientific reading, and instead bases their reasoning on appeals to authority (Darwin's Black Box, a book that is, to say the least, without a spotless scientific reputation) and sad attempts to pass himself/herself as some sort of skeptical authority.

Would be great without the religion.......2001-03-17

A fascinating look at the mind-boggling complexity of cells - miniscule factories seemingly totally controlled by and communicating with each other through the interaction of amazing molecular machines.

Even more mind-boggling is the author's blind faith that this arose through chance and evolution, thus such intellectually and scientifically vacuous statements like, "evolution solved this problem by" ... useless sops to fundamentalist Darwinism, and totally useless scientifically. Nowhere are such statements elaborated upon; the existence of the first cell is assumed, thereby glossing over one of the greatest frustrations in current biology. He sprinkles such religious statements liberally throughout, instead of questioning, as Behe did in "Darwin's Black Box." However, his accounts of the scientific details of the cell are fairly clear and fascinating, with some neatly done illustrations; and so this book becomes, unwittingly, a perfect companion to Behe's "Darwin's Black Box."

His scientific rigorousness is spotty - but not unusual for an evolutionist. In keeping with outdated evolutionist "science", he presents Haeckel's now-discredited, faked embryo drawings as proof of evolution ('Embryonic fraud lives on', New Scientist 155(2098):23, September 6, 1997).

But the further one reads, the more the skeptical mind is inclined to question, "How," "When," and "Why". For example, he describes the intracellular transportation network early on. This leads us to question, when reading that this molecule or that vesicle has to move from here to there, just how does it do this, what means of locomotion does it employ, and how is this orchestrated purely in terms of proteins and such? He does a generally good job of anticipating these questions, although each answer adds to the implausibility of the system developing by chance. But the more interesting question, "How did these systems originate?" is glossed over with "It evolved."

Elsewhere, he says that the processes of life are "no more mysterious, though often far more complex and wondrous, than the crystallization of water molecules into snowflakes. ... their formation is obviously no miracle." A strangely scientifically naive view (but not uncommon among fundamentalist Darwinists), he has ironically missed the point of his own book.

He does not realize that his very own descriptions of the workings of the cell, to the open, skeptical mind, most certainly do point to a miracle.

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Biology The Realm of Life (Test Bank)
Donald W. Green
Manufacturer: HarperCollins College Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0673538907

Product Description

Multiple choices, true or false and test questions in Biology.

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Biology: The Realm of Life
Robert J. Ferl , Robert A. Wallace , and Gerald P. Sanders
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0673466248

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Biology: The Realm of Life Study Guide
Ferl , and Gilbart
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 067346699X

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Biosphere: The Realm of Life
Robert A. Wallace , Jack L. King , and Gerald P. Sanders
Manufacturer: Scott Foresman & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Instructor's manual and test bank to accompany Biosphere: The realm of life, second edition, Robert A. Wallace, Jack L. King, Gerald P. Sanders

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Instructor's manual and test bank to accompany Biosphere: The realm of life, second edition, Robert A. Wallace, Jack L. King, Gerald P. Sanders
William J Tietjen
Manufacturer: Scott, Foresman and Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Book Description

The study of dissipative equations has attracted substantial attention over many years. Much progress has been achieved using a combination of both finite dimensional and infinite dimensional techniques. In this book the authors exploit these same ideas to investigate the asymptotic behavior of dynamical systems corresponding to parabolic equations. In particular they present the theory of global attractors in detail. Extensive auxiliary material and rich references make this self-contained book a suitable introduction for graduate students.

Global Attractors in Abstract Parabolic Problems.

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Global Attractors in Abstract Parabolic Problems.
J.W. Cholewa
Manufacturer: Publisher Unknown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000UYBWP8

Customer Reviews:

Meet the Cranford Ladies, and Enjoy the Tragicomedy of Human Nature.......2005-12-30

(This is a book review about `Cranford' and `Cousin Phillis' of the Penguin Classics edition, edited by Peter Keating.)

[CRANFORD] Elizabeth Gaskell's `Cranford' is very different from her more serious `Mary Barton' and `North and South,' both written with socially conscious messages. In fact, its basic tone is comedy (or tragicomedy) set against the background of the changing local community of Cranford, or `Our Society' which is, as the narrator says, "in possession of the Amazons."

The main characters are all elderly ladies. You meet kind-hearted and timid Miss Matty with her domineering sister Deborah, the most memorable characters in this town. Narrated by one Mary Smith, we are introduced to the small world of Cranford, where smallest things can be pleasure or trouble such as `conjuror' Signor Brunoni amazing the ladies in the town's Assembly Room, or some rumor about `robbery' and even `ghosts' that scare them in `Darkness-Lane.' There is Lady Glenmire, who comes to Cranford, and shocks the community by marrying a doctor (and becoming `Mrs. Hoggins'). With these episodes, Elizabeth Gaskell deftly describes the sisterhood among the gossipy ladies with deep sense of sympathy, and the events are described with her sure-handed touch, which provides funny moments and occasional pathos.

Some part may not be interesting today. Captain Brown and Miss Jenkyns have an argument about the merit of novel reading, and while Captain praises Dickens' `Pickwick Papers,' Miss Jenkyns insists on the superiority of Samuel Johnson This is not only an in-joke (`Cranford' first appeared as eight-part serial in Dickens' Household Words first in 1851), it also reflects that these ladies in Cranford stick to their strict social codes that are clearly getting too old outside the community. The scene itself is humorous, and behind the humor you can find the author's keen eye for details.

But the book can be enjoyed without such historical knowledge, and there are many touching scenes concerning Miss Matty's life. As `Cranford' is written without concrete planning, the entire work looks very episodic. Actually it is episodic (and that's why one major character suddenly disappear at Chapter 2), and it should be read as such, like a series of sketches or short stories.

[COUSIN PHILLIS] `Cousin Phillis' is first published as four-part serial in 1863, and is about a fleeting love affair in a rural community, where the titular daughter of a `minister' (and self-help type of farmer) lives quietly. This is what we call a `novella' and its tone is sadder than `Cranford' but still is written with well-observed descriptions of the characters and the community that we know would undergo drastic change sooner or later.

THE PENGUIN edition by PETER KEATING contains Appendix A: `The Last Generation in England' and Appendix B: `The Cage at Cranford' both by Gaskell. The first one would throw light on the background of Cranford, and the second one (a sequel written about 10 years after the original) is an enjoyable (if not outstanding) short story.

`Cranford' is a delightful book that reminded me of E.F. Benson's equally delightful Mapp and Lucia books. Teachers may not use these books as text in the English literature courses in university, but the fact remains that these books are as priceless as any other Victorian novels.

The last sentence should be " to be continued".......2001-02-04

One of the books in which every thing seems to be so perfect and good ,but in the end everything is ruined.It is one of the book, which I never wanted to end.It justs need a little sentence in the end and that is "to be continued" .

Cousin 90 days you might still be reading.......2000-08-21

It took me several months to finish this rather short book. The plot is fairly simple with nary a twist, the characters admirable but somewhat one-dimensionable. It seems to be an ode to conservatism--a longing for the "peace of the old days." As a fan of 19th century English lit, this left me wondering why Elizabeth Gaskell is considered a classic writer; admittedly I haven't read some of her better known works such as "North and South."

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CRANFORD/COUSIN PHILLIS

Manufacturer: John Lehmann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H5EM1Q

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Cranford ; Cousin Phillis
Elizabeth Gaskell
Manufacturer: Viking Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000VUK50O

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Cranford: Cousin Phillis
Gaskell Elizabeth
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJ40KI

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