Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 438
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
The Life of Corn and the Death of American Health 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.
The author has four hypotheses about how we Americans may have become such dysfunctional eaters, and about how our food supplies and our diets came to be the way they are.
Although interesting, this book was not exactly what I was expecting. I was hoping Pollan would get deeper into how the collusion between the US Food and Drug Administration and Agribusiness have conspired to product the "sugar and fat laden" diets that have become the staple of our nation for ordinary Americans and how we cannot easily get around Coke Cola, McDonald's Hamburgers and French fries etc. to a more healthy diet - at least without being better educated and without it being very inconvenient and expensive to these life-shortening and health-killing alternatives. As an almost 70-year old Southerner who grew up on red meats, fried foods, coke, cigarettes and hard liquor, and now have the ABCs and D's of American health (Asthma, Arthritis, hardening arteries, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart problems and diabetes, I can attest to the fact that there is little time to wax eloquent and romantic about the niceties of the American diet.
Although the history of the life cycle of corn, and how it effects our lives is interesting, and goes part of the way down the path to better understanding, it does not go nearly far enough. Given that it is no accident that 65% of us are overweight, and experience serious health problems similar to my own, and at an increasingly earlier age, and that we have no secure health system, American health is indeed no casual or laughing matter.
In light of all of this, this piece seems a bit gratuitous - just short of being flippant and in a larger sense a bit negligent. I believe a much needed golden opportunity to educate the American public about the forces that conspire to shape and "lock us into" our poor diets and health, was lost.
At another time and another place (perhaps in Europe, where the older people are healthier than the young in the U.S.), this would have been a book to celebrate. But today, with our health as well as our healthcare crisis, this book is a luxury that the ordinary American public can ill-afford. For a missed opportunity, and for making only a timid and glancing blow at the nation's number one health problem, three stars. Otherwise, it would have easily been a five star effort.
Editorial Review:
A national bestseller that has changed the way readers view the ecology of eating, this revolutionary book by award winner Michael Pollan asks the seemingly simple question: What should we have for dinner? Tracing from source to table each of the food chains that sustain us whether industrial or organic, alternative or processedhe develops a portrait of the American way of eating. The result is a sweeping, surprising exploration of the hungers that have shaped our evolution, and of the profound implications our food choices have for the health of our species and the future of our planet.
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 209
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
A sensitive look at the complexities arising from a medical culture clash... 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
During my senior year of college, I took a "Holistic Living" course and this was one of the books we were required to read. As I've mentioned in other reviews, I don't normally gravitate towards non-fiction, however, there are instances when I read a piece of non-fiction and find myself as captivated by the story as if it were a novel. "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" was one of these books.
In her book, Ms. Fadiman presents the story of a Hmong-American family who is forced to step outside their comfort zone to seek medical treatment for their infant daughter, Lia, an epileptic. Not only do Lia's parents have to overcome a language barrier, but they also hold views which differ greatly from those held by the Western-trained medical doctors treating Lia. What results, is an enormous culture clash between Lia's parents and her treating physicians. Sadly, the consequences of the mis-communication and cultural mis-understanding which take place between the Lees and Lia's doctors has a tragic and permanent effect on Lia's life.
Alongside the Lee's story, Ms. Fadiman presents an informative history of the Hmong people, while also addressing a number of important ethical considerations germane to the medical treatment of non-western patients.
I highly recommend this book to anyone in the medical profession or to anyone interested in learning about traditional Hmong culture.
Editorial Review:
Lia Lee was born in 1981 to a family of recent Hmong immigrants, and soon developed symptoms of epilepsy. By 1988 she was living at home but was brain dead after a tragic cycle of misunderstanding, overmedication, and culture clash: "What the doctors viewed as clinical efficiency the Hmong viewed as frosty arrogance." The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions, written with the deepest of human feeling. Sherwin Nuland said of the account, "There are no villains in Fadiman's tale, just as there are no heroes. People are presented as she saw them, in their humility and their frailty--and their nobility."
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4
Average rating: 5.0 of 5
Editorial Review:
One of the world's leading neuroscientists explores how best to understand the human condition by examining the biological, psychological, and highly social nature of our species within the social context of our lives.
What happened along the evolutionary trail that made humans so unique? In his widely accessible style, Michael Gazzaniga looks to a broad range of studies to pinpoint the change that made us thinking, sentient humans, different from our predecessors.
Neuroscience has been fixated on the life of the psychological self for the past fifty years, focusing on the brain systems underlying language, memory, emotion, and perception. What it has not done is consider the stark reality that most of the time we humans are thinking about social processes, comparing ourselves to and estimating the intentions of others. In Human, Gazzaniga explores a number of related issues, including what makes human brains unique, the importance of language and art in defining the human condition, the nature of human consciousness, and even artificial intelligence.
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 61
Average rating: 5.0 of 5
Editorial Review:
Oliver Sacks on Your Inner Fish Since the 1970 publication of Migraine, neurologist Oliver Sacks's unusual and fascinating case histories of "differently brained" people and phenomena--a surgeon with Tourette's syndrome, a community of people born totally colorblind, musical hallucinations, to name a few--have been marked by extraordinary compassion and humanity, focusing on the patient as much as the condition. His books include The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Awakenings (which inspired the Oscar-nominated film), and 2007's Musicophilia. He lives in New York City, where he is Professor of Clinical Neurology at Columbia University.
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1060
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
A scientific historical treatise on the reasons for the rise and fall of civilizations 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
Guns, Germs and Steel is a scientific historical treatment on the rise and fall of civilizations and the reasons why the western world is considered successful. In many ways Jared Diamond has built a city with one stone. He has established the necessity for the scientific method in history, reversed the problem of a western biased orientation of the analysis and identified several challenges to a racist explanation for western success.
The book comes about as a result of a fundamental question raised by the friend of the authors from New Guinea. Yali asked in a roundabout way why whites have been more successful than blacks. Diamond felt that human genetic diversity in the form of racism did not answer this question and proceeded to produce this deep treatise which looks more at environmental factors as the causal agent of success or failure.
Chapter 1: Up to the Starting Line
This chapter does a brief synopsis of the evolution of humans and deals with the Great Leap Forward, extinctions and the Clovis culture in Americas in 11,000 BC.
Chapter 2: A Natural Experiment of History
Diamond shows that common stocks can produce very diverse cultures based on the environment. He cites the case of the Maoris victory over the Morioris on the Chatham islands in 1835. Both are Polynesian decedents.
Chapter 3: Collision at Cajamarca
Francisco Pizarro conquers the Inca emperor Atahuallpa in Cajamarca Peru in 1532. Guns, germs, steel and horses decide the victory as well as the Inca making serious mistakes many times over. It is this situation that requires an explanation as to how things got to this point and is what this book is about.
Chapter 4: Farmer Power
Food production is a huge part of this book and occurs frequently throughout. The book might well have been called 'farming' there is so much of it. This is an extensive fact based chapter that deals with food production. A lot of it is raw data and tables. Crops and animal domestication get the full treatment. There is an important link between animals and human germs brought up.
Chapter 5: History's Haves and Have-Nots
This chapter deals with carbon dating and is an extension of the last chapter verifying the types of crops and animals various civilizations had or didn't and why.
Chapter 6: To Farm or Not to Farm
Diamond explains the slow progress of farming and why hunter gatherers simply had more than early farmers but farming eventually outgrew hunter-gathering. He explains why some civilizations didn't adopt it based on lack of domesticated crops and animals and or inappropriate environments.
Chapter 7: How to Make an Almond
Because wild almonds are poisonous Diamond explains how mutations and breeding selection produces edible crops. More importantly he discusses why some crops are not edible and how this effects civilizations depending on their environment. Some civilizations had it easier than others.
Chapter 8: Apples or Indians
Here the Fertile Crescent richness is compared with places of sparse productivity. It becomes clear that a very low percentage of biological life can be domesticated for human consumption.
Chapter 9: Zebras, Unhappy Marriages, and the Anna Karenina Principle
Some animals cannot be domesticated and thus domesticated animals must be imported. This chapter is about the failure to domesticate certain animals and why. It is also about the spread of domesticated animals.
Chapter 10: Spacious Skies and Tilted Axes
Geography plays an important part in how wide a naturally occurring or bred species can spread. East to west is much easier than north to south because of climate. This explains why species spreading across Europe and Asia is easier than up and down North and South America.
Chapter 11: Lethal Gift of Livestock
Animals are responsible for a lot of human diseases and plagues. Diamond links animal husbandry and large populations with developing immunity against epidemics.
Chapter 12: Blueprints and Borrowed Letters
The evolution of writing. This chapter may be worth the book alone. Diamond covers the evolution of writing and is one of the reasons why this book (containing writing!) has a nice twist in its tale. Writing is important because it became a method of communication over long distances and record keeping for farmers and supplies.
Chapter 13: Necessity's Mother
This deals with the Cretan Minoan Phaistos disk of 1700 BC and is a continuation of the previous chapter but deals more with why technologies develop. Diamond correctly identifies that technologies don't spring out of nowhere. They evolve.
Chapter 14: From Egalitarianism to Kleptocracy
The evolution of governments. This is a heavy data and fact laden account of the evolution of governments from small bands to tribes to cities. It is all about how societies get organized.
Chapter 15: Yali's People
Here Diamond applies everything we have learned to the conquest of New Guinea by Europeans. He shows how essentially they are the victims of their own environment. The conquest of Australia is also examined in the same way.
Chapter 16: How China Became Chinese
This is about how China's many inter-civilizations interacted and the Austronesian migration of people to the Far East and Australia.
Chapter 17: Speedboat to Polynesia
Moving on from the previous chapter Diamond explores the colonization of Polynesia and the evolution of the double-canoe.
Chapter 18: Hemisphere's Colliding
Revising everything, Diamond goes back to Chapter 3: Collision at Cajamarca and attempts to explain how things led up to that point. Food production, domestication, metallurgy, weapons, cavalry, transport, writing and political organization lead the way. The environment is given a reason behind the slower development of these points by the Inca. Diamond then reveals that the Norse, not Columbus, were the first Europeans to visit the Americas through Greenland.
Chapter 19: How Africa Became Black
This examines how Africa evolved internally, the various tribes involved and their long battles that have lasted centuries as well as the slow movement of technologies and discoveries from the north to the south.
Epilogue: The Future of Human History as a Science
Diamond puts forward his case for scientific history, dispenses with the idiosyncratic Great Man theory, points out that there are social factors involved and possibly even chaotic ones before calling on the use of the scientific historical method to predict future outcomes for humanity.
There is no arguing the point that Diamond is making and he has established it very scientifically. Environmental conditions have an impact on how a civilization will appear and act. This is Darwinian in every sense. Using the examples of the same genetic stock from the same culture developing into two opposite lifestyles in short spaces of time because of island separation and geological differences is a good argument. You can't help but note the degree of luck and opportunity involved in success and as Diamond so aptly puts it, this is much more about the quality of real estate than the quality of a race. This is not to say that slight genetic variations don't make a difference, they do and Diamond doesn't challenge that as some have wrongly accused of him of saying (as a note the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins often cites Diamond's work). What Diamond does is to challenge that genetic variations within a species are a sufficient explanation for the success of white man. He may be riding a wave of political correctness with this book but he does dispute justifications for racism scientifically. He also breaks down absolutism by showing that success is relative when it comes to doing one's best in the environment they are in. As he points out, Aborigines conquered some of the harshest lands in the world.
Diamond himself knows the problem with his oversimplification. His findings when applied to all civilizations throughout history will turn up contradictions that fly in the face of his reasoning but he has explained the big picture of social conquest and doesn't need to shuffle genes to do it.
There are a few more problems with Guns, Germs and Steel though. His overall reasoning touches on environmental determinism. Diamond does deal with this serious predicament by elaborating on the social conditions and cultural qualities at play. He believes and states often that human choices influence things. Diamond does his best to cover these in the political organisation sections and throughout but a type of environmental determinism does emerge as the overall message even if it is caricatured by his critics to mean geological determinism without human influence. Diamond is not saying that. What is really the problem here is not that Diamond says the environment plays a major role in the forces at play but that he doesn't do enough to challenge the view that environmental determinism is the sufficient explanation for the success of white man. Diamond doesn't say it is sufficient but it is his conclusion that amounts to most of what he is writing. So he leaves himself open and quite frankly gets intellectually decked quite easily because a lot of people leave this book thinking as environmental determinists. Environmental determinism is just as false as racism. We go from prejudice based on skin color to prejudice based on country. He really deals with this problem in the space of just a paragraph in the epilogue and that just doesn't cut it.
The other problems are that sometimes the picture plates are not linked to anything in the text and this book is such a torrent of facts that casual readers may find themselves skipping huge sections about which part of which country developed wheat or camels first and in which quantities just to get to his overall point. Guns, germs and steel can be taxing at the best of times because of this. There is also an expectation that maybe you would find more about evolutionary biology or important battles along with at least some case made for genes. Instead the evolution is minimal, important battles limited and no genetic defence appears. This is all about how much corn Europe can produce, how many horses Asia can tame and how much politics does the Zulu need.
There are other weaknesses here but he does have a huge task set for himself into 400 pages. It is doubtful that the truth is the complete opposite of what Diamond is suggesting but more of a deeper elaboration of what is being said while attributing more socio-economic reasons for success along with his geographical ones. You can also just play the probability card by saying 80% of humans lived in Eurasia but the improbable does happen and has happened and the geological explanation needs to be covered anyway.
Experts in world history may view this work as being too simple and even go as far as to call it wrong, but Diamond's task is to show the importance of environmental factors not just genetic ones when it comes to the progress of modern humans. Experts want to make that environment plus socio-economic but both are on the same side when it comes to criticizing those who argue solely the race card.
The main point behind reading Guns, germs and steel is that it changes how we think about ourselves and the conditions leading to how we got here. At the very least your horizons will be broadened and at the very most you will be hitting the environmental determinism socio-economic debate and both are a far cry from discrimination ideologies based on Ethnic identities.
(As an end note it is my understanding that Diamond is aware of these criticism and answered it by... writing another book that includes more of a socio-economic dynamic, called 'Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed'. So see you there for a follow up review).
Editorial Review:
Explaining what William McNeill called The Rise of the West has become the central problem in the study of global history. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond presents the biologist's answer: geography, demography, and ecological happenstance. Diamond evenhandedly reviews human history on every continent since the Ice Age at a rate that emphasizes only the broadest movements of peoples and ideas. Yet his survey is binocular: one eye has the rather distant vision of the evolutionary biologist, while the other eye--and his heart--belongs to the people of New Guinea, where he has done field work for more than 30 years.
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 66
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
My New Baby 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
This is a cute book, but with no text. It's great for talking about new baby with siblings. There are some new books out called "Baby Brother" and "Baby Sister" which are good for getting them ready for a new baby. "The New Baby" has a great story and is great to read to them. Now "The New Baby" comes in a sticker book also. It depends on what is more important to you.
Disappointed! 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
Maybe it's my preggo brain, but I did not realize that this was a picture book with no words. I never would have purchased a picture book for my 2 1/2 year old. The pictures themselves are okay, but some words would have been nice.
cute book 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
it takes a little imagination because there are no words to the book. but my son (2 years old) and i enjoy flipping through the pages and making up our own story (stories).
wondeful book for toddlers 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
Our 27 month old son loves this book and its companion, "Waiting for Baby" by the same author. We talk about what's going on in the pictures and he's always noticing new things, even after repeated readings. I like this book because it presents the introduction of a new baby as a natural, happy event. The mom is pictured breastfeeding not once, but twice and the dad is shown changing diapers, dressing the baby, strapping on a baby carrier and cooking dinner. It is rare to find a book which depicts both parents so actively engaging in the the care of a newborn. And the illustrations are just gentle and sweet too. Great little books for anyone with a young child.
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21
Average rating: 5.0 of 5
From preschooler to kindergartner to Mommy, everyone loves this book! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
My family loves this book! Both my sons, ages three and five, enjoy trying to guess which animal this tail, nose, foot, etc., belongs to, and then reading what the animal "does" with it. In the back of the book are more in-depth descriptions of the animals, which we also enjoyed. We ordered this book from Amazon over a year ago, and it is still a top choice when we sit down to read!
Great book for interaction! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
This book is really hands on, and gets lots of talking and questions going with my 3 and 5 yr olds. It's a clever book and we've had a lot of fun with it.
My kids love this! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
Great educational and fun book! My kids' favorite is the horned lizard shooting blood out of his eyes. Lovely collage illustrations too.
Small wonder this book has received so much attention! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
One of the loveliest and most thought out books to hit children's bookshelves in years! The information is so interesting and presented together with such unusual paper art the book just captivates its reader. Ann Clarke, author of People Are So Different! based on tolerance and understanding.
Editorial Review:
A nose for digging? Ears for seeing? Eyes that squirt blood? Explore the many amazing things animals can do with their ears, eyes, mouths, noses, feet, and tails in this beautifully illustrated interactive guessing book by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page.
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 122
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
100 pages of Notes! 1 out of 5 stars.
5 of 13 people found this review helpful.
Over 600 pages with 100 pages of "notes"!. Lots of rambling commentary. Not worth the money. Watch Nova.
Sure, Ray, I'll take your word for it... 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
Futurists are seductive and so are their fantastical predictions, even when one has absolutely no idea exactly how to evaluate the soundness of their claims. Kurzweil tries with all his might to answer this criticism of the genre but fails nonetheless, offering mound upon mound of at best incomplete graphs that bury his theses behind the madness of immeasurable technological erudition, so (alas) the reader is probably left to do one of two things: ignorantly object or ignorantly serve. It's good fun, much like a fireside game of "what if" at summer camp, and Bill Gates's official endorsement makes it feel populist enough to recommend to your inquisitive friends.
Editorial Review:
For over three decades, Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic The Age of Spiritual Machines, he argued that computers would soon rival the full range of human intelligence at its best. Now he examines the next step in this inexorable evolutionary process: the union of human and machine, in which the knowledge and skills embedded in our brains will be combined with the vastly greater capacity, speed, and knowledge-sharing ability of our creations.
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 45
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Divorcing "More" from "Better" 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
Many books have come along in the last several years that try to explain why MORE is not making us HAPPIER. Cliff notes: research indicates that health is most important to our happiness, followed by making at least $10-13,000 per year. Close relationships count, too. Marriage is a plus. Kids....not so much.
As McKibben points out in the opening pages, "More" and "Better" began to be linked in the post-war economy. But not anymore.
McKibben writes, "On the list of important mistakes we've made as a species, this one seems pretty high up. A single-minded focus on increasing wealth has driven the planet's ecoligical systems to the brink of failure, without making us happier. How did we screw up?"
McKibben continues by both charting our screw-ups, and pointing out useful ways that we can live happier and healthier lives. The main tenet of the book is that we must divorce the ideas of "More" from "Better." At a point, "More" means finding a place to store it all.
If you've read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, Deep Economy's Chapter 2, "The Year of Eating Locally," will feel like a review. On the plus side, McKibben manages to make a conclusion that took Pollan an entire book to suggest: eating locally (1) is better for the environment (doesn't require as much fossil fuel from farm to table); (2) is better for the local economy (keeping the profits close-by); 3) tastes better (tomotoes allowed to ripen on the vine for their whole lives develop all the sugars and nutrients that make tomatoes taste like tomatoes); and (4) feels better to support farmers you can meet and with whom you shake hands.
In subsequent chapters, McKibben bounces among topics ranging from local radio, a shortened workweek, commute times, and consumer culture. To emphasize his points, he calls on others' research and hooks them to his own global insights from experiences in China, Guatemala and other countries.
My favorite thing about McKibben's book is that it is accessible, and therefore a very solid start to helping us re-imagine what we as individuals can stand for...and against in building better lives for ourselves and future generations. McKibben has solidified the hunches that many of us feel - that living more simply and more locally is a key to personal happiness, and good for our communities, too.
Editorial Review:
“Masterfully crafted, deeply thoughtful and mind-expanding.”—Los Angeles Times
In this powerful and provocative manifesto, Bill McKibben offers the biggest challenge in a generation to the prevailing view of our economy. Deep Economy makes the compelling case for moving beyond “growth” as the paramount economic ideal and pursuing prosperity in a more local direction, with regions producing more of their own food, generating more of their own energy, and even creating more of their own culture and entertainment. Our purchases need not be at odds with the things we truly value, McKibben argues, and the more we nurture the essential humanity of our economy, the more we will recapture our own.
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 78
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
Amazing book 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.
I love the way this book is written. It walks the reader through some very interesting and complicated social issues that are crucial. I recommend that ALL high school teachers read this book.
A truly amazing book 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.
Mrs. Tatum's book is a demonstration of great craftmanship in the form of literature. This book will open your mind to a new understanding of race, racism, prejudice, and priviledge. If you are thinking about whether to buy this book or not go ahead and buy it, you will not regret it. "Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria" is a masterpiece of a book.
Editorial Review:
Anyone who's been to a high school or college has noted how students of the same race seem to stick together. Beverly Daniel Tatum has noticed it too, and she doesn't think it's so bad. As she explains in this provocative, though not-altogether-convincing book, these students are in the process of establishing and affirming their racial identity. As Tatum sees it, blacks must secure a racial identity free of negative stereotypes. The challenge to whites, on which she expounds, is to give up the privilege that their skin color affords and to work actively to combat injustice in society.
Your Inner Fish is my favorite sort of book--an intelligent, exhilarating, and compelling scientific adventure story, one which will change forever how you understand what it means to be human. The field of evolutionary biology is just beginning an exciting new age of discovery, and Neil Shubin's research expeditions around the world have redefined the way we now look at the origins of mammals, frogs, crocodiles, tetrapods, and sarcopterygian fish--and thus the way we look at the descent of humankind. One of Shubin's groundbreaking discoveries, only a year and a half ago, was the unearthing of a fish with elbows and a neck, a long-sought evolutionary "missing link" between creatures of the sea and land-dwellers. My own mother was a surgeon and a comparative anatomist, and she drummed it into me, and into all of her students, that our own anatomy is unintelligible without a knowledge of its evolutionary origins and precursors. The human body becomes infinitely fascinating with such knowledge, which Shubin provides here with grace and clarity. Your Inner Fish shows us how, like the fish with elbows, we carry the whole history of evolution within our own bodies, and how the human genome links us with the rest of life on earth. Shubin is not only a distinguished scientist, but a wonderfully lucid and elegant writer; he is an irrepressibly enthusiastic teacher whose humor and intelligence and spellbinding narrative make this book an absolute delight. Your Inner Fish is not only a great read; it marks the debut of a science writer of the first rank. (Photo © Elena Seibert) A Note from Author Neil Shubin This book grew out of an extraordinary circumstance in my life. On account of faculty departures, I ended up directing the human anatomy course at the University of Chicago medical school. Anatomy is the course during which nervous first-year medical students dissect human cadavers while learning the names and organization of most of the organs, holes, nerves, and vessels in the body. This is their grand entrance to the world of medicine, a formative experience on their path to becoming physicians. At first glance, you couldn't have imagined a worse candidate for the job of training the next generation of doctors: I'm a fish paleontologist. It turns out that being a paleontologist is a huge advantage in teaching human anatomy. Why? The best roadmaps to human bodies lie in the bodies of other animals. The simplest way to teach students the nerves in the human head is to show them the state of affairs in sharks. The easiest roadmap to their limbs lies in fish. Reptiles are a real help with the structure of the brain. The reason is that the bodies of these creatures are simpler versions of ours. During the summer of my second year leading the course, working in the Arctic, my colleagues and I discovered fossil fish that gave us powerful new insights into the invasion of land by fish over 375 million years ago. That discovery and my foray into teaching human anatomy led me to a profound connection. That connection became this book. 
