Physical Books - Page 12

Short Protocols in Neuroscience: Cellular and Molecular Methods

Charles R. Gerfen, Michael A. Rogawski, David R. Sibley, Phil Skolnick, Susan Wray

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Editorial Review:

Short Protocols in Neuroscience: Cellular and Molecular Methods is an easy-to-use compendium of cellular and molecular methods from Current Protocols in Neuroscience, part of the acclaimed series that has set the standard for excellence for laboratory manuals. The title provides a portable and streamlined at-the-bench resource, covering methods for analysis of neural cell structure and function, isolation and culture of neural cells, and characterization of neural cell gene expression.

The Archaeology Of Animal Bones (Texas A & M University Anthropology)

Terry O'Connor

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A good textbook for zooarchaeology 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I have once again ordered Terry O'Connor's excellent introduction to zooarchaeology as the primary text for my one semester long (13 weeks) course on zooarchaeology.
While this is not a comprehensive guide to zooarchaeology, I believe it is the best introduction currently available for undergraduate students, for the following reasons:
a. it covers a wide range of topics, including areas that might receive less coverage in most North American courses (e.g. analysis of complex urban economies)
b. it uses examples from a variety of areas
c. it is well written, with little use of jargon
d. each chapter serves very well to introduce major topics in zooarchaeology; these can be supplemented by journal readings selected by the instructor to provide more detailed case studies for students to read.
e. it is reasonably priced

Editorial Review:

Animal ecologists can observe the present and reconstruct the last one or two centuries from historical sources, but the study of animal bones adds valuable insight into the peoples and landscapes of the past while telling much about the evolution of human-animal relationships. In this standard work, now available in paperback, O'Connor offers a detailed overview of the study of animal bones. He analyzes bone composition and structure and the archaeological evidence left by the processes of life, death, and decomposition. He goes on to look at how bone is excavated, examined, described, identified, measured, and reassembled into skeletons. The bulk of the book is devoted to the interpretation of bone fragments, which tell much about the animals themselves--their health, growth, diet, injuries, and age at death.

Human Universals

Donald E. Brown

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Refreshing account of universals and anthropology 5 out of 5 stars.
55 of 56 people found this review helpful.

This is a comprehensive survey of the anthropological study of human universals, human nature, culture vs. biology, etc. It's also a critique of the field of anthropology, and one given from a refreshing outside-looking-in perspective. Brown deals with several influential cases (such as Margaret Mead's study of Samoan adolescence) and shows where they erred. He discusses the processes of defining and demonstrating universals, takes us on a grand tour of the history of universals in anthropology, presents the basic gamut of how universals have been and can be explained. In the final chapters he lays out his position and leaves cultural relativism thoroughly refuted. Cultural relativists, he demonstrates, have relied on universals even in their attempts to show cultural relativity. Among even the most dissimilar human languages, for example, the similarities (grammar, syntax, rhythm, content, etc.) still far outweigh the differences. Anthropologists have historically focused on the differences while remaining blind to the (often more fundamental and important) similarities. I'm a little leery of some of the traits Brown ends up calling universal; he does acknowledge the "working" nature of such a list. But what precisely shall be found to be universal is less important than simply the shift to an orientation that would seek to understand human nature in such terms. This is what Brown proposes. He understands the place of anthropology in the social sciences, the field's potential, where and how that potential has gone unrealized, and how anthropologists will need to alter their approach if they're to be fruitful in the future. I haven't even scraped the surface here; the book is a gold mine of interdisciplinary connections and it brims with insights. More than anything, it's a sensible, biologically-informed, (dare I say) reality-based account of human nature. The tone is that of a genuine pursuit of truth, as opposed to the trend among some social scientists to search high and low for anything that supports established theory. This book is packed, and in many ways it only aims to lay the framework of a better approach to the subject.

Editorial Review:

This book explores physical and behavioral characteristics that can be considered universal among all cultures, all people. It presents cases demonstrating universals, looks at the history of the study of universals, and presents an interesting study of a hypothetical tribe, The Universal People.

The Well-Dressed Ape: A Natural History of Myself

Hannah Holmes

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Editorial Review:

The well-dressed ape, aka Homo sapiens, is a strange mammal. It mates remarkably often, and with unprecedented affection. With similar enthusiasm, it will eat to the point of undermining its own health–behavior unthinkable in wild animals. The human marks its territory with doors, fences, and plastic flamingos, yet if it’s too isolated it becomes depressed. It thinks of itself as complex, intelligent, and in every way superior to other animals–but is it, really?

With wit, humility, and penetrating insight, science journalist Hannah Holmes casts the inquisitive eye of a trained researcher and reporter on . . . herself. And not just herself, but on our whole species–what Shakespeare called “the paragon of animals.” In this surprising, humorous, and edifying book, Holmes explores how the human animal–the eponymous well-dressed ape–fits into the natural world, even as we humans change that world in both constructive and destructive ways.

Comparing and contrasting the biology and behavior of humans with that of other creatures, Holmes demonstrates our position as an animal among other animals, a product of–and subject to–the same evolutionary processes. And not only are we animals–we are, in some important ways (such as our senses of smell and of vision), pitiably inferior ones. That such an animal came to exist at all is unlikely. That we have survived and prospered is extraordinary.

At the same time, Holmes reveals the ways in which Homo sapiens stands apart from other mammals and, indeed, all other animals. Despite the vast common ground we share with our fellow creatures, there are significant areas in which we are unique. No other animal, as far as we know, shares the human capacity for self-reflective thought or our talent for changing ourselves or our environment in response to natural challenges and opportunities. One result of these extraordinary characteristics is the spread of our species across the entire planet; another, unfortunately, is global warming.

Deftly mixing personal stories and observations with the latest scientific theories and research results, Hannah Holmes has fashioned an engaging and informative field guide to that oddest and yet most fascinating of primates: ourselves.

The Neuron: Cell and Molecular Biology

Irwin B. Levitan, Leonard K. Kaczmarek

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Editorial Review:

The third edition of The Neuron provides a comprehensive first course in the cell and molecular biology of nerve cells. The first part of the book covers the properties of the many newly discovered ion channels that have emerged through mapping of the genome. These channels shape the way a single neuron generates varied patterns of electrical activity. Next are covered the molecular mechanisms that convert electrical activity into the secretion of neurotransmitter hormones at synaptic junctions between neurons. The second part of the book covers the biochemical pathways that are linked to the action of neurotransmitters and that can alter the cellular properties of neurons or sensory cells that transduce information from the outside world into the electrical code used by neurons. The final section reviews our rapidly expanding knowledge of the molecular factors that induce an undifferentiated cell to become a neuron, and then guide it to form appropriate synaptic connections with its partners. This section also focuses on the role of ongoing experience and activity in shaping these connections, and finishes with an account of mechanisms thought to underlie the phenomena of learning and memory.
New for the Third Edition: This is a thoroughly revised and expanded edition (60 pages longer) and features a new 8-page, 4-color insert as well as the following changes:
1. The mapping of the human genome and that of other species has led to the discovery of numerous new proteins that regulate the excitability, development, and function of neurons. These have been incorporated into the new edition in nearly all of the chapters. 2. The first section of the book, which deals with neuronal excitability, has been reorganized to make it more readable for those students with less background in physical sciences. A new chapter has been added to this section to allow the incorporation of new information on ion channel structure and on the role of channel auxiliary proteins in modulating neuronal excitability. 3. A new chapter, "The Birth and Death of Neurons," has been added to the last section. In addition to covering new discoveries about the early development of neurons, this chapter describes the recent discovery that new neurons are continually being formed in certain parts of the adult mammalian brain. It also describes research on stem cells, which holds therapeutic potential for the repair of damaged or diseased brain tissue. 4. The use of imaging technologies in the study of the brain has expanded enormously in the past few years. The new edition describes some of these new approaches. Moreover, the introduction of full color plates now allows many new images to be presented in their original form.

The Fall of Natural Man: The American Indian and the Origins of Comparative Ethnology (Cambridge Iberian and Latin American Studies)

Anthony Pagden

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Editorial Review:

This book gives a new interpretation of the reception of the new world by the old. It is the first in-depth study of the pre-Enlightenment methods by which Europeans attempted to describe and classify the American Indian and his society. Between 1512 and 1724 a simple determinist view of human society was replaced by a more sophisticated relativist approach. Anthony Pagden uses new methods of technical analysis, already developed in philosophy and anthropology, to examine four groups of writers who analysed Indian culture: the sixteenth-century theologian, Francisco de Vitoria, and his followers; the 'champion of the Indians' Bartolomé de Las Casas; and the Jesuit historians José de Acosta and Joseph François Lafitau. Dr Pagden explains the sources for their theories and how these conditioned their observations. He also examines for the first time the key terms in each writer's vocabulary - words such as 'barbarian' and 'civil' - and the assumptions that lay beneath them.

Biological Anthropology (2nd Edition) (MyAnthroLab Series)

Craig Stanford, John S. Allen, Susan C. Anton

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Editorial Review:

<>Biological Anthropology, 2/e continues to build upon the strength and success of the first edition by integrating the foundations and the most current innovations in the field from the ground up.

 

Over the past twenty years, this field has rapidly evolved from the study of physical anthropology into biological anthropology, incorporating the evolutionary biology of humankind based on information from the fossil record and the human skeleton, genetics of individuals and of populations, our primate relatives, human adaptation, and human behavior.  The second edition of Biological Anthropology combines the most up-to-date, comprehensive coverage of the foundations of the field with modern innovations and discoveries.

The Rape of the Nile: Tomb Robbers, Tourists, and Archaeologists in Egypt, Revised and Updated

Brian Fagan

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Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The scandalous rape of Ancient Egypt is a historical vignette of greed, vanity, and dedicated archaeological research. It is a tale vividly told by renowned archaeology author, Brian Fagan, with characters that include the ancient historian Herodotus; Theban tomb robbers; obelisk-stealing Romans; Coptic Christians determined to erase the heretical past; mummy traders; leisured antiquarians; major European museums; Giovanni Belzoni, a circus strongman who removed more antiquities than Napoleon's armies; shrewd consuls and ruthless pashas; and archaeologists such Sir Flinders Petrie who changed the course of Egyptology.This is the first thoroughly revised edition of The Rape of the Nile - Fagan's classic account of the cavalcade of archaeologists, thieves, and sightseers who have flocked to the Nile Valley since ancient times. Featured in this edition are new accounts of stunning recent discoveries, including the Royal Tombs of Tanis, the Valley of Golden Mummies at Bahariya, the Tomb of the Sons of Ramses, and the sunken city of Alexandria (whose lighthouse was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World). Fagan concludes with a clear-eyed assessment of the impact of modern mass tourism on archaeological sites and artifacts.

Annual Editions: Physical Anthropology 07/08 (Annual Editions : Physical Anthropology)

Elvio Angeloni

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Thank you for delivering this book quickly to me. The book is in great condition!

Editorial Review:

This Sixteenth Edition of ANNUAL EDITIONS: Physical Anthropology provides convenient, inexpensive access to current articles selected from the best of the public press. Organizational features include: an annotated listing of selected World Wide Web sites; an annotated table of contents; a topic guide; a general introduction; brief overviews for each section; a topical index; and an instructor’s resource guide with testing materials. USING ANNUAL EDITIONS IN THE CLASSROOM is offered as a practical guide for instructors. ANNUAL EDITIONS titles are supported by our student website, www.mhcls.com/online.

Short Protocols in Neuroscience: Systems and Behavioral Methods

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Editorial Review:

Short Protocols in Neuroscience: Systems and Behavioral Methods provides a portable and streamlined at-the-bench resource of systems and behavorial methods from the acclaimed Current Protocols in Neuroscience. It covers areas such as electrophysiological analysis of neural cells, the chemistry and pharmacology of the nervous system, behavioral analysis, and animal models of neurologic and psychiatric disorders.