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In Freaks of Nature, Mark S. Blumberg turns a scientist's eye on the oddities of nature, showing how a subject once relegated to the sideshow can help explain some of the deepest complexities of biology.
In most respects, Abigail and Brittany Hensel are normal American twins. Born and raised in a small town, they enjoy a close relationship, though each has her own tastes and personality. But the Hensels also share a body. Their two heads sit side-by-side on a single torso, with two arms and two legs. They have not only survived, but have developed into athletic, graceful young women. And that, writes Mark S. Blumberg, opens an extraordinary window onto human development and evolution.In Freaks of Nature, Blumberg turns a scientist's eye on the oddities of nature, showing how a subject once relegated to the sideshow can help explain some of the deepest complexities of biology. Why, for exampl...
Two-legged goats, Siamese twins and Cyclops infants, these 'freaks of nature' have shocked and fascinated people for centuries. This book explores the reasons and the insights they are beginning to provide about the deepest complexities of evolutionary biology, genetics and development.
Whether you're a polar bear giving birth to cubs in an Arctic winter, a camel going days without water in the desert heat, or merely a suburbanite without air conditioning in a heat wave, your comfort and even survival depend on how well you adapt to extreme temperatures. In this entertaining and illuminating book, biopsychologist Mark Blumberg explores the many ways that temperature rules the lives of all animals (including us). He moves from the physical principles that govern the flow of heat in and out of our bodies to the many complex evolutionary devices animals use to exploit those principles for their own benefit. In the process Blumberg tells wonderful stories of evolutionary and sc...
Discovery to Diaspora is a fascinating family journey which breathes life into the times of Jews in Lithuania and Latvia. The Jewish roots in the Baltic Sea region are rife with dualities. In one sense, the region is a beautiful coastal area with large sandy beaches and busy ports. Yet, these same attractions have fraught the region with war and conflict. It is here where the Graudan Family was established. It was also the site in which German Nazis and Latvian collaborators mass murdered thousands of Jews during WWII, including some of the Graudans, (the local population numbered about 7,000 before the war and yet less than 30 Jews remained after the war). Others in the family, through marr...
South Africa Land of Gold, Diamonds and Adventure. In 1860 Isidor Schlesinger came to the rough and tumble of the gold and diamond fields of South Africa from the sophistication of Central Europe to make his fortune which indeed he did. Later he advised his youngest son Bruno, to study Mining Engineering, so that he too could contribute to the wealth and development of God's Own Country. Bruno was involved in all aspects of mining and exploration including the last and greatest Diamond Rush' the world had seen. This richly illustrated work which developed from an essay written by his daughter Helga, outlines Bruno's ancestry and then follows his adventurous life from Austrian Silesia to South Africa until his death in Muizenberg, Cape Province, South Africa in 1945.
The Fondiller, Gennis and related families originated in and near Riga, Latvia, in the Baltic States. The various branches emigrated to the United States and settled in New York. Descendants live throughout the United States.
Chapter 1 Temperature Regulation in Animals There are, broadly speaking, two kinds of animals with regard to body temperature: exothermic (cold-blooded) and endothermic (warm-blooded) animals. The exothermic animals, such as reptiles, do not supply body heat by metabolic conversion of food to heat. Reptiles allow their surroundings to determine their body temperature. They lie out in the sun to warm their body. If they are too hot, they seek the shade or even burrow into the ground. At night they hide from the cold in burrows or squeeze into cracks between rocks or hide in leaf cover. Reptiles avoid the extremes of temperature. When reptiles become cool, their movements slow down, and chemic...