Two-legged goats conjoined twins 'Cyclops' infants with a single eye in the middle of their forehead double-headed snakes and Laloo a man with a partially formed twin attached to his chest... In Freaks of Nature Mark S. Blumberg turns a scientist's eye on these unusual examples of humans and other animals showing how a subject once relegated to the sideshow can help explain some of the deepest complexities of biology. These examples of extreme bodily anomalies are in fact the natural produ...

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

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...

This volume proposes an interdependent relationship between progress and obstacles in architecture and the built environment. It challenges the positive notion of progress, and the conception of progress and obstacle as a dichotomy.For shapers of the world, finding ‘the solution’ is often a mark of progress that becomes embedded in culture, society, and history. Progress is ever-present. Through the exploration of diverse positions in history, theory, and practice, this book explor...

In this landmark book of popular science, Daniel E. Lieberman—chair of the department of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and a leader in the field—gives us a lucid and engaging account of how the human body evolved over millions of years, even as it shows how the increasing disparity between the jumble of adaptations in our Stone Age bodies and advancements in the modern world is occasioning this paradox: greater longevity but increased chronic disease.The Stor...

In Designs for the Pluriverse Arturo Escobar presents a new vision of design theory and practice aimed at channeling design's world-making capacity toward ways of being and doing that are deeply attuned to justice and the Earth. Noting that most design—from consumer goods and digital technologies to built environments—currently serves capitalist ends, Escobar argues for the development of an “autonomous design” that eschews commercial and modernizing aims in favor of more collabor...

A biology professor's "funny, fascinating" tour of the physical imperfections—from faulty knees to junk DNA—that make us human (Discover).We humans like to think of ourselves as highly evolved creatures. But if we are supposedly evolution's greatest creation, why do we have such bad knees? Why do we catch head colds so often—two hundred times more often than a dog does? How come our wrists have so many useless bones? Why is the vast majority of our genetic code poin...

"Performance" has multiple and often overlapping meanings that signify a wide variety of social behaviors. In this invitation to reflect on the power of performance, Diana Taylor explores many of its uses and iterations: artistic, economic, sexual, political, and technological performance; the performance of everyday life; and the gendered, sexed, and racialized performance of bodies. This book performs its argument. Images and texts interact to show how performance is at once a creative a...

The only series for MYP 4 and 5 developed in cooperation with the International Baccalaureate (IB)Develop your skills to become an inquiring learner; ensure you navigate the MYP framework with confidence using a concept-driven and assessment-focused approach presented in global contexts.- Develop conceptual understanding with key MYP concepts and related concepts at the heart of each chapter.- Learn by asking questions with a stateme...

The texts presented in Proportion Harmonies and Identities (PHI) Creating Through Mind and Emotions were compiled to establish a multidisciplinary platform for presenting, interacting, and disseminating research. This platform also aims to foster the awareness and discussion on Creating Through Mind and Emotions, focusing on different visions relevant to Architecture, Arts and Humanities, Design and Social Sciences, and its import...

Technology is the most distinctive characteristic of a knowledge society; however, technology is not stable, and it is defined by change and speed. Furthermore, the complexity of the sociotechnical systems that generate technology is not accessible to the average citizen. For this reason, the goal of this book is to assess changes in technology and present this analysis using language that helps an interested reader understand the direction in which technologies are progressing as well as ...

When it was originally published, Hybrid Cultures was foundational to Latin American cultural studies. This now-classic work features a new introduction in which Nestor Garcia Canclini calls for a cultural politics to contain the damaging effects of globalization and responds to relevant theoretical developments over the past decade.Garcia Canclini questions whether Latin America can compete in a global marketplace without losing its cultural identity. He moves with ease from the ideas of ...