BODY BY DARWIN: HOW EVOLUTION SHAPES OUR HEALTH AND TRANSFORMS MEDICINE
Book ID/图书代码： 13000514B74001
English Summary/英文概要： From the author of Not a Chimp, a Library Journal Best Sci-Tech Book of 2010
An authoritative yet accessible account of the renaissance in Darwinian medicine – and the first book to explore the medicine of the future in a coherent way.Why do so many of us suffer from autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease? Why are so many people dogged by allergies such as eczema and asthma? Why are there epidemics of heart disease, diabetes and cancer that you cannot observe in any other animal species? Why are our eyes so peculiarly vulnerable to detached retinas and macular degeneration? Why are we plagued with backaches, hernias, slipped discs, dodgy hip joints, appendicitis, menstrual problems and preeclampsia? Why is mental illness so prevalent? And why, unique in the animal kingdom, do so many of us descend into the mental twilight world of Alzheimer’s disease later in life?
As documentary science filmmaker and science writer Jeremy Taylor shows in Botched Bodies, we are machines that have been designed by millions of years of blind evolution and part of the answer to our peculiar human susceptibility to disease and disrepair lies in the fact that evolution can never go back to the drawing board. Evolution has to make do with what is already in front of it, and our bodies are littered with the compromises it has been forced to make. In this Darwinian view of medicine, bad backs are the price we pay for walking on two legs; the worldwide epidemic of coronary artery disease is the price we pay for the strong compact musculature of our hearts; and dementia is the price we pay for maintaining such powerful and greedy brains.
Founded some two decades ago, the field of Darwinian medicine has, however, only recently come of age. Botched Bodies is the first book to piece together for a popular audience the latest ideas, discoveries and applications that have made this renaissance possible. Drawing on fascinating scientific curiosities from the natural world and compelling human-interest stories of people suffering from a range of ailments, Taylor shows how the latest evolutionary theories are being applied to understanding human health and disease and why our hearts, immune system, reproductive organs and many other body parts are built the way they are. Along the way, he reveals how these profound insights into the human medical condition are leading to dramatic new therapies to mend sick bodies and even to replace worn-out body parts with ‘grow your own’ alternatives – the personalized medicine of the future.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 为什么这么多人患有自身免疫性疾病，如类风湿关节炎，多发性硬化症和炎症性肠病？为什么这么多人遭受过敏反应的困扰如湿疹和哮喘？为什么任何其他物种身上不曾出现过的心脏病，糖尿病和癌症会蔓延？为什么我们的眼睛，视网膜特别容易脱落以及发生黄斑变性？为什么我们饱受背痛，疝气，椎间盘突出，髋关节滑动，阑尾炎，月经问题和先兆子痫的侵扰？为什么精神疾病如此流行？为什么在动物王国中独特的阿尔茨海默病会在我们以后的生活中出现的越来越多？
就像纪录片导演和科学作家杰瑞米•泰勒在《拙劣的身体》中所展示的那样，我们是由数百万年的盲目演化所设计出来的机器，人类对疾病和破损的易感性都基于进化绝不可能回到原始状态的事实。进化设法应付的是已经存在于我们身体里的，而我们身体里也已经被迫做出妥协。在达尔文的医学观点里，背痛是我们用两条腿行走所付出的代价；冠状动脉疾病的流行是我们加强心脏肌肉所付出的代价；痴呆是我们保持大脑的强大和贪婪所付出的代价。
达尔文进化论医学领域已经成立了近二十年，然而，它的时代在最近才来。《拙劣的身体》是第一本将大众接受的新设想，发现和应用拼凑起来，使复兴成为可能的书。本书借鉴了来自自然世界令人着迷的科学隐秘和人类患上各种疾病的令人信服的故事，泰勒展示了最新的进化理论如何被应用到人类健康和疾病中，为什么我们的心脏，免疫系统，生殖器官和许多其他的身体部分都以自己的方式建立。一路上，他揭示了这些关于人类医疗条件的深刻洞察是如何带来引人注目的改善身体虚弱的新疗法，甚至用你的“新生细胞”来取代老化的身体部位——未来的个性化医疗。(LNL)
Awards/获奖情况：
About the Author/作者介绍： 杰瑞米•泰勒是一位纪录片导演和科学作家。他为英国广播公司长期的旗舰科学系列“地平线”（包括两个由理查德•金斯提出的具有里程碑意义的项目：“好人有好报”和“盲目的钟表匠”）拍摄了很多部电影。他的第一本书《不是黑猩猩》由牛津大学出版社在2009年出版。
Jeremy Taylor is a documentary filmmaker and science writer. He has contributed many films to the BBC’s long-running flagship science series ‘Horizon’ (including two landmark programmes presented by Richard Dawkins, ‘Nice Guys Finish First’ and ‘The Blind Watchmaker’). His first book, Not a Chimp was published by OUP in 2009.
Format:
Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE(到期可授)
Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE
Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：Japanese (Kawadeshobo)
原文第一章内容：暂无
手稿：暂无
大纲：暂无