The Enlightened Mr. Parkinson

Author: Cherry Lewis
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 168177495X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247

Book Description
A colorful and absorbing portrait of James Parkinson and the turbulent, intellectually vibrant world of Georgian London. Parkinson’s disease is one of the most common forms of dementia, with 60,000 new cases each year in the United States alone, yet few know anything about the man the disease is named after. In 1817—two hundred years years ago—James Parkinson (1755–1824) defined this mysterious ailment so precisely that we still diagnose Parkinson's Disease today by recognizing the symptoms he identified. The story of this remarkable man’s contributions to the Age of the Enlightenment is told through his three seemingly disparate passions: medicine, politics and fossils. As a political radical, Parkinson was interrogated over a plot to kill King George III and was in danger of exile. But simultaneously, he was helping Edward Jenner set up smallpox vaccination stations across London and writing the first scientific study of fossils in English, jump-starting a national craze. He is one of the intellectual pioneers of "the age of wonder," forgotten to history, but Cherry Lewis restores this amazing man to his rightful place in history with her evocative portrait of the man and his era.

The Enlightened Mr. Parkinson

Author: Cherry Lewis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781785783364
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
Parkinson's disease is one of the most common forms of dementia, with 10,000 new cases each year in the UK alone, and yet few know anything about the man the disease is named after. In 1817 - exactly 200 years ago - James Parkinson (1755-1824) defined the disease so precisely that we still diagnose it today by recognising the symptoms he identified. The story of this remarkable man's contributions to the Age of the Enlightenment is told through his three passions - medicine, politics and fossils.As a political radical Parkinson was interrogated over a plot to kill King George III and revealed as the author of anti-government pamphlets, a crime for which many were transported to Australia; while helping Edward Jenner set up smallpox vaccination stations across London, he wrote the first scientific study of fossils in English, which led to fossil-hunting becoming the nation's latest craze - just a glimpse of his many achievements.Cherry Lewis restores this neglected pioneer to his rightful place in history, while creating a vivid and pungent portrait of life as an 'apothecary surgeon' in Georgian London.

The Dating Game

Author: Cherry Lewis
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107659590
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 271

Book Description
How old is the Earth? At the end of the 19th century, geologists, biologists, physicists and astronomers were all looking for a clock that would provide an answer to this greatest time question of all. Here is the story of one man's vision in developing a geological time scale that would finally lead to an accurate date for the age of the Earth

Old Age

Author: Michael Kinsley
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 1101903775
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 162

Book Description
Vanity Fair columnist Michael Kinsley escorts his fellow Boomers through the door marked "Exit." The notorious baby boomers—the largest age cohort in history—are approaching the end and starting to plan their final moves in the game of life. Now they are asking: What was that all about? Was it about acquiring things or changing the world? Was it about keeping all your marbles? Or is the only thing that counts after you’re gone the reputation you leave behind? In this series of essays, Michael Kinsley uses his own battle with Parkinson’s disease to unearth answers to questions we are all at some time forced to confront. “Sometimes,” he writes, “I feel like a scout from my generation, sent out ahead to experience in my fifties what even the healthiest Boomers are going to experience in their sixties, seventies, or eighties.” This surprisingly cheerful book is at once a fresh assessment of a generation and a frequently funny account of one man’s journey toward the finish line. “The least misfortune can do to make up for itself is to be interesting,” he writes. “Parkinson’s disease has fulfilled that obligation.”

Worlds of Natural History

Author: Helen Anne Curry
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 131651031X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 683

Book Description
Explores the development of natural history since the Renaissance and contextualizes current discussions of biodiversity.

Lucky Man

Author: Michael J. Fox
Publisher: Hachette Books
ISBN: 1401397794
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 307

Book Description
A funny, highly personal, gorgeously written account of what it's like to be a 30-year-old man who is told he has an 80-year-old's disease. "Life is great. Sometimes, though, you just have to put up with a little more crap." -- Michael J. Fox In September 1998, Michael J. Fox stunned the world by announcing he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease -- a degenerative neurological condition. In fact, he had been secretly fighting it for seven years. The worldwide response was staggering. Fortunately, he had accepted the diagnosis and by the time the public started grieving for him, he had stopped grieving for himself. Now, with the same passion, humor, and energy that Fox has invested in his dozens of performances over the last 18 years, he tells the story of his life, his career, and his campaign to find a cure for Parkinson's. Combining his trademark ironic sensibility and keen sense of the absurd, he recounts his life -- from his childhood in a small town in western Canada to his meteoric rise in film and television which made him a worldwide celebrity. Most importantly however, he writes of the last 10 years, during which--with the unswerving support of his wife, family, and friends -- he has dealt with his illness. He talks about what Parkinson's has given him: the chance to appreciate a wonderful life and career, and the opportunity to help search for a cure and spread public awareness of the disease. He is a very lucky man, indeed. The Michael J. Fox Foundation Michael J. Fox is donating the profits from his book to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, which is dedicated to fast-forwarding the cure for Parkinson's disease. The Foundation will move aggressively to identify the most promising research and raise the funds to assure that a cure is found for the millions of people living with this disorder. The Foundation's web site, MichaelJFox.org, carries the latest pertinent information about Parkinson's disease, including: A detailed description of Parkinson's disease How you can help find the cure Public Services Announcements that are aired on network and cable television stations across the country to increase awareness Upcoming related Parkinson's disease events and meetings Updates on recent research and developments

The Healing Power of the Drum

Author: Robert Lawrence Friedman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780578760131
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 190

Book Description
In The Healing Power of the Drum psychotherapist and drum facilitator, Robert Lawrence Friedman weaves an extraordinary tapestry of personal experience, fascinating anecdotes, and compelling research, demonstrating the hand drum's capacity to provide significant health benefits for everyone. This breakthrough book examines the use of hand drums in treating at-risk adolescents, stress-out employees, veterans, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Autism and more. Find joy and self-expression in The Healing Power of the Drum.

Raising Hell

Author: Richard Crouse
Publisher: ECW Press
ISBN: 1770902813
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 180

Book Description
Following the 2012 release of The Devils, Raising Hell examines the film from its inception through its reception.

The Last Utopia

Author: Samuel Moyn
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674256522
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 346

Book Description
Human rights offer a vision of international justice that today’s idealistic millions hold dear. Yet the very concept on which the movement is based became familiar only a few decades ago when it profoundly reshaped our hopes for an improved humanity. In this pioneering book, Samuel Moyn elevates that extraordinary transformation to center stage and asks what it reveals about the ideal’s troubled present and uncertain future. For some, human rights stretch back to the dawn of Western civilization, the age of the American and French Revolutions, or the post–World War II moment when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was framed. Revisiting these episodes in a dramatic tour of humanity’s moral history, The Last Utopia shows that it was in the decade after 1968 that human rights began to make sense to broad communities of people as the proper cause of justice. Across eastern and western Europe, as well as throughout the United States and Latin America, human rights crystallized in a few short years as social activism and political rhetoric moved it from the hallways of the United Nations to the global forefront. It was on the ruins of earlier political utopias, Moyn argues, that human rights achieved contemporary prominence. The morality of individual rights substituted for the soiled political dreams of revolutionary communism and nationalism as international law became an alternative to popular struggle and bloody violence. But as the ideal of human rights enters into rival political agendas, it requires more vigilance and scrutiny than when it became the watchword of our hopes.

Synaptic Plasticity

Author: Michael R. Kreutz
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3709109310
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 611

Book Description
This book introduces the current concepts of molecular mechanisms in synaptic plasticity and provides a comprehensive overview of cutting-edge research technology used to investigate the molecular dynamics of the synapses. It explores current concepts on activity-dependent remodeling of the synaptic cytoskeleton and presents the latest ideas on the different forms of plasticity in synapses and dendrites. Synaptic Plasticity in Health and Disease not only supplies readers with extensive knowledge on the latest developments in research, but also with important information on clinical and applied aspects. Changes in spine synapses in different brain disease states, so-called synaptopathies, are explained and described by experts in the field. By outlining basic research findings as well as physiological and pathophysiological impacts on synaptic plasticity, the book represents an essential state-of-the-art work for scientists in the fields of biochemistry, molecular biology and the neurosciences, as well as for doctors in neurology and psychiatry alike.