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.”

Light Lifting

Author: Alexander MacLeod
Publisher: Biblioasis
ISBN: 1926845218
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Book Description
AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION NOTABLE BOOK OF 2012 IRISH TIMES BOOK-TO-READ FOR 2012 ATLANTIC BOOK AWARD WINNER FINALIST FOR THE GILLER PRIZE AND THE FRANK O'CONNOR AWARD A GLOBE & MAIL, QUILL & QUIRE, AND AMAZON.CA BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR "Engrossing, thrilling and ultimately satisfying: each story has the weight of a novel." —The Economist This was the day after Mike Tyson bit off Evander Holyfield’s ear. You remember that. It was a moment in history – not like Kennedy or the planes flying into the World Trade Center – not up at that level. This was something much lower, more like Ben Johnson, back when his eyes were that thick, yellow color and he tested positive in Seoul after breaking the world-record in the hundred. You might not know exactly where you were standing or exactly what you were doing when you first heard about Tyson or about Ben, but when the news came down, I bet it stuck with you. When Tyson bit off Holyfield’s ear, that cut right through the everyday clutter. —from "Miracle Mile" Two runners race a cargo train through the darkness of a rat-infested tunnel beneath the Detroit River. A drugstore bicycle courier crosses a forbidden threshold in an attempt to save a life and a young swimmer conquers her fear of water only to discover she's caught in far more dangerous currents. An auto-worker who loses his family in a car accident is forced to reconsider his relationship with the internal combustion engine. Alexander MacLeod is a writer of "ferocious intelligence" and "ferocious physicality" (CTV). Light Lifting, his celebrated first collection, offers us a suite of darkly urban and unflinching elegies that explore the depths of the psyche and channel the subconscious hopes and terrors that motivate us all. These are elemental stories of work and its bonds, of tragedy and tragedy barely averted, but also of beauty, love and fragile understanding.

The Little Green Book of Eco-Fascism

Author: James Delingpole
Publisher: Regnery Publishing
ISBN: 1621571610
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Book Description
A thoroughly politically incorrect pocket guide satirizing everything that is wrong with the green movement promises that it is not made from recycled paper while citing the inconsistencies, impracticality and hypocrisy of ludicrous environmental agendas. 30,000 first printing.

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.

The Peripatetic Pursuit of Parkinson Disease

Author: Lindy Ashford
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780989326605
Category : Parkinson's disease
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Book Description
Personal in approach, beautiful in design, global in scope, The Peripatetic Pursuit of Parkinson Disease envisions a better world for people with Parkinson disease (PD). Developed by the Parkinsons Creative Collective (all of whom have PD), it is an anthology of the experiences of over 120 experts at living with PD -- the patients themselves. Join them on a journey from diagnosis, to informed patient, to empowered advocate. Filled with information and inspiration, it's a color-illustrated encyclopedia of PD from the patients' point of view. With nearly one quarter of the voices from around the world, it encourages discussion while it speaks to those newly diagnosed as well as to those who have lived with PD for years. Even medical professionals reading the book have found new perspectives on what it is like to live with PD. It delivers much more than the basics about this chronic, progressive, neurological disease. The authors share their stories and strategies on how to improve health, quality of life, and wellness in spite of PD. They also present opinions on how to speed the development of new treatments and how to face other life challenges that come with PD. --For those with PD, it's a support group between two covers; and for everyone else, it's a window into the world of PD.

7 Caregiver Landmines

Author: Peter W. Rosenberger
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
ISBN: 1642790028
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 62

Book Description
This guide identifies the ideas and actions that can harm both caregivers and their loved one—from the author of Hope for the Caregiver. A caregiver’s journey often contains beliefs and behaviors that act like emotional landmines and can cause serious damage. Avoiding these landmines, while finding a path to safety, requires caregivers to hear from someone with experience they can trust. Author and radio host Peter Rosenberger draws upon three decades of caring for his wife through a medical nightmare to discuss seven caregiver landmines that wreak havoc in a caregiver’s life. Helping them navigate to a place of safety, 7 Caregiver Landmines equips fellow caregivers to live a healthier, calmer, and even more joyful life—because “healthy caregivers make better caregivers!” Praise for Peter Rosenberger and Hope for the Caregiver “With tenacity, tenderness, and humor Peter Rosenberger brings hope to those who find themselves in the overwhelming and sometimes lonely role of caregiver.” —Amy Grant, Grammy Award–winning singer/songwriter, author and actress “In a world hung up on trying to make sense out of hard times, Peter drives the point home that ‘we don’t have to understand—God understands, and that’s enough.’ This is THE book for caregivers, written by one with scars and immense credibility.” —Jeff Foxworthy, comedian, author, television host “Peter Rosenberger was the keynote speaker at the NYS Caregiving & Respite Coalition™’s annual conference. Through humor, he gave practical advice to caregivers living the care partnering experience. More importantly, he brought hope to professionals and family caregivers who deal with the struggles of caregiving day in and out.” —Ann Marie Cook, President/CEO of Lifespan

The Knife Man

Author: Wendy Moore
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307419452
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354

Book Description
The vivid, often gruesome portrait of the 18th-century pioneering surgeon and father of modern medicine, John Hunter. When Robert Louis Stevenson wrote his gothic horror story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he based the house of the genial doctor-turned-fiend on the home of John Hunter. The choice was understandable, for Hunter was both widely acclaimed and greatly feared. From humble origins, John Hunter rose to become the most famous anatomist and surgeon of the eighteenth century. In an age when operations were crude, extremely painful, and often fatal, he rejected medieval traditions to forge a revolution in surgery founded on pioneering scientific experiments. Using the knowledge he gained from countless human dissections, Hunter worked to improve medical care for both the poorest and the best-known figures of the era—including Sir Joshua Reynolds and the young Lord Byron. An insatiable student of all life-forms, Hunter was also an expert naturalist. He kept exotic creatures in his country menagerie and dissected the first animals brought back by Captain Cook from Australia. Ultimately his research led him to expound highly controversial views on the age of the earth, as well as equally heretical beliefs on the origins of life more than sixty years before Darwin published his famous theory. Although a central figure of the Enlightenment, Hunter’s tireless quest for human corpses immersed him deep in the sinister world of body snatching. He paid exorbitant sums for stolen cadavers and even plotted successfully to steal the body of Charles Byrne, famous in his day as the “Irish giant.” In The Knife Man, Wendy Moore unveils John Hunter’s murky and macabre world—a world characterized by public hangings, secret expeditions to dank churchyards, and gruesome human dissections in pungent attic rooms. This is a fascinating portrait of a remarkable pioneer and his determined struggle to haul surgery out of the realms of meaningless superstitious ritual and into the dawn of modern medicine.