Despite his tenure at a university with a medical school it seems he did not talk to folks there for insight and context of several issues like lipid metabolism, shoe wear, & back pain. Instead was a rather verbose listing of a few of his favorite themes- like flat feet which he brought up again & again.
I was hoping for a detailed march of human evolution as documented by science and giving connection to the environmental changes that brought them on. The Professor traded his lectern in for a pulpit.
And finally - provocatively - he advocates the use of evolutionary information to help nudge, push, and sometimes even compel us to create a more salubrious environment. Lieberman proposes that many of these chronic illnesses persist and in some cases are intensifying because of "dysevolution," a pernicious dynamic whereby only the symptoms rather than the causes of these maladies are treated. While these ongoing changes have brought about many benefits, they have also created conditions to which our bodies are not entirely adapted, Lieberman argues, resulting in the growing incidence of obesity and new but avoidable diseases, such as type 2 diabetes. Lieberman also elucidates how cultural evolution differs from biological evolution, and how our bodies were further transformed during the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. The Story of the Human Body brilliantly illuminates as never before the major transformations that contributed key adaptations to the body: the rise of bipedalism the shift to a non-fruit-based diet the advent of hunting and gathering, leading to our superlative endurance athleticism the development of a very large brain and the incipience of cultural proficiencies. 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. Much funnier and more informative and more gross than Gray's Anatomy.In this landmark book of popular science, Daniel E. I'm not jealous that I didn't write it at all. Hilarious and fascinating! I wish Adam had been my biology teacher Konnie Huq If only this funny and informative book had been around when I was too embarrassed to teach my kids about bodily functions David Baddiel And I loved the True or Poo sections! Malorie Blackman It's fun and informative and just the sort of book I would've loved as a child. Kay's Anatomy is totally brilliant - it's ultra child-friendly and chatty, and any young reader will learn a great deal about the body as they chuckle through each chapter. it is like listening to a teacher who makes pupils fall about The Sunday Times So sit back, relax, put on some rubber gloves, and let a doctor take you on a poo- and puke-filled tour of your insides. How much of your life will you spend on the toilet? About a year - so bring a good book.
This book is going to tell you what's actually going on in there, and answer the really important questions, like:Īre bogeys safe to eat? Look, if your nose is going to all that effort of creating a snack, the least we can do is check out its nutritional value. Yours is weird, mine is weird, your maths teacher's is even weirder. The human body is extraordinary and fascinating and, well. Now in paperback.ĭo you ever think about your body and how it all works? Like really properly think about it? The record-breaking, bestselling hilarious first children's book from multi-million bestselling author Adam Kay, illustrated throughout by comedian Henry Paker.