A Hole in the Head: More Tales in the History of Neuroscience
Neuroscientist Charles Gross has been interested in the history of his field since his days as an undergraduate. A Hole in the Head is the second collection of essays in which he illuminates the study of the brain with fascinating episodes from the past. This volume's tales range from the history of trepanation (drilling a hole in the skull) to neurosurgery as painted by Hieronymus Bosch to the discovery that bats navigate using echolocation.
From Bauhaus to Eco-House: A History of Ecological Design
Global warming and concerns about sustainability recently have pushed ecological design to the forefront of architectural study and debate. As Peder Anker explains in FROM BAUHAUS TO ECOHOUSE, despite claims of novelty, debates about environmentally sensitive architecture has been ongoing for nearly a century. Anker traces the historical intersection of architecture and ecological science and assesses how both remain intertwined philosophically and pragmatically within the still-evolving field of ecological design.
Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (Deadly Diseases and Epidemics)
Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is a sexually transmitted disease seen in women, and is usually caused by gonorrhea or chlamydia. PID most often occurs in adolescent and young women, and can be a silent infection that may go undetected for years. Undiagnosed and untreated, PID leads to many potentially severe and devastating health consequences in women of reproductive age, including infertility.
First recorded in Europe in the late 1400s, syphilis quickly spread throughout the world. A disease that slowly kills its victims, syphilis allows them enough time to spread it to others. It was not until the 19th century that syphilis was realized to be a sexually transmitted disease. Because syphilis was poorly understood, it became the subject of many myths and misconceptions, and people who suffered from the disease were often stigmatized.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome, known as SARS, was first reported in Asia in 2003, after a Chinese-American businessman died from a mysterious illness. Soon, many of the people who had treated this man became sick with the same respiratory symptoms. SARS quickly spread across Southeast Asia and China, and caused widespread fear of a global epidemic when it reached Toronto, Canada. In all, more than 8,000 people became ill, and nearly 800 died. Although SARS was quickly contained, future outbreaks remain a threat.
