Biomedicine and the Human Condition

Challenges, Risks, and Rewards
Erscheinungsjahr 2005
ISBN: 978-0-521-83366-0
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 364 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 603 g

How to avoid disease, how to breed successfully and how to live to a reasonable age, are questions that have perplexed mankind throughout history. This 2005 book explores our progress in understanding these challenges, and the risks and rewards of our attempts to find solutions. From the moment of conception, nutrition and exposure to microbes or alien chemicals have consequences that are etched into our cells and genomes. Such events have a crucial impact on development in utero and in childhood, and later, on the way we age, respond to infection, or the likelihood of developing chronic diseases, including cancer. The issues covered include the powerful influence of infectious disease on human society, the burden of our genetic legacy and the lottery of procreation. The author discusses how prospects for human life might continually improve as biomedicine addresses these problems and also debates the ethical checkpoints encountered.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Sargent, Michael G

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Bioethik, Tierethik
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Geschichte der Medizin
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Zellbiologie
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Evolutionsbiologie
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Medizinische Mathematik & Informatik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Angewandte Ethik & Soziale Verantwortung Bioethik, Tierethik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface; 1. Challenge, risk and reward: learning to control our biological fate; 2. Learning to breed successfully; 3. How life is handled; 4. Cells in sickness and health; 5. Experiences in utero affect later life; 6. Infection, nutrition and poisons: avoiding an unhealthy life; 7. Signs of ageing: when renovation slows; 8. Cancer and the body plan: a Darwinian struggle; 9. Fighting infection; 10. Are devastating epidemics still possible?; 11. Discovering medicines: infinite variety through chemistry; 12. Protein medicines from gene technology; 13. Refurbishing the body; 14. Living with the genetic legacy; 15. Epilogue.

Über Autor(innen)

Sargent, Michael G
Michael G. Sargent is a Research Scientist in Developmental Biology at the National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill, London.