David Bainbridge

Un veterinario explora el origen de los adolescentes, nos explica por qué existen, y porqué la segunda década de la vida es la más importante y la más fascinante del ciclo vital de los seres humanos. David Bainbridge nos explica qué hace que los adolescentes se enamoren, se preocupen de manera excesiva por todo y les atraiga el rock and roll tanto como las drogas y el sexo. David Bainbridge es un reconocido veterinario que distribuye su tiempo entre el ejercicio de su profesión como investigador en el Instituto de Zoología de Regent's Park y la escritura de libros de carácter científico como The X in Sex, y A Visitor Within.

Pregnancy is a uniquely intimate relationship between two people. All of us luxuriate in this relationship once, and half of us are lucky enough to be able to do it all over again a second time. This tiny, greasy, pink baby that has just landed in our laps and looks as if it is trying to scream itself inside out - what sort of journey has brought it here? How are we able to make one of these amazing little people, who arise seemingly out of nothing? Written for the general reader, A Visitor Within reveals how pregnancy actually works. Why, for example, do women have a limited supply of eggs? How does an embryo halt its mother's menstrual cycle? How does a mother 'know' she is pregnant? How is a baby put together? Why does the mother accept the 'foreign' baby? How do mother and baby survive birth? Why are 'identical' twins never actually identical? Why do women undergo the menopause? In charting our progress with these and other questions, David Bainbridge tells the story of a single pregnancy from conception to breastfeeding.

Humankind s fascination with the animal kingdom began as a matter of survival differentiating the edible from the toxic the ferocious from the tractable Since then our compulsion to catalogue wildlife has played a key role in growing our understanding of the planet and ourselves inspiring religious beliefs and evolving scientific theories The book unveils wild truths and even wilder myths about animals as perpetuated by zoologists revealing how much more there is to learn and unlearn Long before Darwin our ancestors were obsessed with the visual similarities and differences between the animals Early scientists could sense there was an order that unified all life and formulated a variety of schemes to help illustrate this This human quest to classify living beings has left us with a rich artistic legacy from the folklore and religiosity of the ancient and Medieval world through the naturalistic cataloging of the Enlightenment to the modern computer generated classificatory labyrinth This book tells the fascinating visual story of this process The wonderful zoological charts reflect prevailing artistic trends and scientific discoveries as well as telling us as much about ourselves as they do about the creatures depicted