The biology of human survival : life and death in extreme environments / Claude A. Piantadosi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Piantadosi, Claude A., author.

Series:

Oxford scholarship online.

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Extreme environments.

Adaptation (Biology).

Human physiology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (280 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York ; Oxford University Press, 2023.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This volume identifies the key determinants of life or death in extreme environments from a physiologist's perspective, integrating modern concepts of stress, tolerance, and adaptation into explanations of life under nature's most austere conditions.

Contents:

""Contents""; ""1. The Human Environment""; ""The nature of human physical boundaries""; ""The importance of preparation for extreme exposures""; ""Some basic concepts of survival analysis""; ""Characteristics of life-support systems""; ""2. Survival and Adaptation""; ""The science of human physiology""; ""Principles of physiological regulation and adaptation""; ""Defining physiological adaptation to the environment""; ""Acclimatization and acclimation""; ""3. Cross-Acclimation""; ""The complexity of adaptation to environment""; ""Positive and negative cross-acclimation""

""Biochemical mediators of physiological adaptation""""Stress proteins and the stress response""; ""4. Food for Thought""; ""A brief overview of human starvation""; ""Starvation: an affliction of the very young and the very old""; ""Assessing the severity of starvation""; ""Why children die of starvation""; ""Other critical factors in human starvation""; ""Starvation and obesity: strange bedfellows""; ""The molecular basis of obesity and hunger""; ""5. Water and Salt""; ""The composition of body water""; ""Why do human food and water requirements differ?""

""The body�s minimum daily water requirements""""The mechanism of dehydration and the body�s responses""; ""Dehydration and heat tolerance""; ""Survival time without drinking water""; ""6. Water That Makes Men Mad""; ""The composition of seawater""; ""Ingestion of seawater""; ""Survival at sea""; ""Lessons from the USS Indianapolis""; ""A practical approach to salt and water loss at sea""; ""7. Tolerance to Heat""; ""Mammalian homeothermy""; ""Humans as tropical primates""; ""Body heat balance""; ""Heat acclimatization""; ""Heat acclimatization and physical fitness""

""The limitations of human tolerance to heat""""Heat illnesses""; ""Death by heatstroke""; ""8. Endless Oceans of Sand""; ""The camel and the Berber""; ""Desert lessons from Pablo and the Haj""; ""Thermal stress and behavior""; ""Importance and regulation of heat-escape activities""; ""9. Hypothermia""; ""The effects of extreme cold on the extremities""; ""Settings for systemic hypothermia""; ""The physiology of hypothermia""; ""Unexpected effects of cold and hypothermia""; ""The subtle effect of winter on human mortality""; ""10. Life and Death on the Crystal Desert""; ""Life in Antarctica""

""The race for the South Pole""""Failure to adapt to Antarctic conditions""; ""Engineering out the need to tolerate cold""; ""Human acclimation to cold""; ""Estivation""; ""Hibernation""; ""Hibernation, energy conservation, and suspended animation""; ""11. Survival in Cold Water""; ""The sinking of the Titanic""; ""Water temperature and human survival""; ""Prediction of survival time in cold water""; ""Survival behavior in cold water""; ""Hypothermia in deep sea diving""; ""Respiratory heat losses and slow cooling""; ""12. Air as Good as We Deserve""; ""Life in an oxidizing atmosphere""

""Biological oxidations and oxygen toxicity""

Notes:

Formerly CIP.

Previously issued in print: 2003.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-254) and index.

Derived record based on print version record and publisher information.

ISBN:

0-19-773743-9

1-280-53383-8

9786610533831

0-19-974807-1

1-4237-8497-9

OCLC:

70215878