Zoobiquity
What Animals Can Teach Us About Being Human
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- 14,99 €
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- 14,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
Concerns about the recent explosions of diseases like HIV, the West Nile Virus, and other avian and swine flus that originate in animals have encouraged new efforts on a global scale to bridge the gap between animal and human medicine for the benefit of both. Zoobiquity is the first book to explore many of the human and animal health issues that overlap and provides new insight into the treatment of many diseases including diabetes, cancer, heart disease and mental illness.
But Zoobiquity is even bigger than health and academic medicine, and encompasses much more than our diseases and how to cure them. It sheds light on the evolution of hierarchies and similarities between a tribe of apes and a Fortune 500 company. It suggests that the ways we run our political and justice systems may overlap with how animals protect and defend their territories - and that examining this possibility in a scientifically credible way could help strengthen our institutions. It dangles the possibility that human parenting could be informed by a greater knowledge and respect for how our animal cousins solve issues of childcare, sibling rivalry and infertility.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The fossil record indicates that dinosaurs developed cancer. Chlamydia is rampant in wild koala bear populations. Wallabies in Tasmania are hooked on opium. In this intriguing book, cardiologist and psychiatrist Natterson-Horowitz, along with science journalist Bowers, explore some of humanity's most pressing health problems (cancer, obesity) through the eyes of the animal kingdom. The authors argue in favor of the "One Health" worldview, which brings doctors and veterinarians into close collaboration to discuss causation and treatment of diseases. For example, since stress-induced heart attacks affect both humans and animals, who's to say that human doctors can't learn from the research of veterinarians, and vice versa? The book features countless intriguing anecdotes of cross-species health problems, such as the cocker spaniel who became addicted to licking a toad or the stallion with mating problems, as well as some unforgettable one-liners: "all male mammals descend from a shared ancestral ejaculator." But the memorable examples are intended to serve the greater purpose of emphatically demonstrating that doctors and veterinarians would benefit from working together. Despite the remarkable content, the book's formulaic structure means that it is best consumed in small bites. Still, after finishing, you're guaranteed to never look at your dog, cat, or any other animal the same way again.