Naujausi A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T V W Y Z
Autoriai: MICHAEL G. SARGENT
Metai:
ISBN: 0-521-54148-4
Brūkšninis kodas: 003075097777
Ieškoti VUB kataloge
Anotacija:
How TO AVOID DISEASE, HOW TO BREED SUCCESSFULLY and how to live to a reasonable age are plexed mankind throughout history. This book explores our progress in understanding these challenges and the risks and rewards of our attempts to find solutions. Nutritional experiences and exposure to microbes and 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 affect the way we age, how we respond to infection, and the likelihood of our 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 examines the ethical checkpoints encountered.
Michael G. Sargent is a research scientist in developmental biology at the National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill, London.
xi Preface
1 1 Challenges, Risks, and Rewards: Learning to Control Our Biological Fate Leaving Eden • Challenges, Risks, and Rewards - Introducing a Theme • George Bernard Shaw's Misgivings - Twentieth-Century Optimism • The Great Philanthropists • Investment in the New Biology • Questions from a Sceptical Public • Biomedicine Comes of Age
20 2 Learning to Breed Successfully
"In Sorrow Thou Shalt Bring Forth Children" • Changing Reproductive Habits • Surviving Childhood • Birth Control • Assisting Reproduction • Challenges, Risks, and Rewards - a Summary
45 3 How Life is Handed On
DNA Transmits Genetic Information • Nucleic Acids and Heredity • Genetic Contributions to a Fertilised Egg • What Is a Gene? • Dark Secrets of DNA • How Life Experience and Heredity Affect Health • Challenges, Risks, and Rewards - a Summary
69 4 Cells in Sickness and Health
The Architecture of Cells • A Cell for Every Purpose - Specialists and Stem Cells • Cells Communicating - Growth Factors and Their Receptors • The Death of Cells • Cells and Immortality • Challenges, Risks, and Rewards - a Summary
90 5 Experiences in Utero Affect Later Life
The Perfect Nursery? • Perils of Embryonic Life • How Nutritional Experiences in Utero Affect Adult Health • Premature Birth – the Danger of Arriving Early • From Birth to Maturity • Challenges, Risks, and Rewards - a Summary
112 6 Infection, Nutrition, and Poisons: Avoiding an Unhealthy Life
Microbes - Historic Enemies • How Can We Know What We Should Eat? • Toxicological Dangers - Living in a Chemical Zoo • Challenges, Risks, and Rewards - a Summary
132 7 Signs of Ageing: When Renovation Slows
Life Span and Ageing • What Happens as We Age? • Longevity, Life Experience, and the Genome • How Cells Grow Old • Stopping the Clock • Challenges, Risks, and Rewards - a Summary
153 8 Cancer and the Body Plan: A Darwinian Struggle
Twentieth-Century Nightmare • Six Steps to Chaos • Life Experience and Cancer - Six Major Risks • Control and Prevention of Cancer • Challenges, Risks, and Rewards - a Summary
174 9 Fighting Infection
Historic Epidemics • Vaccines • Magic Bullets - Antibiotics • Why Microbes Will Always Be a Threat • Challenges, Risks, and Rewards - a Summary
199 10 Are Devastating Epidemics Still Possible?
Should We Worry about Unknown Infectious Enemies? • Influenza • AIDS • Prion Diseases • Mosquito-borne Diseases • The Threat of Bioterrorism • Challenges, Risks, and Rewards - a Summary
220 11 Discovering Medicines: Infinite Variety through
Chemistry
The Power of Chemistry • Lessons from Nature • Making New Drugs • Quacks, Carelessness, and Misadventure • Challenges, Risks, and Rewards - a Summary
244 12 Protein Medicines from Gene Technology
Genetically Engineered Insulin • Gene Technology Becomes an Industry • Making Novel Protein Medicines • Challenges, Risks, and Rewards - a Summary
266 13 Refurbishing the Body
The Surgical Tradition • The Biology of Renewal • Twentieth-Century Uses of Human Blood • Blue Babies and Coronary By-pass Operations • Tissue Engineering - Repairing Skin and Other Tissues • Organ Transplantation • Cell Therapy - Radical Uses of Stem Cells • Challenges, Risks, and Rewards - a Summary
290 14 Living with the Genetic Legacy
The Burden of Genetic Disease • Avoiding Genetic Disease • Treatment of Genetic Disease • Fixing Faults in the Genome - Gene Therapy • Germ-line Therapy • The Human Genome Project - a Detailed Map of a New Frontier • Ethical Dilemmas and the Genome Project • Challenges, Risks, and Rewards - a Summary
312 15 Epilogue: Signposts to "Wonderland"
321References
341Index
