The challenge of scaling the highest mountain, exploring the deepest ocean, crossing the hottest desert, or swimming in near-freezing water is irresistible to many people. Life at the Extremes is an engrossing exploration of what happens to our bodies in these seemingly uninhabitable environments. Frances Ashcroft weaves stories of extraordinary feats of endurance with historical material and the latest scientific findings as she investigates the limits of human survival and the remarkable adaptations that enable us to withstand extreme conditions.What causes mountain sickness? How is it possible to reach the top of Everest without supplementary oxygen, when passengers in an airplane that depressurized at the same altitude would lose consciousness in seconds? Why do divers get the bends but sperm whales do not? How long you can survive immersion in freezing water? Why don't penguins get frostbite? Will men always be faster runners than women? How far into deep space can a body travel?As she considers these questions, Ashcroft introduces a cast of extraordinary scientific personalities—inventors and explorers who have charted the limits of human survival. She describes many intriguing experiments and shows how scientific knowledge has enabled us to venture toward and beyond ever greater limits. Life at the Extremes also considers what happens when athletes push their bodies to the edge, and tells of the remarkable adaptations that enable some organisms to live in boiling water, in highly acidic lakes, or deep in the middle of rocks.Anyone who flies in an airplane, sails the high seas, goes skiing or walking in the mountains, or simply weathers subzero winters or sweltering summers will be captivated by this book. Full of scientific information, beautifully written, and packed with many fascinating digressions, Life at the Extremes lures us to the very edge of human survival.

Life at the Extremes

Science & Math

Ashcroft, Frances

Biological Sciences

University of California Pre

Thomas Mann, fascinated with the concept of genius and with the richness of German culture, found in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe the embodiment of the German culture hero. Mann's novelistic biography of Goethe was first published in English in 1940. Lotte in Weimar is a vivid dual portrait-a complex study of Goethe and of Lotte, the still-vivacious woman who in her youth was the model for Charlotte in Goethe's widely-read The Sorrows of Young Werther. Lotte's thoughts, as she anticipates meeting Goethe again after forty years, and her conversations with those in Weimar who knew the great man, allow Mann to assess Goethe's genius from many points of view. Hayden White's fresh appraisal of the novel reveals its consonances with our own concerns.

Lotte in Weimar: The Beloved Returns

Literature & Fiction

MANN, THOMAS

British & Irish

Speak Low (When You Speak Love): The Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya

Weill, Kurt & Lotte Lenya

pp. 224, b/w and color illustrations, "The graphics are superb, and the layout of the book, where text, text boxes, the words of specialists, and graphics, are used to drive home the message, is remarkably creative. The information presented is very up-to-date, and there is so much to learn that the book lends itself to…

Mapping the Mind

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Carter, Rita.

Psychology & Counseling

Grands Vins: The Finest Chateaux of Bordeaux and Their Wines

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Coates, Clive

Beverages & Wine

The Medieval Economy and Society: An Economic History of Britain, 1100-1500

Business & Money

Postan, M.M

Economics

Henry V.

Biographies & Memoirs

Allmand, Christopher

Leaders & Notable People

Dom Casmurro

Self-Help

Machado De Assis

Relationships

Myth and law among the Indo-Europeans;: Studies in Indo-European comparative mythology (Publications of the UCLA Center for the Study of Comparative Folklore and Mythology, 1)

Puhvel, Jaan (Ed.)

Religion & Spirituality

First edition. Biography of this California printer and designer. Loosely inserted is an article on Nash by Norman Strouse. Bookplate. Spotting along inner hinges. xii, 167 pages. cloth.. 8vo..

John Henry Nash : The Biography of a Career (University of California Publications. Librarianship, 7)

Harlan, Robert D.

Regional U.S.

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