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Exterior Description of a Brachicephalic Brain

Hanna Damasio

in Human Brain Anatomy in Computerized Images

The images in this chapter reveal the cortical anatomy as described in Chapter 2, but on the brachicephalic brain of a person of European descent.

Exterior Description of Another Brachicephalic Brain

Hanna Damasio

in Human Brain Anatomy in Computerized Images

The images depicted in this chapter show the cortical anatomy as described in Chapter 2, on a brachicephalic brain of a person of Asian descent.

 Saul: Three Anointings, Two Wrongdoings, One Good Son Between: Patterns 1 and 2

Paul Borgman

in David, Saul, and God: Rediscovering an Ancient Story

Israel's second king, David, will commit what looks like far greater wrong than anything done by God's first choice, King Saul. But David proves much the superior leader. Why might God have given up ... More

Israel's second king, David, will commit what looks like far greater wrong than anything done by God's first choice, King Saul. But David proves much the superior leader. Why might God have given up so quickly on Saul, and what does this intimate about God's reversal of choices, for David? Possible answers begin to emerge with the narrator's presentation of Saul's three anointings and paralleled wrongdoing, the latter sandwiching a picture of Jonathan, of everything good that Saul isn't. With Saul we find an anatomy of failure that goes beyond mere wrongdoing. Something within Saul is tragically lacking, a flaw that will prove definitive as a contrast with David. Brought into a unifying vision by this and other patterns are “blocks” of material considered quite disparate by many biblical scholars.Less

The Miracles: Diseases, Corpses, and Other Wonders

Jacalyn Duffin

in Medical Miracles: Doctors, Saints, and Healing in the Modern World

An exploration of the problems resolved miraculously. The vast majority are cures from illness. The diseases amendable to miracle cure change through time according to medical science. Some ... More

An exploration of the problems resolved miraculously. The vast majority are cures from illness. The diseases amendable to miracle cure change through time according to medical science. Some conditions, such as cancer, appear consistently through time. Gradually, the cures were of specific organic ailments, with tuberculosis increasing in frequency. Cures of psychic disorders always were rare; from the nineteenth century forward, a diagnosis of hysteria could stop the process. Diseases unknown in past centuries, such as leukemia or multiple sclerosis, appear soon after descriptions in the medical literature. The illness must also have defied up-to-date medical care including surgery. In other words, suffering must be a problem that is thought to be beyond the control of the best medical art of the time.This chapter also examines the nonmedical miracles, including the incorruptibility of the saint’s corpse, preservation from accidental death, and multiplication of food.Less

INSECTS

Ernest H. Williams

in The Nature Handbook: A Guide to Observing the Great Outdoors

This chapter describes a few general features of insects, mating and molting in particular, along with a sample of observations of specific groups. Butterflies and moths are better represented than ... More

This chapter describes a few general features of insects, mating and molting in particular, along with a sample of observations of specific groups. Butterflies and moths are better represented than other insects in this chapter because of their attractiveness, ease of discovery, and popularity. The discussions of these insects, with hill topping and puddling, illustrate what could be described with many of the other insect groups, too, including a little anatomy, physiology, behavior, and ecology.Less

A Sketch History of the Microscopic Anatomy of the Nervous System

Javier Defelipe

in Cajal's Butterflies of the Soul: Science and Art

This chapter traces the history of various theories on the microscopic anatomy of the nervous system, with corresponding illustrations by the scientists themselves. The chapter is divided into three, ... More

This chapter traces the history of various theories on the microscopic anatomy of the nervous system, with corresponding illustrations by the scientists themselves. The chapter is divided into three, covering the Benedictine period, the Black period, and the Colorful period.Less

Evolution of bird flight

John J. Videler

in Avian Flight

Bird flight began to evolve some 150 million years ago. This chapter discusses typical structures of the oldest bird-like fossils of Archaeopteryx. Conflicting scenarios — the arborial and cursorial ... More

Bird flight began to evolve some 150 million years ago. This chapter discusses typical structures of the oldest bird-like fossils of Archaeopteryx. Conflicting scenarios — the arborial and cursorial — describe how flight might have evolved. A new hypothesis is offered that explains most of the peculiar anatomical features, and suggests a matching ecological niche. Archaeopteryx is depicted to run like a Basilisk lizard over water. A quantitative biomechanical assessment shows that it could have generated the lifting forces required using spread wings and tail. Abundant water skaters from the same deposits are suggested as a possible food source. The remains of younger Mesozoic bird-like animals reveal the existence of parallel lines of evolution of flight related characters. A few groups of flying birds survived the mass extinction 65 million years ago, and were ancestral to the extant birds rapidly radiating during the beginning of the Tertiary.Less

The Behavioral Ecology of Crustaceans: A Primer in Taxonomy, Morphology, and Biology

Martin Thiel and J. Emmett Duffy

in Evolutionary Ecology of Social and Sexual Systems: Crustaceans as Model Organisms

A key feature of crustaceans important in their social and sexual evolution is the presence of supernumerary appendages that are modified for a variety of functions. Claws are employed in agonistic ... More

A key feature of crustaceans important in their social and sexual evolution is the presence of supernumerary appendages that are modified for a variety of functions. Claws are employed in agonistic and courtship interactions, underlining their importance in the evolution of social behavior. Other appendages carry diverse chemosensory structures, allowing crustaceans to obtain information about their environment, including the presence, status, and even individual identity of conspecifics. Most crustaceans are aquatic and, as a group, crustaceans are best adapted to this environment. Most large decapods release planktonic larvae, but many smaller and terrestrial crustaceans release fully developed offspring. The mode of dispersal influences the structure of kin groups and populations, and the behavioral constraints and opportunities that arise therefrom. Besides such organismal characteristics, extrinsic factors such as resource availability and predation have figured in the evolution of social and sexual systems in crustaceans. Present knowledge of their social behavior is approaching levels that permit rigorous comparisons across taxa, making crustaceans a valuable model system for the study of social and sexual evolution.Less

Construction: behaviour and anatomy Construction: behaviour and anatomy

Mike Hansell

in Animal Architecture

This chapter focuses on construction, which involves the coordination of appropriate anatomy in effective action. This effectiveness will be evident in movements of precision and of power, although ... More

This chapter focuses on construction, which involves the coordination of appropriate anatomy in effective action. This effectiveness will be evident in movements of precision and of power, although the importance of each of these will vary greatly depending upon the method of construction. The chapter characterises different methods or techniques of construction. Particular species tend to use exclusively or predominantly one of these techniques, but their full building repertoire may cover two or more. The chapter also examines predictions on the nature of specialization in anatomy and behaviour associated with the different building methods.Less

The Third Function: A Hypothesis on the Mysterious Skull of Peking Man

Noel T. Boaz and Russell L. Ciochon

in Dragon Bone Hill: An Ice Age Saga of Homo erectus

This chapter discusses the cranial anatomy of Homo erectus. The evolving hominid skull form is interpreted as resulting from three major functional imperatives: housing a brain rapidly increasing in ... More

This chapter discusses the cranial anatomy of Homo erectus. The evolving hominid skull form is interpreted as resulting from three major functional imperatives: housing a brain rapidly increasing in size, serving as the bony anchor for the teeth and the muscles that move them, and, in the case of Homo erectus, defending against blunt trauma. Paleopathological evidence supporting a defensive function for Homo erectus skull form is discussed.Less

Galenism as Trade in Antiques

Paul U. Unschuld

in What Is Medicine?: Western and Eastern Approaches to Healing

Progress in anatomy in the early modern age was slow and the distancing from Galenic anatomy was gradual. One might object that Galen's knowledge experienced a thorough reacquisition and was further ... More

Progress in anatomy in the early modern age was slow and the distancing from Galenic anatomy was gradual. One might object that Galen's knowledge experienced a thorough reacquisition and was further developed to the extent that some historians even talked about “Galenism”. The Parisian anatomist Jacques Dubois, named Sylvius, the teacher of Vesalius, was one of them. He had accepted the new knowledge of the vein valves from younger anatomists. But apart from that, he saw the interior of the body only as Galen had presented it over a millennium beforehand. There are groups with anachronistic world views in the twenty-first century and it was also in the fifteenth and sixteenth century, when Berengario da Carpi, Nicolo Massa, Charles Estienne, Giovanni Battista Canano, and Andreas Vesalius published their views. They were not totally influenced by the copies and reproductions of Galenism. They were still impartial enough to explore the details of the body's reality without being led astray by a prefabricated theory.Less

The Discovery of New Worlds

Paul U. Unschuld

in What Is Medicine?: Western and Eastern Approaches to Healing

This chapter focuses on Europe at the time when Vesalius demonstrated the reality of human anatomy with the help of his illustrator, Titian's student Jan Steven van Kalkar, a contemporary of the ... More

This chapter focuses on Europe at the time when Vesalius demonstrated the reality of human anatomy with the help of his illustrator, Titian's student Jan Steven van Kalkar, a contemporary of the sixteenth century. Half a century before van Kalkar's drawings, Leonardo da Vinci, who was a painter, architect, technician, and observer of nature, offered previously unknown views into the reality of the interior of the body. Vesalius' contemporary, Gabriele Fallopio became famous for his discovery of the fallopian tubes. Other contemporaries, Giovanni Battista Canano and Girolamo Fabrizio ab Aquadependente, became famous for discovering and describing the vein valves. Morgagni became famous for showing more clearly than others that the organs were the sites of disease. The anatomists and pathologists made significant efforts to explore the body's interior and brought much reality to light. Medicine covered several terms such as is normal and sick and it also explains the change from normal to sick and return from sick to normality.Less

Reinventing Primate Neuroscience for the Twenty-First Century

Todd M. Preuss

in Primate Neuroethology

This chapter advocates an evolutionary approach to understanding comparative brain anatomy in primates. It argues that deep understanding of the relationships between brain and behavior requires ... More

This chapter advocates an evolutionary approach to understanding comparative brain anatomy in primates. It argues that deep understanding of the relationships between brain and behavior requires determining how evolution modifies specific systems of neurons and their interconnections, and not just relating brain size to gross measures of cognition or behavior. Such neuroethological studies will require active management of captive and wild populations of primates needed for detailed comparison.Less

‘The Ablest Race’: The Ancient Greeks in Victorian Racial Theory

Debbie Challis

in Classics and Imperialism in the British Empire

This chapter considers how the idealization of the human body in Greek art, as defined by Winckelmann, fed the theory that physical beauty and racial perfection were to be found among the ancient ... More

This chapter considers how the idealization of the human body in Greek art, as defined by Winckelmann, fed the theory that physical beauty and racial perfection were to be found among the ancient Greeks. Concentrating on the printed work and lectures of Robert Knox in the 1840s and 1850s, it considers how views on racial theory where formed and disseminated as well as the implications of Knox's use of Greek sculpture. It then considers how links were made between the ancient Greeks and contemporary ‘races’, or ‘types of mankind’, such as Saxons in Britain, and how this related to various claims to ownership of the classical past. It finishes with a brief overview of the geneticist Francis Galton's attitude towards the ancient Greeks and how this fed his views on emigration and the wider idea of ‘Greater Britain’.Less

Politics and Patronage: Building a Career in London’s Medical Classrooms

Carin Berkowitz

in Charles Bell and the Anatomy of Reform

When Charles Bell moved to London in 1804, he knew no one in the city. In London, Bell worked to set up a private anatomy school on the model of his brother’s, he established himself in social and ... More

When Charles Bell moved to London in 1804, he knew no one in the city. In London, Bell worked to set up a private anatomy school on the model of his brother’s, he established himself in social and professional circles, and he courted patrons. This chapter follows these efforts to establish himself within scientific and medical circles and to build for himself a network of supporters. Bell began to establish ideas about systematizing medical education in these early years in London. He also attempted to create a space for himself in various communities that were connected to his classrooms, publishing on art (in his Essays on the Anatomy of Expression in Painting), surgery (in A System of Operative Surgery), and on the anatomy of the nerves. His research on the brain and nerves soon became Bell’s primary focus. His contribution to that field, as he began to develop it in those early years, would be to bring elegance and order to the brain and nerves, finding within their anatomy a rational system that would reflect the beauty of nature and appeal to natural philosophers and medical men alike.Less

Intelligence

Joaquín M. Fuster

in Cortex and Mind: Unifying Cognition

Among the five cognitive functions, intelligence is the most complex and the most difficult to define. The complexity derives from the close relationships between intelligence and all other four ... More

Among the five cognitive functions, intelligence is the most complex and the most difficult to define. The complexity derives from the close relationships between intelligence and all other four functions—perception, memory, attention, and language. All four contribute to intelligence, though each does it in a different way and to a varying degree, depending on the individual and the circumstances. The difficulty of defining intelligence derives from the almost infinite variety of its manifestations. Here it is defined as the ability to adjust by reasoning to new changes, to solve new problems, and to create valued new forms of action and expression. This definition is broad enough to reach into the biological roots of cognition and also to reach up to the heights of human achievement. The pertinent data from cognitive neuroscience indicate that intellectual performance can be best understood as the result of neuronal transactions between perceptual and executive networks of the cerebral cortex. This chapter discusses the development of intelligence, structural anatomy and functional anatomy of intelligence, reasoning, problem solving, decision making, and creative intelligence.Less