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English
Oxford University Press
08 January 2015
Living with the Stars tells the fascinating story of what truly makes the human body. The body that is with us all our lives is always changing. We are quite literally not who we were years, weeks, or even days ago: our cells die and are replaced by new ones at an astonishing pace. The entire body continually rebuilds itself, time and again, using the food and water that flow through us as fuel and as construction material. What persists over time is not fixed but merely a pattern in flux.

We rebuild using elements captured from our surroundings, and are thereby connected to animals and plants around us, and to the bacteria within us that help digest them, and to geological processes such as continental drift and volcanism here on Earth. We are also intimately linked to the Sun's nuclear furnace and to the solar wind, to collisions with asteroids and to the cycles of the birth of stars and their deaths in PHI15SCImic supernovae, and ultimately to the beginning of the universe. Our bodies are made of the burned out embers of stars that were released into the galaxy in massive explosions billions of years ago, mixed with atoms that formed only recently as ultrafast rays slammed into Earth's atmosphere. All of that is not just remote history but part of us now: our human body is inseparable from nature all around us and intertwined with the history of the universe.

By:   , , ,
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 224mm,  Width: 140mm,  Spine: 17mm
Weight:   382g
ISBN:   9780198727439
ISBN 10:   0198727437
Pages:   224
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
1: The Illusion of Permanence 2: Dying to Live 3: Countering Wear and Tear 4: Food for Thought 5: Basking in Solar Energy 6: The Human Elements 7: Cycles of Change 8: Infant Atoms 9: The Origin of Elements 10: Cosmic Rays and Galactic Ecology 11: Tails in the Wind 12: A Magnetic Heartbeat 13: Building a Home 14: Stardust in Flux

Iris Schrijver is a Professor of Pathology and Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is a physician with medical specialty training in both genetics and pathology, and she directs the Molecular Pathology laboratory at the Stanford Medical Center. This laboratory provides diagnostic testing for children and adults with inherited conditions and with cancers. Depending on the condition tested for, the testing helps to make a diagnosis, to establish the prognosis, to select the right treatment, and to monitor for recurrence of disease. Her research targets the causes of hereditary hearing loss and cystic fibrosis, and the development and application of optimal diagnostic methods. She has authored and edited original research articles, book chapters, and books. She is fascinated by all the connections between her world of DNA, Karel's universe, and the sheer multitude of links between them, so paramount to all aspects of life.

Reviews for Living with the Stars: How the Human Body is Connected to the Life Cycles of the Earth, the Planets, and the Stars

Living with the Stars is lively, engaging and insightful Fortean Times, Mark Greener A delightful romp through the awe-inspiring mysteries of outer and inner space by two leaders in these respective domains. Most people overlook the intricate interweaving between the two, yet it must exist since they evolved and are continually renewing themselves together.This book is truly a theory of everything! Wayne W. Grody, UCLA School of Medicine ... successfully unites the expertise of an astrophysicist and a physician who also does medical research to give a fresh perspective on life as a phenomenon, and on its place in the history and evolution of the Earth and beyond. Fred W. Taylor, University of Oxford


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