John K. Young

Sensations of hunger, thirst, sexual attraction, and love can dominate our thoughts to the exclusion of almost everything else, but until the last 10 years or so, the precise reasons why these passions arise have not been understood very well. We now know that these, and other drives like the urge to sleep, are controlled by a small portion of the brain called the hypothalamus. This book presents the latest information about how the brain controls our most basic drives. In a series of fascinating anecdotes, Young tells the tale of how scientists have discovered the role of the hypothalamus in our basic drives and in medical conditions in which these drives are drastically altered. Covering our need for food, water, sex, sleep, and other life essentials, he reveals the brain’s part in how we provide for each, and how in some cases, those needs can swing wildly out of control resulting in problems such as obesity, diabetes, insomnia, or narcolepsy. He shows how regulating body temperature can affect the lifespan, how the aging process affects sexual behavior, how empathy and love develop in relationships with family members or with love interests, and how all these functions and more can go awry. Like other science writers before him, Young illuminates even the complex inner workings of the brain in a way that anyone can understand, so that readers are treated to a tour of a tiny part of the brain that is responsible for so many fundamental aspects of life.

How the Brain Controls Our Passions

Hunger, Thirst, Sex, and Sleep

In this course, Howard University professor John K. Young looks at how the human body is constructed and how it can malfunction if not properly maintained. These lectures address not only the basic anatomical bones and organs that constitute the human form, but also the role each plays in the synchronized effort to keep us alive.

The Beauty of Form and Function

Human Anatomy

“You can tell a true war story if you just keep on telling it,” Tim O’Brien writes in The Things They Carried. Widely regarded as the most important novelist to come out of the American war in Viet Nam, O’Brien has kept on telling true war stories not only in narratives that cycle through multiple fictional and non-fictional versions of the war’s defining experiences, but also by rewriting those stories again and again. Key moments of revision extend from early drafts, to the initial appearance of selected chapters in magazines, across typescripts and page proofs for first editions, and through continuing post-publication variants in reprints. How to Revise a True War Story is the first book-length study of O’Brien’s archival papers at the University of Texas’s Harry Ransom Center. Drawing on extensive study of drafts and other prepublication materials, as well as the multiple published versions of O’Brien’s works, John K. Young tells the untold stories behind the production of such key texts as Going After Cacciato, The Things They Carried, and In the Lake of the Woods. By reading not just the texts that have been published, but also the versions they could have been, Young demonstrates the important choices O’Brien and his editors have made about how to represent the traumas of the war in Viet Nam. The result is a series of texts that refuse to settle into a finished or stable form, just as the stories they present insist on being told and retold in new and changing ways. In their lack of textual stability, these variants across different versions enact for O’Brien’s readers the kinds of narrative volatility that is key to the American literature emerging from the war in Viet Nam. Perhaps in this case, you can tell a true war story if you just keep on revising it.

Tim O'Brien's Process of Textual Production

How to Revise a True War Story

This book is intended to be an accessible introduction to the cell biology of mammalian cells for junior or senior undergraduate students who have already had an introduction to biological sciences. This engaging and stimulating text focuses on current controversies in cell biology. To solve these puzzles, the reader will learn how to answer a number of fundamental yet hard-hitting questions in the field. He or she is thus able to approach the subject with the right scientific attitude and build a firm foundation of understanding. Basic features of mammalian cells ? secretion, division, motility, cell-cell interactions ? are described using up-to-date references to the most current scientific literature. The text is well illustrated with clearly understandable diagrams and numerous micrographs of cells. This text will enable non-specialists to acquire a better understanding of current issues in mammalian cell biology.

Introduction to Cell Biology

Barb Karg

Over the centuries, Freemasons have claimed such illustrious personages as Mozart, Benjamin Franklin, and W.C Fields. This fascinating book shows the reasons why Freemasonry has wielded such influence--and why it may continue to do so today. Two color throughout.

Unlock the Secrets of This Ancient And Mysterious Society!

The Everything Freemasons Book

Barb Y. Karg

Much has been written about the Freemasons. This book examines the secret society's history, members, symbols, rituals, and myths.

Desentrane Los Misterios de Esta Antigua y Misteriosa Sociedad

El Gran Libro de la Masoneria

In this fascinating tour of the way our brains control our most basic drives, John Young takes a small part of the human anatomy and explains its role in the regulation of our basic needs and desires, including sex, sleep, thirst, hunger and more. Drawing on the latest research, he conveys even complex ideas in accessible and enjoyable fashion.

John K. Young

Books

Your next favorite book is out there