The Science of Survival
How do people survive extremes of heat, cold, depth and height? For the geneticist, inheritance is all. But for the physiologist, the answers lie at the extremes. This book explores the limits to human survival and the physiological adaptions which enable us to exist under such conditions. In man's battle for survival in the harshest of environments, the knowledge imparted by physiology, the "logic of life", is crucial. Man can only tolerate a limited range of environmental conditions, whereas other lifeforms thrive in the most intense conditions - in 100 degrees plus heat or many, many leagues under the sea in utter darkness or deep in the middle of rocks. What is this so? How does human life operate at the extremes?
The highest point on Earth, Mt Everest, happens to be the same height as the maximum point at which man can survive, just, unaided. And, in the same uncanny manner, you will find that 'life at the Extremes' just happens to be the most scintillating stimulating and revealing work of popular science to have appeared for some time.
