There are many ways to define health. Health is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” [1, 2] This definition has recently been challenged by a team of international experts who suggested that health be defined as “the ability to adapt and …
The 1940s was probably the most dramatic and decisive decade of the 20th century. This volume explores the Second World War and the origins of the Cold War from the vantage point of two of the great powers of that era, Britain and the USA, and of their wartime leaders, Churchill and Roosevelt. It also looks at their chequered relations with Stalin and at how the Grand Alliance crumbled into an …
Early in the project, Sue Rider suggested I could embed audio-video clips in the book as an auxiliary medium to tell the southern policeman’s story, and Nicholas Farrelly, who was enthusiastic about this idea from the outset, was instrumental in bringing it to fruition. In late 2017, I spent two days in Nakhon Si Thammarat with Khun Tanavit and his HD Team Production cr…
The International Space Station offers a valuable platform and environment for cell biology investigations, novel discoveries and innovation in a microgravity environment. Areas of opportunity include tissue culture studies, tissue engineering research using 3-D tissue models, biopharmaceutical production, host microbe interactions, host-toxicology interactions, and host-drug sensitivity and re…
For decades, researchers have used the fruit fly Drosophila to probe the combined effects of microgravity and other conditions of spaceflight with exposure to ionizing radiation. Drosophila melanogaster provides a well-characterized model organism that is both genetically complex and relatively modest in its habitat and life support requirements. Microgravity exposure, a unique biological chall…
Buddhism is popularly regarded in the West as being a very peaceful religion, but this way by no means the image presented by the famous warrior monks of medieval Japan. From the 10th century onwards the great monastic foundations of Nara and Mount Hiei maintained private armies that terrified the courtiers and citizens of the capital with their religious and military power. Armed with long nag…
The Musical Heritage of Al-Andalus is a critical account of the history of Andalusian music in Iberia from the Islamic conquest of 711 to the final expulsion of the Moriscos (Spanish Muslims converted to Christianity) in the early 17th century. This volume presents the documentation that has come down to us, accompanied by critical and detailed analyses of the sources written in Arabic, Old Cat…
Academics Writing recounts how academic writing is changing in the contemporary university, transforming what it means to be an academic and how, as a society, we produce academic knowledge. Writing practices are changing as the academic profession itself is reconfigured through new forms of governance and accountability, increasing use of digital resources, and the internationalisation of high…
There are over 2 million domestic gardens (or 359,000 acres) in this country. Just imagine the difference it could make if 2 million gardens became biodiversity friendly! But we wouldn’t just be opening our gardens to nature for altruistic reasons. Gardening for Biodiversity also has advantages for human health and wellbeing. Research has shown that the more urbanised humans have become, the …
According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), there was a steady increase of fish catches until the middle of the 1990s when the catch began to level off (Fig. 1.1). Recent work by Watson and Pauly (2001) has shown that in reality the total marine catch of fish has been declining by some 10% a year since 1988. The apparent continued increase until the mid1990s was du…