Bücher von Deborah Blum

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Poision Squad and The Poisoner's Handbook tells the amazing story of William James's quest for empirical evidence of the spirit world What if a world-renowned philosopher and professor of psychiatry at Harvard suddenly announced he believed in ghosts? At the close of the nineteenth century, the illustrious William James led a determined scientific investigation into "unexplainable" incidences of clairvoyance and ghostly visitations. James and a small group of eminent scientists staked their reputations, their careers, even their sanity on one of the most extraordinary quests ever undertaken: to empirically prove the existence of ghosts, spirits, and psychic phenomena. What they pursued-and what they found-raises questions as fascinating today as they were then.

Go beyond the headlines and the hype to get the newest findings in the burgeoning field of gender studies. Drawing on disciplines that include evolutionary science, anthropology, animal behavior, neuroscience, psychology, and endocrinology, Deborah Blum explores matters ranging from the link between immunology and sex to male/female gossip styles. The results are intriguing, startling, and often very amusing. For instance, did you know that. . .• Male testosterone levels drop in happy marriages; scientists speculate that women may use monogamy to control male behavior• Young female children who are in day-care are apt to be more secure than those kept at home; young male children less so• Anthropologists classify Western societies as "mildly polygamous"The Los Angeles Times has called Sex on the Brain "superbly crafted science writing, graced by unusual compassion, wit, and intelligence, that forms an important addition to the literature of gender studies."

The use of primates in research is an ongoing controversy. In this book, Deborah Blum gives a human face to the often caustic debate between animal rights activists and the scientists who use animals as subjects in their research. Blum criss-crosses America to show us first-hand the issues and personalities involved.