Search results for ""Author John Spicer""

Our future is closely tied to that of the variety of life on Earth, and yet there is no greater threat to it than us. From population explosions and habitat destruction to climate change and mass extinctions, John Spicer explores the causes and consequences of our biodiversity crisis. In this revised and updated edition, he examines how grave the situation has become over the past decade and outlines what we must do now to protect and preserve not just nature’s wonders but the essential services that biodiversity provides for us, seemingly for nothing.

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Increasingly, primary care professionals are faced with challenges in dealing with patients who have been affected by a genetic disorder, or whose family history is of concern. A basic understanding of clinical genetics and the role of the genetics centres leads to greater confidence in the management of these patients. This book is an ideal introduction to the principles of genetics. It outlines the key influences that will affect primary care including screening programmes, the role of genetics education (such as the RCGP Genetics Curriculum) and national guidelines. It provides information on basic clinical genetics and includes some of the more common clinical genetic conditions seen in primary care, such as cystic fibrosis, breast cancer and the haemoglobinopathies. It addresses some of the key ethical issues that may be faced including patient confidentiality, the ethics of reproductive genetic medicine and relevant medico-legal cases. The wider societal impact of genetics is also discussed. An introduction to the increasing impact of genetics into primary care, this book is invaluable for every primary healthcare professional.

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Ecologists have always believed, at least to a certain extent, that physiological mechanisms serve to underpin ecological patterns. However, their importance has traditionally been at best underestimated and at worst ignored, with physiological variation being dismissed as either an irrelevance or as random noise/error. Spicer and Gaston make a convincing argument that the precise physiology does matter! In contrast to previous works which have attempted to integrate ecology and physiology, Physiological Diversity adopts a completely different and more controversial approach in tackling the physiology first before moving on to consider the implications for ecology. This is timely given the recent and considerable interest in the mechanisms underlying ecological patterns. Indeed, many of these mechanisms are physiological. This textbook provides a contemporary summary of physiological diversity as it occurs at different hierarchical levels (individual, population, species etc.), and the implications of such diversity for ecology and, by implication, evolution. It reviews what is known of physiological diversity and in doing so exposes the reader to all the key works in the field. It also portrays many of these studies in a completely new light, thereby serving as an agenda for, and impetus to, the future study of physiological variation. Physiological Diversity will be of relevance to senior undergraduates, postgraduates and professional researchers in the fields of ecology, ecological physiology, ecotoxicology, environmental biology and conservation. The book spans both terrestrial and marine systems.

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