Medical Biology

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells - taken without her knowledge - became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than 60 years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects.

Written by experts and authorities in the field and professionally narrated for easy listening, this crash course is a valuable tool both during school and when preparing for the USMLE, or if you're simply interested in the subject of cell biology and histology. The audio is focused and high-yield, covering the most important topics you might expect to learn in a typical medical school cell biology and histology course. Included are both capsule and detailed explanations of critical issues and topics you must know to master cell biology and histology.

Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their 12 children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins—aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the 10 Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic.

Futurologist Luna Lee presents possibilities for the future of medicine in the next 100 years.

Authored by experts and authorities in the field and professionally narrated for easy listening, this crash course is a valuable tool both during school and when preparing for the USMLE or if you’re simply interested in the subject of endocrinology. 

Aging - not cancer, not heart disease - is the underlying cause of most human death and suffering. The same cascade of biological changes that renders us wrinkled and gray also opens the door to dementia and disease. We work furiously to conquer each individual disease, but we never think to ask: Is aging itself necessary? Nature tells us it is not: There are tortoises and salamanders who are spry into old age and whose risk of dying is the same no matter how old they are.

The size of a clenched fist and the shape of a light bulb—with no less power and potential. Every person on Earth began inside a uterus, but how much do we really understand about the womb? Bringing together medical history, scientific discoveries, and journalistic exploration, Leah Hazard embarks on a journey in search of answers about the body’s most miraculous and contentious organ.

From birthdays to birth rates to how we perceive the passing of time, mathematical patterns shape our lives. But for those of us who left math behind in high school, the numbers and figures hurled at us as we go about our days can sometimes leave us scratching our heads, feeling as if we're fumbling through a mathematical minefield.

Scientists have long struggled to make pregnancy easier, safer, and more successful. In The Dance of Life, developmental and stem-cell biologist Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz takes us to the front lines of efforts to understand the creation of a human life. She has spent two decades unraveling the mysteries of development, as a simple fertilized egg becomes a complex human being of 40 trillion cells. Zernicka-Goetz's work is both incredibly practical and astonishingly vast.

Created by experts and authorities in the field and professionally narrated for easy listening, this crash course is a valuable tool both during school and when preparing for the USMLE, or if you're simply interested in obstetrics. The audio is focused and high yield, covering the most important topics you might expect to learn in a typical medical school obstetrics course. The material is accurate, up to date, and broken down into bite-sized sections. There is a Q&A and a key takeaways section following each topic to review questions commonly tested and drive home key points.

Developed by experienced professors and professionally narrated for easy listening, this course is a great way to explore the subject of college-level molecular biology. The audio is focused and high-yield, covering the most important topics you might expect to learn in a typical undergraduate molecular biology course.

Cystic fibrosis was once a mysterious disease that killed infants and children. Now it could be the key to healing millions with genetic diseases of every type - from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's to diabetes and sickle cell anemia. Told from the perspectives of the patients, families, physicians, scientists, and philanthropists fighting on the front lines, Breath from Salt is a remarkable story of unlikely scientific and medical firsts, of setbacks and successes, and of people who refused to give up hope....

Important and provocative, The Undead examines why even with the tools of advanced technology, what we think of as life and death, consciousness and nonconsciousness, is not exactly clear - and how this problem has been further complicated by the business of organ harvesting.

We have lost the war on cancer. We spend $150 billion each year treating it, yet - a few innovations notwithstanding - a patient with cancer is as likely to die of it as one was 50 years ago. Most new drugs add mere months to one's life at agonizing physical and financial cost. In The First Cell, Azra Raza offers a searing account of how both medicine and our society (mis)treats cancer, how we can do better, and why we must.

An estimated 10 percent of Americans are implanted with medical devices - like pacemakers, artificial hips, cardiac stents, etc. The overwhelming majority of high-risk implanted devices have never undergone a single clinical trial. The FDA lets device manufacturers decide whether to report serious complications or deaths that may have been caused by their products. Here, award-winning journalist Jeanne Lenzer brings these horrifying statistics to life through the story of one working-class man who, after his "cure" nearly kills him, ends up in a battle for justice.

Ignác Semmelweis is remembered for the now-commonplace notion that doctors must wash their hands before examining patients. In mid-19th century Vienna, however, this was a subversive idea. With deaths from childbed fever exploding, Semmelweis discovered that doctors themselves were spreading the disease. While his simple reforms worked immediately - childbed fever in Vienna all but disappeared - they brought down upon Semmelweis the wrath of the establishment, and led to his tragic end.

The word is out, and the fight is on for civilization to prove that cannabis, also known as marijuana, is the next superdrug. What fascinates me is our body's prebuilt system that feeds off of endocannabinoids, which are contained in plants such as the marijuana plant. I became interested with endocannabinoids because of their responsibility in creating the "runner's high" with which all long-distance and endurance athletes are quite familiar.

From the stethoscope to the clinical trial, this exploration of scientific inquiry celebrates the greatest inventions in medicine. Get to know the physicians, scientists, and other researchers responsible for these breakthroughs in medicine, and explore the ups, the downs, and the eureka moments that are science in action.

College sophomore Felicia Monroe has just made the biggest mistake of her life. While babysitting her neighbors' three-year-old son, she let her guard down...and he ran out of the house and down the street! Well, the boy's parents went ballistic on Felicia for her irresponsibility. One week later, the father tells Felicia that he has found a way for her to make it up to him. He needs a medical model for a biology class at the college she attends, and his regular model is unavailable. That means getting her clothes off to be posed and examined in front of a bunch of medical students!

With trusted expertise from Mayo Clinic, the Edge of Medicine series sets out to inspire and educate the next generation of young scientists by highlighting the medical breakthroughs of a diverse range of scientists and researchers. From the discovery of the double helix to mapping the human genome, this exploration of scientific inquiry celebrates the greatest developments to date in genetics. Get to know the physicians, scientists, and other researchers responsible for these breakthroughs in medicine, and explore the ups, the downs, and the eureka moments that are science in action.