Topix Media Lab
Topix Media Lab has now been recognized for two years in a row as one of five fastest growing U.S. Book publishers.
View Rights PortalTopix Media Lab has now been recognized for two years in a row as one of five fastest growing U.S. Book publishers.
View Rights PortalDo dogs belong with humans? Scientific accounts of dogs' 'species story,' in which contemporary dog-human relations are naturalised with reference to dogs' evolutionary becoming, suggest that they do. Dog politics dissects this story. This book offers a rich empirical analysis and critique of the development and consolidation of dogs' species story in science, asking what evidence exists to support it, and what practical consequences, for dogs, follow from it. It explores how this story is woven into broader scientific shifts in understandings of species, animals, and animal behaviours, and how such shifts were informed by and informed transformative political events, including slavery and colonialism, the Second World War and its aftermath, and the emergence of anti-racist movements in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The book pays particular attention to how species-thinking bears on 'race,' racism, and individuals.
From insects to fish as well as birds and primates: the use of tools is amazingly widespread in the animal kingdom. It’s a misnomer to presume that humans are distinguished by tool use and conscious capacity. So where is culture initiated? The biologist Peter-René Becker has evaluated numerous studies and cites plenty of evidence for the use of the hammer and anvil, lances, bait or sponges. Animals also use “tools as social implements”. Ultimately, the depth of man’s conscience singles him out from other animals.
This volume brings together scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds to discuss how women contributed to the making, pedagogy, institutionalisation and communication of scientific knowledge in the twentieth century, and to reflect on the theoretical and methodological challenges of documenting such hidden contributions. Featuring examples from China, former Czechoslovakia, Greece, Hungary, India, Japan, Romania, the United Kingdom and the United States, the contributors discuss women's engagement with science across different institutional and non-institutional sites, ranging from the laboratory and the school to the clinic, the home and the media. The volume moves beyond the professional scientist model to enlarge our understanding of women's participation in twentieth-century science and document the complex combination of factors that rendered such contributions (in)visible to contemporaries and future generations.
This book provides a powerful diagnosis of why the global governance of science struggles in the face of emerging powers. Through unpacking critical events in China and India over the past twenty years, it demonstrates that the 'subversiveness' assumed in the two countries' rise in the life sciences reflects many of the regulatory challenges that are shared worldwide. It points to a decolonial imperative for science governance to be responsive and effective in a cosmopolitan world. By highlighting epistemic injustice within contemporary science, the book extends theories of decolonisation.
Flea dermatitis in dogs, runny noses in cats, colic in horses – when our four-legged friends suffer, the owners suffer with them and want to find the best possible treatment. Alongside conventional medicine, natural remedies and homoeopathic treatments also offer opportunities for treating animals – but which of them have proved effective? An experienced veterinarian and alternative practitioner draws on his wealth of knowledge and explains ■ Typical clinical pictures with causes, symptoms and their diagnosis ■ Tried and tested proposed treatments from conventional medicine, homoeopathy, phytotherapy and other procedures ■ Basic principles, such as structure and function of organs, nerve and hormone systems, blood circulation Here the reader can quickly find the most effective method of treatment!
Living with water brings together sociologists, geographers, artists, writers and poets to explore the ways in which water binds, immerses and supports us. Drawing from international research on river crossings, boat dwelling, wild swimming, sea fishing, and drought impacts, and navigating urban waters, glacial lagoons, barrier reefs and disappearing tarns, the collection illuminates the ways that we live with and without water, and explores how we can think and write with water on land. Water offers a way of attending to emerging and enduring social and ecological concerns and making sense of them in lively and creative ways. By approaching Living with water from different disciplinary and methodological perspectives, and drawing on research from around the world, this collection opens up discussions that reinvigorate and renew previously landlocked debates. This book is relevant to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6, Clean water and sanitation
A considered investigation of a long-standing army base's impact on the British countryside. What is it like to live next door to a British Army base? Beyond the barracks provides an eye-opening account of the sprawling military presence on Salisbury Plain, drawing on a wide range of voices from both sides of the divide. Targeted for expansion under government plans to reorganise the UK's global defence estate, the Salisbury 'super garrison' offers a unique opportunity to explore the impact of the military footprint in a particular place. But this is no ordinary environment: as well as being the world-famous site of Stonehenge, the grasslands of Salisbury Plain are home to rare plants and wildlife. How does the army take responsibility for conserving this unique landscape as it trains young men and women to use lethal weapons? Are its claims that its presence is a positive for the environment anything more than propaganda? Beyond the barracks investigates these questions against the backdrop of a historic landscape inscribed with the legacy of perpetual war.
This book is a study of the ambitions, activities and achievements of Methodist missionaries in northern Burma from 1887-1966 and the expulsion of the last missionaries by Ne Win. The story is told through painstaking original research in archives which contain thousands of hitherto unpublished documents and eyewitness accounts meticulously recorded by the Methodist missionaries. This accessible study constitutes a significant contribution to a very little-known area of missionary history. Leigh pulls together the themes of conflict, politics and proselytisation in to a fascinating study of great breadth. The historical nuances of the relationship between religion and governance in Burma are traced in an accessible style. This book will appeal to those teaching or studying colonial and postcolonial history, Burmese politics, and the history of missionary work.
In times of the coronavirus pandemic many people have certainly condemned them, but Professor Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker has dedicated his life to researching them and is intrigued by viruses – even if sometimes he is keenly aware of their fatal effects. To mark his 80th birthday the biochemist describes the co-evolution and co-existence as well as the eternal ‘battle’ between humans and viruses. Winnacker takes up the cause of these ‘biological elements between animate and inanimate nature’ because they play an important role in fundamental research and genetic technology, and without them human beings would not be what they are.
Intoxicating? Intoxicating drugs are as old as mankind itself. Whether herbal or produced synthetically in a laboratory, their variety is almost limitless. And every year, more substances are added to the list. Niels Eckstein, who is a Professor of Drug Regulatory Affairs and Pharmacology and a long-standing expert in the narcotics scene, explores the abysses of the darknet and dealer hell, provides insider information, conducts interviews with dealers and producers, and offers profound insights into the bizarre, parallel world of intoxicating substances. At the same time, the author takes a thorough look at the chemistry of the different substance classes and the neurobiological basis of addiction. He also covers production and assesses the danger and addiction potential of designer drugs, BTM, NPS, medicinal drugs and doping substances. This book outlines the political and sociopolitical dimensions of the use of psychoactive substances, classifies them legally, describes risks, approaches, and help strategies, highlights routes out of drug problems and alternatives to drug prohibition, and comments on the opioid crisis in the United States and the „war on drugs.“ “I don‘t care how it‘s regulated: if he wants it and can pay for it, he gets it. If I get caught, I‘ll go to jail for a few years, whether it‘s for a kilo of coke, meph or testo, it doesn‘t matter.“ – In an interview with a dealer
We all know that audio engineering is more than just acronyms. But what do they all mean? This practical textbook is designed to meet the special needs of events technicians. The textbook stands out from the crowd because it is designed specifically with the university curriculum and professional needs in mind, making it not only an excellent companion in the classroom, but a useful reference for on the job as well. The author, himself an instructor for special events technicians, covers the ground from physical fundamentals of acoustics and electronics to setting up mixing consoles and sound systems, providing a multitude of useful tips without confusing the reader with extraneous details. A chapter on video technology rounds off the book. Sample calculations put the material in a practical context, and sample problems at the end of each chapter (with solutions in the appendix) help review what has been learned and inspire further thought. Entertaining guest essays provide a broader perspective.
Alternatives or supplements to conventional medicine for cats and dogs? Yes, homoeopathy provides holistic therapeutic approaches for our four-legged friends too! Whether they are suffering from anxiety, conjunctivitis, or a tick bite, this book describes the appropriate homoeopathic remedies. The author draws on her many years of experience as an animal healer and presents the most important symptoms and their treatment using homoeopathy.This handy paperback fits into a lab coat pocket and provides:- Basic information on homoeopathy for dogs and cats- Symptoms from A to Z- Characteristics of the most important single-remedy homoeopathic preparations
Where do bees get the wax for their honeycombs from? What does the bee dance mean? Why are bees important for us humans? General knowledge for primary school children! Who will be quiz king? The life of the little honeybee and its environment is full of surprises. Do you know your way around the native animal world? Discover their secrets, research how animals live and what distinguishes them. One quiz question – three possible answers. Plus all sorts of fascinating facts on the reverse page. For one or more players aged 6+.
"Sex sells" also applies to evolution. Without sex, there is no genetic variation, and without genetic variation, there is no natural selection and evolution. When it comes to sex and reproduction, all animals have things in common, but there are also many variations. In this game of the sexes, everything revolves around the conflicts of interest between females and males, the diversity of mating systems, matriarchal and patriarchal communities and the securing of paternity, whether through beauty, song and dance or violence.
Cinesonica: sounding film and video explores previously neglected and under-theorised aspects of film and video sound, drawing on detailed case study analyses of Hollywood cinema, art cinema, animated cartoons, and avant-garde film and video. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the soundtrack, and breaking away from the focus on narrative and signification that has tended to dominate the study of film sound, the book examines the way in which sound's materiality figures within audiovisual experience. Through a close examination of sound-image relations in a range of film and video forms and genres - including Warner Bros. cartoons, scratch video, and artist's film and video - Cinesonica recasts the film and video text as the meeting point of audio and visual materialities, cultural practices and perceptual activity. The interdisciplinary approach adopted by the book makes its discussion of sound of interest to those studying and working in a range of subject disciplines, including film studies, sound studies, sonic arts, cultural studies, music and art history.
What makes human beings human? Is it a life in society that makes us what we are? We often hear stories of persons who have survived in the wild without social contact or who were supposedly raised by wild animals. Kaspar Hauser is probably the most well-known example, but certainly not the only one. P. J. Blumenthal has taken up the hunt for the “wild man” Homo ferus on the boundary between man and animal.
Critical theory and Independent Living explores intersections between contemporary critical theory and disabled people's struggle for self-determination. The book highlights the affinities between the Independent Living movement and studies of epistemic injustice, biopower, and psychopower. It discusses in depth the activists' critical engagement with welfare-state paternalism, neoliberal marketisation, and familialism. This helps develop a pioneering comparison between various welfare regimes grounded in Independent Living advocacy. The book draws on the activism of disabled people from the European Network on Independent Living (ENIL) by developing case studies of the ENIL's campaigning for deinstitutionalisation and personal assistance. It is argued that this work helps rethink independence as a form of interdependence, and that this reframing is pivotal for critical theorising in the twenty-first century.
Three quarters of the world’s population live in cities. One in eight people lives in a metropolitan area. Megacities swallow up land, energy and resources – and at the same time are particularly hard hit by the current climate crisis that they fuel. However, in the metropolises of the overcrowded world plenty of committed people have heard the warning signals and establish networks to use the potential of cities to reorganize the participative and social-ecological activity that is urgently needed. The contributions to this Yearbook for Ecology focus on the present and future of cities from wide-ranging viewpoints and highlight perspectives for their creative transformation towards liveable sustainability.