Experimental Man: What One Man's Body Reveals about His Future, Your Health, and Our Toxic World

Why would an arguably normal, healthy individual submit himself to hundreds of blood tests, body scans, brain scans, and other medical tests? Why would this same seemingly robust specimen have his DNA, and the DNA of his family analyzed for genetically related diseases, as well as for genes that affect personality, intelligence, physical and mental abilities, and more then publish the results for all to see? If you've heard the term "guinea pig journalism" and wondered what exactly it meant, you are about to learn the definition in ways you'll never forget.

In Experimental Man, award-winning journalist, public radio correspondent, and bestselling science author David Ewing Duncan puts every aspect of his physical makeup under the microscope. His mission, as perhaps the most tested healthy person in history, is to discover what cutting-edge medical technology can tell him, and us, about our future health; the effects of living in a toxin-soaked world; and how genes, proteins, personal behavior, and an often-hostile environment interact within our bodies.

Duncan begins by eating two servings of large fish in a single day and watching his blood-mercury level nearly triple overnight. He is relieved to discover that he is among the lucky humans with a genetic proclivity for expelling most mercury in a month or so. He goes on to examine evidence of hundreds of chemical exposures that occurred in his childhood in Kansas and later in life, and their impact on his health. In the end, he receives startling news about how long he might live based on his profile and an alleged "longevity gene."

A series of brain scans explains why Duncan is a writer and not a London cabbie; provides insights into his moods and emotions; and, perhaps, reveals whether he is an atheist or a true believer, or prefers hip-hop or Beethoven but what can a brain scan tell him about consciousness and self-awareness?

Duncan is startled by a computer model that predicts he could have a heart attack by 2017, and nonplussed by a nutritionist who informs him his diet is not as healthy as he thinks. He investigates a bump on his kidney and provides a fascinating, organ-by-organ tour of himself as seen through a total body scan.

As a new age of personalized medicine dawns, these tests and more will soon be available to millions of people. But will knowing the intricate details of our physical condition now and in the future put our minds at ease or make us paranoid? Will this information be used against us at work and even in love? Experimental Man explores these and many other questions about health, medicine, and the nature of life in the twenty-first century.

The book Experimental Man is interactive with The Experimental Man Project Web site, which includes articles, news, a blog, tests you can take, and a complete download of David Ewing Duncan's data, presented section by section. Go to experimentalman.com.

1111394365
Experimental Man: What One Man's Body Reveals about His Future, Your Health, and Our Toxic World

Why would an arguably normal, healthy individual submit himself to hundreds of blood tests, body scans, brain scans, and other medical tests? Why would this same seemingly robust specimen have his DNA, and the DNA of his family analyzed for genetically related diseases, as well as for genes that affect personality, intelligence, physical and mental abilities, and more then publish the results for all to see? If you've heard the term "guinea pig journalism" and wondered what exactly it meant, you are about to learn the definition in ways you'll never forget.

In Experimental Man, award-winning journalist, public radio correspondent, and bestselling science author David Ewing Duncan puts every aspect of his physical makeup under the microscope. His mission, as perhaps the most tested healthy person in history, is to discover what cutting-edge medical technology can tell him, and us, about our future health; the effects of living in a toxin-soaked world; and how genes, proteins, personal behavior, and an often-hostile environment interact within our bodies.

Duncan begins by eating two servings of large fish in a single day and watching his blood-mercury level nearly triple overnight. He is relieved to discover that he is among the lucky humans with a genetic proclivity for expelling most mercury in a month or so. He goes on to examine evidence of hundreds of chemical exposures that occurred in his childhood in Kansas and later in life, and their impact on his health. In the end, he receives startling news about how long he might live based on his profile and an alleged "longevity gene."

A series of brain scans explains why Duncan is a writer and not a London cabbie; provides insights into his moods and emotions; and, perhaps, reveals whether he is an atheist or a true believer, or prefers hip-hop or Beethoven but what can a brain scan tell him about consciousness and self-awareness?

Duncan is startled by a computer model that predicts he could have a heart attack by 2017, and nonplussed by a nutritionist who informs him his diet is not as healthy as he thinks. He investigates a bump on his kidney and provides a fascinating, organ-by-organ tour of himself as seen through a total body scan.

As a new age of personalized medicine dawns, these tests and more will soon be available to millions of people. But will knowing the intricate details of our physical condition now and in the future put our minds at ease or make us paranoid? Will this information be used against us at work and even in love? Experimental Man explores these and many other questions about health, medicine, and the nature of life in the twenty-first century.

The book Experimental Man is interactive with The Experimental Man Project Web site, which includes articles, news, a blog, tests you can take, and a complete download of David Ewing Duncan's data, presented section by section. Go to experimentalman.com.

19.99 In Stock
Experimental Man: What One Man's Body Reveals about His Future, Your Health, and Our Toxic World

Experimental Man: What One Man's Body Reveals about His Future, Your Health, and Our Toxic World

by David Ewing Duncan
Experimental Man: What One Man's Body Reveals about His Future, Your Health, and Our Toxic World

Experimental Man: What One Man's Body Reveals about His Future, Your Health, and Our Toxic World

by David Ewing Duncan

eBook

$19.99 

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers


Overview

Why would an arguably normal, healthy individual submit himself to hundreds of blood tests, body scans, brain scans, and other medical tests? Why would this same seemingly robust specimen have his DNA, and the DNA of his family analyzed for genetically related diseases, as well as for genes that affect personality, intelligence, physical and mental abilities, and more then publish the results for all to see? If you've heard the term "guinea pig journalism" and wondered what exactly it meant, you are about to learn the definition in ways you'll never forget.

In Experimental Man, award-winning journalist, public radio correspondent, and bestselling science author David Ewing Duncan puts every aspect of his physical makeup under the microscope. His mission, as perhaps the most tested healthy person in history, is to discover what cutting-edge medical technology can tell him, and us, about our future health; the effects of living in a toxin-soaked world; and how genes, proteins, personal behavior, and an often-hostile environment interact within our bodies.

Duncan begins by eating two servings of large fish in a single day and watching his blood-mercury level nearly triple overnight. He is relieved to discover that he is among the lucky humans with a genetic proclivity for expelling most mercury in a month or so. He goes on to examine evidence of hundreds of chemical exposures that occurred in his childhood in Kansas and later in life, and their impact on his health. In the end, he receives startling news about how long he might live based on his profile and an alleged "longevity gene."

A series of brain scans explains why Duncan is a writer and not a London cabbie; provides insights into his moods and emotions; and, perhaps, reveals whether he is an atheist or a true believer, or prefers hip-hop or Beethoven but what can a brain scan tell him about consciousness and self-awareness?

Duncan is startled by a computer model that predicts he could have a heart attack by 2017, and nonplussed by a nutritionist who informs him his diet is not as healthy as he thinks. He investigates a bump on his kidney and provides a fascinating, organ-by-organ tour of himself as seen through a total body scan.

As a new age of personalized medicine dawns, these tests and more will soon be available to millions of people. But will knowing the intricate details of our physical condition now and in the future put our minds at ease or make us paranoid? Will this information be used against us at work and even in love? Experimental Man explores these and many other questions about health, medicine, and the nature of life in the twenty-first century.

The book Experimental Man is interactive with The Experimental Man Project Web site, which includes articles, news, a blog, tests you can take, and a complete download of David Ewing Duncan's data, presented section by section. Go to experimentalman.com.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781118031643
Publisher: Trade Paper Press
Publication date: 11/17/2010
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 384
File size: 4 MB

About the Author

DAVID EWING DUNCAN is the Chief Correspondent on public radio's Biotech Nation and a commentator on NPR's Morning Edition. He's a contributing editor and columnist for Conde Nast Portfolio, and a former contributing editor for Discover and Wired. He was a freelance producer and correspondent for ABC's Nightline and a correspondent with NOVA. He has written for National Geographic, Fortune, the Atlantic, Harper's, and many others. He's the author of several books, including Calendar, an international bestseller published in 19 languages. He is the Director of the Center for Life Science Policy at UC Berkeley and is a sought-after speaker. He has won numerous awards, including an AAAS Science Journalism Award.

Table of Contents

Experimental Man Index.

Introduction.

A fish and mercury story.

Your host.

Checkup with my internist (the plan and three rules).

1. GENES.

Not a genetic virgin.

Predicting the future.

I’m doomed. Or not.

A tale of two brothers.

My gene pool (mother, father, brother and daughter).

Rollo the Viking and me.

My dinosaur DNA.

You show me yours, I’ll show you mine.

Genes-‘r’ us.

Ready for prime time?

2. ENVIRONMENT.

Light my fire.

Three-thousand-mile trail of blood.

Idyllic childhood in Kansas, except for the toxic waste dump.

Hotspot on the Hudson.

Whose body burden?

Do my genes protect me?

Immortal cells bathed in mercury.

The rise of envirogenetics.

3. BRAIN.

The incredible shrinking brain.

Remembering the moon over the mountain, forget the blonde.

A brain half my age.

High anxiety and the saber-toothed editor.

Does my brain believe in God?

Greed, gambling, and why my brain loves Dodgeball, the movie.

Building a new superbrain.

Meta-neuroscience and the elusive whole.

4. BODY.

Prediction: Heart attack in 2017?

Raging Lipids.

Bumps on my kidneys. …oh no!

Life at 122 (the gene that regulates forever).

Epilogue: Eternity.

Experimental Children.

Acknowledgments.

Notes.

Glossary.

Experimental Man Online.

Index.

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews