Customer Reviews

Human Bones: A Scientific and Pictorial Investigation

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book would be perfect for any student of medicine or science.
It depicts the function and design of bones-throughout the body.
Many important facts about the anatomy of the body are depicted:
- cells repair damaged bone
- the inner ear is the origin of balance
- a child skull is greater than an adult proportionately
- the sacroiliac joints are mostly responsible for back pain
( Between the sacrum and pelvic bones , there are a few
millimeters of sliding masse at 1-2 degrees rotation )

- baby skull growth is driven by brain growth
- new bone growth is added at the edge of individual bones

The body utilizes oxygen , as follows: ( at rest rates)
- skin uses 1 milliwatt/gm.
- bone utilizes .2 mW/ gm.
- kidney utilizes 14 mW/ gm.
- muscle utilizes 3 mW/g
- brain uses 8 mW/ gm.

This work would be perfect for students of biology, anatomy,
medicine, physiology, pathology and medical engineering.
It is easy to understand and cost effective for the value of
the technical content contained.

Do you take your bones for granted? You won't any more, after reading this well-designed book. You'll embark on an extraordinary adventure into the usually invisble land of bones, You'll learn about their useful and asthetically beautiful design, and marvel at the astonishing capacity of each kind of bone to perform its specialized function. R. McNeil Alexander's knowledgeable text and Aaron Diskin's intense, beautiful and alive photographs link us to the ancient past (and to our inevitable futures!) and shows us the strength and fragility of the essential framework that sustains each one of us.

The text itself is good and covers the usual- a few case studies, the difference between races, bone development and disease... it even delves into the biological process of bone deposition etc- but the supplemental pictures on each page are beautiful. They have all kinds of specimens as well- a hydrocephalic skull, infant to adult developmental skulls, etc- it's really quite well done. And- I got it really cheap by buying from a 'used' vendor so the price plus such quality- excellent buy.

We purchased this book for our grandson who is age 13, in middle school. He had just re-broken his arm, same bone, same place. The book gives an excellent overview of bone development and bone health and also addresses the specifics that a more advanced student would demand. My husband, who is a physician, thought this was a thorough presentation both in content and relevant photos.

This book is a flip-view of the interior corpus that shook me to my core -- and that's where my bones are. If you were to make a Venn diagram comprising one circle for readers who collect delicate, playful and exquisite photography, and another circle for those with scientific curiosity in regard to our bewitching endoskeleton, this book would represent the intersection. Well done, Mssrs Alexander and Diskin. I anxiously await your next.

This book is interesting to the general public. The text is clear and informative and the pictures are spectacular. Even if you have never thought of bones as beautiful this book will change your perspective.
Lots of fun to read and gorgeous to look at.

Beautiful and interesting and actually artistically inspiring as well. A delight for those of us interested in bones.

This book is a disappointment and at $28.26, still over priced. In a technical sense, the book is rather weak and the photos more geared for the coffee table than any thing one might use in a scientific agenda.

The only diagram (page 9) a lean hand sketch of the entire human skeleton labeling all the bones is down played and consumes only 1/5th of a page or that equal to the typical white space left around a photo. Perhaps 1/10th of the photos are taken with an outdoors/back woods setting such as wild grasses and trees.

About the last 1/6th of the book tries to be anthropological and compare human ancestors and other animals to those of modern humans but with little if any substantive text to supplement the images. Here the voids and white spaces along with marginal artistic renderings of bones would have been better off had the space been supplanted with intellectual content.

The brief discussion on skeletal deformities of the foot in ancient China from foot bondage uses a photo (plate 76) with no scale reference and an image angle that is so similar to that of the image angle taken of a normal foot (plate 46) that the spatial nature of the small foot and it's deformity is difficult to ascertain.

The section on broken bones provides no images of a fractured bone other than a single image with a section missing from a skull, and not a break. The hand sketched diagrams used to depict the means in which a fracture could occur (page 121) are cartoonish and do not depict the true nature of a realistic bone fracture and instead depict a bone that appears more sawed off than fracturing. In real life, bones rarely fracture in a straight line.

The photo showing the overlay of the humerus bones (pages 154-155) on to the subject models used for the photo are not placed correctly limiting the value of the image other than for artistic purposes as are much of the other images in the book.

Even when given an opportunity to get "scientific" and address diseased elements visible in an image such as in the femoral line up photo (plate 35) the author misses the mark. Here was a perfect chance to note the clearly visible arthritic damage on the femoral head but again over looked by the author.

There are some nice photos where the bones are placed against a solid black back drop but those truly valuable images are limited in number and often do not make good use of the real estate on the page and tend to be encompassed by an inordinate about of wasted white space.

The author includes a lot of pages that others wise would not be included in the typical numbering method used by authors of similar books, giving the distinct and false impression that the book is filled with a greater wealth of information then it really is. In reality, about 1/8th of the book could be classified as decadent use of paper. As a side note, the introduction to the book starts on page 9.

Chapter one "living, growing bones" is mostly filed with images of deformed bones, talks very little about skeletal changes during growth and has only one images dedicated to that of a normal child skeleton. Plate 15 is just ridiculous with a plagiocephalic skull next to a sunflower blossom in bloom. I guess according to the author most bones are deformed.

Chapter 2 "the skull" has most of it's imaging dealing with just the jaw area and teeth. Little is talked about regarding the cranial and sinus cavities. To make matters worst, little if any of the text is transferable to a specific diagram or part of a diagram, as none of the nice photos have to their benefit an accompanying drawing or diagrams with lines and arrows indicating the points on the bones which correspond to subjects of conversation in the book.

In chapter 3 "arms and legs" it's surprising to see that the author did not go to the trouble of taking two images for the orientation photo of the leg bones on page 80 when earlier the author when to so much trouble of placing human bones in the woods for a "path less taken look".

I could go on, but that's enough as I think I've sent a fair image of how this book is put together, it's intended audience and the rigors involved. Hence my final comment, and that is, this books seems to reflect the authors true lean and desire in life, which is for photography and metaphor as appose to being driven by the disciplines of scientific rigor. If a substantive book on bones is what you are looking for then get a copy of "The Human Bone Manual" by White and Folkens and leave Human Bones by Alexander for the waiting or living room.

Minus one star for not living up to the main title ingredient "scientific".
Minus one star for content selection and how content is presented.
Minus half star for poor utilization of paper and space.
Minus half star for price and value.