The Fourth History of Man

Summary

In the spirit of medieval writer Chaucer, all human activity lies within the artist’s scope, the History of Man Series uses medicine as a jumping off point to explore precisely that, all history, all science, all human activity since the beginning of time. The jumping off style of writing takes the reader, the listener into worlds unknown, always returning to base, only to jump off again. History of Man are stories and tales of nearly everything.

The Fourth History of Man continues with virus infections where The Third History of Man left off hashing-out those specks of genetic schmutz, covering the R-naught of those naughty infectious scoundrels. Some big hitters will be considered, from polio and the famous celebrities that had it, through fifty shades of hepatitis, rabies and the hair of the dog, and the monkey business of HIV and AIDS. Leaving viruses, we’ll delve into a study of parasites, including the parasite of all parasites, Sigourney Weaver’s alien. Opening up a can-of-worms we’ll launch a nerd rumble: who would win between Weaver’s Alien and Schwarzenegger’s Predator. Other topics include the sociology of a social death preceding the actual death, the sociology of sexual cannibalism, and the sociology of colors, not just of yellow fever, but of other emotions under the rainbow, hopefully not making you feel positively blue. On the science side we’ll flip the script on the infamous Krebs cycle fleeced of the boring jargon that usually flows from the lecture hall and our road will scrutinize nuclear bombs, nuclear footballs and weapons of mass destruction, the secret of Ondine’s curse, and lessons in global warming.