Essentials of exercise physiology (2nd ed.): McArdle, W. D., Katch, F. L., and Katch, V. L.

Abstract

health-food store and compose a list of supplements that claim to enhance exercise performance. Identify the ingredients and their alleged effects. Which supplements purport to stimulate hormone release? Based on your knowledge of hormonal regulation and function, can any of these products deliver on their claims?" The inclusion of specific problems at the end of each chapter offers the possibility of using this text as an accompaniment to problem-based courses. Descriptions of practical aspects of exercise physiology (e.g. assessing cardio-respiratory fitness prior to the start of an exercise program) are explained and are linked with the scientific principles behind cardio-respiratory fitness; this helps the student comprehend the basics, apply the relevant laboratory aspects, and develop analytical skills to use in real-life situations. A new chapter, "Origins of exercise physiology: Foundations for the field of study," explains some principles behind basic research and the interpretation of data, e.g. how scientific hypotheses and theories are generated and how they might be proved or disproved. The principle of scientific review is explained, and the differences among theoretical, empirical, basic, and applied approaches to research, publication, and peer review are discussed. The layout, like that of the first edition, is organized into six sections: "Introduction to exercise physiology," "Nutri-tion and energy transfer," "The physiologic support systems ," "Exercise training, and adaptation in functional capacity ," "Factors affecting physiological function, energy transfer, and exercise performance," and "Optimizing body composition, aging, and health-related benefits." There is also a new chapter concentrating on clinical exercise physiology for health-related professionals who are seeking to design and understand the most beneficial exercise program for disease rehabilitation. Attention is given to the importance behind developing exercise regimes for individual needs with respect to age (the elderly require different programs from young adults and children) and diabetes , etc. The authors maintain a very straightforward attitude, debunking anecdotal or not well-proven hypotheses about sports physiology. For example, there is a section reviewing the alleged benefits of creatine supplementation. Certainly, the text is up-to-date, and this is particularly important in this area of science, where there have been many recent advances. The appendices also include a bibliography of sports science journals and a list of useful web sites should the reader require further information. These could also be used to point the student in the right direction for further researching the problem-based questions. This new edition is a welcome and readable text for sports physiologists and succeeds in incorporating many of the advances that have occurred in the last five years, putting them in the context of previous information as well as making use of several new tools to enhance student learning and comprehension of this exciting field. What It Means to Be 98% Chimpanzee: Apes, People, and Their Genes Marks, J.; University of California Press, 2002, 325 pp., ISBN 0-520-22615-1, $27.50. In recent months the news media have blared out the information that the chimpanzee genome is 98-99% identical to that of human beings. Interesting as this statement, the result of much technological sophistication, is, and impressively precise as it sounds, little information on the real basis for the science behind it and, more importantly, its interpretation and meaning, accompanied these announcements. Given that the exact number of genes in the human genome is still undetermined (because of uncertainty as to what is the gold standard by which a DNA sequence is to be categorized as a gene), and that the chimpanzee genome has not been sequenced and thus a direct comparison of the two is not yet possible, how is anyone (especially the general public, which is reputed to be very lacking in science education) to understand and put this numerical figure into its proper context? It is, after all, a difficult one to comprehend even for those with a scientific background. Besides, very little is really known as to how genotype is converted into phenotype, especially in the case of complex structures and processes. What is the purported 1-2% difference responsible for in our humanness or our nonchimpanzeeness? Obviously this factoid is loaded with far-reaching implications for our understanding of what constitutes human nature, not only biologically and evolutionarily but also socially, culturally, and in many other dimensions. Jonathan Marks is a well known molecular anthropologist who teaches at the University of North Carolina and has published extensively on science and race, behavioral genetics, genetics and folk heredity, and evolutionary anthropology. In this timely and stimulating book, he provides the background needed to make meaningful and to understand the implications of this precise percentage. In everyday language that is easily understood and often expressed with great intensity, he supplies a highly personal exposition of the many remarkable differences between chimpanzees and humans that the figure of 98-99% tends to obscure, and of many related matters. This book sheds much light on the role of anthropology (be it molecular, physical, evolutionary, etc.) visa -vis the science of genetics (which has acquired such prominence in contemporary culture and human biology) and the problems of biological categorization (which found its supreme expression in the now discarded idea of distinct human races). It discusses the differences between, and the limitations of, the available scientific knowledge on heredity and the popular wisdom about it ("folk heredity"), and the serious problems (and not only in Nazi Germany in the first half of the last century) that arise when scientists use their results in support of questionable social or political positions or view them in the hazy and skewed light of folk heredity. The role of social and political influences in molding the interpretation of the findings of many geneticists and other scientists, and the need for viewing with healthy skepticism their judgments, especially where the welfare and lives of people are concerned, are also presented.