The Biology of Human Survival: Life and Death in Extreme Environments

by Claude A. Piantadosi

The range of environments in which people can survive is extensive, yet most of the natural world cannot support human life. The Biology of Human Survival identifies the key determinants of life or death in extreme environments from a physiologist's perspective, integrating modern concepts of stress, tolerance, and adaptation into explanations of life under Nature's most austere conditions. The book examines how individuals survive when faced with extremes of immersion, heat, cold or altitude, emphasizing the body's recognition of stress and the brain's role in optimizing physiological function in order to provide time to escape or to adapt. In illustrating how human biology adapts to extremes, the book also explains how we learn to cope by blending behavior and biology, first by trial and error, then by rigorous scientific observation, and finally by technological innovation. The book describes life-support technology and how it enables humans to enter once unendurable realm, from the depths of the ocean to the upper reaches of the atmosphere and beyond. Finally, it explores the role that advanced technology might play in special environments of the future, such as long journeys into space.

Genres: Nonfiction, Research, Science, Writing

280 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fairly dense, collegiate-level book. There’s a lot of biophysical and chemical math involved that was completely out of my experience. The sentence structure and vocabulary choices clearly show this to be at a higher-than-average reading level; this book would not necessarily be accessible to enjoyable for all adult readers. However, Piantadosi writes good illustrations and examples of principles and phenomena around all math formulae, and explains things rather well in general. The prose is dense, but the overall lengths of each chapter and section are surprisingly manageable. I learned a lot about things that I’d heard of but never really understood, as well as all kinds of new things about the working of the human body under a variety of conditions.

[Verena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense but enjoyable!

[sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

if you like really in depth scientific explanations of extreme survival (like me), you'll enjoy this. if you don't understand math or chemistry (like me), maybe skim over the super technical parts and enjoy the narrative examples.

[Stephanie Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dense, but fascinating, look at all the ways this beautiful planet could end us. I'll admit, my dyscalculia addled brain turned off when some of the chapters got math-heavy, but I did learn some cool new facts about human biology.

[solarium · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I wasn't already convinced to never get in a submarine or space ship this for sure would've sold me on that ideology.

[KR · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really interesting, and covered a wide range of topics in a level of detail that I appreciated; not so much detail as to be exhaustive (and exhausting), but enough to get in to the actual logistics of any given topic. There were some hanging grammatical structures and a few unclear sections, but for science writing that’s only a few steps away from an academic journal style, it still compares pretty favorably!

I read this for writing research and I found it helpful and idea-inspiring, though often not in the directions I expected.

[S M · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's always a joy to read something written by someone who clearly knows what they're talking about. While Piantadosi clearly wrote this with a more academic audience in mind (judging by the language used), the text remains clear and easy to follow, especially given the appropriate graphs. This book would make a great reference material for writers wishing to keep their stories realistic, otherwise it is an entertaining compendium of human (and some non-human!) responses to various biological stressors. My favorite part was learning about how well suited camels are to the desert.

[Kelsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Biology stuff mostly over my head/wasn't willing to put in effort to grasp it; enjoyed the case studies and ended up skimming for those towards the end. Interesting stuff.

[Boundingfeather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool discussion of how exactly humans die in extreme conditions. The discussions on dehydration specifically were so interesting especially the chapter on survival at sea. As someone who doesn't have a biology degree I found a lot of it very readable and understandable, but towards the end it did begin to lose me a bit. In general the final few chapters were the least interesting. I would've also preferred more detail in the front half, especially in the starvation section.