Extremes: Life, Death and the Limits of the Human Body. Kevin Fong

Author by : Kevin Fong
Languange Used : en
Release Date : 2013-03-14
Publisher by : Hachette UK

ISBN :

Description : In anaesthetist Dr Kevin Fong's television programmes he has often demonstrated the impact of extremes on the human body by using his own body as a 'guinea pig'. So Dr Fong is well placed to share his experience of the sheer audacity of medical practice at extreme physiological limits, where human life is balanced on a knife edge. Through gripping accounts of extraordinary events and pioneering medicine, Dr Fong explores how our body responds when tested by the extremes of heat and cold, vacuum and altitude, age and disease. He shows how science, technology and medicine have taken what was once lethal in the world and made it survivable. This is not only a book about medicine, but also about exploration in its broadest sense - and about how, by probing the very limits of our biology, we may ultimately return with a better appreciation of how our bodies work, of what life is, and what it means to be human....

Author by : Kevin Fong
Languange Used : en
Release Date : 2012-09-01
Publisher by :

ISBN :

Description : Extremes is a book about life: its fragility, its fractal beauty, and its resilience....

Author by : Kevin Fong, M.D.
Languange Used : en
Release Date : 2015-03-31
Publisher by : National Geographic Books

ISBN :

Description : Little more than one hundred years ago, maps of the world still boasted white space: places where no human had ever trod. Within a few short decades the most hostile of the world’s environments had all been conquered. Likewise, in the twentieth century, medicine transformed human life. Doctors took what was routinely fatal and made it survivable. As modernity brought us ever more into different kinds of extremis, doctors pushed the bounds of medical advances and human endurance. Extreme exploration challenged the body in ways that only the vanguard of science could answer. Doctors, scientists, and explorers all share a defining trait: they push on in the face of grim odds. Because of their extreme exploration we not only understand our physiology better; we have also made enormous strides in the science of healing. Drawing on his own experience as an anesthesiologist, intensive care expert, and NASA adviser, Dr. Kevin Fong examines how cuttingedge medicine pushes the envelope of human survival by studying the human body’s response when tested by physical extremes. Extreme Medicine explores different limits of endurance and the lens each offers on one of the systems of the body. The challenges of Arctic exploration created opportunities for breakthroughs in open heart surgery; battlefield doctors pioneered techniques for skin grafts, heart surgery, and trauma care; underwater and outer space exploration have revolutionized our understanding of breathing, gravity, and much more. Avant-garde medicine is fundamentally changing our ideas about the nature of life and death. Through astonishing accounts of extraordinary events and pioneering medicine, Fong illustrates the sheer audacity of medical practice at extreme limits, where human life is balanced on a knife’s edge. Extreme Medicine is a gripping debut about the science of healing, but also about exploration in its broadest sense—and about how, by probing the very limits of our biology, we may ultimately return with a better appreciation of how our bodies work, of what life is, and what it means to be human....

Author by : Kevin Fong
Languange Used : en
Release Date : 2025-03-06
Publisher by : Bodley Head

ISBN :

Description : Professor Kevin Fong flies with the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service, making split-second, life-or-death decisions in the most extreme circumstances. In this gripping blend of memoir and reportage, he confronts a disturbing truth: sometimes even the best trained expert does not know the right thing to do. Telling stories of astonishing skill and catastrophic error, he shows that our ability to move at ever greater speeds in ever greater safety comes with a bitter irony: when something goes wrong - as it must - reacting quickly and effectively enough is now beyond human capability. So what is to be done? Reflecting on his own dramatic experiences and those of war medics, pilots and surgeons, Fong considers the hidden dangers of our 'zero harm' culture and the virtues of decision-making models based on 'graceful failure', showing he we might come to terms with the mess and blur of real decisions made in realtime....

Author by : Kevin Fong
Languange Used : en
Release Date : 2025-03-06
Publisher by : Jonathan Cape

ISBN :

Description : Professor Kevin Fong was flying with the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service, making split-second, life-or-death decisions in the most extreme circumstances. Then he was seconded to the NHS's Covid-19 Strategy Unit, tasked with leading the fight against pandemic. In this gripping blend of memoir and reportage, he confronts a disturbing truth: the quest for 'zero harm' can prevent the saving of lives. Telling stories of astonishing skill and catastrophic error across medicine, aviation and space-flight, and reflecting on his own dramatic experiences as well as those of war medics, pilots and surgeons, Fong offers a visceral journey and a major new argument about the balance of safety and risk in the 21st century....

Author by : Dr Kevin Fong
Languange Used : en
Release Date : 2014-12-01
Publisher by :

ISBN :

Description : Drawing on his own experiences in trauma surgery as an anaesthetist and intensive care expert, 'Extremes' is Kevin Fong's account of the way cutting-edge medicine is pushing the envelope of human survival....

Author by : Rosi Braidotti
Languange Used : de
Release Date : 2014-05-15
Publisher by : Campus Verlag

ISBN :

Description : Genetik und künstliche Befruchtung, Robotik, Implantate und Computertechnologie haben nicht nur in der Science-Fiction Cyborgs, Zombies und Klone hervorgebracht. Auch in der Philosophie und in den Humanwissenschaften hat sich seit einigen Jahren eine lebendige Diskussion über die Grenzen und Möglichkeiten des Menschen angesichts moderner Technologien entwickelt. Rosi Braidotti unternimmt eine faszinierende Tour de Force vom Humanismus zum Zeitalter des Posthumanismus, in das technologischer Fortschritt und Kapitalismus uns katapultiert haben: Der humanistische Mensch – männlich, weiß, rational, selbstbewusst, eurozentrisch – ist nicht mehr Maß aller Dinge und hat heute, so Braidotti, einem nomadischen, nicht-individuellen Subjekt Platz gemacht. Vor der Folie postkolonialer und feministischer Theorie legt das Buch die Grundlage für eine neue Theorie dieses posthumanen Subjekts: Nicht mit sich selbst identisch, kollektiv und kosmopolitisch ist es vielfältig mit anderen Subjekten vernetzt – mit Menschen wie mit Tieren und Dingen. So birgt für Braidotti das Ende des Humanismus eine Utopie: Es eröffnet neue soziale Bindungen und Gemeinschaftlichkeit im globalen Maßstab....