Customer Reviews
Very interesting - By: anonymous, 07 Jun 2007 
I enjoyed this book a lot. While it can be at times a tad complicated (but really, not often), it's full of interesting facts & anecdotes, with clear explanations of the science behind those. Recommended.
A fascinating subject made hard work of - By: Michelle, 17 May 2005 
As a scientist who spends a great deal of time at altitude &in the cold I had been wanting to read this book for a long time. Now that I am reading it, my interestin the subject will keep me going to the end, but will require almost super-human effort. This really is 'reading at the extremes'.
Maybe it's the fault of the editor & not the author. However the author set out to write a science book for the general reader but the book reads like the worst kind of science text book. Concepts & laws that I am already familiar are describedin a confusing & unclear manner.
Anecdotes are left hanging 'Tragedies still occur, however... One well-publicized disaster was that of Chris & Chrisy Rouse, a father & son team with considerable diving experience, who died of decompression sicknessin 1992 while exploring the wreck of a German U-boat.' That's all the author says. Not what happened or why, or went wrong & why. What the anecdote is illustrative of or what connects the anecdote to the preceding paragraph.
The science is sound, but presentedin such a muddled manner as to be over complicated & off putting. 'The lowest barometric pressure at which the normal oxygen concentration of the lungs (100 Torr) can be maintained when breathing pure oxygen is about 10,400 metres...' The paragraph sets out to tell us the lowest barometric pressure & gives us the answerin altitude. Useful information can, of course, be extrapolated from this butin a book written for the general reader I wouldn't expect to have to.
If you are medically qualified & want to begin to extend your knowledge & interest into this subject area then this book would be a good springboard for further reading. If you are a more general reader, I recommend you seek out an alternative.
Too Scientific for the Average Reader - By: , 04 Apr 2005 
I am currently "ploughing" my way through Life at the Extremes & have to say that I'm more than a little disappointed. This is not the first book of this type that I have read, & having thoroughly enjoyed the last one I bought Life at the Extremes looking forward to a 'dam good read' ... but this was not the case! Frances Ashcroft blinds us with too much science & her example story's are brief & skeletal! Having workedin medicine (albeit animals) for 10 years, I would say that I have a fairly confident knowledge of the workings of the body, yet still I'm finding Life at the Extremes a struggle. I would hate to have to read it knowing absolutely nothing ... it smacks of a Higher Biology text book!
If this subject interests you I would definately recommend that you read Extreme Survival by Dr Kenneth Kamler, this is far more understandably & his examples of outstanding feats of survival are full & interesting. A far more enjoyable read.
great stories and good science - By: , 30 Oct 2001 
I love this book.
It is a fascinating insight into how the human body copes with extremes of heat & cold, heights & depths, etc. Frances AShcroft explains how our biology copes with these extremes.
And it is not just the biology. The book is full of little stories. There are stories that make me squirm, & say "Stop! Don't tell me any more!" And then I just have to read the next one. And there are other stories that cause me to wonder, like the scientists who carry out experiments on themselves, experiments that lead to all sorts of suffering.
The great thing is this: while I am reading all these stories about life at the extremes, I am also absorbing a lot of basic information about how our bodies work normally, almost without realising I am learning. I was talking to someone about this book, & I started to rabbit away about what happensin an aircraft if it suffers explosive decompression - I was surprised at what I was able to tell my pals.
This book is full of wee stories, gruesome, outrageous, fascinating, inspiring.
It is a brilliant source of tales to tellin the pub.
It is very informative about human physiology, & also history.
To Paul & Shula who gave me this book for my birthday - thanks indeed. Its great.
Most enjoyable read; clear reasons for stressful situations - By: , 01 Sep 2000 Fascinating examples of stressful situationsin which humans may find themselves, with the physiological explanation presentedin a highly accessible fashion. Extremely well-written, very much for both non-scientists & scientists, but particularly useful for the sportsman or woman who would like to know why their body reacts as it does to a range of conditions such as high or low pressure, excess or paucity of oxygen, extreme heat or cold, & so on. Great fun!
