Summary

Breathing is essential to human survival, as it gives us the necessary oxygen we need to live. Yet, the act of respiration is an involuntary process, something many people don't think about on a day-to-day basis. The Respiratory System explains how we get air into our lungs, how our bodies use that air, and the fundamental physical and biological principles underlying respiratory function. In addition, this essential title examines several respiratory diseases and how they affect the body as a whole.

Specifications

Full-color photographs and illustrations. Sidebars. Glossary. References. Further reading. Web sites. Index.

About the Author(s)

Susan Whittemore is a professor of biology at Keene State College in New Hampshire. She received her master’s degree from Utah State University and her Ph.D. in physiology from Dartmouth Medical School, where she also completed a postdoctoral program in molecular endocrinology. Whittemore teaches a wide range of biology courses for nonmajors. She was a recent recipient of a National Science Foundation grant that provided instrumentation for her work in molecular physiology, and she was a contributing author of Biological Sciences, an introductory biology text.

Introduction by Denton A. Cooley, M.D., President and Surgeon-in-Chief of the Texas Heart Institute, Clinical Professor of Surgery at the University of Texas Medical School, Houston, Texas