A Taste for Poison

A Taste for Poison PDF

Author: Neil Bradbury, Ph.D.

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2022-02-01

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 1250270766

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“A fascinating tale of poisons and poisonous deeds which both educates and entertains.” --Kathy Reichs A brilliant blend of science and crime, A TASTE FOR POISON reveals how eleven notorious poisons affect the body--through the murders in which they were used. As any reader of murder mysteries can tell you, poison is one of the most enduring—and popular—weapons of choice for a scheming murderer. It can be slipped into a drink, smeared onto the tip of an arrow or the handle of a door, even filtered through the air we breathe. But how exactly do these poisons work to break our bodies down, and what can we learn from the damage they inflict? In a fascinating blend of popular science, medical history, and true crime, Dr. Neil Bradbury explores this most morbidly captivating method of murder from a cellular level. Alongside real-life accounts of murderers and their crimes—some notorious, some forgotten, some still unsolved—are the equally compelling stories of the poisons involved: eleven molecules of death that work their way through the human body and, paradoxically, illuminate the way in which our bodies function. Drawn from historical records and current news headlines, A Taste for Poison weaves together the tales of spurned lovers, shady scientists, medical professionals and political assassins to show how the precise systems of the body can be impaired to lethal effect through the use of poison. From the deadly origins of the gin & tonic cocktail to the arsenic-laced wallpaper in Napoleon’s bedroom, A Taste for Poison leads readers on a riveting tour of the intricate, complex systems that keep us alive—or don’t.

Poison

Poison PDF

Author: Gail Bell

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2002-10-11

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 1429970758

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"Readers with a strong stomach will enjoy this unusual memoir laced with a natural history of poison." - Publishers Weekly Years after Dr. William Macbeth died, his ornate medicine case passed to his estranged son. Over the protests of his family, the son buried it deep in the ground, out of sight and out of reach. Then ten-years-old, Macbeth's granddaughter Gail Bell watched the mysterious case of elixirs arrive at her home. She watched her father treat it like a poison chalice. Only decades later would she understand why: the case concealed evidence of her family's deadly secret. In 1927, Macbeth was accused of poisoning two of his sons. He never stood trial. Bell, determined to discover how this "calm, warm, and caring" healer could become a cunning murderer--and evade detection--eventually uncovered the dark secrets that her father had tried to hide from the world. But as the unexpected twists of her investigation reveal, nothing is as straightforward as it seems. At the same time, she explores what the crime of poisoning reveals about humanity, through the perspectives of myth, history, fiction, and the great poison trials. A pharmacist by profession, and the granddaughter of a suspected poisoner by circumstance, she is perfectly placed to revisit the cases of Cleopatra, Emma Bovary, Napoleon's doctor, Harold Shipman, and Dr. Crippen, and she is equally well-suited to chronicle the devastating effects of poison's many forms, from hemlock and belladonna to arsenic and strychnine. Poison is at once a fascinating history of the science and sociology of poisoning, and a true, first-person account of one woman's struggle to understand its mysterious role in her own family's murderous history.

A Question of Pedigree

A Question of Pedigree PDF

Author: Frank Edwards

Publisher: Grub Street Publishers

Published: 2012-09-04

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 1908916710

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When competition at a British dog show turns deadly, it’s up to Inspector Yale to sniff out a killer in this whodunit perfect for Agatha Christie fans. For professional dog breeders across the United Kingdom, competition is everything. If your prized pooch wins Best in Show, you can fetch a fine price for her pups. Ambrose Graveney has long been a fixture on the qualifying circuit, hoping to make it to the ultimate contest, Crufts. But it becomes painfully clear that Ambrose won’t be moving on this season—or ever again, for that matter—when the old man’s lifeless body suddenly slumps over on the bench where he sits awaiting his entrant’s turn. Insp. Simon Yale is dispatched to investigate what initially appears to be a natural death. But Yale suspects something more sinister is afoot in this dog-eat-dog world full of desperate hopes and old grudges. At once an intriguing puzzle and a fascinating look inside the world of show dog competitions, Frank Edwards’s A Question of Pedigree will delight mystery lovers and dog fans alike.

How To Construct Your Intellectual Pedigree: A History Of Mentoring In Science

How To Construct Your Intellectual Pedigree: A History Of Mentoring In Science PDF

Author: Elof Axel Carlson

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2020-08-27

Total Pages: 349

ISBN-13: 9811215847

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This is a handbook that shows the reader how to construct an intellectual pedigree. It is also a history of science monograph because the completed intellectual pedigrees can be used individually or collectively to trace the influences of mentoring in the life sciences. The author uses Hermann Joseph Muller (1890-1967) (which includes his own intellectual pedigree) to show how knowledge was shifted from Italy to Germany and England, to France, and then to the American Colonies. Through Muller, the author goes in two directions, one leading to Huxley, Darwin, and Newton. The second leads to Agassiz, Malpighi, Borelli, and Galileo. The author also shows, from comparing 60 additional intellectual pedigrees, that about one third go to Newton, one third to Galileo and the rest to other icons of the past (e.g., Linnaeus, Lavoisier, Gay-Loussac, Leibniz). It shows how small was the pool of available scientists in the universities before the mid-19th century.This book will stimulate graduate students and faculty to construct their own intellectual pedigrees. It will also be of interest to historians and philosophers of science. The book discusses the role of mentoring, dividing this into inputs of intellectual development as well as outputs of development, using timelines arranged as circles. For each mentor, a brief account is given of that person's work and relation to the subject of the pedigree.