Reviews for Martindale: The Complete Drug Reference

The average rating for Martindale: The Complete Drug Reference based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-03-17 00:00:00 Joseph Streeval Constructed Climates, published in 2011, was a very relevant and informative read. Wilson's scientific background is evident in his writing, but the book is still understandable for a general audience. One basic aspect of the book that I really appreciated is the layout. Wilson takes a couple pages of text to introduce the scope of each chapter, and the rest of the chapter consists of one argument and study per two pages. Charts and graphs are on the left page, and text explaining the study is on the right. This design forces Wilson to be concise, and prevents him from being detailed beyond the reader's interest. It allows the reader to move quickly through the topics while simultaneously gaining an adequate understanding of the argument. This is impressive, considering the book addresses a wide range of arguments and studies. Wilson supplements the data with descriptions and examples to keep the reader from getting lost in the numbers, and for the most part, explains his points well. Sometimes the one-page-per-topic layout was somewhat frustrating, limiting Wilson from expanding upon some topics, or upon some unfamiliar references. Besides the issue of space, part of this issue likely stems from Wilson's extensive background in life science, which most readers do not share. However, for the most part, Wilson wrote in a manner that was fairly accessible to the average adult. Something that gave Wilson a lot of credibility, aside from his academic credentials, was his admittance that he was not presenting perfect solutions. In his conclusion, he recognized that urban open space has fairly little impact overall in carbon sequestration. A more effective way to reduce emissions and greenhouse gases, he wrote, would be to reduce the burning of fossil fuels. Vehicle emissions are the main source of emissions in cities, and reducing driving would be far more effective than increasing vegetation. Wilson writes 'even a naturally vegetated and sustainably harvested United States can't satisfy that demand,' referring to the massive gap between sequestering carbon and current emission levels. He also acknowledges the extreme complexity of population density and distribution with relation to land zoning and use. He discussed the problems that highly packed cities can create, such as increased temperatures and pollution but reasoned that the solution might not necessarily be to spread out the population. Doing so may reduce human impact in cities, but would increase it everywhere else. Therefore spreading out a population may actually be worse than keeping it contained within a city. It is very difficult to weigh the pros and cons of this issue, and Wilson barely scratched the surface. However the purpose of his book was not to solve urban problems, but to describe the relationship vegetation has with urban areas, and the scientific processes behind it, which Wilson accomplished well. I found many of Wilson's points and suggested practices to be very interesting. I had not heard of the concept of 'urban heat islands' before, and hadn't considered the potential effects that the physical structure of cities could have on temperature and water. Wilson developed the issues behind this concept very well, making urban heat islands one of the main focuses of his book. Urban heat islands chang the weather and precipitation levels of cities, as well as the ability of interior vegetation to transpire and successfully cool the area. These urban heat islands form because of a variety of factors, including increased population and emissions, as well as the vast presence of impervious surfaces such as concrete and asphalt. Impervious surfaces create urban heat islands by retaining and radiating heat amongst themselves also decrease water quality of nearby streams. Furthermore, stormwater runoff is often directed straight from sidewalks and roads into streams or drinking water reservoirs. Salt, fertilizers, other chemicals, and excess sediments do not pass through soil, which acts as a natural filtration system, and instead contaminate waters and raise toxicity levels. Not only can this affect the quality of our own drinking water, but it reduces the biodiversity of the streams as well. All in all, I felt that I learned a lot from Constructed Climates, as the information presented was very relevant and clearly written. I appreciated Wilson's scope of topics; it was interesting to read about the implications on various earth systems and components. Wilson accurately portrayed the complexity of the earth's systems and the effects and consequences of human interactions, providing plenty of food for thought.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-04-15 00:00:00 James Patrick I'm not sure I can take seriously and finish a book that includes, on its first page, the following statement: "Easy food, like easy sex, leads us down a path to waste and destruction of ourselves and the planet we live on." The author doesn't bother, in that preface to the second edition, to explain just what "easy food" or "easy sex" might mean, or why they (particularly the second) necessarily lead to "destruction," nor does the food=sex construction of the book seem particularly necessary for a discussion of food and disease. I'll give this one a try, as I usually like discussions of this and related topics, but I sincerely hope that the quality improves in the main body of the text. Note: after reading this a bit more, it's fairly interesting, but the language, author's weird perspectives, and constructions continue to get in the way of it being a really well-done book.