Human Physiology 15th Edition

Book Preface

The Story of the Fifteenth Edition
Stuart Fox, Ph.D., wrote the first edition (published 1983) to help students understand the concepts of human physiology, and this objective has remained the guiding principle through all of the subsequent editions. All editions have been lauded for their readability, the currency of the information, and the clarity of the presentation. The fifteenth edition continues this tradition by presenting human physiology in the most current, readable, and student-oriented way possible. This milestone edition is marked by a unique cover, the addition of a Digital Author, a new art program, and the updating of terminology and content.

It takes a village! To create this landmark fifteenth edition, Stuart had the support of Krista Rompolski as the Digital Author and a superb team at McGraw-Hill Education and MPS Limited. This team includes Michael Ivanov, Fran Simon, Andrea Eboh, Kelly Hart, Jessica Portz, Christina Nelson, Joan Weber, Angela FitzPatrick, Amy Reed, Jim Connely, Kristine Rellihan, Matt Backhaus, and Lori Hancock. We are all incredibly grateful to the many reviewers who provided their time and expertise to critically examine individual chapters and be Board of Advisor partners. These reviewers and advisors are listed on the pages that follow.

Cover
The cover is the most immediately apparent change for the fifteenth edition. For this edition, Bill Westwood’s cover art depicting the glomerular capillaries of the kidneys from the 1983 first edition of the book serves as the background, while the foreground features colorized scanning electron micrographs of blood cells. Westwood, a renowned biomedical illustrator, created all but one of the covers of the previous editions.

Digital Author
For the first time, this textbook has a Digital Author, Krista Rompolski, Ph.D.(Drexel University). Krista Rompolski is responsible for all of the digital content that supports the fifteenth edition, ensuring that it is specifically tailored to the needs of students and instructors who use the textbook.
As part of this effort, Krista collaborated closely with Stuart, carefully reading every line of the text and making numerous suggestions and comments, many of which were adopted. This partnership greatly aided the author in ensuring that the fifteenth edition became even more current, readable, and student friendly. As a result of Krista’s significant investment, the digital resources for the fifteenth edition are seamlessly integrated with the textbook content and will continue to be a uniquely useful tool for students and professors.

New Art Program
Every piece of art has been re-rendered for this landmark fifteenth edition! The goal was to make every figure more accurate, clear, vibrant, and readable. By comparing the fifteenth edition to previous editions, the eye-popping beauty of the art program is immediately apparent. Smaller changes, such as an updating of many anatomical terms, may not be as readily apparent, but will serve to better aid student learning.
The stunning, instructional figures will increase students’ enjoyment as they use this textbook, and will increase their motivation to learn the concepts covered in the course. An added pedagogical element is the “location” icon that appears on many figures. This icon serves to help students better integrate cellular and molecular processes with their locations in body organs.

Terminology and Content Updates
Stuart and Krista would like to extend special appreciation to Beth Kersten, State College of Florida, for her careful evaluation and contributions to making terminology update recommendations. Terminology was updated throughout to be consistent with what is used by industry professionals and to also be compliant with Terminologia Anatomica, Terminologia Histologica, Terminologia Embryologica, IUPAC Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry, and IUPAC Principles of Chemical Nomenclature.

As with all editions, the content updates made by Stuart are in line with the latest research and are presented with the breadth and depth that is appropriate for the undergraduate student of human physiology. In addition to the entirely new art program and updated terminology, approximately 31 new and 92 updated discussions have been integrated. A detailed list of these changes is listed on the pages that follow.