The Miracle of Skin: Surface Matters

In The Skin Barrier, Peter M. Elias highlights the essential, life-sustaining role of human skin. Beyond its social and emotional significance, skin’s most critical function is conserving the body’s precious water. Without this protective barrier, humans would not survive, and all land-based animals—amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals—would face constant threats from dehydration. The book emphasizes that while people often focus on the aesthetic and social aspects of skin, its biological importance is fundamental to life itself.

Key Features

• Water Conservation: Explains how skin preserves body water, a crucial survival mechanism for terrestrial life.
• Evolutionary Adaptations: Describes how early humans adapted to the sun-saturated African savannah by developing sweat glands, losing hair, and evolving pigmentation to prevent dehydration and heat stress.
• Behavioral Implications: Highlights how the need to maintain hydration influenced not only physiology but also the behaviors of humans and other land-dwelling animals.
• Integrative Perspective: Combines biology, evolution, and environmental challenges to explain the critical importance of the skin barrier.

Product Details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge Scholars Publishing; 1st edition (June 17, 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1527584550
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1527584556