New Book by Anthropologist Garnering Attention
Our skin isn't something we think about since…we all have it. But it is our biggest and most visible organ. It's also the title of a new book by Nina G. Jablonski, who is the Department of Anthropology's new head. Here are what reviewers are saying about Skin:
- "When you meet people, whether they're fully clothed on the street or scantily clad on the beach, the first part of their body that you see, smell, and perhaps touch is the skin. Skin is our largest and most visible organ, our personal poster board for decoration and advertisement. Nina Jablonski gives us the best and most fascinating account of everything that you might want to know about the packaging of our anatomy."—Jared Diamond, author of Collapse and Guns, Germs, and Steel
- "This fascinating book traces the long evolutionary history of our integument, revealing a whole host of essential skin functions that most of us have probably never even thought of."—Ian Tattersall, author of The Fossil Trail
- "An intriguing study of our body's most visible organ. I wish I'd written it myself."—Spencer Wells, author of The Journey of Man
- "A fascinating and comprehensive account of the biological and cultural aspects of human skin."—John Relethford, SUNY College at Oneonta
Before coming to Penn State, Nina Jablonski was Irvine Chair and Curator of Anthropology at the California Academy of Sciences. She edited The First Americans: The Pleistocene Colonization of the New World and The Origin and Diversification of Language (both UC Press), among other books. Her research on human skin has been featured in National Geographic, Scientific American, and other publications.
We will be writing a longer story on Dr. Jablonski's research in the coming months.
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