The discipline of physiology explores the mysteries of life. How is it possible that the same organism can live in a dangerous environment, where extreme ambient temperatures, gravitational forces, oxygen availability, or other abiotic factors imposeserious challenges to the maintenance of homeostasis? Clearly, our continued survival depends on our bodies being adaptive. We can explore these physiological adaptations through experiments of nature where evolution has shaped various strategies to meetenvironmental demands. Comparative physiologists have the world as their laboratories and the diversity of life as their experimental models. The fascination with life in all its forms relates to our striving for wellness and health. We are all subjectto stress, whether self-imposed or in response to our environment. Environmental physiologists are at the forefront of this search for physiological understanding of our response to stress. In Physiology, we publish review articles that explore a wide range of themes. In this issue, we comment on two of these themes: responding to our environment and striving for wellness.
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