Search

Isotope is Biology is a six-chapter supplementary text that covers the properties and application of isotopes as labels or analytical tools in biological research. The first chapters deal with the physico-chemical properties and radioactivity of isotopes. These chapters also explore their synthesis, preparation, radiation decomposition, and decay of radioactivity. The succeeding chapter considers other aspects of isotopes, including their effect of health, disposal, spills, and laboratory use. Another chapter examines the chemical and biochemical behavior, natural abundance, and the chemical stability of isotopic compounds. The final chapters describe several isotopic methods, namely, isotope dilution, paper chromatography, and autoradiography, with emphasis on their application in biological studies. This book will be of value to biologists, and graduate and undergraduate biology students.

Dale's an Introduction to Social Biology, Fourth Edition deals with the more practical context of teaching modern science in the background of human activity. This book discusses life in the context of dynamic space and evolving time: from Paleontological times to evidence found in blood precipitin test, as well as proof from the variability of plants and animals. This text describes man as animal that needs to maintain its species through sex, inheritance, and reproduction. This book also addresses social hygiene, health, and the history of medicine including diagnostics, germ theory, recognition of vectors of diseases, new curative agents, hospitals, and public health measures. This text describes the function of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and emphasizes the importance of maintaining the balance of nature. This book discusses the social life of animals, human population, human food production, and offers some reason why man has been so successful in terms of survival. This book is intended to be used in general courses in the Sixth Form, for students or academicians connected with psychology, sociology, social biology, education, health education, or interdisciplinary fields.

A Synopsis of Biology summarizes the entire field of biology using a telegraphic style. The discussions are organized around seven themes: form and structure (morphology); functions (physiology); organism and environment (ecology); evolution and heredity (genetics); plant classification (systematic botany); animal classification (systematic zoology); and applications of biology (applied biology). Comprised of seven sections, this book begins with a detailed account of the morphology of living and non-living things, followed by an assessment of the origin of life. The reader is then introduced to reproduction (vegetative, sexual, and asexual); plant and animal tissues; seeds and seedlings; and metameric segmentation. Subsequent chapters explore matter and energy; organic and inorganic compounds; dermal excretion and thermo-regulation; periodicity and seasonal phenomena; and the life of rivers and lakes. The book also examines parasitism; mating and courtship; natural, artificial, and sexual selection; cultivation of plants; and domestication of animals. This monograph will be useful to research workers, degree students, and others interested in biology.

Current Aspects of Exobiology covers the philosophical aspects, scientific approach, and related research problems in exobiology. Most of the chapters are presented at the Current Research in Exobiology Symposium, held at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on February 26-28, 1963. This book is composed of 10 chapters and begins with an overview of the nature and occurrence of extraterrestrial living matter. The next chapters survey certain line of evidence concerning extraterrestrial life, including investigation of organo-chemical evolution, organic remains in meteorites, microorganisms of Middle Precambrian Age, and the survival capabilities and the performance of earth organisms in simulated extraterrestrial environments. These topics are followed by discussions on the interesting issues on the possibility of a primordial lunar life and the possibilities of life on mars. A chapter considers the various scientific efforts to detect life outside earth, including experiments on small, unmanned biological laboratories to the surfaces of the planets. Another chapter looks into the possibility of the accidental introduction of terrestrial microorganisms to other planets during the course of space exploration by unmanned spacecraft. The concluding chapters explore the potential of radio search for other intelligent species in space. Exobiologists and researchers in the related fields of exobiology who are interested in extraterrestrial life will find this book invaluable.

Survey of Biological Progress, Volume III explores the principles common to all biological areas that undergo major developments and modifications, including the embryo, botany, chromosome, insect behavior, hormones, and respiration. This volume is composed of six chapters, and begins with a presentation of the embryological concepts and the cellular components of the embryo. The next chapter deals with the trends in systematic botany of the vascular plants. Some of these trends apply equally well to nonvascular plants, as demonstrated by an upsurge of cytotaxonomic studies in the bryophytes, and the use of new techniques of importance to the systematist in such groups as the bacteria. These topics are followed by discussion on the cytologically detectable difference between the chromosome sets of related species, whether involving a difference in chromosome number or merely a change in the relative sequence of parts within a chromosome, as a cytotaxonomic difference. The remaining chapters describe the host-parasite interactions, the behavior of chemical trail-following and orientation to airborne odors of insects, the mechanism of action of hormones on cells, and the regulation of respiration rate. This book will be of value to undergraduate biology students.

Survey of Biological Progress, Volume II is an eight-chapter text that covers the advances in some biological subjects, including human genetics, plant morphogenesis, histochemistry, and plant reproduction. The opening chapter examines the kinetics of the effect of radiation on living systems. The succeeding chapters explore the developments in the field of human genetics and oceanography. These topics are followed by discussions on the regularity and the specific patterns exhibited in plant morphogenesis; the practical application of plant hormones in horticulture and agriculture; and the technical problems in histochemical studies. A chapter evaluates theoretical and experimental evidence on the fine structure of protoplasm. The final chapter looks into the environmental factors and physiological changes that can be associated with the production of sex structures of all kinds of plants. This book is of great value to biologists, geneticists, researchers, and biology teachers and students.

Progress in Theoretical Biology, Volume 2, brings together the significant and timely theoretical developments in particular areas of biology in a critical and synthetic manner. It is concerned with a field which has emerged as an identifiable subdiscipline of the biological sciences. This emergence and recognition signify that biological science has evolved from its initial stage of description and classification into the adolescence of transformation to the quantitative. The book's opening chapter develops a theory that uses a new generalization of statistical mechanics to provide a basis for understanding how the microscopic behavior of nonliving parts can generate the macroscopic appearance of a living aggregate. The subsequent chapters discuss theoretical methods in systematic and evolutionary studies; the theory of neural masses; the design of chemical reaction systems; cooperative processes in biological systems; and the organization of motor systems. This book is intended for the modern biological scientist as well as for the physical scientist who is inquisitive of the ways of the most complex of all processes.

Progress in Theoretical Biology, Volume 3 lays particular emphasis on ecology, the theory of learning systems, and the theory of the genetic code. The book discusses the ecosystem patterns in randomly fluctuating environments; the classical and instrumental learning by neural networks; and the genetic language. The text also describes psychophysical discrimination as well as the linear systems analysis of the calcium cycle in a forested watershed ecosystem. Biologists, ecologists, geneticists, zoologists, and cytologists will find the book invaluable.

Cybernetics and Development deals with the ways in which growing and developing biological systems control themselves during development. It is a preliminary attempt to apply some of the insights and techniques of cybernetics to the problem of understanding such development and its control. The book begins with a discussion of the nature of cybernetics and its methods. Separate chapters cover the use of cybernetics in the field of biological development; previous work in the area of cybernetics related to automata theory; and the application of information theory to development. Subsequent chapters present models of development. These include computer programs which continually replicate themselves and control the resulting development; growing automata nets as models of development; and a method that allows a system to control the relative sizes of its parts during development and afterwards during regeneration. This book provides enough background material to make it understandable both to the biologist with little knowledge of cybernetics and the cybernetician with no great knowledge of developmental biology.

Cork and the Cork Tree, Volume 4 provides the important general information about cork based on the author's 30 years of experience with cork, cork trees, and the cork industry. This book is organized into two main parts encompassing 15 chapters that specifically cover the planting and growing cork trees in the United States through the McManus Cork Project. This book presents first a brief history of cork, cork products, and the cork industry. The subsequent chapters deal with the geographical distribution, a description of the tree, its cultivation and the harvesting of the cork bark. These topics are followed by discussions on the botanical aspects of the cork tree, the characteristics of the tree, and the methods of its culture, as well as the physic-chemical properties of the cork. The concluding chapters focus on the manufacture and applications of cork products. This book will be of value to chemists and cork manufacturers.

Weather and Life: An Introduction to Biometeorology provides information pertinent to the interactions between and among the various parts of an organism-environment system. This book discusses the ways of analyzing information to permit an understanding of the whole and to allow intelligent management of the system. Organized into four sections encompassing 17 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the fundamental environmental factors of radiation, moisture, wind, and temperature and heat. This text then analyzes the environmental factors with a philosophical excursion into matters of data collection and instrumentation. Other chapters consider some of the more widely accepted biological concepts. This book discusses as well the problems of urban climate and air pollution. The final chapter deals with the advances in biometeorology in terms of routine weather observations, of statistical methods, and of high-speed computers. This book is a valuable resource for biometeorologists, meteorologists, biologists, ecologists, scientists, and plant physiologists.