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Biology in Profile: A Guide to the Many Branches of Biology is a 20-chapter text that describes the profile and biological phenomena of selected branches of biology. Each chapter discusses the scope, growth areas, and specialties of the specific branch of biology. This book includes 20 branches of biology, such as zoology, botany, microbiology, physiology, ecology, ethology, psychology, parasitology, pharmacy, and pharmacology. Other branches covered include toxicology, nutrition, food science, endocrinology, immunology, genetics, virology, biophysics, biochemistry, and molecular biology. This book will be of value to students and other scientists who are not practicing biologists.

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.

Anti-Chance: A Reply to Monod's Chance and Necessity is a critique of Jacques Monod's essay on the natural philosophy of modern biology. It explores the concepts of chance and necessity, central themes of Monod's work, and specifically whether life is the result of coincidence of diverse independent chains of causality or, on the contrary, whether it obeys the more fundamental concept of chance as proposed by the Danish School of physicists. Questions such as the chance or the inevitability of it all, the sites and sizes of the knowledge gaps and as to whether they will be filled with physics and chemistry on the one hand or seasoned with metaphysics on the other, are examined. This book is comprised of 10 chapters and begins with reflections on biology and the argument that biology can only enrich itself by abandoning a teleological or finalist mode of thought. The discussion then turns to probabilities of chance, with emphasis on three different mechanisms of the intervention of chance. Subsequent chapters focus on the link between thermodynamics and biological order; the basis for a theoretical biology and 14 propositions to which the fundamental attributes of cells can be reduced; the molecular basis of instinct; and the relationship between speech and consciousness. The applicability of cybernetics to biological systems and their component metabolic cycles is also considered, along with the structure of chance. This monograph will be of interest to scientists in fields ranging from biology and natural philosophy to physics, chemistry, and physiology.

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.

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.