Evolution and Ecology of the Organism

Book Description

Discover important lessons learned about whole organism biology via microbial proteomics

This text provides an exhaustive analysis and presentation of current research in the field of microbial proteomics, with an emphasis on new developments and applications and future directions in research. The editors and authors show how and why the relative simplicity of microbes has made them attractive targets for extensive experimental manipulation in a quest for both improved disease prevention and treatment and an improved understanding of whole organism functional biology. In particular, the text demonstrates how microbial proteomic analyses can aid in drug discovery, including identification of new targets, novel diagnostic markers, and lead optimization.

Each chapter is written by one or more leading experts in the field and carefully edited to ensure a consistent and thorough approach throughout. Methods, technologies, and tools associated with the most promising approaches are stressed. Key topics covered include:

Microbial pathogenesis at the proteome level
Whole cell modeling
Structural proteomics and computational analysis
Biomolecular interactions
Physiological proteomics
Metabolic reconstruction using proteomics data

While presenting the practical utility of proteomics data, the text is also clear on the field's current limitations, pointing to areas where further investigation is needed.

Book Description

Fruit flies are "little people with wings" goes the saying in the scientific community, ever since the completion of the Human Genome Project and its revelations about the similarity amongst the genomes of different organisms. It is humbling that most signalling pathways which "define" humans are conserved in Drosophila, the common fruit fly.

Feed a fruit fly caffeine and it has trouble falling asleep; feed it antihistamines and it cannot stay awake. A C. elegans worm placed on the antidepressant flouxetine has increased serotonin levels in its tiny brain. Yeast treated with chemotherapeutics stop their cell division. Removal of a single gene from a mouse or zebrafish can cause the animals to develop Alzheimer’s disease or heart disease. These organisms are utilized as surrogates to investigate the function and design of complex human biological systems.

Advances in bioinformatics, proteomics, automation technologies and their application to model organism systems now occur on an industrial scale. The integration of model systems into the drug discovery process, the speed of the tools, and the in vivo validation data that these models can provide, will clearly help definition of disease biology and high-quality target validation. Enhanced target selection will lead to the more efficacious and less toxic therapeutic compounds of the future.

Leading experts in the field provide detailed accounts of model organism research that have impacted on specific therapeutic areas and they examine state-of-the-art applications of model systems, describing real life applications and their possible impact in the future.

This book will be of interest to geneticists, bioinformaticians, pharmacologists, molecular biologists and people working in the pharmaceutical industry, particularly genomics.

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Book Description

Ever since James Watson and Francis Crick proposed their double-helical structure of DNA in 1953, biology has been in the throes of a revolution in knowledge at the molecular level. This Schaum's Outline was written to help bring order and understanding to this rapidly expanding field. As a succinct overview of the subject, it will supplement any molecular biology course or provide the foundation needed for advanced courses. The text material is presented in a question and answer format; each concept is explained as an answer to a specific question. At the end of each chapter are objective questions of several kinds; multiple choice, true-false, fill-ins, and matching. These objective questions can be used to evaluate the extent to which the text material has been mastered, while also preparing the student for this kind of examination format.

Customer Reviews:

Insufficient as a stand-alone textbook.......2007-09-07

This book is ok just for revision purposes, not for a thorough review of the text

SCHAUM'S OUTLINES MOLECULAR AND CELL BIOLOGY.......2000-04-23

I consider molecular and cell biology an excellent review book for people who want an introduction of the field. Also it can help readers who want to refresh their knowledge. It is well organized, in fourteen different chapters, with multilple review questions and answers in each of them. I found the coverage of each chapter comprehensive. Objective questions at the end of each chapter helped to assess your level of understanding. I certainly recommend this book to people who study biological related sciences.

Dispersal Biology of Desert Plants (Adaptations of Desert Organisms)

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Dispersal Biology of Desert Plants (Adaptations of Desert Organisms)
Karen van Rheede van Oudtshoorn , and Margaretha W. van Rooyen
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 3540648860

Book Description

Dispersal processes have important effects on plant distribution and abundance. Although adaptations to long range dispersal (telechory) are by no means rare in desert plants, many desert plant species do not possess any features to promote dispersal (atelechory), while others have structures that hamper dispersal (antitelechory). The high frequency with which atelechorous and antitelechorous mechanisms are present in plants inhabiting arid areas indicates the importance of these adaptations. Among the benefits derived from these adaptations are the spreading of germination over time, the provision of suitable conditions for germination and subsequent seedling establishment, and the maintenance of a reservoir of available seeds (seed bank). This book describes the ways and means - anatomical, morphological and ecological - by which dispersal in desert plants has evolved to ensure the survival of these species in their harsh and unpredictable environment.

Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America (Organisms and Environments)

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Twilight of the Mammoths
Thought-provoking arguments and speculation
A hypothesis is just that...
A convincing argument
Onward with Pleistocene Park!

Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America (Organisms and Environments)
Paul S. Martin
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Ice Age Mammals of North America
The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time
Oceans Of Kansas: A Natural History Of The Western Interior Sea (Life of the Past)
Extinction: How Life on Earth Nearly Ended 250 Million Years Ago
Prehistoric America: A Journey through the Ice Age and Beyond

ASIN: 0520231414

Book Description

As recently as 11,000 years ago--"near time" to geologists--mammoths, mastodons, gomphotheres, ground sloths, giant armadillos, native camels and horses, the dire wolf, and many other large mammals roamed North America. In what has become one of science's greatest riddles, these large animals vanished in North and South America around the time humans arrived at the end of the last great ice age. Part paleontological adventure and part memoir, Twilight of the Mammoths presents in detail internationally renowned paleoecologist Paul Martin's widely discussed and debated "overkill" hypothesis to explain these mysterious megafauna extinctions. Taking us from Rampart Cave in the Grand Canyon, where he finds himself "chest deep in sloth dung," to other important fossil sites in Arizona and Chile, Martin's engaging book, written for a wide audience, uncovers our rich evolutionary legacy and shows why he has come to believe that the earliest Americans literally hunted these animals to death.
As he discusses the discoveries that brought him to this hypothesis, Martin relates many colorful stories and gives a rich overview of the field of paleontology as well as his own fascinating career. He explores the ramifications of the overkill hypothesis for similar extinctions worldwide and examines other explanations for the extinctions, including climate change. Martin's visionary thinking about our missing megafauna offers inspiration and a challenge for today's conservation efforts as he speculates on what we might do to remedy this situation--both in our thinking about what is "natural" and in the natural world itself.

Customer Reviews:

Twilight of the Mammoths.......2007-10-09

Paul Martin makes a strong arguement for human caused extinctions of ice-age mammals including the mammoths through human overkill hunting behavior. Insted of presenting an idea without support, Martin provides extensive documentation to support his position. However, as intriguing as his ideas about human involvement in the loss of ice-age and post ice-age mammals are, it is difficult to believe that humans spread to every nook and cranny of north, central and south America causing the extinction of every large mammal grouping present. Questions also arise regarding the type of animal they might have hunted versus other available animals. Why would early humans decide to hunt to extinction the giant bison when smaller and presumably less dangerous bison were available? Why would they possibly hunt the American lion, sabertooth tiger or dire wolves when there was, according to Martin, a wealth of animals available for food, skins and bone? Obviously, something happened toward the end of the last advance of continental ice sheets and the early peopling of the Americas, but I do not believe overkill is the sole cause of the disappearance of large mammals of the Americas. A combination of factors including human most likely is the cause of their loss.

Thought-provoking arguments and speculation .......2007-08-02

This is one of those books that may jolt the conventional wisdom implanted in your brain, especially if you are an environmentalist. First the negative...I thought the first 5 chapters, about one-half, of this book to be a bit boring, telling me more about sloth dung than I really wanted to know. But then the book picked up -- way up -- in interest.

The true "natural" environment of the United States, in Martin's view, existed 13,000 years ago before man got here and that it has been out of balance since. Martin comes down strong on the side that human beings were responsible for the extinction of many large mammals in the Americas about 13,000 years ago and his argument is persuasive. He also makes a strong case that human beings have lived in the Americas for little more than 13,000 years. This is a hot-button issue among archaeologists, but Martin's point is: if the Indians were here more than 13,000 years ago where are the signs of their presence? Not many, if any, have been found in a hundred years of looking.

His most interesting point and new to me was his proposals to re-people (wrong word, maybe "re-animate"?) the New World with representatives of the large mammals that became extinct. For example, why is that our government is trying to kill off the burros and wild horses in national parks? Horses originated in the Americas; they became extinct about 13,000 years ago. Why not allow them to reestablish themselves as a native species?

And then he really gets off on a speculative tangent, "rewilding America." Camels and Llamas lived in the United States until 13,000 thousand years ago; why not reintroduce them as native, wild species. Similarly rhinocerous, elephant, lion, tiger and other mammal species. To be sure the species of the mammals that became extinct are not exactly the same species that now live -- but close enough, in his opinion. An Asian elephant, he says, is closer genetically to extinct mammoths than it is to the African elephant.

Smallchief

A hypothesis is just that..........2007-02-18

Twilight Of The Mammoths by Paul S. Martin is a book I wanted to read because I wanted to see what the author had to say about the overkill idea. That Ice Age extinctions were caused by human invasion of the New World and not by germs and sudden change in the climate.
I have to say he did a good job not only of explaining and defending his hypothesis but at pointing out the weak points in the other theories of how the mass extinctions of the megamammals came about. The book is a solid read but somewhat dry. Lots of data on kill sites, pollen, climate changes and lots of dung.
He also takes a few chapters to talk about the idea rewilding the New World. In some ways that has already been going on so we may wish to take a controlling hand in the process.
Published in 2005 the information is up-to-date and hard to argue with. But who knows what will be discovered in the years to come?

A convincing argument.......2006-04-16

For years Professor Martin has been making a convincing case that mass extinctions and extirpations occured whenever people arrived at a new location, from Hawaii and New Zealand to North America and Wrangel Island. In the book he shows that arguments against human-caused die-offs do not hold up. What was interesting to me was his idea of reintroductions. It had never occured to me that it might be beneficial to the ecosystems to replace the extinct populations with new populations. I would love to see it happen but of course I'm not holding my breath. It is hard enough to convince people to live with pumas, despite the indisputable fact that you are far more likely to die in a collision with a deer than by getting eaten by a predator. But reading the book gave me a new perspective on some of our debates about wild areas. In particular, I will definately look at feral horses and donkeys in a new light.

Onward with Pleistocene Park!.......2006-02-28

"Twilight of the Mammoths" is a gem of a book that traces the career work of one of America's most distinguished ecologists: University of Arizona Emeritus, Paul Martin. Martin begins the book with a crash course in Pleistocene ecology: a who's who of magnificent megafauna, from mammoths to mylodon ground sloths - most of whom vanished suddenly some 13,000 years ago ("Near Time," according to Martin). Surely readers will be surprised by how little this awareness has penetrated even the ecologically schooled. Martin aims to correct that oversight, by bringing the dimension of time - near time and "deep time" - into ecology.

Paul Martin is best known for his "Overkill Hypothesis." The great beasts of Ice Age America went extinct, he maintains, not because of climate change but because of us - specifically, the first mammals to arrive on this continent, across the Bering Land Bridge, equipped with weapons that could kill at a distance. This scientific memoir does a splendid job of helping the reader step by step engage with that issue and to acquire a deep sense of the historical twists and turns of its reception. Along the way, we are treated to sensory rich descriptions and storytelling of events and experiences that shaped Martin's outlook. The author is not only a scientist but one of the world's great naturalists - feeling and tasting his way through the landscape. And he is an elegant and sensitive writer:

"It will come as no surprise," Martin writes, "that I define 'the last entire earth' differently than did Thoreau. Prehistorians find that any given land begins to lose its wildness not when the first Europeans arrive, but when the very first humans do. In the Americas true wilderness was more than 10,000 years gone by the time Columbus reached our shores. It disappeared with the megafauna, whose calls gave voice to the forests and prairies." (p. 183)

He continues, "A great many large animals, gifts of the evolutionary gods, were destroyed before anyone drew their images on bone or stone or on the walls of American caves."

Just before "Twilight of the Mammoths" was published, Paul Martin was among a dozen authors proposing in a commentary in the prestigious journal Nature that it is not enough to mourn the near-tiime passing of the great beasts. Rather, we must embark on a kind of "resurrection." ("Rewilding North America", Donlan et al., 18 August 2005).

Martin's final chapter, "Resurrection: The Past Is Future," brilliantly and movingly establishes the argument and begins to develop the details. But it all began thirty years ago, and with just one man as lonely advocate. "Twilight of the Mammoths" revisits the highlights of those years.

To begin: In the mid-1970s, Paul Martin publishes an outlandish proposal in Natural History Magazine: "Bring Back the Camel!" Martin is advocating a return of the camel to shrubby rangelands in the western United States - in part because overgrazing of grasses by horses and cattle would be ameliorated by the browsing prowess of camels (which prefer noxious shrubs to silica-rich grasses). But he is also urging the introduction of camels as a kind of "repatriation" of a type of animal that not only used to live on this continent but whose family originated right here.

Paul Martin was, thus, bringing an evolutionary understanding to range management and conservation biology. His proposal to bring back the camel was met by a resounding silence. As decades passed, Martin kept at it: arguing (to no avail) for officials at the Grand Canyon to look upon feral burros not as troublesome aliens but as suitable proxies for the native members of the horse family that lived throughout the western United States until going extinct just 13,000 years ago.

Meanwhile, this Pleistocene ecologist was authoring and co-authoring all sorts of technical (but, nevertheless, always engagingly written) scientific papers supporting the theory for which he is best known: Overkill.

Finally, in the late 1990s, Martin published an idea that made his camel and burro advocacy look tame: "Bring Back the Elephants!" he declared in Wild Earth Journal. Well, this time, somebody was listening - several somebodies, important somebodies in the realm of conservation biology (e.g., Michael Soule) and in environmental activism (Dave Foreman). The commentary they co-published in Nature is bringing an exciting and monumental expansion in the scope of conservation biology. "Twilight of the Mammoths" is the historical foundation.

"It could be argued," writes Martin, "that taxa have an inherent moral right to continue evolving free of human intervention, or even that Earth as a whole has a right to demonstrate its fullest possible evolutionary potential. It could be argued that, as the species responsible for the extinction of so many taxa, humans have a corresponding responsibility to attempt their restoration when feasible. Like all sweeping philosophical and ethical arguments, these are open to intense debate." (p. 202)

Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity (Organisms and Environments)

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A wonderfully comprehensive overview of an amazing group
Pianka and Vitt's "Lizards" a remarkable contribution

Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity (Organisms and Environments)
Eric R. Pianka
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Snakes: The Evolution of Mystery in Nature
Biology of Amphibians
Varanoid Lizards of the World
Herpetology, Third Edition
Turtles, Tortoises and Terrapins: Survivors in Armor

ASIN: 0520248473

Book Description

From tiny to gigantic, from drab to remarkably beautiful, from harmless to venomous, lizards are spectacular products of natural selection. This book, lavishly illustrated with color photographs, is the first comprehensive reference on lizards around the world. Accessible, scientifically up-to-date, and written with contagious enthusiasm for the subject, Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity covers species evolution, diversity, ecology, and biology. Eric R. Pianka and Laurie J. Vitt have studied and photographed members of almost all lizard families worldwide, and they bring to the book a deep knowledge based on extensive firsthand experience with the animals in their natural habitats.
Part One explores lizard lifestyles, answering such questions as why lizards are active when they are, why they behave as they do, how they avoid predators, why they eat what they eat, and how they reproduce and socialize. In Part Two the authors take us on a fascinating tour of the world's manifold lizard species, beginning with iguanians, an evolutionary group that includes some of the most bizarre lizards, the true chameleons of Africa and Madagascar. We also meet the glass lizard, able to break its tail into many highly motile pieces to distract a predator from its body; lizards that can run across water; and limbless lizards, such as snakes. Part Three gives an unprecedented global view of evolutionary trends that have shaped present-day lizard communities and considers the impact of humans on their future.
A definitive resource containing many entertaining anecdotes, this magnificent book opens a new window to the natural world and the evolution of life on earth.

Customer Reviews:

A wonderfully comprehensive overview of an amazing group.......2005-02-16

Without a doubt, this book is the most comprehensive overview of lizard evolution and ecology, available on the market today. Pianka & Vitt take readers on a tour through the many aspects of the lacertilian suborder. In the process, they show one how incredibly useful lizards have been for science.

The book is broken up into three sections. The first section gives an overview of lizards in general. It goes over the basic anatomy, and the distinct differences between the three main lizard groups (Iguania, Gekkota & Autarchoglossa). The second section goes more in depth about each major group. It gives a breakdown of all the major families, and even goes so far as to explain the different genera in each. The final section takes the reader through a brief history of the squamata. It explains their evolution throughout the Mesozoic, and ending with a chapter on relationship of lizards with people.

The appendix, at the end, gives a taxonomic summary of all the lizard genera known for each family; along with a total species count. While this is already a bit out of date (sad fate for all published material dealing with taxonomy), it is a nice addition.

The chapter on lizards and humans, has a nice section talking about lizards as pets. In the past, herpetologists have often frowned on the keeping of lizards as pets. Pianka & Vitt considered doing the same. Yet, as they mention: "We would be hypocrites if we did." They realize that most up and coming (and many professional) herpetologists/paleontologists, keep/kept lizards as pets. Herpetoculture is here to stay. As such, it makes more sense to learn the most one can about the animal they intend to keep. Reading words of acceptance from those in the field, is always an encouraging thing to see.

Of course, not everything about the book is perfect. I did have some minor gripes with it.

For starters, I took minor issue with the treatment of the three main lizard groups. In particular, the treatment of Iguanians compared to the scleroglossans. The scleroglossan lizards are often exalted above the iguanians, at the latter's expense. I can understand Pianka & Vitt's reasoning behind this. Scleroglossa make up the majority of living lacertilians, yet remain the least studied group of lizards out there. In that sense, I can't blame the authors for wanting to put more emphasis on this group. I just wish that it didn't appear to be at the expense of the iguanians. It's not done all that often, and it's never intentional, but every once in a while, a comment is made on the archaic nature of iguanians that tends to make them out as sounding inferior.

A neat thing about the second part of the book, is that Pianka & Vitt do explain the meaning behind many of the genus names. Unfortunately, they don't do it for all of them. This wouldn't be so troublesome if it didn't happen so randomly. For instance, in the beginning of the agamid descriptions, a definition for each genus name is given. Yet at, roughly, the last third of the section, the definitions just stop. It remains this way until well into Iguanidae (a quick blurb at Leiocephalinae) before disappearing again. Gekkotans get a brief, but acute, set of definitions (done as an example of how many are named after their toes), with some other definitions sprinkled in throughout the rest of the chapter. It continues like this throughout the rest of this section. As such, it leaves readers such as myself (who enjoy the meanings behind the names) left wanting more.

Finally, the last real gripe I have about the book is in respect to the trend, in recent years, to apply cladistic methods to classification. Throughout the book, mentions are made on the monophyly of one group vs. the paraphyly of another. That in itself, is not bad, but when it interferes with classification, it becomes an annoyance. One area in particular, is the way in which snakes are handled. The group, itself, is descended from a lizard ancestor. Yet, snakes are still classified as a separate collection of squamates; which is fine (the same happens with mammals and therapsids, among other examples). My problem with the book, is that the authors feel this need to mention how "snakes are lizards too." It's pounded into one's head at the beginning, and towards the end of the book. Yet, the snakes themselves, are hardly ever mentioned. There is no section of the various families of snakes out there. Nor any real mention of their various life histories. So, I'm left wondering: Why bother mentioning the "snakes are lizards too" bit? If one is going to insist of abiding by the cladistic paradigm in classification, then one should follow through with it.

With that said, please keep in mind that I do consider all of these to be minor gripes. The book is still a must read for anyone with more than just a passing interest in this amazing group of animals, and the author's chilling take on the status of our planet (last section of the final chapter) is another must read for any young biologist, preparing to enter the field.

Highly recommended.

Pianka and Vitt's "Lizards" a remarkable contribution.......2004-02-26

This book is truly amazing! As a scientist, I have read hundreds of works, but never have I encountered a better combination of scientific rigor coupled with what one might call, popular appeal. The authors have basically provided the contribution of record on lizard biology, while simulataneously producing one of the most interesting coffee table "thumb-throughs" that one could imagine. First the biological rigor. Pianka and Vitt break the book into three sections, very appropriately I believe, beginning with lizard behavior--evolution, life history, context. These seven chapters lead naturally to a second section, six chapters devoted to lizard diversity. Not anatomical or taxonomical hell at all, but brilliantly protrayed, ecologically situated depiction of form and function, from iguanas to dragons. The third section ties together the ethology, the diversity of genera, as a well articulated synthesis. In so doing in this concluding synthesis, the authors have managed to write a tutorial that is extremely valuable as a stand alone study plan for teaching evolution and biology to students of just about any level of sophistication. Yes, the book provides comprehensive documentation, references, and taxonomic details--it is a remarkable scientific work. But it is one that can't be put down--the authors even share their personal histories of interest, and they embed numberous "so what? boxes". I found the professional quality photo's to merit review themselves as a contribution to photography. In fact, after walking through the habitat-borne illustrations, I felt that I had spent an eye-opening day with these creatures. "Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity" is a must for biologists, and a gotta have for anyone interested in creatures. Harry Greene's foreward claim that the book is "a survey of unprecedented depth and breadth" is classic understatement.

The Rainbow and the Worm: The Physics of Organisms

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Both crazy and great
How a living cell overcomes constraints of the Second law of thermodynamics.
A new look at life from an untraditional scientist
A Tough Hike Over Worthy Terrain
Misguided Physics applied to Biology

The Rainbow and the Worm: The Physics of Organisms
Mae-Wan Ho
Manufacturer: World Scientific Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Biophysics | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

Extracellular Matrix and Ground Regulation: Basis for a Holistic Biological Medicine
Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis
Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human Performance (Energy Medicine in Therapeutics & Human Performance)
The Hidden Domain: Home of the Quantum Wave Function, Nature's Creative Source
How the Leopard Changed Its Spots : The Evolution of Complexity

ASIN: 9810234279

Book Description

This highly unusual book is a serious inquiry into Schrödinger's question, "What is life?", and at the same time a celebration of life itself. It takes the reader on a voyage of discovery through many areas of contemporary physics, from non-equilibrium thermodynamics and quantum optics to liquid crystals and fractals, all necessary for illuminating the problem of life. In the process, the reader is treated to a rare and exquisite view of the organism, gaining novel insights, not only into the physics but also into "the poetry and meaning of being alive". This book is intended for all who love the subject.

Customer Reviews:

Both crazy and great.......2007-08-19

While Ho pays considerable homage to Erwin Schrodigner's "What Is Life?", The Rainbow and the Worm is better seem as a revision of William James Sidis' brilliant "The Animate and the Inanimate". Much of Ho's reformulation (or reinterpretation really) of the Second Law of Thermodynamics draws directly from the work of Sidis. And, in fact, the central question of What Is Life? related to this underpins both works. While she never addresses Sidis' theory of reversability or positive and negative zones in space, she does explicate Life in the same manner of a. excitability, b. COP > 1, and c. a teleological "half-law" 0 = < Delta S < infinity (with the other half being -inf < dS = < 0). Much as Kant tells us we wear "cause colored glasses", Ho tells us that we wear "entropy colored glasses" so to speak. I actually belive Sidis does a better job of explaining this concept however. She proceeds to recast entropy and the "arrow of time" as decoherence and modernizes Sidis' different rates of time idea (which, incidentally, appears whole in an epsiode of the original Star Trek) as fractal space-time. While she does not address this issue, a continuous but nondifferentiable time is the only solution to Zeno's Paradox as well. Mae-Wan Ho is as much a process philosopher as she is a biophysicist. This is a work that has just as many implications for social science as it does the "hard" sciences, a topic Ho has expounded on at some length in her subsequent work and writings. It is an important point that the social science significance and findings are no less "rigorous" than the physics involved. I suggest reading The Inanimate and the Animate first as well as the works of Henri Louis Bergson (particularly Time and Free Will). Ho wears her influences on her sleeve in this respect, and both men's thinking will be further elucidated by Ho's work as well as simultaneously helping to elucidate her own elaboration. In a word, brilliant; one of the most consequential works of our day. I only wish she had pushed the envelope of Sidis and Bergson even more than she does -- so much remains to be explored and expanded upon.

How a living cell overcomes constraints of the Second law of thermodynamics........2007-05-18

This book is not for the faint hearted! It requires an undergraduate level of thermodynamics, and some working knowledge of biology, and laws of relativity and quantum physics. The author has done her best to write this book to a general reader about physics and biology of life; a monotonous and tedious job to describe in a book of 250 pages. She is influenced by the work of celebrated physicist Erwin Schrodinger and his passion for understanding life. The reader can see Schrodinger's influence throughout this book. Chapter 2 to 6 deals with Schrödinger's concept in explaining how a living cell exports entropy in order to maintain its own entropy at a low level or near zero there by circumventing the constraints of Second law of thermodynamics.

In the second half of the book the author explores various physical and chemical concepts to show how nature keeps cellular entropy production to a minimum. First, the author discusses how the energy transductions in living cells occur, and she determines that heat transfer is not the major form of energy transduction. The biomacromolecules are setup within the cell to near solid state or liquid crystalline like state such that it promotes synchronicity and coherence through electric, electromagnetic and electro mechanical interactions, which are primary source for energy. Coupled electron transfer reactions and other cyclic process that occur in a nested space - time organization within the cell helps minimize entropy since, for a coupled molecular process the entropy production is zero.

Intermolecular dipolar interactions among membrane bound proteins/enzymes, and nucleic acids which act as biological semiconductor devices; and quantum tunneling operate in many electron and proton transfer proteins. DNA and RNA are large dielectric molecules that can sustain coherent excited sates. In chapter 8 - 10 the importance of coherent process that removes biochemical processes away from thermodynamic equilibrium by energy flow have been discussed. The operation of quantum coherence, a coherent state that maximizes both global cohesion and local freedom such that micro domains and nested compartments within the cytosol or nucleus or membrane right down to a single biomacromolecules all functioning autonomously doing different things and at different rates generating flow patterns yet all coupled together in supporting the cellular process. A high degree of coherence, coordination, compartmentalization and regulation of multiple biochemical reactions involving numerous proteins, enzymes, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and lipids is proposed as a compensating mechanism to minimize entropy. While the author does her best to bring everything in literature together to support a reasonable hypothesis, but the experimental evidences in support of these concepts operating in a cell is not very strong and hence it is some way to go for universal acceptance.

One important feature devised by nature in electron transfer reactions is a metal mediated reaction that has never been addressed in this book. These transfers are facile quantum chemical reactions where nature has used transition metals (with vacant 3d orbitals) to promote electron transfers between low molecular weight biomolecules that otherwise would be thermodynamically disallowed. Iron, copper and manganese perform key cellular reactions. Alkali metals such as sodium, potassium and calcium also participate in many ionic reactions that offer thermodynamic advantages to a living cell.

I found this author to be enigmatic since the book is heavily regionalized in its assertions. She refers to the scientific thought conveyed in this work as Western science throughout this book. Chapter 14 offers a very interesting discussion of entropy, and chapter 15 reminisces about the philosophy of life.

A new look at life from an untraditional scientist.......2002-09-03

First of all, Mae-Wan Ho is a woman. The rest of these posts describe the author using "him" and "he," which demonstrates an unfortunate gender stereotype about scientists.

Mae-Wan Ho examines the question, "What is life?" using insights from physics, biology, and chemistry. The author is a professor and research scientist who works outside of the maintream, to say the least. She is best known for her activism against genetic engineering. Her writings take a "holistic" perspective on science; she tries to acheive understanding of the big questions (life, free will, etc) by combining ideas from many different fields.

The book is not flaky or meta-physics. It won't tell you about life energies or world consciousness. It is also not a layman's introduction to any particular established field, as many science books are. Rather, it is a new look at "life," somewhat scientifically rigorous (she is a professional researcher) but presented so that it's accessible to non-scientists. She has a chapter describing how life operates far from the theormodynamic equilibrium, which was very interesting. On the other hand, the final chapter about optics is somewhat far-fetched in my opinion. The book's ideas are generally outside of the mainstream.

All in all, it is a refreshing change from the 10023675th book about superstrings and selfish genes, for those of you who like science books. It's a short book, and worth the few hours it takes to read it. I would highly recommend it as pleasure reading for amateur science fans, or as a book that actual scientists with some time on their hands can read for a new perspective. (I myself am getting my Ph.D. at a top engineering school.) I think it will not appeal to most conservative professional scientists, who tend to reserve their respect for researchers who are experts in a small and established field.

Finally, don't worry about the equations; you can skip them and get the general idea.

A Tough Hike Over Worthy Terrain.......2000-07-23

This book is not for the faint of heart. While I made it through A Brief History of Time, and The Elegant Universe with only a few major hiccups, The Rainbow and the Worm was tough going. I'm a physician, not a physicist, and my college level calculus is very rusty. Staring down pages of equations was not easy.

That being said, this book repeatedly caused me to gaze off into space, absorbed in a totally new way of looking at an old phenomenon. I can't look at living organisms the way that I did before, and I'm indebted to Mae-Wan for this. Scientists are zeroing in on life, and while they strip away myth and mystery, they are replacing them with levels of awe at the complexity and wonder of the living world around us. Despite Ho's failure as a writer that is able to popularize difficult concepts, she is good enough to repeatedly inspire "Ah hah!" in anyone that takes the time.

Finally, I find it interesting that the first two reviewers on Amazon.com referred to Mae-Wan as a male. It robs the book of a bit of its flavor to work all the way through it not realizing that such intense and creative thought is female in origin.

Misguided Physics applied to Biology.......2000-05-12

While I admire the enthusiasm the author I was shocked by the sloppy physics.His arguments for coherent electromagnic interactions within the lossy tissues of an organism make no sense.His knowledge of quantum mechanics is,at best,that of a diletant.No doubt he has read a great deal ,but given the large number of misstatements and errors, I doubt that he has understood more than a small fraction of the serious material.On the basis of the excellent reviews of the book,(before actually reading it myself)I recommended it to two friends (physicists) who bought it. Both are angry with me.Having read it I can not recommend it to anybody.

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Embryology of a spectrum of organisms
Good organism specific embryology text

Embryology: Constructing the Organism

Manufacturer: Sinauer Associates
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0878932372

Customer Reviews:

Embryology of a spectrum of organisms.......2000-11-27

This reference, suitable for the interested general reader, does not stress developmental biological principles of a few studied animals, but rather, presents the embryology of the range of multicellular organisms, from sponges to mammals to plants. The reference starts with an overview of metazoan development and larvae. Chapters on the development of mesozoans, poriferans, cnidarians, and ctenophorans then follow. The development of platyhelminthes and nematodes is then presented. The protostome coelomates are then discussed, with chapters on the development of nemerteans, sipunculans and echiurans, gastropods, annelids, arthropods, and lophophorates. The deuterostome coelomates are then discussed, with chapters on the development of echinoderms, tunicates, cephalochordates, fishes, amphibians, reptiles and birds, and mammals. The reference concludes with a chapter on plant life cycles.

Good organism specific embryology text.......2000-05-07

This text is a great tool for anyone studying a particular organism. Rather than having a topical organization like most embryology texts, this book organizes chapters by organism. I found it very useful in my undergraduate research on the development of the sea urchin, because all of the information I needed was all in one place, whereas other embryology texts had me searching through chapter upon chapter to find what I was looking for. While it is not the most desirable text for learning the principles of embryology, I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking at the development of a specific organism.

Unnatural Landscapes: Tracking Invasive Species

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Her journeys read like a blend of scientific investigation and travelogue

Unnatural Landscapes: Tracking Invasive Species
Ceiridwen Terrill
Manufacturer: University of Arizona Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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American Perceptions of Immigrant and Invasive Species: Strangers on the Land
Invasive Terrestrial Animals (Invasive Species)
Alien Species in North America and Hawaii
Alien Species and Evolution: The Evolutionary Ecology of Exotic Plants, Animals, Microbes, and Interacting Native Species
The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants

ASIN: 0816525234

Book Description

Louisiana crawfish, cheatgrass, Russian thistle, Hottentot figs, rats, and sweet fennel. These and dozens of other seemingly benign flora and fauna have become some of the worst culprits in the destruction of ecosystems and native wildlife in the American Southwest and Baja California. Although widely publicized threats—such as pollution, land development, changes in the atmospheric condition, fire, and drought—are frequently credited with posing the greatest danger to indigenous animals and plants, invasive species are quickly becoming a far more insidious peril to the survival of native wildlife. A result of both accident and human intervention, the frequency with which exotic species are being introduced into nonnative environments is increasing at an alarming rate. In Unnatural Landscapes, Ceiridwen Terrill combines lucid science writing with first-person tales of adventure to provide a compelling introduction to invasion ecology and restoration management. Traveling aboard her trusty kyak, The Grebe, Terrill brings readers on a firsthand tour of various “islands” in the Southwest and Mexico—both actual islands and self-contained habitat communities. From the islands of Anaho, Santa Cruz, and Anacapa to Isla Tiburón in the Sea of Cortez, Mexicali irrigation canals, and Pyramid Lake, Terrill takes an in-depth look at the damage that invasive species cause. Drawing on field observations, research, and interviews with scientists, resource managers, and local residents, this book provides readers with the background and knowledge they need to understand and to begin combating what is quickly becoming the most important environmental crisis facing the fragile ecosystems of the Southwest.

Customer Reviews:

Her journeys read like a blend of scientific investigation and travelogue.......2007-06-09

Any collection strong in biological science - particularly college-level holdings - will want UNNATURAL LANDSCAPES: it blends science writing and research with first-person stories of adventure to provide a lively introduction to invasion ecology and restoration management, and uses the author's own kayak trips as a basis for considering invasive species in the Southwest and Mexico regions. Her journeys read like a blend of scientific investigation and travelogue and thus serve as a fitting introduction to habitat management issues.

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