Frogs have played so central a role in biological research that many people’s only memory of actual biological study involves dissecting one in high school. It’s no surprise, then, that frogs have been central to scientifc discovery for centuries. Marcello Malpighi had at least an inkling of the concept we now call “model organisms.” He repeatedly extolled the frog as an out…
The explanation of animal communication by means of concepts like information, meaning and reference is one of the central foundational issues in animal behaviour studies. This book explores these issues, revolving around questions such as: what is the nature of information? What theoretical roles does information play in animal communication studies? Is it justified to employ these concepts in…
NASA initiated GeneLab—a multiyear, multiphase project—on the premise that mining of omics data from spaceflight experiments offers an immense opportunity to understand the effects of spaceflight on biological systems. That progress can best be accomplished by ensuring access to these data to as many researchers as possible. GeneLab captures vast amounts of data from spaceflight and gro…
Here is the extraordinary story of the unfolding of life on Earth, told by Michael J. Benton, a world-renowned authority on biodiversity. Ranging over four billion years, Benton weaves together the latest findings on fossils, earth history, evolutionary biology, and many other fields to highlight the great leaps that enabled life to evolve from microbe to human--big breakthroughs that made whol…
In this exploration of the concept of the gene, Jonathan Slack looks at the discovery, nature, and role of genes in both evolution and development. By explaining the nature of genetic variation in the human population, how hereditary factors were identified as molecules of DNA, and how certain specific mutations can lead to disease, Slack highlights how DNA variants are used to trace human ance…
Scientific motivation to publish this book comes from the increased interest in the study of toxoplasmosis, showed all over the world. Though the Toxoplasma gondii infection was first discovered in 1908, toxoplasmosis remains a today's research topic, a realm of questions and dilemmas that interest both the veterinarians and the human doctors. Studies in the field are directed to the epidemiolo…
How the challenge of depicting biological systems can generate productive questions for artists and scientists. An artist drawing cell division faces a problem: what is the best way to visually represent a dynamic process? This anthology, edited by an artist and a philosopher of science, explores drawing as a way of inquiring into living processes at the molecular, cellular, and organismal scal…
The typical definition of the genome is often dualistic, referen-cing both structural features and its function to store and transmitbiological information [4]. For example, the US National Institutesof Health (NIH) uses the following definition: “A genome is anorganism’s complete set of DNA, including all of its genes. Eachgenome contains all of the information needed to build and main-tai…
This patent landscape report provides an overview of international patent activity for animal genetic resources, in particular those relating to food and agriculture. The empirical analysis of patent activity for animal genetic resources for food and agriculture has received remarkably little attention in the scientific literature. Indeed, in conducting the present research we found no example …
Understanding the underlying concepts of human genetics and the role of genes, behavior, and the environment will be important to appropriately collecting and applying genetic information and technologies during clinical care. This chapter provides some fundamental information about basic genetic concepts including cell structure, the molecular and biochemical basis of disease, major types of g…