Biology Books

two main components, the science of genetic engineering with an excellent explanation of mutations, and the moral/ethical aspects of genetic engineering. They explain how already human genes have been put into pigs, how we may be able to change the genetic make-up of humans, and the genetic basis for making these species level changes in human's genetic code. R&S also give a great deal of time to explaining the different types of genetic mutations that occur. For example, a whole chromosome may be lost or gained, such as an extra copy of the small chromosome 21 that causes Down's Syndrome. Or part of a chromosome may be inverted put be fully intact. And they explain how dominant and recessive genes affect us and how they are transmitted from generation to generation. This is probably the best book reviewed here that deals with genetic and chromosomal mutations and how they interact to make us what we are, including the dangers of genetic engineering on humans. First, genes often work best when they are situated next to each other, and mistakes in insertion locations may interfere with tumor-suppressor genes. But these are all technical problems and there is good reason to believe they will be overcome as we complete the Human Genome Project. Less time is given to the ethics of genetic engineering by R&S, but again it is also the most controversial and interesting part of the book. They do point out that "Ethics is normally thought of as a narrower concept than morality, and it can be used in several different, though unrelated, senses. The most general of these suggests a set of standards by which a particular group or community decides to regulate its behavior--to distinguish what is legitimate or acceptable in pursuit of their aims from what is not, such as 'business ethics' or 'medical ethics'." What this means is that there can be no such thing as unethical practices in the pursuit of genetic engineering or eugenics, because any action deemed unethical has to be agreed upon by the participants, not imposed on them. The socialists forget this when they try to impose secular or politically motivated ethical standards on scientific procedures because they fear that the knowledge that may result will harm their egalitarian cause. (See Culture of Critique by MacDonald.) R&S then discuss the morality of genetic engineering, both intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic being actions that are right and wrong on their own (based on religion, evolution, etc. ??) and extrinsic that only considers the beneficial consequences of actions. They do a good job of explaining these two positions, and how for example in the debate on abortion the two sides are arguing from different perspectives with regards to what is moral (extrinsic versus intrinsic). What they do fail to discuss is that if humans share a moral history with other primates based on reproductive success of the tribe, how can we apply morality to present day actions of right and wrong? and of course we can't. (See my article on morality). Neither the utilitarian, consequentialist, Kantian deontological formulations, or any other system has any innate truth when morality is considered within an evolutionary perspective, the only one that is empirical. I especially liked their discussion of 'holistic', 'ecological' or 'environmental' objections to genetic engineering (and many other human actions the naturalists don't like). They point out of course that we have been breeding crops and animals for over 10,000 years and that virtually everything humans do are in this sense unnatural, that is, apparently incapable of being done by other animals. As they state, "the progress of civilization has been largely dependent upon our 'interference with nature'." At one time religion was used to try and stop scientific progress, but as faith in religion has declined the anti-empiricists have had to turn to other forms of mystical arguments in order to block human progress. There are now attempts, even though we have not been able to assign a non-Darwinian moral system to humans, to apply arbitrary moral rules to all of nature. These arguments are made more in the milieu of postmodernist arguments that become incoherent when evaluated rationally, but the mere volume of emotionalism often overshadows rationalism and can sound convincing. For example, arguments are made that nature is somehow foreordained to be symbiotic, with some form of natural order that humans may corrupt or upset to the point that the planet will be destroyed. I would argue, that aside from nuclear war, this is impossible. And even then I would have to believe that after a nuclear holocaust, a few species would survive to repopulate the earth. None of this is good or bad in terms of the earth and all of its creatures. The universe is oblivious as to whether the earth has organic life or not. And all of the other organic forms have no contemplation of non-existence, nor is it possible to prove that organic existence is intrinsically good or better than a world devoid of life and suffering. None of the holistic arguments make any sense outside of life as a genetic algorithm that increases in complexity as it progresses, without any actual goal. Humans, like any other species, are free to exploit every corner of their ecological niche for their own benefit. However humans, with our large brains and our ability to contemplate our own deaths, finally have the means to arbitrarily give meaning and purpose to life, in our pursuit of trying to assuage our death angst. Some turn to mysticism, some to Marxism or racial purity for their own tribe, some embrace science and accept the inevitable, etc. And this is where eugenics as a secular religion fits in. It is merely an act of creation, directing our species to an ever higher level of intelligence in order to better understand the many remaining fallacies of belief we have adopted in our journey from our primate past. Does this mean that eugenics as a secular religion is similar to Christianity in being an anthropocentric religion, that establishes a dualism between man and nature, where it is our duty to exploit nature in the name of God, as R&S point out? Hardly. It is based on science and does not fall into the naturalistic fallacy. Eugenics as a secular religion is merely an act of creation using purposefully directed evolution as its tool. Where it is going, the means taken to get there, and the safety mechanism to be used to obtain the expected results are the same as any scientific project. But it is not subject to metaphysical concerns. It readily accepts the arbitrariness of human actions, and is based on the simple observation of science that more intelligent people who have fewer genetic diseases will live a more fruitful life, on average. It is no different than wanting to build safer and safer airplanes because then fewer people will die in plane crashes. But it does tend to further desacralize life for those unable to accept the inevitable death angst that they must live with, and is attacked on this basis alone. Speciesism is another attempt to define a moral system for all creatures, "Put at its most succinct, it is of little significance, the argument goes, that humans belong to a different biological species from, say, chimpanzees, dogs, farm animals and laboratory mice; we do not have the right to treat such species merely as we choose and for our own ends. Think of the conditions we normally require before humans are permitted to be used as research subjects." Of course this is utter nonsense, because if all species are equivalent then they all have the same moral obligations between species or tribes (pack, etc.). The fact is, even chimpanzees will treat each other in the troop with some moral considerations, even taking care of an injured member, but will go on raiding parties to kill members of other troops. Canines and felines will also kill their own. So if we are really to put aside speciesism and rejoin the moral constructs of other animals, then the only moral imperative is reproductive success, and that includes practicing genocide whenever we can get away with it to benefit our own kin! Is that really what these moralists (specifically Peter Singer) are arguing for? Such formulations of human ethical behavior can only be grounded by ignoring our own evolutionary past and all the empirical evidence regarding our true nature. R&S discuss the ethics of using DNA fingerprints to establish a national database as is increasingly common in a number of countries for controlling immigration, paternity suites, and to fight crime to name just a few uses. For a more complete discussion however see Richard Dawkins' new book Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder. Finally, R&S introduces another one of those anti-intelligence arguments stating that if we become too smart, and our memories become too vivid, we may regret it because we will not be able to forget unpleasant happenings (or even dreams for that matter). But all one has to do is ask how many people lament not being able to remember some

I am just a high school student, yet I undersood this book. It is great!!! It is not too technical, yet it covers what it needs to. Sections on plant, animal, and human genetic engineering make this book worth reading. No matter if you are a student with just an intrest, like me, or a genetic engineer yourself - you will enjoy this book. I get it a ten!!!

Well illustrated with about 10 different sea creatures getting their own page and brief specific information about them that children can really relate to. This is a great introductory book, and is a wonderful lead to all kinds of movements and sounds of these fascinating creatures!

I picked up this little book for my baby nephew. Because the book is small (about 6"x6") and has thick cardboard pages it will be ideal for him while he is developing hand-eye coordination. It is bright, colorful, and well illustrated, and overall has a very creative and appealing design. This little book looks ideal for any age up to about 1st or 2nd grade (depending upon reading level) and gives young children interesting knowledge about 10 different sea-creatures. This real-life book is a great alternative to cartoons and make-believe. All around it is a great little book!

Rarely do I read such an informative and riveting account of a scientific topic. I read it cover to cover and wanted to know more. It is a very comprehensive and satisfying history of spinal cord research!

In this extremely well written book, Luba Vihanski reviews one hundred years of research on spinal record regeneration. She describes the many angles from which this topic has been approached. She explains what was previously believed and what the experiments demonstrated. Many diagrams and photographs make the topic more clear. The researchers involved are not left out in the dark: You get a feeling that you know them.

This account is illuminating and very easy to read, even for a neophyte like me without medical training. One piece of advice: read the appendix on the spinal cord before and after injury before you read the rest of the book.

The central question of this fascinating book is the precise role of energy in the living world.

Biology is in an interesting state of flux, with some visionary scientists believing that all biological processes are explainable by the laws of physics and mathematics. Meanwhile another group believes that quantum mechanics provides the best explanation for life process and a minority who think that we need to look elsewhere for an explanation of biological organization and function. In the middle is a very large group of teachers are researchers who are unfamiliar with the debates that are raging at scientific conferences and in the scholarly journals.

This is far from being an idle discussion: it has enormous implications for our understanding not only of biology, but also of health and disease. Wherever your sympathies lie in this ongoing debate, it is useful and important to know the current state of play in each of these different camps.

This book is an extremely well written and enthralling account of scientific discovery, that focuses on the efforts of a determined band of investigators who believe that they can - simply by using the currently known laws of physics and mathematics - build a unified theory of how living organisms function.

The idea that energy might be a unifying concept is not new. One of the first to discuss it was D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson who published a classic book on the topic - On Growth and Form - in 1917. In that book Thompson explored the effects of body size on life. Since larger animals need to expend more energy to do their day-to-day jobs, he began the study of metabolic rate and the way in which it sets the tempo for life processes. If metabolism slows, then so do all the processes in cells and organs. There is an almost linear relationship between metabolic rate and animal size: unicellular organs produce and require little energy; a leopard or elephant requires an enormous amount. That much is obvious. But what is less obvious is that there is a precise mathematical formula, first discovered in the 1930s, that relates body mass and energy use.

This initial observation has been expanded over the years and some theorists now consider that metabolic energy is the common denominator in determining animal form and biodiversity.

For example, larger animal species require more food and land, and are therefore more vulnerable to extinction than smaller creatures. An argument that has been applied to the extinction of the dinosaurs and the eventual emergence of small, mobile proto-mammalian species. I was interested to learn that some biologists working in animal conservation have discovered a mathematical law linking the specific area within a region and the number of species that it can sustain. On the other hand, the simple formula linking body mass and metabolic rate is the most parsimonious explanation for the quickest way for an organism to keep its cells supplied with energy, given the way in which the geometry of transportation systems change with size.

Although this a book about biology, it is easy to see that many of the same principles apply in countless other situations, including supply lines for an army, or the provision of men and materials in a game of chess or soccer.

This book explores a number of important idea, though I remain doubtful that all biological phenomena can be explained so neatly. I still tend to favor the group of biologists who think that the ultimate solution to biological form and function requires a new - and a yet poorly defined - organizing principle.

This is science writing at its best, and I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in human and animal biology.

This book is wonderful new application of thermodynamics to biology. And biology finaly start to yield to Scientific enquiry, by which author implies 'written in mathematics'. We now know how all the living things are behaving. This book thus might make a trilogy of life science books; "Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics" on the behaviour of other people, by Eric D. Beinhocker and "I am a strange loop" by Doug Hofstadter, on the behaviour of myself(to be released soon).

What does the mention of "nature" bring to mind? Nurturing and providing, or competitive and indifferent? Known and measured, or mysterious and chaotic? Pure and clean, or pestilential? In his book, Infinite Nature, Dr. R. Bruce Hull challenges us to choose.

Dr. Hull begins by introducing the concept of environmental fundamentalism. In his view, assuming a fundamentalist stance risks a narrowed perception, restricting the safe space where common interests can coexist. In taking a fundamentalist view, we may miss the larger texture of existence, or worse, dismiss those issues we fear and therefore fail to deal with them effectively. Dispassionate and fearless investigation could confirm and strengthen our views; it could enlarge them, or cause them to change.

However, if one embraces the concept of environmental pluralism, the notion arises that all participants in the science, spirit, politics and industry of "nature" can gather together cooperatively at the world's table. The planet being what it is - not a banquet of limitless supply - we must investigate all fact and all opinion, or risk missing essential information that could forestall a more difficult future for ourselves and our offspring.

Dr. Hull suggests "many natures and many lessons to learn from them," and he has titled his chapters, to cite a few: "Evolving Nature," "Rightful Nature," "Aesthetic Nature," "Moral Nature." These chapters contain various reflections about the price of a life, environmental racism, recreation, forestry, history, faith, health, and work.

As a series of chapters containing individual essays, the book lends itself well to small-bite reading. Open it anywhere; each chapter grabs the reader's interest immediately. It's a book that's easy to keep coming back to. It inspires one to think, to learn something new and to be driven to learn more.

Infinite Nature is not a macabre reflection on a future-less Malthusian world, but it does encourage us to ask why humanity often fails to respond in the face of obvious environmental catastrophe: we may distrust the message or the messenger; we may be so pessimistic as to believe that nothing can be done; our political or religious beliefs may indicate we need do nothing; we just might be too tired to act. Any such reasons might be legitimate, but Dr. Hull asks us to confront these controlling factors with an open mind and heart in order to answer the question: "What kind of world do I want to live in?"

While Dr. Hull unabashedly reveals his deep love of the natural world, there is a refreshing lack of preaching and moralizing within the book's covers. Infinite Nature insists that we make our own investigations and draw our own conclusions. Dr. Hull not only provides us with an entertaining and informative read, but also provokes us to ponder, and delight in, our place in the world.
(Fall 2006 issue of Virginia Forests, publication of The Virginia Forestry Association)

The direction of environmentalism for the 21st century is floundering, facing rigid ideologies which offer rhetoric pitting man against nature and conservation objectives against growth and development: that's why INFINITE NATURE'S message is so important an alternative. Chapters draw on a range of disciplines to promote environmental solutions which not only foster ecological practices, but enhance human objectives in the process. A 'must' for any who would promote environmental consciousness as a valid objective for human growth and interests.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Whether you're a biologist, an environmentalist, or just someone who loves fish/fishing, this book is a must. Written for both academics and lay-persons, with easy to understand text, it includes information on methods for determining the identity of local freshwater fish, with beautiful illustrations and color plates.

Whether you're a biologist, an environmentalist, or just someone who loves fish/fishing, this book is a must. Written for both academics and lay-persons, with easy to understand text, it includes information on methods for determining the identity of local freshwater fish, with beautiful illustrations and color plates.

I have found this book an excellent source of information fors researchers on this particular subject. i really enjoy browsing through the chapters. I have also found that the list of references is outstanding. i suggest this book to people that start their research in using molecular techniques applied in insects. i think though that more detailed information should be searched in other books, or even in the references.

The genetic engineering of insects is now commonplace, and for those who want to understand the details behind this exciting and practical technology, this book gives an excellent overview. The goal of this reviewer, who is not a professional biologist, was primarily to understand the efficacy of transgenic strategies in the genetic manipulation of insects. For those with similar interests and backgrounds, the book fills the need, and after reading it, such readers will have a better understanding of just what is possible in the technology of genetic transformation of insects, along with obtaining a stronger background in genetics. This technology is improving and getting more powerful as this book went into print, and no doubt many more fascinating discoveries will take place in the near future. The genetic manipulation of insects shows much promise in not only reducing the threat of malaria but also in controlling unwanted insect populations. The risks involved in this technology are thankfully also addressed in the book.

A thorough review of a book of this size and detail would take many thousands of words, and so attention here will be concentrated on the things that this reviewer found particularly interesting and the surprises in the book. One of these involved the discussion of the RNA era and its role in the early evolution of life. The author views this time as one where RNA organisms, which had multiple-copy double-stranded RNA genomes, these genomes later fragmenting into chromosomes. The interactions between the RNA and amino acids evolved into the present DNA world. Another interesting fact brought out is that DNA can form more than twenty different variations of right-handed helices, and can form left-handed helices in some regions.

The author also discusses the role of exons and introns in molecular genetics, and the `introns-early' and `introns-late' hypotheses. Their role is still not completely understood, and there are many open questions in their study, as is brought out in the discussion.

Still another interesting discussion concerns the role of telomeres in preventing the loss of DNA during replication and their role in ensuring the stability of linear chromosomes. It turns out that telomerase, an enzyme that is responsible for adding these telomeres to the ends, is, interestingly, a reverse transcriptase, meaning that it can transcribe DNA from an RNA template.

The `C value paradox' is also discussed by the author, which she describes as a situation where there is more DNA then is needed by the organism. Surprisingly, the genome size is not correlated with the complexity of the organism or the number of genes encoded. The insect genome size varies widely among the insect species, with 250-fold differences in C values being common. The composition of insect DNA is apparently very different for insects than for vertebrates, with the author quoting the guanine and cytosine bases making up only 32-42% of the DNA, as compared to 45% for vertebrates.

The many roles of heterochromatin is discussed in detail by the author, such as in chromosome mechanics, centromere function, and position effect variegation in Drosophila melanogaster. In the latter, this silences the euchromatic genes that have been moved to regions adjacent to heterochromatin by chromosomal rearrangements. This change in the location of the gene within the nucleus modifies significantly the amount of `gene silencing'. In the context of transgenic strategies, the transgenes inserted into the insect genome can be silenced because they become heterochromatized.

A particularly fascinating discussion is given of the role of transposable elements in the insect genome. These can alter the gene structure and function, and can transfer horizontally between species. The microbial symbiont Wolbachia's role in insect evolution is discussed, and the amazing fact that insects contain three or four genomes, namely the nuclear, mitochondrial, gut symbionts, and Wolbachia, raising the question of just what constitutes a biological individual. Some species of insects can have diploid males and females, or haploid males and diploid females, or only females. In addition, diploid males may undergo chromosome heterochromatimization and loss during development and become haploid.

A very detailed overview of transgenic strategies and their role in pest management is given at the end of the book. Giving examples of what has been accomplished in traditional breeding for beneficial insects and in sterilization techniques for pest insects, the author discusses the justifications for using transgenic methods. Mention is made of using green fluorescent protein as a molecular marker to track sterile insects. The author argues that fluorescent dusts currently used are not satisfactory since they can reduce the fitness of the insects and do not always adhere to the insects, biasing the results of the sterilization program. The author is clearly supportive of transgenic strategies to perform pest management, but she gives many references that take more cautionary stances on this technology. The author also makes the point that insect transgenesis is most appropriate for traits that are determined primarily by a single gene. The manipulation of traits determined by more complex genetic mechanisms are not yet feasible using transgenic strategies. Briefly discussed, but with many references given, are the different methods for transforming the insect germ-line, such as P-element vectors, Hermes, hobo, mariner, Minos, piggyBac, baculoviruses, densonucleosis viruses, pantropic retroviral vectors, polydnaviruses, retrotransposons, and sindbis viruses. Also discussed are paratransgenesis, which involves the genetic transformation of insect symbionts, and FLP-mediated recombination, which involves the introduction of cloned genes into the germ line at a predictable chromosomal site. This latter technique, the author argues, is very desirable for the reason that the likelihood of position effects on gene expression is considerably reduced.

Gene silencing, an evolved mechanism to prevent high-level expression of transposable elements, presents a challenge to transgenic strategies. The author discusses briefly some examples of transgene silencing in D. melanogaster. She points out that gene silencing might however be exploited positively by turning off specific genes in insects. References are given that discuss gene silencing in D. melanogaster. Horizontal gene transfer, hotly debated in the press these days, is discussed briefly.

The book gives an excellent overview of parasitic and synergistic relations between insects and fungi. I was looking very long for a treatment of the subject in total, very happy now, that I found it.

Biology often reveals worlds within worlds, and this book does an excellent job of describing the extraordinarily complex relationships between insects and fungi. Yeast-eating beetles! Fungi hiding in the leaves of plants! Ants that tend fungus gardens - like tiny mushroom farmers! This scholarly volume will open your eyes to some of the more subtle wonders of nature.

This book is great. I was a biology major at MIT and I couldn't tell you how many lectures for my classes seemed to come write out of the book. It's certainly not enough to use by itself, but it's a great way to focus the information either prior to a lecture or even prior to a test.

This is an impressive book intended only for the serious student or major. I was quite pleased to find the book in my local Borders Books, although I would say it's significantly more technical than what most people would probably be looking for there. You'll need to have read at least one other introductory upper-division text or taken a course on cell biology or molecular biology to benefit from it. I have had that but as I am mainly a neurobiologist by training I was pretty rusty at this point and so I only understood about 1/2 of the book. :-)

That having been said, since the book is only about 300 pages you can use it to get a quick refresher or update on many topics as I did. Some of the topics were still familiar, such as basic DNA replication, the cell cycle, and recombination. But some of the more specialized topics weren't, such as the E. coli sigma 70 promoter, cosmids, YACS (yeast artificial chromosomes), and BACS, and RNA Pol III genes: 5S and tRNA transcription. There was also a section on oncogenes which is something I didn't know much about. The illustrations and diagrams are plentiful and are excellent too and really help supplement the text.

This book really introduce to the reader in the basic principles of the rock mechanics apply to the engineering projects. The authors starts from the review of the rock as an engineering material, and relate this with the behavior of the rock masses as a materials studying in they the stress definitions, the strain concepts firstly from the intact rock point of view and after as a rock masses. Please note that the order of the development of the units is going with the support of the basic mathematical analyses as well as relation with the matrixes framework as is shown in the connections between the attributes discontinuosness, inhomogeneity, anisotropy and non elasticity. Another example of this is the definition of the architecture of the elastic compliance matrix, which gives to the reader a really easy view of the properties that, governs the behavior of the rocks as materials.

The book also introduce the concept of the rock engineering systems (RES) and linkage with the rock mechanics interaction, to become the introduction in temas such excavation principles, stabilization principles and others.

They divide the excavation principles in design and unstabilities. Is very important to understand the difference between the Design Rock Mechanics (DRM) and the Response Rock Mechanics (RRM).

The Design Rock Mechanics gives an approach of the behavior of the rock materials from the point of view of their intrinsic properties. However the Response Rock mechanics give an approach of the practical behavior of the rock engineering system due to scale effects, strain and other practical conditions that can change the behavior of the rock masses depending with the time and the engineering uses.

In conclusion this book is very good work tool in the understanding of the Engineering Rock Mechanics from the undergraduate and graduate points of view, because the easy on going terminology makes fruitful the reading for any public.

FABIO ANTONIO GIL ESCOBAR SPECIAL GRADUATE COURSE DEPARTMENT OF GEOSCIENCE FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING SHIMANE UNIVERSITY JAPAN

When I took rock mechanics at Berkeley we used Prof. Goodman's book (of course), but I have found this book to be far more user friendly and complete. Although an understanding of geology and earth processes is essential for the subject to be understandable, this book and the accompanying book of worked problems will teach you the subject well and thoroughly. I just wish they'd make the accompanying book of worked problems in paperback becuase it's too expensive!