Biological category: 21163 books
Astrobiological Neurosystems
Rise and Fall of Intelligent Life Forms in the Universe
Language: English
Release Date: September 27, 2014
This book explains why scientists believe that life may be more common in the Universe than previously considered possible. It presents the tools and strategies astronomers and astrobiologists are using in their formal search for habitable exoplanets as well as more advanced forms of life in other...
A Man From Planet Earth
A Scientific Novel
Language: English
Release Date: August 26, 2015
Sometime in the not-too-distant future ... unbeknownst to Earth, the Galaxy is home to a number of spacefaring societies. This confederation enforces a strict protocol forbidding any contact with civilizations that have not yet achieved both a substantial spacefaring capability and sufficient maturity...
by Alfred Russel Wallace
Language: English
Release Date: June 4, 2015
Language: English
Release Date: June 4, 2015
This volume contains Alfred Russel Wallace’s 1889 book, "Darwinism: An Exposition of the Theory of Natural Selection with Some of Its Applications". It is a fascinating exploration of biological evolution by the co-discoverer of the natural selection principle. It constitutes a defence...
Growing Older Without Feeling Old
on vitality and ageing
Language: English
Release Date: July 29, 2015
The past century has witnessed a revolution.
Less than a hundred years ago, the average Western life expectancy was 40; now it is 80. And there is no end in sight: the first person who will reach 135 has already been born. It’s the most radical change in our society since industrialisation,...
The Silwood Circle
A History of Ecology and the Making of Scientific Careers in Late Twentieth-Century Britain
Language: English
Release Date: April 12, 2013
This is an original and wide-ranging account of the careers of a close-knit group of highly influential ecologists working in Britain from the late 1960s onwards. The book can also be read as a history of some recent developments in ecology. One of the group, Robert May, is a past president of the...
Blueprint
The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society
Language: English
Release Date: March 26, 2019
"A dazzlingly erudite synthesis of history, philosophy, anthropology, genetics, sociology, economics, epidemiology, statistics, and more" (Frank Bruni, New York Times), Blueprint shows how and why evolution has placed us on a humane path -- and how we are united by our common humanity.
For...
Synthetic Biology
Science, Business, and Policy
Language: English
Release Date: September 8, 2017
For nearly forty years, using recombinant DNA tools, researchers, and then businesses, have genetically engineered organisms by transferring naturally occurring genes from one organism into another. Doing so modifies the genetic code of living cells, imparting new traits and achieving desired results;...
Modeling Coastal Hypoxia
Numerical Simulations of Patterns, Controls and Effects of Dissolved Oxygen Dynamics
Language: English
Release Date: May 3, 2017
This book provides a snapshot of representative modeling analyses of coastal hypoxia and its effects. Hypoxia refers to conditions in the water column where dissolved oxygen falls below levels that can support most metazoan marine life (i.e., 2 mg O2 l-1). The number of hypoxic zones has been increasing...
THE HUMAN GENOME
A User's Guide
Language: English
Release Date: December 12, 2010
Significant advances in our knowledge of genetics were made during the twentieth century but in the most recent decades, genetic research has dramatically increased its impact throughout society. Genetic issues are now playing a large role in health and public policy, and new knowledge in this field...
Snakes, Sunrises, and Shakespeare
How Evolution Shapes Our Loves and Fears
Language: English
Release Date: April 14, 2014
Our breath catches and we jump in fear at the sight of a snake. We pause and marvel at the sublime beauty of a sunrise. These reactions are no accident; in fact, many of our human responses to nature are steeped in our deep evolutionary past—we fear snakes because of the danger of venom or constriction,...
Race Unmasked
Biology and Race in the Twentieth Century
Language: English
Release Date: September 9, 2014
Race, while drawn from the visual cues of human diversity, is an idea with a measurable past, an identifiable present, and an uncertain future. The concept of race has been at the center of both triumphs and tragedies in American history and has had a profound effect on the human experience. Race...
Modeling of Living Systems
From Cell to Ecosystem
Language: English
Release Date: December 27, 2012
Modeling is now one of the most efficient methodologies in life sciences. From practice to theory, this book develops this approach illustrated by many examples; general concepts and the current state of the art are also presented and discussed.
An historical and general introduction informs the reader...
We Are Our Brains
A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's
Language: English
Release Date: January 7, 2014
A vivid account of what makes us human.
Based groundbreaking new research, We Are Our Brains is a sweeping biography of the human brain, from infancy to adulthood to old age. Renowned neuroscientist D. F. Swaab takes us on a guided tour of the intricate inner workings that determine our potential,...
The American West at Risk
Science, Myths, and Politics of Land Abuse and Recovery
Language: English
Release Date: June 5, 2008
The American West at Risk summarizes the dominant human-generated environmental challenges in the 11 contiguous arid western United States - America's legendary, even mythical, frontier. When discovered by European explorers and later settlers, the west boasted rich soils, bountiful fisheries, immense,...