About Life

Concepts in Modern Biology

By: Paul S. Agutter, Denys N. Wheatley

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Hardcover | 23 January 2007

At a Glance

Hardcover
256 Pages

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24.13 x 18.42 x 1.91

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Thanks to the popular media, and to books by Dawkins, Fortey, Gould, Margulis and other writers, people are informed about many aspects of biology. Everyone seems to know a little about evolution, for example, and about DNA and the possibilities (good and bad) afforded by research in molecular genetics. Most people know some of the arguments for and against the likelihood of life on other planets. And so on. We are glad that these pieces of information have become so widely available. However, we do not assume any particular knowledge (other than the most basic) in this book. Our aim is to address general questions rather than specific issues. We want to enable our readers to join their disparate pieces of knowledge about biology together. The most basic of these general questions - and perhaps the most difficult - can be expressed in beguilingly simple words: "What is life"? What does modern biology tell us about the essential differences between living organisms and the inanimate world? An attempt to answer this question takes us on a journey through almost the whole of contemporary cell and molecular biology, which occupies the first half of the book. The journey is worth the effort. The provisional answer we attain provides a coherent, unifying context in which we can discuss evolution, the origin of life, extraterrestrial life, the meaning of "intelligence", the evolution of the human brain and the nature of mind.

Industry Reviews

From the reviews:

I have read some of the chapters and I am most impressed. It is well written, scholarly and deals with the subject in "4-D" i.e. not as we know it now but as knowledge developed in time. For me, who has lived through the development of the subject since the late 1960s and reviewed the literature as far back as Hippocrates, it was like reading a novel that I could not put down.

Prof. A Nicolaides MS FRCS

"This delightfully written book addresses major questions and some of the biggest ideas in biology today. ... The book is moderately well-illustrated with photomicrographs and line drawings ... . The book includes numerous insightful analogies and covers somewhat offbeat topics that an instructor could easily adapt to enliven classroom presentations. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above." (P. E. Hertz, CHOICE, Vol. 45 (2), 2007)

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Medicine Clinical & Internal Medicine Neurology & Clinical Neurophysiology Science Biology, Life Sciences Molecular Biology Life Sciences in General Ecological Science Neurosciences

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Paperback

Published: 19th October 2010

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Preface	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
Ingredients of the simplest cells: (Prokaryotes and the sizes of their contents)	p. 7
Bigger cells: (Eukaryotic cells and their contents)	p. 17
Hives of industry: (A survey of intermediary metabolism)	p. 29
Delights of transport: (How the cell's contents are moved around)	p. 39
As if standing still: (Cellular homeostasis and regulatory processes)	p. 49
Internal state and gene expression: (Transcription and its control)	p. 57
Sustaining and changing the internal state: (The interrelationship between gene expression and the cell's current composition and functional state)	p. 67
Responding to the environment: (Signal processing, gene expression and internal state)	p. 79
The living state: (A characterization of 'life')	p. 91
Stability and change in DNA: (How genes can be altered)	p. 105
The spice of life: (Diversity, natural selection and symbiosis)	p. 117
Curriculum vitae: (An outline history of life on Earth)	p. 131
The origin of life: (Some major ideas and unanswered questions)	p. 147
Other worlds: (The possibility of extraterrestrial life)	p. 163
Intelligent behaviour and brains: (The biological meaning of "intelligence")	p. 179
Human evolution: (Human intelligence and the question of human uniqueness)	p. 195
Cells, brains and computers: towards a characterisation of mind	p. 209
Glossary and pronunciation guide	p. 223
Further reading	p. 231
Index	p. 237
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

About Life

Concepts in Modern Biology

At a Glance

Hardcover

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

Other Editions and Formats

Paperback

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