Customer Reviews (1)

State-of-the-art perspectives on biology theory
Disregard the innocuous title.This is a fascinating text for those interested in exploring biological theory and the emergence of life from the perspective of dynamical systems.The book contains contributions of14 authors from all over the world discussing leading edge theory frommacromolecules to "evolvability" in complex systems. ... Read more

Book Description
The field of evolutionary biology arose from the desire to understand the origin and diversity of biological forms. In recent years, however, evolutionary genetics, with its focus on the modification and inheritance of presumed genetic programs, has all but overwhelmed other aspects of evolutionary biology. This has led to the neglect of the study of the generative origins of biological form.

Drawing on work from developmental biology, paleontology, developmental and population genetics, cancer research, physics, and theoretical biology, this book explores the multiple factors responsible for the origination of biological form. It examines the essential problems of morphological evolution--why, for example, the basic body plans of nearly all metazoans arose within a relatively short time span, why similar morphological design motifs appear in phylogenetically independent lineages, and how new structural elements are added to the body plan of a given phylogenetic lineage. It also examines discordances between genetic and phenotypic change, the physical determinants of morphogenesis, and the role of epigenetic processes in evolution. The book discusses these and other topics within the framework of evolutionary developmental biology, a new research agenda that concerns the interaction of development and evolution in the generation of biological form. By placing epigenetic processes, rather than gene sequence and gene expression changes, at the center of morphological origination, this book points the way to a more comprehensive theory of evolution. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Documents the major problems with neo-Darwinism
Origination of Organismal Form: Beyond The Gene In Developmental And Evolutionary Biology is a collection of excellent essays by scientists who assume Darwinian evolution, but whose work reveals various major evidential and conceptual problems with the theory. They are part of a growing number of scientists who find major problems with Darwinism but are not any type of creationist. The problems with Darwinism are usually buried deep in technical publications but they are there if one looks. Anyone with the training and inclination to read this book could benefit greatly from it.I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in evolutionary biology. We can no longer ignore these problems. They are too great and must be dealt with. This book is an excellent introduction to these problems. A must read book!!!

In Search of a Theory of Evolution
The public Darwin debate doesn't really match the progress of biological research. And experts in the field seem reticent to point to the limits of the standard theories. Here we are told plainly,Darwinism has no theory of the generative. And the breakthroughs in developmental genetics fail to explicate the sources of organismic form. The text acknowledges that concern with the gene has overshadowed all other aspects of the discussion.
This highly interesting, not too technical, work explores the work being done on evolutionary innovation. A theory of evolution should explicate both innovation and diversification.But natural selection can only explain how what already exists is maintained or transformed in the process of ecological survival. The standard explanations of variation and natural selection do not really explain this '
source of form' aspect of evolution, and we are presented with ambiguous statements about an evolutionary toolkit, in the developmental version, whose origins could not spring from the processes described in the Neo-Darwinian Synthesis. It seems an advance that a technical work by experts in the field would point this out. This is a very useful glimpse of the real work needed in biology, and should prove a useful refuge from the confusing public discourse on evolution that is generally less than helpful. ... Read more

Book Description

Quantitative approaches to evolutionary biology traditionally consider evolutionary change in isolation from an important pressure in natural selection: the demography of coevolving populations. In Analysis of Evolutionary Processes, Fabio Dercole and Sergio Rinaldi have written the first comprehensive book on Adaptive Dynamics (AD), a quantitative modeling approach that explicitly links evolutionary changes to demographic ones. The book shows how the so-called AD canonical equation can answer questions of paramount interest in biology, engineering, and the social sciences, especially economics.

After introducing the basics of evolutionary processes and classifying available modeling approaches, Dercole and Rinaldi give a detailed presentation of the derivation of the AD canonical equation, an ordinary differential equation that focuses on evolutionary processes driven by rare and small innovations. The authors then look at important features of evolutionary dynamics as viewed through the lens of AD. They present their discovery of the first chaotic evolutionary attractor, which calls into question the common view that coevolution produces exquisitely harmonious adaptations between species. And, opening up potential new lines of research by providing the first application of AD to economics, they show how AD can explain the emergence of technological variety.

Analysis of Evolutionary Processes will interest anyone looking for a self-contained treatment of AD for self-study or teaching, including graduate students and researchers in mathematical and theoretical biology, applied mathematics, and theoretical economics.

Book Description
Abstract and conceptual models have become an indispensable tool for analyzing the flood of highly detailed empirical data generated in recent years by advanced techniques in the biosciences. Scientists are developing new modeling strategies for analyzing data, integrating results into the conceptual framework of theoretical biology, and formulating new hypotheses. In Modeling Biology, leading scholars investigate new modeling strategies in the domains of morphology, development, behavior, and evolution.

The emphasis on models in the biological sciences has been accompanied by a new focus on conceptual issues and a more complex understanding of epistemological concepts. Contributors to Modeling Biology discuss models and modeling strategies from the perspectives of philosophy, history, and applied mathematics. Individual chapters discuss specific approaches to modeling in such domains as biological form, development, and behavior. Finally, the book addresses the modeling of these properties in the context of evolution, with a particular emphasis on the emerging field of evolutionary developmental biology (or evo-devo).

Contributors:
Giorgio A. Ascoli, Chandrajit Bajaj, James P. Collins, Luciano da Fontoura Costa, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Nigel R. Franks, Scott Gilbert, Marta Ibañes Miguez, Juan Carlos Izpisúa-Belmonte, Alexander S. Klyubin, Thomas J. Koehnle, Manfred D. Laubichler, Sabina Leonelli, James A. R. Marshall, George R. McGhee Jr., Gerd B. Müller, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv, Karl J. Niklas, Lars Olsson, Eirikur Palsson, Daniel Polani, Diego Rasskin Gutman, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Alexei V. Samsonovich, Jeffrey C. Schank, Harry B. M. Uylings, Jaap van Pelt, and Iain Werry ... Read more

Book Description

The formulation, analysis, and re-evaluation of mathematical models in population biology has become a valuable source of insight to mathematicians and biologists alike. This book presents an overview and selected sample of these results and ideas, organized by biological theme rather than mathematical concept, with an emphasis on helping the reader develop appropriate modeling skills through use of well-chosen and varied examples.

Part I starts with unstructured single species population models, particularly in the framework of continuous time models, then adding the most rudimentary stage structure with variable stage duration. The theme of stage structure in an age-dependent context is developed in Part II, covering demographic concepts, such as life expectation and variance of life length, and their dynamic consequences. In Part III, the author considers the dynamic interplay of host and parasite populations, i.e., the epidemics and endemics of infectious diseases. The theme of stage structure continues here in the analysis of different stages of infection and of age-structure that is instrumental in optimizing vaccination strategies.

Each section concludes with exercises, some with solutions, and suggestions for further study. The level of mathematics is relatively modest; a "toolbox" provides a summary of required results in differential equations, integration, and integral equations. In addition, a selection of Maple worksheets is provided.

The book provides an authoritative tour through a dazzling ensemble of topics and is both an ideal introduction to the subject and reference for researchers.

Book Description
Evolutionary developmental biology, also known as evo-devo or EDB, seeks to find links between development and evolution by opening the "black box" of development's role in evolution and in the evolution of developmental mechanisms. In particular, this volume emphasizes the roles of the environment and of hormonal signaling in evo-devo. It brings together a group of leading researchers to analyze the dynamic interaction of environmental factors with developmental and physiological processes and to examine how environmental signals are translated into phenotypic change, from the molecular and cellular level to organisms and groups of organisms. Taken together, these chapters demonstrate the crucial roles of those processes of genetic, developmental, physiological, and hormonal change that underpin evolutionary change in development, morphology, physiology, behavior, and life-history.

Part I investigates links between environmental signals and developmental processes that could be preserved over evolutionary time. Several contributors evaluate the work of the late Ryuichi Matsuda, especially his emphasis on the role of the external environment in genetic change and variability ("pan-environmentalism"). Other contributors in part I analyze different aspects of environmental-genetic-evolutionary linkages, including the importance of alternate ontogenies in evolution and the paradox of stability over long periods of evolutionary time. Part II examines the plasticity that characterizes much of development, with contributors discussing such topics as gene regulatory networks and heterochronicity. Part III analyzes the role of hormones and metamorphosis in the evolution of such organisms with alternate life-history stages as lampreys, amphibians, and insects. ... Read more

Product Description
This Elibron Classics edition is a facsimile reprint of a 1891 edition by Macmillan and Co., London. ... Read more

Book Description
IThe authors have made a unique and valuable contribution, creating a guidebook to the bewildering array of concepts underlying modern biology.--ARBA Will be especially useful to researchers and students of biology, historians of science, libraries, and the general public with an interest in biology. --TAXON ... Read more

Book Description
This book covers applications of computational techniques to biological problems.These techniques are based by an ever-growing number of researchers with different scientific backgrounds - biologists, chemists, and physicists.

The rapid development of molecular biology in recent years has been mirrored by the rapid development of computer hardware and software.This has resulted in the development of sophisticated computational techniques and a wide range of computer simulations involving such methods.Among the areas where progress has been profound is in the modeling of DNA structure and function, the understanding at a molecular level of the role of solvents in biological phenomena, the calculation of the properties of molecular associations in aqueous solutions, computationally assisted drug design, the prediction of protein structure, and protein - DNA recognition, to mention just a few examples.This volume comprises a balanced blend of contributions covering such topics.They reveal the details of computational approaches designed for biomoleucles and provide extensive illustrations of current applications of modern techniques.

A broad group of readers ranging from beginning graduate students to molecular biology professions should be able to find useful contributions in this selection of reviews. ... Read more

Book Description
The search for origins of communication in a wide variety of species including humans is rapidly becoming a thoroughly interdisciplinary enterprise. In this volume, scientists engaged in the fields of evolutionary biology, linguistics, animal behavior, developmental psychology, philosophy, the cognitive sciences, robotics, and neural network modeling come together to explore a comparative approach to the evolution of communication systems. The comparisons range from parrot talk to squid skin displays, from human language to Aibo the robot dog's language learning, and from monkey babbling to the newborn human infant cry. The authors explore the mysterious circumstances surrounding the emergence of human language, which they propose to be intricately connected with drastic changes in human lifestyle. While it is not yet clear what the physical environmental circumstances were that fostered social changes in the hominid line, the volume offers converging evidence and theory from several lines of research suggesting that language depended upon the restructuring of ancient human social groups.

The volume also offers new theoretical treatments of both primitive communication systems and human language, providing new perspectives on how to recognize both their similarities and their differences. Explorations of new technologies in robotics, neural network modeling and pattern recognition offer many opportunities to simulate and evaluate theoretical proposals.

The North American and European scientists who have contributed to this volume represent a vanguard of thinking about how humanity came to have the capacity for language and how nonhumans provide a background of remarkable capabilities that help clarify the foundations of speech. ... Read more

Book Description
No biological concept has had greater impact on the way we view ourselves and the world around us than the theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin's masterful contribution was to provide an algorithmic model (a formal step-by-step procedure) of how adaptation may take place in biological systems. However, the simple process of linear incremental improvement that he described is only one algorithmic possibility, and certain biological phenomena provide the possibility of implementing alternative processes. In Compositional Evolution, Richard Watson uses the tools of computer science and computational biology to show that certain mechanisms of genetic variation (such as sex, gene transfer, and symbiosis) allowing the combination of preadapted genetic material enable an evolutionary process, compositional evolution, that is algorithmically distinct from the Darwinian gradualist framework.

After reviewing the gradualist framework of evolution and outlining the analogous principles at work in evolutionary computation, Watson describes the compositional mechanisms of evolutionary biology and provides computational models that illustrate his argument. He uses models such as the genetic algorithm as well as novel models to explore different evolutionary scenarios, comparing evolution based on spontaneous point mutation, sexual recombination, and symbiotic encapsulation. He shows that the models of sex and symbiosis are algorithmically distinct from simpler stochastic optimization methods based on gradual processes. Finally, Watson discusses the impact of compositional evolution on our understanding of natural evolution and, similarly, the utility of evolutionary computation methods for problem solving and design. ... Read more

Product Description
Interface between biology and the mathematical sciences. Biometrics Unit Technical Report BU-1419-M ... Read more

Product Description
a journal devoted to research at the junction of computational , theoretical and experimental biology ... Read more