Download or read book Evolution s Witness written by Ivan R. Schwab and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-05 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The evolution of the eye spans 3.75 billion years from single cell organisms with eyespots to Metazoa with superb camera style eyes. At least ten different ocular models have evolved independently into myriad optical and physiological masterpieces. The story of the eye reveals evolution's greatest triumph and sweetest gift. This book describes its journey"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book The Evolution of the Eye written by Georg Glaeser and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-10-29 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With fascinating, spectacularly beautiful images, the book piques readers’ curiosity about the diversity of visual organs. This book is the result of a dual approach – scientific as well as aesthetic. The compelling images are accompanied by an easy-to-read, understandable text, aimed at both scientists and the educated public, and generally anyone interested in the beauty of nature. Thanks to this combination, the book presents the staggering diversity of eyes in the animal kingdom and provides countless insights into the intriguing mechanisms at work – from simple pigment cups to independently flexible, telescopic, facet and lens eyes. Educational, exciting, entertaining till the last page, this is a book for anyone who is interested in evolution, nature and the miracle of life.
Download or read book Gene Sharing and Evolution written by Joram Piatigorsky and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2007-02-28 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Gene Sharing and Evolution Piatigorsky explores the generality and implications of gene sharing throughout evolution and argues that most if not all proteins perform a variety of functions in the same and in different species, and that this is a fundamental necessity for evolution.
Download or read book Evolution s Eye written by Susan Oyama and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2000-05-03 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent decades, Susan Oyama and her colleagues in the burgeoning field of developmental systems theory have rejected the determinism inherent in the nature/nurture debate, arguing that behavior cannot be reduced to distinct biological or environmental causes. In Evolution’s Eye Oyama elaborates on her pioneering work on developmental systems by spelling out that work’s implications for the fields of evolutionary theory, developmental and social psychology, feminism, and epistemology. Her approach profoundly alters our understanding of the biological processes of development and evolution and the interrelationships between them. While acknowledging that, in an uncertain world, it is easy to “blame it on the genes,” Oyama claims that the renewed trend toward genetic determinism colors the way we think about everything from human evolution to sexual orientation and personal responsibility. She presents instead a view that focuses on how a wide variety of developmental factors interact in the multileveled developmental systems that give rise to organisms. Shifting attention away from genes and the environment as causes for behavior, she convincingly shows the benefits that come from thinking about life processes in terms of developmental systems that produce, sustain, and change living beings over both developmental and evolutionary time. Providing a genuine alternative to genetic and environmental determinism, as well as to unsuccessful compromises with which others have tried to replace them, Evolution’s Eye will fascinate students and scholars who work in the fields of evolution, psychology, human biology, and philosophy of science. Feminists and others who seek a more complex view of human nature will find her work especially congenial.
Download or read book Optical Allusions written by Jay S Hosler and published by Active Synapse. This book was released on 2008 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Optical Allusions is for those people seeking a painstakingly researched, scientifically accurate, eye-themed comic book adventure! Wrinkles the Wonder Brain has lost his bosses eye and now he has to search all of human imagination for it. Along the way, he confronts biology head on and accidentally learns more about eyes and the evolution of vision than he thought possible. And, as if a compelling story with disembodied talking brains, shape-changing proteins, and giant robot eyes wasn't enough, each tale is followed by a fully illustrated, in-depth exploration of the ideas introduced in the comic story. Designed to be a hybrid college text book/comic book, Optical Allusions is suitable for advanced readers with an interest in evolution and real science. 127 pages.
Download or read book The Gene s Eye View of Evolution written by J. Arvid Ågren and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-07-21 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "To many evolutionary biologists, the central challenge of their discipline is to explain adaptation, the appearance of design in the living world. With the theory of evolution by natural selection, Charles Darwin elegantly showed how a purely mechanistic process can achieve this striking feature of nature. Since then, the way many biologists have thought about evolution and natural selection is as a theory about individual organisms. Over a century later, a subtle but radical shift in perspective emerged with the gene's-eye view of evolution in which natural selection was conceptualized as a struggle between genes for replication and transmission to the next generation. This viewpoint culminated with the publication of The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (Oxford University Press, 1976) and is now commonly referred to as selfish gene thinking. The gene's-eye view has subsequently played a central role in evolutionary biology, although it continues to attract controversy. The central aim of this accessible book is to show how the gene's-eye view differs from the traditional organismal account of evolution, trace its historical origins, clarify typical misunderstandings and, by using examples from contemporary experimental work, show why so many evolutionary biologists still consider it an indispensable heuristic. The book concludes by discussing how selfish gene thinking fits into ongoing debates in evolutionary biology, and what they tell us about the future of the gene's-eye view of evolution."--
Download or read book Colour and Vision Through the Eyes of Nature written by Steve Parker and published by . This book was released on 2016-07 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Life Ascending written by Nick Lane and published by Profile Books. This book was released on 2010-10-01 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2010 Royal Society Prize for science books Powerful new research methods are providing fresh and vivid insights into the makeup of life. Comparing gene sequences, examining the atomic structure of proteins and looking into the geochemistry of rocks have all helped to explain creation and evolution in more detail than ever before. Nick Lane uses the full extent of this new knowledge to describe the ten greatest inventions of life, based on their historical impact, role in living organisms today and relevance to current controversies. DNA, sex, sight and consciousnesses are just four examples. Lane also explains how these findings have come about, and the extent to which they can be relied upon. The result is a gripping and lucid account of the ingenuity of nature, and a book which is essential reading for anyone who has ever questioned the science behind the glories of everyday life.
Download or read book Vertebrate Photoreceptors written by Takahisa Furukawa and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-08-23 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a series of comprehensive views on various important aspects of vertebrate photoreceptors. The vertebrate retina is a tissue that provides unique experimental advantages to neuroscientists. Photoreceptor neurons are abundant in this tissue and they are readily identifiable and easily isolated. These features make them an outstanding model for studying neuronal mechanisms of signal transduction, adaptation, synaptic transmission, development, differentiation, diseases and regeneration. Thanks to recent advances in genetic analysis, it also is possible to link biochemical and physiological investigations to understand the molecular mechanisms of vertebrate photoreceptors within a functioning retina in a living animal. Photoreceptors are the most deeply studied sensory receptor cells, but readers will find that many important questions remain. We still do not know how photoreceptors, visual pigments and their signaling pathways evolved, how they were generated and how they are maintained. This book will make clear what is known and what is not known. The chapters are selected from fields of studies that have contributed to a broad understanding of the birth, development, structure, function and death of photoreceptor neurons. The underlying common word in all of the chapters that is used to describe these mechanisms is “molecule”. Only with this word can we understand how these highly specific neurons function and survive. It is challenging for even the foremost researchers to cover all aspects of the subject. Understanding photoreceptors from several different points of view that share a molecular perspective will provide readers with a useful interdisciplinary perspective.
Download or read book The Evidence for Evolution written by Alan R. Rogers and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to polling data, most Americans doubt that evolution is a real phenomenon. And it’s no wonder that so many are skeptical: many of today’s biology courses and textbooks dwell on the mechanisms of evolution—natural selection, genetic drift, and gene flow—but say little about the evidence that evolution happens at all. How do we know that species change? Has there really been enough time for evolution to operate? With The Evidence for Evolution, Alan R. Rogers provides an elegant, straightforward text that details the evidence for evolution. Rogers covers different levels of evolution, from within-species changes, which are much less challenging to see and believe, to much larger ones, say, from fish to amphibian, or from land mammal to whale. For each case, he supplies numerous lines of evidence to illustrate the changes, including fossils, DNA, and radioactive isotopes. His comprehensive treatment stresses recent advances in knowledge but also recounts the give and take between skeptical scientists who first asked “how can we be sure” and then marshaled scientific evidence to attain certainty. The Evidence for Evolution is a valuable addition to the literature on evolution and will be essential to introductory courses in the life sciences.
Download or read book Evolution Gone Wrong written by Alex Bezzerides and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An unforgettable journey through this twisted miracle of evolution we call ‘our body.’” —Spike Carlsen, author of A Walk Around the Block From blurry vision to crooked teeth, ACLs that tear at alarming rates and spines that seem to spend a lifetime falling apart, it’s a curious thing that human beings have beaten the odds as a species. After all, we’re the only survivors on our branch of the tree of life. The flaws in our makeup raise more than a few questions, and this detailed foray into the many twists and turns of our ancestral past includes no shortage of curiosity and humor to find the answers. Why is it that human mothers have such a life-endangering experience giving birth? Why are there entire medical specialties for teeth and feet? And why is it that human babies can’t even hold their heads up, but horses are trotting around minutes after they’re born? In this funny, wide-ranging and often surprising book, biologist Alex Bezzerides tells us just where we inherited our adaptable, achy, brilliant bodies in the process of evolution.
Download or read book Evolution A Visual Record written by Robert Clark and published by Phaidon Press. This book was released on 2016-10-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stunning images to reawaken us to the scientific process that drives the amazing diversity of life on earth Evidence of evolution is everywhere. Through 200 revelatory images, award-winning photographer Robert Clark makes one of the most important foundations of science clear and exciting to everyone. Evolution: A Visual Record transports readers from the near-mystical(human ancestors) to the historic (the famous 'finches' Darwin collected on the Galapagos Islands that spurred his theory); the recently understood (the link between dinosaurs and modern birds) to the simply astonishing.
Download or read book Webvision written by Helga Kolb and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Primate Origins of Human Cognition and Behavior written by Tetsuro Matsuzawa and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-06-30 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biologists and anthropologists in Japan have played a crucial role in the development of primatology as a scientific discipline. Publication of Primate Origins of Human Cognition and Behavior under the editorship of Tetsuro Matsuzawa reaffirms the pervasive and creative role played by the intellectual descendants of Kinji Imanishi and Junichiro Itani in the fields of behavioral ecology, psychology, and cognitive science. Matsuzawa and his colleagues-humans and other primate partners- explore a broad range of issues including the phylogeny of perception and cognition; the origin of human speech; learning and memory; recognition of self, others, and species; society and social interaction; and culture. With data from field and laboratory studies of more than 90 primate species and of more than 50 years of long-term research, the intellectual breadth represented in this volume makes it a major contribution to comparative cognitive science and to current views on the origin of the mind and behavior of humans.
Download or read book The Ancestor s Tale written by Richard Dawkins and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2004 with total page 696 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A renowned biologist provides a sweeping chronicle of more than four billion years of life on Earth, shedding new light on evolutionary theory and history, sexual selection, speciation, extinction, and genetics.
Download or read book In the Blink of an Eye written by Andrew Parker and published by . This book was released on 2016-06-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cambrian explosion is the "big bang" of evolution--a period of less than five million years during which life on Earth rapidly developed both armaments and defenses. Animals suddenly became both hunters and the hunted, and the number of animal groups with hard body parts mushroomed from three to 38. But why did the explosion happen when it did? Ground-breaking and accessible, this book unravels the evidence demonstrating that this was the period when the eye evolved, leading to an evolutionary scramble for survival.
Download or read book Eyes to See written by Michael Land and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-15 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vision is the sense by which we and other animals obtain most of our information about the world around us. Darwin appreciated that at first sight it seems absurd that the human eye could have evolved by natural selection. But we now know far more about vision, the many times it has independently evolved in nature, and the astonishing variety of ways to see. The human eye, with a lens forming an image on a sensitive retina, represents just one. Scallops, shrimps, and lobsters all use mirrors in different ways. Jumping spiders scan with their front-facing eyes to check whether the object in front is an insect to eat, another spider to mate with, or a predator to avoid. Mantis shrimps can even measure the polarization of light. Animal eyes are amazing structures, often involving precision optics and impressive information processing, mainly using wet protein - not the substance an engineer would choose for such tasks. In Eyes to See, Michael Land, one of the leading world experts on vision, explores the varied ways in which sight has evolved and is used in the natural world, and describes some of the ingenious experiments researchers have used to uncover its secrets. He also discusses human vision, including his experiments on how our eye movements help us to do everyday tasks, as well as skilled ones such as sight-reading music or driving. He ends by considering the fascinating problem of how the constantly shifting images from our eyes are converted in the brain into the steady and integrated conscious view of the world we experience.
