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8 books match the query 'Developmental biology'

cover of Genes in Development: Re-reading the Molecular Paradigm

Genes in Development

Re-reading the Molecular Paradigm

Eva M. Neumann-Held and Christoph Rehmann-Sutter, eds.

Duke University Press, 2006

In light of scientific advances such as genomics, predictive diagnostics, genetically engineered agriculture, nuclear transfer cloning, and the manipulation of stem cells, the idea that genes carry predetermined molecular programs or blueprints is pervasive. Yet new scientific discoveries—such as rna transcripts of single genes that can lead to the production of different compounds from the same pieces of dna—challenge the concept of the gene alone as the dominant factor in biological development. Increasingly aware of the tension between certain empirical results and interpretations of those results based on the orthodox view of genetic determinism, a growing number of scientists urge a rethinking of what a gene is and how it works. In this collection, a group of internationally renowned scientists present some prominent alternative approaches to understanding the role of dna in the construction and function of biological organisms.

Contributors discuss alternatives to the programmatic view of dna, including the developmental systems approach, methodical culturalism, the molecular process concept of the gene, the hermeneutic theory of description, and process structuralist biology. None of the approaches cast doubt on the notion that dna is tremendously important to biological life on earth; rather, contributors examine different ideas of how dna should be represented, evaluated, and explained. Just as ideas about genetic codes have reached far beyond the realm of science, the reconceptualizations of genetic theory in this volume have broad implications for ethics, philosophy, and the social sciences.

Contributors. Thomas Bürglin, Brian C. Goodwin, James Griesemer, Paul Griffiths, Jesper Hoffmeyer, Evelyn Fox Keller, Gerd B. Müller, Eva M. Neumann-Held, Stuart A. Newman, Susan Oyama, Christoph Rehmann-Sutter, Sahotra Sarkar, Jackie Leach Scully, Gerry Webster, Ulrich Wolf

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cover of How to Grow a Human: Adventures in How We Are Made and Who We Are

How to Grow a Human

Adventures in How We Are Made and Who We Are

Philip Ball

University of Chicago Press, 2019

Two summers ago, scientists removed a tiny piece of flesh from Philip Ball’s arm and turned it into a rudimentary “mini-brain.” The skin cells, removed from his body, did not die but were instead transformed into nerve cells that independently arranged themselves into a dense network and communicated with each other, exchanging the raw signals of thought. This was life—but whose? 

In his most mind-bending book yet, Ball makes that disconcerting question the focus of a tour through what scientists can now do in cell biology and tissue culture. He shows how these technologies could lead to tailor-made replacement organs for when ours fail, to new medical advances for repairing damage and assisting conception, and to new ways of “growing a human.” For example, it might prove possible to turn skin cells not into neurons but into eggs and sperm, or even to turn oneself into the constituent cells of embryos. Such methods would also create new options for gene editing, with all the attendant moral dilemmas. Ball argues that such advances can therefore never be about “just the science,” because they come already surrounded by a host of social narratives, preconceptions, and prejudices. But beyond even that, these developments raise questions about identity and self, birth and death, and force us to ask how mutable the human body really is—and what forms it might take in years to come. 
 
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cover of Modularity in Development and Evolution

Modularity in Development and Evolution

Edited by Gerhard Schlosser and Günter P. Wagner

University of Chicago Press, 2004

Modularity in Development and Evolution offers the first sustained exploration of modules from developmental and evolutionary perspectives. Contributors discuss what modularity is, how it can be identified and modeled, how it originated and evolved, and its biological significance. Covering modules at levels ranging from genes to colonies, the book focuses on their roles not just in structures but also in processes such as gene regulation. Among many exciting findings, the contributors demonstrate how modules can highlight key constraints on evolutionary processes.

A timely synthesis of a crucial topic, Modularity in Development and Evolution shows the invaluable insights modules can give into both developmental complexities and their evolutionary origins.
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cover of Positive Youth Development and Spirituality: From Theory to Research

Positive Youth Development and Spirituality

From Theory to Research

Richard M. Lerner

Templeton Press, 2008

<p>Bringing together a never-before-assembled network of biologists, psychologists, and sociologists, <em>Positive Youth Development and Spirituality</em> scientifically examines how spirituality and its cultivation may affect the positive development of adolescents. </p>

<p>Chapters provide groundbreaking new discussions of conceptual, theoretical, definitional, and methodological issues that need to be addressed when exploring the relationships between spirituality and development. Throughout the book, contributors recommend ways in which the research on the spirituality/positive youth development connection may be integral in building the larger field of spiritual development as a legitimate and active domain of developmental science. This volume, which is sure to be seen as a seminal contribution to a field in need of theoretical underpinnings, will be of interest to scholars and scientists in the fields of biology and the social and behavioral sciences.</p>

<p>Contributors include: Mona Abo-Zena, Jeffrey Jensen Arnnett, Peter L. Benson, Marina Umaschi Bers, Aerika Brittian, William Damon, Angela M. DeSilva, Jacquelynne S. Eccles, David Henry Feldman, Simon Gächter, Elena L. Grigorenko, Sonia S. Isaac, Lene Arnett Jensen, Carl N. Johnson, Linda Juang, Pamela Ebstyne King, Richard M. Lerner, Jennifer Menon, Na&#39;ilah Sued Nasir, Guerda Nicolas, Toma&acute;&scaron; Paus, Stephen C. Peck, Erin Phelps, Alan P. Poey, Robert W. Roeser, W. George Scarlett, Lonnie R. Sherrod, Gabriel S. Spiewak, Chris Starmer, Moin Syed, Janice L. Templeton, Heather L. Urry, and Richard Wilkinson.</p>

 

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cover of Principles of Animal Behavior, 4th Edition

Principles of Animal Behavior, 4th Edition

Lee Alan Dugatkin

University of Chicago Press, 2020

Since the last edition of this definitive textbook was published in 2013, much has happened in the field of animal behavior. In this fourth edition, Lee Alan Dugatkin draws on cutting-edge new work not only to update and expand on the studies presented, but also to reinforce the previous editions’ focus on ultimate and proximate causation, as well as the book’s unique emphasis on natural selection, learning, and cultural transmission. The result is a state-of-the-art textbook on animal behavior that explains underlying concepts in a way that is both scientifically rigorous and accessible to students. Each chapter in the book provides a sound theoretical and conceptual basis upon which the empirical studies rest. A completely new feature in this edition are the Cognitive Connection boxes in Chapters 2–17, designed to dig deep into the importance of the cognitive underpinnings to many types of behaviors. Each box focuses on a specific issue related to cognition and the particular topic covered in that chapter.

As Principles of Animal Behavior makes clear, the tapestry of animal behavior is created from weaving all of these components into a beautiful whole. With Dugatkin’s exquisitely illustrated, comprehensive, and up-to-date fourth edition, we are able to admire that beauty anew.
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cover of Principles of Animal Behavior, 5th Edition

Principles of Animal Behavior, 5th Edition

Lee Alan Dugatkin

University of Chicago Press, 2025

Incorporating essential revisions to reflect the latest scientific advancements, a celebrated author and scientist offers a leading textbook on animal behavior.
 
So much has happened in the field of animal behavior since the last edition of this definitive textbook was published in 2020. In this fifth edition, Lee Alan Dugatkin continues to draw on cutting-edge new research not only to update and expand on the studies presented but also to reinforce the previous editions’ focus on ultimate and proximate causation as well as the book’s unique emphasis on natural selection, learning, and cultural transmission in nonhuman animals. The result is an essential update to the leading textbook on animal behavior that explains underlying concepts accessibly and with scientific rigor.
 
Completely new features include:
  • Anthropogenic Connection Boxes. Humans are changing the planet. We are clearing forests, polluting the oceans, irrigating deserts, poisoning the soils, and driving a dramatic increase in global temperatures. All of these changes alter both the habitats where animals live and the species themselves as they evolve in response to our impact on their surroundings. Students will dig deep into how anthropogenic evolution affects animal behavior.
  • Social Network Connection Boxes. Researchers have discovered that social networks play a critical role in almost every aspect of animal life: what they eat, how they protect themselves, who they mate with, the dynamics of parent-offspring relations, aggression, navigation, communication, play, cooperation, culture, and more. Students will discover how social network studies enrich our understanding of the wondrous complexity of animal behavior.
As Principles of Animal Behavior makes clear, the tapestry of animal behavior is created by weaving all of these components into a beautiful whole. In this lavishly illustrated, comprehensive, and up-to-date edition, we can admire that beauty anew.
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cover of The Maternal Imprint: The Contested Science of Maternal-Fetal Effects

The Maternal Imprint

The Contested Science of Maternal-Fetal Effects

Sarah S. Richardson

University of Chicago Press, 2021

Leading gender and science scholar Sarah S. Richardson charts the untold history of the idea that a woman's health and behavior during pregnancy can have long-term effects on her descendants' health and welfare.

The idea that a woman may leave a biological trace on her gestating offspring has long been a commonplace folk intuition and a matter of scientific intrigue, but the form of that idea has changed dramatically over time. Beginning with the advent of modern genetics at the turn of the twentieth century, biomedical scientists dismissed any notion that a mother—except in cases of extreme deprivation or injury—could alter her offspring’s traits. Consensus asserted that a child’s fate was set by a combination of its genes and post-birth upbringing.  

Over the last fifty years, however, this consensus was dismantled, and today, research on the intrauterine environment and its effects on the fetus is emerging as a robust program of study in medicine, public health, psychology, evolutionary biology, and genomics. Collectively, these sciences argue that a woman’s experiences, behaviors, and physiology can have life-altering effects on offspring development. 

Tracing a genealogy of ideas about heredity and maternal-fetal effects, this book offers a critical analysis of conceptual and ethical issues—in particular, the staggering implications for maternal well-being and reproductive autonomy—provoked by the striking rise of epigenetics and fetal origins science in postgenomic biology today.
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cover of The Ovary of Eve: Egg and Sperm and Preformation

The Ovary of Eve

Egg and Sperm and Preformation

Clara Pinto-Correia

University of Chicago Press, 1997

The Ovary of Eve is a rich and often hilarious account of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century efforts to understand conception. In these early years of the Scientific Revolution, the most intelligent men and women of the day struggled to come to terms with the origins of new life, and one theory—preformation—sparked an intensely heated debate that continued for over a hundred years. Clara Pinto-Correia traces the history of this much maligned theory through the cultural capitals of Europe.

"The most wonderfully eye-opening, or imagination-opening book, as amusing as it is instructive."—Mary Warnock, London Observer

"[A] fascinating and often humorous study of a reproductive theory that flourished from the mid-17th century to the mid-18th century."—Nina C. Ayoub, Chronicle of Higher Education

"More than just a good story, The Ovary of Eve is an object lesson about the history of science: Don't trust it. . . . Pinto-Correia says she wants to tell the story of history's losers. In doing so, she makes defeat sound more appealing than victory."—Emily Eakin, Nation.

"A sparkling history of preformation as it once affected every facet of European culture."—Robert Taylor, Boston Globe
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