In the span of just three decades, scientific understanding of the formation of embryos has undergone a major revolution. The implications of these new research findings have an immediate bearing on human health and future therapies, yet most nonscientists remain quite unaware of the exciting news.   In this engaging book, a distinguished geneticist offers a clear, jargon-free overview of the field of developmental biology. Benny Shilo transforms complicated scientific paradigms ...

'From your brain to your fingertips, you emerge from her book entertained and with a deeper understanding of yourself' Richard Dawkins'A masterful account of why our bodies are the way they are . . . this book really shines . . . Roberts's lightness of touch is joyous, and celebratory' Observer'Witty, personal and above all informed by passion and deep knowledge, this is the story of you, not just from conc...

Did you know that your actions during pregnancy impact your child's health after birth and into adulthood? That what you eat, how much you exercise, your stress level, and your immediate environment are all key factors in determining your baby's predisposition to such conditions as heart disease, obesity, diabetes, stroke, cancer, even depression? Based on more than thirty years of rigorous scientific research, Dr. Nathanielsz's The Prenatal Prescription explains why this is so an...

Charles Darwin struggled to explain how forty thousand bees working in the dark, seemingly by instinct alone, could organize themselves to construct something as perfect as a honey comb. How do bees accomplish such incredible tasks? Synthesizing the findings of decades of experiments, The Spirit of the Hive presents a comprehensive picture of the genetic and physiological mechanisms underlying the division of labor in honey bee colonies and explains how bees’ complex social behavi...

Animal life, now and over the past half billion years, is incredibly diverse. Describing and understanding the evolution of this diversity of body plans - from vertebrates such as humans and fish to the numerous invertebrate groups including sponges, insects, molluscs, and the many groups of worms - is a major goal of evolutionary biology. In this book, a group of leading researchers adopt a modern, integrated approach to describe how current molecular genetic techniques and disciplines as...

The Evolution of Molecular Biology: The Search for the Secrets of Life provides the historical knowledge behind techniques founded in molecular biology, also presenting an appreciation of how, and by whom, these discoveries were made. It deals with the evolution of intellectual concepts in the context of active research in an approachable language that accommodates readers from a variety of backgrounds. Each chapter contains a prologue and epilogue to create continuity and provide a comple...

This acclaimed text has been fully revised and updated, now incorporating issues including aging of the reproductive system, and updates on the chapters on conception and Gamete Transport and Fertilization, and Pregnancy.Human Reproductive Biology, Third Edition emphasizes the biological and biomedical aspects of human reproduction, explains advances in reproductive science and discusses the choices and concerns of today. Generously illustrated in full color, the text provides current info...

Plant genomics and biotechnology have recently made enormous strides, and hold the potential to benefit agriculture, the environment and various other dimensions of the human endeavor. It is no exaggeration to claim that the twenty-first century belongs to biotechnology. Knowledge generation in this field is growing at a frenetic pace, and keeping abreast of the latest advances and calls on us to double our efforts. Volume II of this two-part series addresses cutting-edge aspects of plant ...

The scope of the book is to highlight the diverse roles of cilia in human development and disease. Almost all cell types form cilia and although they were first detected about 200 years ago, their significance was unclear. In the past ten years, it has become obvious that cilia have got sensory functions, as well as roles in motility and their mis-formation or the deregulation of the signaling pathways they control has been associated with defective development and human disease. Although ...

It's in Your DNA: From Discovery to Structure, Function and Role in Evolution, Cancer and Aging describes, in a clear, approachable manner, the progression of the experiments that eventually led to our current understanding of DNA. This fascinating work tells the whole story from the discovery of DNA and its structure, how it replicates, codes for proteins, and our current ability to analyze and manipulate it in genetic engineering to begin to understand the central role of DNA in evolutio...

This book explores the regenerative properties of fetal stem cells, from feto-maternal cell traffic through perinatal stem cells, with a discussion of key topics including stem cell banking, drug screening, in utero stem cell transplantation and ethical considerations. The expertly authored chapters also delve into embryonic, amniotic membrane, and umbilical cord blood stem cells; fetal development models; fetal cell reprogramming; culture methods; disease models; perinatal gene therapy, a...

This book discusses critical areas of progress in stem cell research, including the most recent research and applications of pluripotent embryonic cells, induced pluripotent cells, oligopotent tissue stem cells and cancer stem cells. The text covers basic knowledge of stem cell biology, stem cell ethics, development of techniques for applying stem cell therapy, the technology of obtaining appropriate cells for transplantation as well as the role of stem cells in cancer and how therapy may ...