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Knowledge of Life
As the work of thinkers such as Michel Foucault, Franois Jacob, Louis Althusser, and Pierre Bourdieu demonstrates, Georges Canguilhem has exerted tremendous influence on the philosophy of science and French philosophy more generally. In Knowledge of Life, a book that spans twenty years of his essays and lectures, Canguilhem offers a series of epistemological histories that seek to establish and clarify the stakes, ambiguities, and emergence of philosophical and biological concepts that defined the rise of modern biology. How do transformations in biology and modern medicine shape conceptions of life? How do philosophical concepts feed into biological ideas and experimental practices, and how are they themselves transformed? How does knowledge undo the experience of life so as to help man remake what life has made without him, in him or outside of him?Knowledge of Life is Canguilhem's effort to explain how the movements of knowledge and life come to rest upon each other. Published at the dawn of the genetic revolution and still pertinent today, the book tackles the history of cell theory, the conceptual moves toward and away from mechanical understandings of the organism, the persistence of vitalism, and the nature of normality in science and its objects.
eBook
Life's engines : how microbes made Earth habitable
\"For almost four billion years, microbes had the primordial oceans all to themselves. The stewards of Earth, these organisms transformed the chemistry of our planet to make it habitable for plants, animals, and us. Life's Engines takes readers deep into the microscopic world to explore how these marvelous creatures made life on Earth possible--and how human life today would cease to exist without them. Paul Falkowski looks \"under the hood\" of microbes to find the engines of life, the actual working parts that do the biochemical heavy lifting for every living organism on Earth. With insight and humor, he explains how these miniature engines are built--and how they have been appropriated by and assembled like Lego sets within every creature that walks, swims, or flies. Falkowski shows how evolution works to maintain this core machinery of life, and how we and other animals are veritable conglomerations of microbes. A vibrantly entertaining book about the microbes that support our very existence, Life's Engines will inspire wonder about these elegantly complex nanomachines that have driven life since its origin. It also issues a timely warning about the dangers of tinkering with that machinery to make it more \"efficient\" at meeting the ever-growing demands of humans in the coming century.\"--Jacket.
Book
Functional and Evolutionary Ecology of Fleas
Fleas are one of the most interesting and fascinating taxa of ectoparasites. All species in this relatively small order are obligatory haematophagous (blood-feeding) parasites of higher vertebrates. This book examines how functional, ecological and evolutionary patterns and processes of host-parasite relationships are realized in this particular system. As such it provides an in-depth case study of a host-parasite system, demonstrating how fleas can be used as a model taxon for testing ecological and evolutionary hypotheses. The book moves from basic descriptive aspects, to functional issues and finally to evolutionary explanations. It extracts several general principles that apply equally well to other host-parasite systems, so it appeals not only to flea biologists but also to 'mainstream' parasitologists and ecologists.
eBook
Marine Proteins and Peptides
Food proteins and bioactive peptides play a vital role in the growth and development of the body's structural integrity and regulation, as well as having a variety of other functional properties. Land animal-derived food proteins such as collagen and gelatine carry risks of contamination (such as BSE). Marine-derived proteins, which can provide equivalents to collagen and gelatin without the associated risks, are becoming more popular among consumers because of their numerous health beneficial effects. Most marine-derived bioactive peptides are currently underutilized. While fish and shellfish are perhaps the most obvious sources of such proteins and peptides, there is also the potential for further development of proteins and peptides from sources like algae, sea cucumber and molluscs. Marine-derived proteins and peptides also have potential uses in novel products, with the possibility of wide commercialization in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries, as well as in other fields such as photography, textiles, leather, electronics, medicine and biotechnology. Marine Proteins and Peptides: Biological Activities and Applications presents an overview of the current status, future industrial perspectives and commercial trends of bioactive marine-derived proteins and peptides. Many of the industrial perspectives are drawn from the food industry, but the book also refers to the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. There have recently been significant advances in isolating functional ingredients from marine bio-resources and seafood by-products for use in these industries, but little has been published, creating a knowledge gap, particularly with regard to the isolation and purification processes. This book is the first to fill that gap. Marine Proteins and Peptides: Biological Activities and Applications is a valuable resource for researchers in marine biochemistry field as well as food industry managers interested in exploring novel techniques and knowledge on alternative food protein sources. It will become a standard reference book for researchers involved in developing marine bio-resources and seafood by-products for novel nutraceutical, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical applications. It will also appeal to managers and product developers in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, particularly those looking to use marine-derived proteins and peptides as substitutes or replacements for unfashionable or outdated food components.
eBook
Expansion of a retrovirus lineage in the koala genome
Retroviruses have left their legacy in host genomes over millions of years as endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), and their structure, diversity, and prevalence provide insights into the historical dynamics of retrovirus–host interactions. In bioinformatic analyses of koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) whole-genome sequences, we identify a recently expanded ERV lineage (phaCin-β) that is related to the New World squirrel monkey retrovirus. This ERV expansion shares many parallels with the ongoing koala retrovirus (KoRV) invasion of the koala genome, including highly similar and mostly intact sequences, and polymorphic ERV loci in the sampled koala population. The recent phaCin-β ERV colonization of the koala genome appears to predate the current KoRV invasion, but polymorphic ERVs and divergence comparisons between these two lineages predict a currently uncharacterized, possibly still extant, phaCin-β retrovirus. The genomics approach to ERV-guided discovery of novel retroviruses in host species provides a strong incentive to search for phaCin-β retroviruses in the Australasian fauna.
Journal Article
Rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing and species identification for mixed samples
Antimicrobial resistance is an increasing problem on a global scale. Rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) is urgently needed in the clinic to enable personalized prescriptions in high-resistance environments and to limit the use of broad-spectrum drugs. Current rapid phenotypic AST methods do not include species identification (ID), leaving time-consuming plating or culturing as the only available option when ID is needed to make the sensitivity call. Here we describe a method to perform phenotypic AST at the single-cell level in a microfluidic chip that allows subsequent genotyping by in situ FISH. By stratifying the phenotypic AST response on the species of individual cells, it is possible to determine the susceptibility profile for each species in a mixed sample in 2 h. In this proof-of-principle study, we demonstrate the operation with four antibiotics and mixed samples with combinations of seven species.
Rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) is needed. Here the authors report a method for phenotypic AST at the single cell level, using a microfluidic chip that allows for subsequent genotyping with in situ FISH; they apply this to a mixed sample of 7 species and 4 antibiotics.
Journal Article
Roots and Associated Fungi Drive Long-Term Carbon Sequestration in Boreal Forest
Boreal forest soils function as a terrestrial net sink in the global carbon cycle. The prevailing dogma has focused on aboveground plant litter as a principal source of soil organic matter. Using ¹⁴C bomb-carbon modeling, we show that 50 to 70% of stored carbon in a chronosequence of boreal forested islands derives from roots and root-associated microorganisms. Fungal biomarkers indicate impaired degradation and preservation of fungal residues in late successional forests. Furthermore, 454 pyrosequencing of molecular barcodes, in conjunction with stable isotope analyses, highlights root-associated fungi as important regulators of ecosystem carbon dynamics. Our results suggest an alternative mechanism for the accumulation of organic matter in boreal forests during succession in the long-term absence of disturbance.
Journal Article
Ecological geography of the sea
This book presents an in-depth discussion of the biological and ecological geography of the oceans. It synthesizes locally restricted studies of the ocean to generate a global geography of the vast marine world.Based on patterns of algal ecology, the book divides the ocean into four primary compartments, which are then subdivided into secondary compartments. *Includes color insert of the latest in satellite imagery showing the world's oceans, their similarities and differences*Revised and updated to reflect the latest in oceanographic research*Ideal for anyone interested in understanding ocean ecology -- accessible and informative
eBook