Franklin M. Harold
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226174143
- eISBN:
- 9780226174310
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226174310.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Biochemistry / Molecular Biology
The discovery of how the machinery of life works, and how it is constructed, is one of the glories of 20th century science. By contrast, we know little of the origin and evolution of cells and their ...
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The discovery of how the machinery of life works, and how it is constructed, is one of the glories of 20th century science. By contrast, we know little of the origin and evolution of cells and their parts, and what we have learned is in dispute. This book surveys ongoing efforts to make cell evolution intelligible. The text revolves around a small set of fundamental questions: 1. How many kinds of cellular designs does our world hold, and how are they related? 2. Is the traditional metaphor of a tree of life still useful, or has it been superseded? 3. What are viruses, and how are they related to cells? 4 Can one construct a timeline for the origin and early history of life? 5. Do all living things share a common ancestor, and what was its nature? 6. Why are eukaryotic organisms so much more complex than prokaryotic ones, and how did they arise? 7. Has functional, adaptive organization increased over time, and if so, why? 8. Is there a way to generate functional organization that does not depend on heredity, and selection? 9. How did life emerge from the lifeless world of chemistry and physics? 10. Can a generalized theory of evolution explain the origin of life? 11. Is the history of life a succession of contingent events, or does it have direction and meaning?Less
The discovery of how the machinery of life works, and how it is constructed, is one of the glories of 20th century science. By contrast, we know little of the origin and evolution of cells and their parts, and what we have learned is in dispute. This book surveys ongoing efforts to make cell evolution intelligible. The text revolves around a small set of fundamental questions: 1. How many kinds of cellular designs does our world hold, and how are they related? 2. Is the traditional metaphor of a tree of life still useful, or has it been superseded? 3. What are viruses, and how are they related to cells? 4 Can one construct a timeline for the origin and early history of life? 5. Do all living things share a common ancestor, and what was its nature? 6. Why are eukaryotic organisms so much more complex than prokaryotic ones, and how did they arise? 7. Has functional, adaptive organization increased over time, and if so, why? 8. Is there a way to generate functional organization that does not depend on heredity, and selection? 9. How did life emerge from the lifeless world of chemistry and physics? 10. Can a generalized theory of evolution explain the origin of life? 11. Is the history of life a succession of contingent events, or does it have direction and meaning?
Karl S. Matlin, Jane Maienschein, and Manfred D. Laubichler (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226520483
- eISBN:
- 9780226520650
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226520650.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Biochemistry / Molecular Biology
Although cell biology is often considered to have arisen following World War II in tandem with certain technological developments—in particular, the electron microscope and cell fractionation—its ...
More
Although cell biology is often considered to have arisen following World War II in tandem with certain technological developments—in particular, the electron microscope and cell fractionation—its origins actually date to the 1830s and the development of cytology, the scientific study of cells. By 1924, with the publication of Edmund Vincent Cowdry’s General Cytology, the discipline had stretched beyond the bounds of purely microscopic observation to include as well the chemical, physical, and genetic analysis of cells. Inspired by this classic, watershed work, Visions of Cell Biology collects contributions from cell biologists, historians, and philosophers of science to explore the history and current status of cell biology. Despite extraordinary advances in describing both the structure and function of cells, cell biology tends to be overshadowed by molecular biology, a field that developed contemporaneously. This book remedies that unjust disparity through an investigation of cell biology’s evolution. Contributors show that modern concepts of cell organization, mechanistic explanation, epigenetics, molecular thinking, and even computational approaches all can be placed on the continuum of cell studies from cytology to cell biology and beyond.Less
Although cell biology is often considered to have arisen following World War II in tandem with certain technological developments—in particular, the electron microscope and cell fractionation—its origins actually date to the 1830s and the development of cytology, the scientific study of cells. By 1924, with the publication of Edmund Vincent Cowdry’s General Cytology, the discipline had stretched beyond the bounds of purely microscopic observation to include as well the chemical, physical, and genetic analysis of cells. Inspired by this classic, watershed work, Visions of Cell Biology collects contributions from cell biologists, historians, and philosophers of science to explore the history and current status of cell biology. Despite extraordinary advances in describing both the structure and function of cells, cell biology tends to be overshadowed by molecular biology, a field that developed contemporaneously. This book remedies that unjust disparity through an investigation of cell biology’s evolution. Contributors show that modern concepts of cell organization, mechanistic explanation, epigenetics, molecular thinking, and even computational approaches all can be placed on the continuum of cell studies from cytology to cell biology and beyond.
