Discovery : windows on the life sciences / by Ricki Lewis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lewis, Ricki.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Molecular biology.

Biology, Experimental.

Biochemistry.

Physical Description:

x, 235 pages, 4 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Malden, Mass. : Blackwell Science, [2001]

Summary:

This book recognizes the growing demand among instructors for a text that departs from fact-stuffed textbooks and engages students in the discovery process at a personal level. The goal of Discovery: Windows on the Life Sciences is to relay the excitement of science by exploring selected topics in biology and medicine in a way that reveals the process of discovery. Each chapter focuses on the curiosity and creativity that drives scientists to wonder, observe, question and experiment. Not a standard textbook, this collection of journalistic essays is meant to engage the reader and peak his/her curiosity about timely and newsworthy scientific topics.

Contents:

Serendipity 4

Following A Hunch: The Road to Cisplatin 5

Seeing Connections: From Lethargic Guinea Pigs to Lithium 8

Systematic Searches 11

Natural Products Chemistry 11

Synthetic Versus Combinatorial Chemistry 14

Sequencing Genomes 15

The Human Genome Project 17

Chapter 2 The Origin of Life: When Chemistry Became Biology 23

Sidestepping the Question of How Life Began 25

Debunking Spontaneous Generation 25

Disproving Vitalism 26

Life from Space: Perhaps Some Evidence 27

Setting the Scene 31

When Might Life Have Originated? 31

Where Could Life Have Arisen? 31

Prebiotic Simulations 33

The Miller Experiment 33

Other Prebiotic Simulations 36

After the Building Blocks Form: Polymerization 37

Prelude to an Ran World 39

Why RNA? 39

Evolution in a Test Tube 40

A Pre-RNA World? 42

Between the RNA World and the First Organism 43

A Final Word on Controversy 43

Chapter 3 Going out on a Limb for the Tree of Life 47

In the Legacy of Galileo 48

Inspiration from the Genetic Code 49

Enter Evolution 52

The Arkies' Debut, in Print 54

Making the Case 54

Details Emerge 55

Arkies Affect Biological Classification 56

History of Biological Classification 57

Domains Arrive

For Some 59

It's a Small World After All 61

Chapter 4 In Pursuit of Prions 65

Early Clues: Scrapie, Rida, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease 67

Of Kuru and Cannibals 69

Into the Lab to Isolate the Agent 72

Iatrogenic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Arises 74

Human Growth Hormone From Cadavers Causes a Prion Disease 75

Prusiner and Prions 76

The British Beef Scare 78

1985 to 1987: 420 New BSE Cases 79

1988: 3072 New BSE Cases 80

1989: 7627 New BSE Cases 81

1990: 14,371 New BSE Cases 81

1991 to 1992: The Numbers of New BSE Cases Peak at 25,644 and 36,924 82

1993: The Number of New BSE Cases Begins to Fall (33,574) 84

1994 84

1995 85

1996 86

1997 88

1998 88

1999 88

Fatal Insomnia 89

Visualizing Prions 92

The Yeast Connection 93

Chapter 5 The Tale of Telomeres 99

Discovering Sticky Ends 100

The Hayflick Limit 102

The End Replication Problem 106

The Hayflick Limit Meets the End Replication Problem 107

Clues from Ciliates 110

Probing Human Telomeres 112

The Puzzle Pieces Assemble 114

Tracking Telomerase in Different Cell Types 114

Manipulating Telomerase 117

Shutting Telomerase Off 117

Turning Telomerase On 118

The Future: Telomere Medicine? 120

Chapter 6 Stem Cells: The Science of Self-Renewal 127

From Bone Marrow to Brain Marrow 128

A Cell's Potential Gone Haywire: Teratomas 131

Strain 129 Leads to Identifying Stem Cells 132

Tracing the Origin of a Teratoma 135

A Surprise Announcement Catalyzes Cell Culture 136

Knockouts Begin with Embryonic Stem Cells 138

Enter Embryonic Germ Cells 140

Beyond the Mouse 142

Finally

Human Embryonic Stem Cells 143

Enter Ethics and Politics 144

Adult Stem Cells: Bone Marrow to Brain, Liver, Muscle, and Beyond 147

Brain Marrow Revisited 151

Chapter 7 The Roots of Cloning 157

The Amphibian Years 159

The Mouse, Take 1 163

Of Bovines and Ovines

Cows and Sheep 164

Megan and Morag Prove the Principle of Cloning

But are Ignored 167

Sheep 6LL3: Dolly 171

Hyped Reporting, Calls For "No Clone Zones," and other Overreactions 172

After Dolly 175

The Mouse, Take 2 178

Calves, Revisited 182

Cloned Others 183

Human Cloning: When and Why? 184

Cloning Comes Full Circle 186

Chapter 8 Homocysteine and Heart Health 189

Of LDL, HDL, and Homocysteine 190

Cycles and Pathways 191

Clues From Sick Children 194

A Flood of Studies Links Higher Homocysteine Level to Cardiovascular Disease 201

The Vitamin Connection: Focus on Folate 204

Establishing Causality and Mechanism 205

The Bigger Picture 208

Chapter 9 On Technology: Gene Therapy and Genetically Modified Foods 213

The First Reported Gene Therapy Death 214

Will Gene Therapy Follow in the Footsteps of Transplants? 219

A Butterfly Symbolizes Technofear 221

The Future 227.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0632044527

OCLC:

44045673