Life under the sun / Peter A. Ensminger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ensminger, Peter A., 1957-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Photobiology.

Photoreceptors.

Light--Physiological effect.

Light.

Vision.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 online resource (xii, 276 p.) ) ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, c2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Which fungus is as sensitive to light as the human eye? What are the myths and facts about the ozone hole, tanning, skin cancer, and sunscreens? What is the effect of light on butterfly copulation? This entertaining collection of essays explores how various organisms-including archaebacteria, slime molds, fungi, plants, insects, and humans-sense and respond to sunlight.The essays in Peter A. Ensminger's book cover vision, photosynthesis, and phototropism, as well as such unusual topics as the reason why light causes beer to develop a "skunky" odor. He introduces us to the kinds of eyes that have evolved in different animals, including those in a species of shrimp that is ostensibly eyeless; gives us a better appreciation of color vision; explains how plowing fields at night may be used to control weeds; and tells about variegate porphyria, a metabolic disease that makes people very sensitive to sunlight and may have afflicted King George III of England.These engaging essays present a complicated yet fascinating subject in an accessible way. The book will be treasured by anyone interested in the wonders of biology.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 .Vision at the Threshold

2. The Five Percent Solution to Vision

3. A More Delightful Vision

4 .A Burning Issue

5. A SAD Tale

6 .The Purple Disease

7 .A Novel Method of Weed Control

8 .Light and Beer

9. Phycomyces, the Fungus That Sees

10. Dictyostelium, the Amoeba and the Slug

11. High Hopes for Hypericin

12 .Turning on a Butterfly

13 .Blue Moons and Red Tides

14. Photosynthesis and the Great Salt Lake

15. Too Much of a Good Thing

Appendix: A Menagerie of Molecules

Notes

Glossary

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [201]-258) and index.

ISBN:

9786611722593

9781281722591

1281722596

9780300133523

0300133529

OCLC:

1024004653