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The biology of death : how dying shapes cells, organisms, & populations / Gary C. Howard.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Howard, Gary C., author.
- Series:
- Oxford scholarship online.
- Oxford scholarship online
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Death (Biology).
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (304 pages) : illustrations (black and white).
- Place of Publication:
- New York, New York : Oxford University Press, [2021]
- Summary:
- 'The Biology of Death' ties together the many ways that death helps scientists understand life. In the book, science writer Gary C. Howard synthesizes the involvement and relation of cells, tissues, organisms, and populations, offering a comprehensive overview of what happens at the end of life.
- Contents:
- Cover
- Half-Title
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- About the Dead Man and Fungi
- Contents
- Preface
- 1. Death in Life
- 2. Defining Life and Death
- Life: Hard to Define
- Recognizing Life and Death
- Bacteria with Synthetic DNA
- At the Boundary of Living and Nonliving
- Life, Death, and the Law
- Where Next?
- 3. What Kills Humans
- Mosquitos and Human Death
- Dying Today
- Death in the United States
- Death in the World
- What Kills Children Today
- What Do We Believe Kills Us?
- Death in the Distant Past
- Death in the More Recent Past
- Pandemics and Other Large-.Scale Events
- Looking to the Future: Diseases of Lifestyle
- 4. Aging and Senescence
- What Are Aging and Senescence?
- Physiological Manifestations
- Does Everything Age?
- Evolution of Aging
- Modern Theories of Aging
- Can We Do Anything About Aging?
- Aging as a Disease
- 5. Dying
- Clinical Signs of Approaching Death
- What Happens at the Moment of Death and Shortly Thereafter
- Do All of Our Cells Die at the Same Time?
- Near-.Death Experiences
- Keeping Body and Soul Together
- 6. Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust
- What Happens After Death?
- When the Heart Stops
- Understanding the Process
- Laying the Dead to Rest
- Other Methods
- Animals and Death
- How Plants Decompose
- 7. Genetics of Life and Death
- Theories of Aging Based on Genes and DNA
- Nutrient-.Sensing Mechanisms
- Worn-.Out Parts
- Cellular Senescence
- Cell Signaling
- Future Directions
- 8. Death of Cells
- Life and Death of Cells
- Cellular Aging and Death
- Programmed Cell Death
- Anastasis: A Near-.Death Experience for Cells
- Metamorphosis
- 9. Programmed Cell Death in Humans
- Development
- Disease and Injury
- 10. Death in Plants
- Cell Death
- Death in Growth and Development
- Plant Pathogens and Defenses.
- Programmed Cell Death in Plant Diseases
- 11. Death in Bacteria, Fungi, and Protista
- Quorum Sensing by Bacteria
- Fungi
- Protista
- 12. Death on a Grand Scale
- Geology and Biology
- Defining Mass Extinctions
- Causes of Mass Extinctions
- Major Mass Extinction Events
- Mass Extinctions Now and in the Future
- 13. Last Hominid Standing
- What Happened to Our Predecessors?
- Our Possible Family Members
- Emergence of Homo sapiens and Interbreeding with Other Hominids
- Leaving Africa
- Genetic Bottlenecks and Human Evolution
- Last of the Hominids
- 14. Bioethics
- Who Wants to Live Forever?
- Treating Current Patients
- Ethical Questions
- Research into Aging: General Arguments
- Bioethical Controversies in Specific Research Areas
- Aging Research as a Moral Imperative
- 15. Future of Death
- New Technologies
- New Threats
- Have We Reached the Limit of Human Life Span?
- Predictions Unverified
- 16. Death Is More than Dying
- Glossary
- References
- Index.
- Notes:
- Also issued in print: 2021.
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Description based on print version record.
- ISBN:
- 0-19-760143-X
- 0-19-068774-6
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