One of Britain's foremost astrobiologists offers an accessible and game-changing account of life on Earth. __________________ Why is all life based on carbon rather than silicon? And beyond Earth, would life - if it exists - look like our own? __________________ The puzzles of life astound and confuse us like no other mystery. But in this groundbreaking book, Professor Charles Cockell reveals how nature is far more understandable and predictable than we would think. Breathing new life into Darwin's theory of natural selection, The Equations of Life puts forward an elegant account of why evolution has taken the paths it has. In a captivating journey into the forces that shape living things on Earth, Cockell explains that the fundamental laws of physics constrain nature at every turn. Fusing the latest in scientific research with fascinating accounts of the creatures that surround us, this is a compelling argument about what life can - and can't - be.

Concepts and techniques in genomics and proteomics covers the important concepts of high-throughput modern techniques used in the genomics and proteomics field. Each technique is explained with its underlying concepts, and simple line diagrams and flow charts are included to aid understanding and memory. A summary of key points precedes each chapter within the book, followed by detailed description in the subsections. Each subsection concludes with suggested relevant original references.

A derivative of the Encyclopedia of Inland Waters, Biogeochemistry of Inland Waters examines the transformation, flux and cycling of chemical compounds in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, combining aspects of biology, ecology, geology, and chemistry. Because the articles are drawn from an encyclopedia, they are easily accessible to interested members of the public, such as conservationists and environmental decision makers.

Key Concepts in Environmental Chemistry provides a modern and concise introduction to environmental chemistry principles and the dynamic nature of environmental systems. It offers an intense, one-semester examination of selected concepts encountered in this field of study and provides integrated tools in explaining complex chemical problems of environmental importance. Principles typically covered in more comprehensive textbooks are well integrated into general chapter topics and application areas. The goal of this textbook is to provide students with a valuable resource for learning the basic concepts of environmental chemistry from an easy to follow, condensed, application and inquiry-based perspective. Additional statistical, sampling, modeling and data analysis concepts and exercises will be introduced for greater understanding of the underlying processes of complex environmental systems and fundamental chemical principles. Each chapter will have problem-oriented exercises (with examples throughout the body of the chapter) that stress the important concepts covered and research applications/case studies from experts in the field. Research applications will be directly tied to theoretical concepts covered in the chapter. Overall, this text provides a condensed and integrated tool for student learning and covers key concepts in the rapidly developing field of environmental chemistry.

Global Ecology focuses on the perception of the biosphere or the ecosphere as a unified cooperative system with numerous synergistic effects, which describe the distinctive properties of this sphere. This book is subdivided into five parts dealing with diverse aspects in global ecology. The first part of the book provides comprehensive description of the biosphere, including its unique characteristics and evolution. This part also describes various spheres in the biosphere, such as the hydrosphere, noosphere, and pedosphere as well as their composition. The next part focuses on the global cycles, including calcium, carbon, iron, microbial nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, sulfur, and water cycles. In addition, global balances and flows are explained. Presented in the third part are the results of the global cycles and flows as well as the patterns of the climatic factors and marine currents. There is also a part discussing the climate interactions, climatic changes, and its effect on the living organisms. The book concludes by covering the application of stoichiometry in the biosphere and in ecosystems. The book offers a comprehensive view of global ecology and ecological stoichiometry, which will aid in the processes of global ecology.

Tissue Engineering, Third Edition provides a completely revised release with sections focusing on Fundamentals of Tissue Engineering and Tissue Engineering of Selected Organs and Tissues. Key chapters are updated with the latest discoveries, including coverage of new areas (skeletal TE, ophthalmology TE, immunomodulatory biomaterials and immune systems engineering). The book is written in a scientific language that is easily understood by undergraduate and graduate students in basic biological sciences, bioengineering and basic medical sciences, and researchers interested in learning about this fast-growing field.

Translating microRNA to the Clinic reviews the possibilities of current methodological tools and experimental approaches used by leading translational researchers. The book features the uses of micro ribonucleic acid as deployed in cancer targeting in biomarkers, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegeneration, among many others. Pedagogically, the work concentrates on the latest knowledge, laboratory techniques, and experimental approaches used by translational research leaders in this field, promoting a cross-disciplinary communication between the sub-specialities of medicine, but in common with other books on the topic. In addition, the book emphasizes recent innovations, critical barriers to progress, the new tools that are being used to overcome them, and specific areas of research that require additional study to advance the field as a whole.

In her new book Art and the Brain: Plasticity, Embodiment and the Unclosed Circle, Amy Ione offers a profound assessment of our ever-evolving view of the biological brain as it pertains to embodied human experience. She deftly takes the reader from Deep History into our current worldview by surveying the range of nascent responses to perception, thoughts and feelings that have bred paradigmatic changes and led to contemporary research modalities. Interweaving carefully chosen illustrations with the emerging ideas of brain function that define various time periods reinforces a multidisciplinary framework connecting neurological research, theories of mind, art investigations, and intergenerational cultural practices. The book will serve as a foundation for future investigations of neuroscience, art, and the humanities.

Handbook of Basal Ganglia Structure and Function, Second Edition, offers an integrated overview of the structural and functional aspects of the basal ganglia, highlighting clinical relevance. The basal ganglia, a group of forebrain nuclei interconnected with the cerebral cortex, thalamus, and brainstem, are involved in numerous brain functions, such as motor control and learning, sensorimotor integration, reward, and cognition. These nuclei are essential for normal brain function and behavior, and their importance is further emphasized by the numerous and diverse disorders associated with basal ganglia dysfunction, including Parkinson's disease, Tourette's syndrome, Huntington's disease, obsessive-compulsive disorder, dystonia, and psychostimulant addiction. This updated edition has been thoroughly revised to provide the most up-to-date account of this critical brain structure. Edited and authored by internationally acclaimed basal ganglia researchers, the new edition contains ten entirely new chapters that offer expanded coverage of anatomy and physiology, detailed accounts of recent advances in cellular/molecular mechanisms and cellular/physiological mechanisms, and critical, deeper insights into the behavioral and clinical aspects of basal ganglia function and dysfunction.

Chromatin Signaling and Diseases covers the molecular mechanisms that regulate gene expression, which govern everything from embryonic development, growth, and human pathologies associated with aging, such as cancer. This book helps researchers learn about or keep up with the quickly expanding field of chromatin signaling. After reading this book, clinicians will be more capable of explaining the mechanisms of gene expression regulation to their patients to reassure them about new drug developments that target chromatin signaling mechanisms. For example, several epigenetic drugs that act on chromatin signaling factors are in clinical trials or even approved for usage in cancer treatments, Alzheimer's, and Huntington's diseases. Other epigenetic drugs are in development to regulate various class of chromatin signaling factors. To keep up with this changing landscape, clinicians and doctors will need to stay familiar with genetic advances that translate to clinical practice, such as chromatin signaling. Although sequencing of the human genome was completed over a decade ago and its structure investigated for nearly half a century, molecular mechanisms that regulate gene expression remain largely misunderstood. An emerging concept called chromatin signaling proposes that small protein domains recognize chemical modifications on the genome scaffolding histone proteins, facilitating the nucleation of enzymatic complexes at specific loci that then open up or shut down the access to genetic information, thereby regulating gene expression. The addition and removal of chemical modifications on histones, as well as the proteins that specifically recognize these, is reviewed in Chromatin Signaling and Diseases. Finally, the impact of gene expression defects associated with malfunctioning chromatin signaling is also explored.

Na Channels from Phyla to Function, the latest volume in the Current Topics in Membranes series, is targeted toward scientists and researchers in biochemistry and molecular and cellular biology, providing the necessary membrane research to assist them in discovering the current state of a particular field and in learning where that field is heading. This volume offers an up-to-date presentation of the current knowledge in the field of Na Channels.

Insights into Enzyme Mechanisms and Functions from Experimental and Computational Methods is the latest volume in the popular Advances in Protein Chemistry and Structural Biology series, an essential resource for protein chemists. Each volume brings forth new information about protocols and analysis of proteins, with each thematically organized volume guest edited by leading experts in a broad range of protein-related topics.

Epigenetics in Organ Specific Disorders, a new volume in the Translational Epigenetics series, provides a foundational overview and nuanced analysis of epigenetic gene regulation distinct to each organ type and organ specific disorders, fully elucidating the epigenetics pathways that promote and regulate disease. After a brief introduction, chapter authors compare epigenetic regulations across normal and disease conditions in different organ tissues, exploring similarities and contrasts. The role of epigenetic mechanisms in stem cells, cell-matrix interactions and cell proliferation, cell migration, cellular apoptosis, necrosis, pyknosis, tumor suppression, and immune responses across different organ types are examined in-depth. Organ specific epigenetic mechanisms and biomarkers of early use in developing drugs, which can selectively target the organ of interest, are also explored to enable new precision therapies.

A derivative of the Encyclopedia of Inland Waters, River Ecosystem Ecology reviews the function of rivers and streams as ecosystems as well as the varied activities and interactions that occur among their abiotic and biotic components. Because the articles are drawn from an encyclopedia, the articles are easily accessible to interested members of the public, such as conservationists and environmental decision makers.

This selection of articles from the Encyclopedia of the Eye is the first single-volume overview presenting articles on the function, biology, physiology, and pathology of the structures of the ocular periphery, as well as the related disorders and their treatment. The peripheral structures are implicated in a number of important diseases, including optic neuritis, thyroid eye disease, and strabismus. The volume offers a basic science background of these topics rather than a strictly clinical focus.

This volume descibes, in up-to-date terminology and authoritative interpretation, the field of neurolinguistics, the science concerned with the neural mechanisms underlying the comprehension, production and abstract knowledge of spoken, signed or written language. An edited anthology of 165 articles from the award-winning Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics 2nd edition, Encyclopedia of Neuroscience 4th Edition and Encyclopedia of the Neorological Sciences and Neurological Disorders, it provides the most comprehensive one-volume reference solution for scientists working with language and the brain ever published.

Bioprinting: From Multidisciplinary Design to Emerging Opportunities describes state-of-the-art techniques and highlights open issues of different aspects that affect the efficiency of bioprinting protocols. Starting from a description of the main bioprinting technologies, the book addresses the most advanced approaches for the design of "on-demand" biomaterials suitable for incorporating biological components, along with the challenges associated with the development of a cellular model, and with the biological read-out. Coverage includes intelligent process design techniques, emerging technologies, and specific applications. Written by a highly interdisciplinary team of authors and presenting a unified approach to bioprinting, this book is ideal for doctoral and postdoctoral researchers in biotechnology, engineering, and physics, as well as industrial researchers interested in the applications of bioprinting.

COVID-19 in Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia crucially summarizes the current status of the coronavirus in patients suffering from these conditions, describing why they are a common cause of morbidity. Chapters provide a general description of COVID-19, including SARS-CoV-2 structure, function and biology and its impact on the elderly with chronic conditions, including hypertension, diabetes, obesity, kidney disease, respiratory illnesses and infectious diseases. Also discussed are the effects of the virus on the immune system. Other sections shift to the impact of COVID-19 on those with dementia or Alzheimer's disease, with special emphasis on age, gender, ethnic background and lifestyle. Bringing this focus on neurodegenerative disease in one comprehensive resource, this volume is an essential reference for neuroscientists, clinicians, biomedical scientists and all others working or interested in the field.

This Handbook provides an overview of neuroscience-driven research methodologies and how those methodologies might be applied to theory-based research in the nascent field of neuroentrepreneurship. A key challenge of this field is that few neuroscientists are trained as entrepreneurship scholars and few entrepreneurship scholars are trained as neuroscientists, but this book skillfully bridges that gap. Expert contributors include concrete examples of new ways to conduct research in their contributions, which have the potential to shed light onto areas such as decision making and opportunity recognition and allow neuroentrepreneurs to ask different, perhaps better, questions than ever before. This Handbook also presents current thinking and examples of pioneering work, serves as a reference for those wishing to incorporate these methods into their own research, and provides several helpful discussions on the nature of answerable questions using neuroscience techniques. Neuroentrepreneurship is an important, emerging field for neuroscientists and entrepreneurship scholars alike. For the former audience, this book presents concrete research questions and entrepreneurship applications; for the latter, it serves as a primer and introduction to neuroscientific methods. Graduate students studying entrepreneurship, and practitioners who are keen to promote innovation and entrepreneurial skills in their leadership, will also find this Handbook to be of interest. Contributors include: W. Becker, C. Bellavitis, M.C. Boardman, M. Colosio, C. Couffe, M. Day, P.M. de Holan, A.A. Gorin, S. Guillory, N. Krueger, A. Passarelli, V. Perez-Centeno, C. Reeck, L. Schjoedt, K.G. Shaver, A. Sud, T. Treffers, M.K. Ward