The marine Eocene-Oligocene transition of 34 million years ago was a critical turning point in Earth's climatic history, when the warm, high-diversity "greenhouse" world of the early Eocene ceded to the glacial, "icehouse" conditions of the early Oligocene. This book surveys the advances in stratigraphic and paleontological research and isotopic analysis made since 1989 in regard to marine deposits around the world. In particular, it summarizes the high-resolution details of the so-called doubthouse interval (roughly 45 to 34 million years ago), which is critical to testing climatic and evolutionary hypotheses about the Eocene deterioration.

The authors' goals are to discuss the latest information concerning climatic and oceanographic change associated with this transition and to examine geographic and taxonomic patterns in biotic turnover that provide clues about where, when, and how fast these environmental changes happened. They address a range of topics, including the tectonic and paleogeographic setting of the Paleogene; specific issues related to the stratigraphy of shelf deposits; advances in recognizing and correlating boundary sections; trends in the expression of climate change; and patterns of faunal and floral turnover. In the process, they produce a valuable synthesis of patterns of change by latitude and environment.

This book provides a profile of innovation in industrial biotechnology, an emerging field of biotechnology characterised by the use of enzymes, microorganisms, and other biocatalysts to create new processes and products. Industrial biotechnology is used to make biofuels, chemicals and other products in more sustainable and environmentally friendly ways by, for example, enabling the use of renewable resources rather than petroleum-based products, eliminating harmful by-products created by conventional chemical processes, reducing energy requirements and greenhouse gas emissions, and/or lowering manufacturing costs. Because of these positive attributes, the demand for industrial biotechnology products and processes is increasing. Patent data, survey results, and technology and firm level data is used from emerging sectors of industrial biotechnology to provide a detailed picture of innovation in the field. Furthermore, this book finds substantial evidence that the field of industrial biotechnology is diverse and growing, with new patent owners entering at a steady rate. Different companies, ranging from small to large in size, are dominant in different areas of industrial biotechnology and patent portfolios play an important role in their participation by facilitating the commercialisation of new products and processes.