Bryology For The Twenty First Century

A compilation of state of the art papers on key topics in bryology from invited speakers at the Centenary Symposium, University of Glasgow, 57 August 1996.

A compilation of state of the art papers on key topics in bryology from invited speakers at the Centenary Symposium, University of Glasgow, 57 August 1996.

Now more than ever, biology has the potential to contribute practical solutions to many of the major challenges confronting the United States and the world. A New Biology for the 21st Century recommends that a "New Biology" approach-one that depends on greater integration within biology, and closer collaboration with physical, computational, and earth scientists, mathematicians and engineers-be used to find solutions to four key societal needs: sustainable food production, ecosystem restoration, optimized biofuel production, and improvement in human health. The approach calls for a coordinated effort to leverage resources across the federal, private, and academic sectors to help meet challenges and improve the return on life science research in general.

A comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the morphology, systematics, ecology, and evolution of this fascinating group of plants.

Originating from conferences held at the Gregorian University in Rome and at the University of Notre Dame, these essays assess the continuing relevance of Darwin's work across academic fields.

This book is concerned with the future of living nature. Over 30 contributors from fields as diverse as genetics and philosophy, species ecology and zoo management, national park planning and national television broadcasting use their hands-on experience to provide informed speculation on what the future holds for wildlife and wildlands in relation to human needs.

Increasing knowledge of the biological is fundamentally transforming what life itself means and where its boundaries lie. New developments in the biosciences - especially through the molecularisation of life - are (re)shaping healthcare and other aspects of our society. This cutting edge volume studies contemporary bio-objects, or the categories, materialities and processes that are central to the configuring of 'life' today, as they emerge, stabilize and circulate through society. Examining a variety of bio-objects in contexts beyond the laboratory, Bio-Objects: Life in the 21st Century explores new ways of thinking about how novel bio-objects enter contemporary life, analysing the manner in which, among others, the boundaries between human and animal, organic and non-organic, and being 'alive' and the suspension of living, are questioned, destabilised and in some cases re-established. Thematically organised around questions of changing boundaries; the governance and regulation of bio-objects; and changing social, economic and political relations, this book presents rich new case studies from Europe that will be of interest to scholars of science and technology studies, social theory, sociology and law.

The mosses (Bryophatea, Musci) are a diverse and widely distributed group of land plants. Mosses are attractive experimental plants because they exhibit the traditional attributes of good model systems (Le. ease of growth & maintenance, fast generation time, and amenable genetics) with the added advantage of a haploid gametophyte that allowed developmental mutants to be recovered with relative ease. In addition, mosses with the ability to tolerate extreme environmental conditions offer realistic models for the analysis of environmental stress-tolerance; particularly when compared to tracheophytes such as Arabidopsis thaliana in which these important plant phenotypes are either not clearly expressed or entirely lacking. And, in one of the most exciting developments in Plant Biology, efficient homologous recombination occurs in the moss Physcomitrella patens. The ability to perform efficient homologous recombination (Le. gene knock-outs) in P. patens is at present unique amongst all plants and represents an extremely powerful technique for the functional analysis of many plant genes. Over the past 5 years, a world-wide community of moss researchers has evolved. A highly successful "Moss" conference has been held annually (l998-Mumbai, India; 1999-Carbondale, IL, USA; 2000-Villars, Switzerland; 200l-0kazaki, Japan; 2002-Ambleside, UK; 2003-St. Louis, MO, USA) with "Moss 2004" planned to be held in Frieburg Germany. These conferences have been instrumental in the creation & development of strong collaborative ties, and the free exchange of both ideas and materials.