Böcker av Alessandro Minelli

Recent and ongoing debates in biology and the philosophy of biology reveal a widespread dissatisfaction with traditional explanatory frameworks. There are also problems with the current definitions or circumscriptions of key concepts such as gene, species, and homology, and even of whole disciplinary fields within the life sciences, e.g. developmental biology. These contrasting views are arguably a symptom of the need to revisit traditional, unchallenged partitions between the specialist disciplines within the life sciences. In the diversity of topics addressed and approaches to move beyond the current disciplinary organization, the five essays in this volume will hopefully stimulate further exploration towards an improved articulation of life sciences.

Using familiar examples and easy-to-follow arguments, this concise book offers fresh alternatives to a number of widespread misconceptions about development. It will appeal to anyone interested in novel views and ideas in biology, including biologists, science educators, philosophers, students and general readers.

To some potential readers of this book the description of Biological System atics as an art may seem outdated and frankly wrong. Specialists are imbibed with their own groups and tend to establish a consensus of what constitutes a species or a genus, or whether it should be desirable to recognize sub species, cultivars etc.

What comes first, form or function? Trumpeted as the future of biological science, evolutionary developmental biology (or "e;evo-devo"e;) answers this fundamental question by showing how evolution controls the development of organisms. In Forms of Becoming, Alessandro Minelli, a leading international figure in the field, takes an in-depth and comprehensive look at the history and key issues of evo-devo. Spirited and insightful, this book focuses on the innovative ways animal organisms evolve through competition and cooperation. Minelli provides a complete overview of conceptual developments--from the fierce nineteenth-century debates between the French biologists Geoffroy and Cuvier, who fought over questions of form versus function--to modern theories of how genes dictate body formation. The book's wide-ranging topics include expression patterns of genes, developmental bias, the role of developmental genes, and genetic determinism. Drawing from diverse examples, such as the anatomy of butterflies, giraffes, Siamese twins, and corals, Minelli extends and reformulates important concepts from development, evolution, and the interplay between the two. Presenting the accessible and cutting-edge ideas of evolutionary developmental biology, Forms of Becoming is fascinating reading for anyone interested in genetics and the animal form.