- ホーム
- > 洋書
- > 英文書
- > Science / Mathematics
基本説明
針の先よりも小さな細胞が「わずか」9か月余で「一人前」の ヒトになる。こんな壮大なドラマがほかにあるだろうか。 そんなドラマを難解な論文ではなく、だれにでも親しめる 平易な文章でまとめることはできなのか?こんな解剖学教授の 疑問が、この一冊に結実しました。つい先日の『デザイナーベイビー』 騒動の記憶も鮮明ないま、タイムリーな一冊です。
Full Description
Where did I come from? Why do I have two arms but just one head? How is my left leg the same size as my right one? Why are the fingerprints of identical twins not identical? How did my brain learn to learn? Why must I die?
Questions like these remain biology's deepest and most ancient challenges. They force us to confront a fundamental biological problem: how can something as large and complex as a human body organize itself from the simplicity of a fertilized egg? A convergence of ideas from embryology, genetics, physics, networks, and control theory has begun to provide real answers. Based on the central principle of 'adaptive self-organization', it explains how the interactions of many cells, and of the tiny molecular machines that run them, can organize tissue structures vastly larger than themselves, correcting errors as they go along and creating new layers of complexity where there were none before.
Life Unfolding tells the story of human development from egg to adult, from this perspective, showing how our whole understanding of how we come to be has been transformed in recent years. Highlighting how embryological knowledge is being used to understand why bodies age and fail, Jamie A. Davies explores the profound and fascinating impacts of our newfound knowledge.
Contents
Acknowledgements ; Ethical Statement ; Introduction ; 1. Confronting an alien technology ; 2. From one cell to many ; 3. Making a difference ; 4. Laying down a body plan ; 5. Beginning a brain ; 6. Long division ; 7. Fateful conversations ; 8. Great migrations ; 9. Plumbing ; 10. Organizing organs ; 11. Taking up arms ; 12. The Y and how ; 13. Wired ; 14. Dying to be human ; 15. Making your mind up ; 16. A sense of proportion ; 17. Making friends and facing enemies ; 18. Maintenance mode ; 19. Perspectives ; Glossary ; Further reading ; References