In this personal history, one of the pioneers in population genetics recounts the evolution of his ideas about the effects of genetic variability on a population. Tracing the results of successive experiments over the years, it is, like the author's career, highly original.

This volume brings together, for the first time, a wide range of up-to-the-minute and traditional techniques and approaches to the study of genetics of organisms living in freshwater or marine habitats. Carefully edited chapters are headed by broad review articles against which are set a number of more specific experience papers which demonstrate the breadth and range of approaches currently being undertaken.

As anthropogenic environmental changes spread and intensify across the planet, conservation biologists have to analyze dynamics at large spatial and temporal scales. Ecological and evolutionary processes are then closely intertwined. In particular, evolutionary responses to anthropogenic environmental change can be so fast and pronounced that conservation biology can no longer afford to ignore them. To tackle this challenge, areas of conservation biology that are disparate ought to be integrated into a unified framework. Bringing together conservation genetics, demography, and ecology, this book introduces evolutionary conservation biology as an integrative approach to managing species in conjunction with ecological interactions and evolutionary processes. Which characteristics of species and which features of environmental change foster or hinder evolutionary responses in ecological systems? How do such responses affect population viability, community dynamics, and ecosystem functioning? Under which conditions will evolutionary responses ameliorate, rather than worsen, the impact of environmental change?

This year we remember the 39th anniversary of the atomic bomb explo sions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which led to the exposure of thou sands of people to high doses of ionizing radiations. Nearly 18 years earlier, on the 15th of September, 1927, H. J. Muller presented his paper The Problem of Genic Modification at the Fifth International Congress of Genetics in Berlin, in which he brilliantly demonstrated the muta genic activity of X-rays. In 1928, K. H. Bauer formulated his mutation theory of the origin of cancer, and already in 1914, Th. Boveri speculat ed that tumor cells originate from an abnormal chromosomal comple ment. In the meantime we have learned that also nonionizing radiation and an immense number of environmental chemicals, both, man-made and naturally occurring, are mutagenic in a variety of test systems, in cluding human cells. In no case has it been shown unequivocally that physical or chemical mutagens have led to an elevation of the mutation rate in the germ cells of man, but in view of the huge body of experi mental data this seems to be a problem of detection. It can be expect ed that germ cell mutations are induced as a consequence of exposure to mutagens in man, as yet undetectable with the methods at hand. An uncontrolled addition of mutations to the human gene pool may well have unforeseen and catastrophic consequences in future genera tions for whom we should feel responsible.

This book reevaluates the health risks of ionizing radiation in light of data that have become available since the 1980 report on this subject was published. The data include new, much more reliable dose estimates for the A-bomb survivors, the results of an additional 14 years of follow-up of the survivors for cancer mortality, recent results of follow-up studies of persons irradiated for medical purposes, and results of relevant experiments with laboratory animals and cultured cells. It analyzes the data in terms of risk estimates for specific organs in relation to dose and time after exposure, and compares radiation effects between Japanese and Western populations.

The Handbook of Models for Human Aging is designed as the only comprehensive work available that covers the diversity of aging models currently available. For each animal model, it presents key aspects of biology, nutrition, factors affecting life span, methods of age determination, use in research, and disadvantages/advantes of use. Chapters on comparative models take a broad sweep of age-related diseases, from Alzheimer's to joint disease, cataracts, cancer, and obesity. In addition, there is an historical overview and discussion of model availability, key methods, and ethical issues. - Utilizes a multidisciplinary approach - Shows tricks and approaches not available in primary publications - First volume of its kind to combine both methods of study for human aging and animal models - Over 200 illustrations