Dynamic Biological Organization is a fascinating account of the living organisms as dynamic systems, based on the concept that the spatio-temporal coherence of events within a living system result from the intrinsic dynamics of the processes taking place within that sysem. The authors of this important work, Miguel Aon and Sonia Cortassa have travelled widely to work in some of the leading research laboratories to accumulate a large information base on which to assemble this book. Taking a transdisciplinary approach, the authors draw on work at the interface of biochemistry, genetics, physiology, thermodynamics, kinetics and biomathematics, using mathematical models throughout to corroborate and analyze the biological complexity presented. Emphasizing biological processes occuring at the cellular level. Dynamic Biological Organization gives exciting insights into the experimental and theoretical applications of modern scientific paradigms to fundamental biological processes.

Metabolic and cellular engineering is a powerful alliance of two technologies: genetics-molecular biology and fermentation technology.

Written by respected researchers, this is an excellent account of the eukaryotic cell cycle that is suitable for graduate and postdoctoral researchers. It discusses important experiments, organisms of interest and research findings connected to the different stages of the cycle and the components involved.

The three-volume work Perceiving in Depth is a sequel to Binocular Vision and Stereopsis and to Seeing in Depth, both by Ian P. Howard and Brian J. Rogers. This work is much broader in scope than the previous books and includes mechanisms of depth perception by all senses, including aural, electrosensory organs, and the somatosensory system. Volume 1 reviews sensory coding, psychophysical and analytic procedures, and basic visual mechanisms. Volume 2 reviews stereoscopic vision. Volume 3 reviews all mechanisms of depth perception other than stereoscopic vision. The three volumes are extensively illustrated and referenced and provide the most detailed review of all aspects of perceiving the three-dimensional world. Volume 1 starts with a review of the history of visual science from the ancient Greeks to the early 20th century with special attention devoted to the discovery of the principles of perspective and stereoscopic vision. The first chapter also contains an account of early visual display systems, such as panoramas and peepshows, and the development of stereoscopes and stereophotography. A chapter on the psychophysical and analytic procedures used in investigations of depth perception is followed by a chapter on sensory coding and the geometry of visual space. An account of the structure and physiology of the primate visual system proceeds from the eye through the LGN to the visual cortex and higher visual centers. This is followed by a review of the evolution of visual systems and of the development of the mammalian visual system in the embryonic and post-natal periods, with an emphasis on experience-dependent neural plasticity. An account of the development of perceptual functions, especially depth perception, is followed by a review of the effects of early visual deprivation during the critical period of neural plasticity on amblyopia and other defects in depth perception. Volume 1 ends with accounts of the accommodation mechanism of the human eye and vergence eye movements.

There has been substantial progress in understanding the contributions of the auditory forebrain to hearing, sound localization, communication, emotive behavior, and cognition. The Auditory Cortex covers the latest knowledge about the auditory forebrain, including the auditory cortex as well as the medial geniculate body in the thalamus. This book will cover all important aspects of the auditory forebrain organization and function, integrating the auditory thalamus and cortex into a smooth, coherent whole. Volume One covers basic auditory neuroscience. It complements The Auditory Cortex, Volume 2: Integrative Neuroscience, which takes a more applied/clinical perspective.

As 1 review these pages, the last of them written in Summer 1978, some retrospec tive thoughts come to mind which put the whole business into better perspective for me and might aid the prospective reader in choosing how to approach this volume. The most conspicuous thought in my mind at present is the diversity of wholly independent explorations that came upon phase singularities, in one guise or another, during the past decade. My efforts to gather the published literature during the last phases of actually writing a whole book about them were almost equally divided between libraries of Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, Mathematics, Medicine, and Physics. A lot of what 1 call "gathering " was done somewhat in anticipation in the form of cönjecture, query, and prediction based on analogy between developments in different fields. The consequence throughout 1979 was that our long-suffering publisher re peatedly had to replace such material by citation of unexpected flurries of papers giving substantive demonstration. 1 trust that the authors of these many excellent reports, and especially of those I only found too late, will forgive the brevity of allusion I feIt compelled to observe in these substitutions. A residue of loose ends is largely collected in the index under "QUERIES. " It is c1ear to me already that the materials I began to gather several years ago represented only the first flickering of what turns out to be a substantial conflagration.