When Norman Maclean sent the manuscript of A River Runs through It to New York publishers, he received a slew of rejections. “It has trees in it,” one editor replied. Forty years later, the title nove
Just as Norman Maclean writes at the end of "A River Runs through It" that he is "haunted by waters," so have readers been haunted by his novella. A retired English professor who began writing fictio
On August 5, 1949, a crew of fifteen Smokejumpers, the United States Forest Service's elite airborne firefighters, stepped into the sky above a remote forest fire in the Montana wilderness. Less than
On August 5, 1949, a crew of fifteen Smokejumpers, the United States Forest Service's elite airborne firefighters, stepped into the sky above a remote forest fire in the Montana wilderness. Less than
Disentangling the facts from the hype, this 'Domesday book' of the British and Irish countryside offers a definitive and up-to-date survey of the state of our wildlife today. Norman Maclean, editor of the bestselling Silent Summer, examines the latest findings of Britain and Ireland's top wildlife experts and interprets them for a wider audience. Each chapter provides reliable estimates of animal populations, showing which species are thriving and which are in decline. The book also considers the effects of climate change on our wildlife and how human population growth is influencing its development. Beautifully illustrated with colour plates and wood engravings throughout, this accessible and timely study reveals just how rapidly our countryside and its wildlife are changing, why we should be concerned, and what we can do about it.
Over the past 20 years dramatic declines have taken place in UK insect populations. Eventually, such declines must have knock-on effects for other animals, especially high profile groups such as birds and mammals. This authoritative, yet accessible account details the current state of the wildlife in Britain and Ireland and offers an insight into the outlook for the future. Written by a team of the country's leading experts, it appraises the changes that have occurred in a wide range of wildlife species and their habitats and outlines urgent priorities for conservation. It includes chapters on each of the vertebrate and major invertebrate groups, with the insects covered in particular depth. Also considered are the factors that drive environmental change and the contribution at local and government level to national and international wildlife conservation. Essential reading for anyone who is interested in, and concerned about, UK wildlife.
This book is about transgenic animals - animals into which new genes have been artificially introduced. It has chapters by leading authorities on the present state of play regarding the application of the transgenic technology to different animal groups. A great range of animal types, ranging from protozoan cells, through nematode worms and fruit flies to many higher vertebrates, have been used in this experimental way and this book provides an in-depth, up-to-date, comprehensive and authoritative account of the work with all such animal types. The likely impact of transgenic animals on the future development of agriculture and medicine is very great; at the same time they provide an unrivalled experimental system for the study of gene regulation, genetic aspects of disease, and gene therapy. One of the objectives of the book is therefore to set transgenic animals in the context of their present and future contributions to medicine and agriculture.
First published in 1987, this book is about how cells differentiate; that is it describes the way in which cells in animal and plant bodies take on their specialised fates. It has long been recognised that since all such cells retain copies of all genes, the genetic explanation for tissue differences lies in the controlled expression of restricted sets of genes. But how is the choice made and how are such restricted groups of genes activated and regulated? This book discusses these questions and describes both determination and differentiation. The mechanisms that underlie the processes are described for the embryo and in the adult. Determination may occur in adult life during regeneration, wound healing, cancer formation and in the immune and blood systems, and the possible genetic basis for the events is explored. The influence of the cell environment, the cell surface and the pericellular-extracellular matrix as mediators of external signals is discussed.
