Product Description
During the past four years, the field of developmental biology has begun a new metamorphosis. The Ninth Edition of Developmental Biology mirrors this shift with a wholly revised text, over 600 new literature citations, and substantial reorganization of content. The introductory section has been streamlined from six chapters to three one each on developmental anatomy, the mechanisms of gene regulation during differentiation, and cell cell communication during morphogenesis. Another new feature is the addition of short part openers that address key concerns in developmental biology. These provide an introduction to the subsequent chapters, telling the reader what to expect and placing that information into a specific context. Each chapter ends with a guide to Web-based resources relevant to that chapter s content, and the Ninth Edition is the first to include a glossary of key terms. Some of the new material in this edition includes: mesenchymal and induced pluripotent stem cells; the transdifferentiation of pancreatic cells; new data on sea urchin micromere specification; the mechanisms whereby Sry and Wnt signaling determine mammalian sex; the memory of cell fate during amphibian limb regeneration; how bats got their wings and how dachshunds got their short legs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

Good but lil lower quality than I hoped
This is a good book. The pages are all fine doesnt have lot of over writing or underlines. But my friend bought a book which was of lower price than this one and it is newer and a fresh book. I thought the more the price the better is the quality. Wel, But I wont say it is bad since I have a complete book without torn pages.

Not the correct book
When I ordered this book it said ninth edition on the description and the ISP number was ninth edition as well.So when I received it in the mail and saw that it was the eighth edition I was pretty unhappy.I would not recommend this seller because who knows what you may receive.

satisfactory
I'm a college student and bought this book for my developmental biology class. I thought this was a satisfactory book. I agree with the reviewer steven viscido; the book does, in fact, puts an extraordinary emphasis on details, but it does also elaborates somewhat on concepts but not to the extent that it covers on details. I don't mind if there is too much detail, but the real issue I have is that sometimes when you are reading the book, you would get "lost" in whatever topic you are reading. As an anology, its like going into a forest that has trees with branches, and focusing too much on the branches would make you unconscious of the tree and if there is too much focus on the tree you would forget that you are in the forest. A similar type of thing in this book.
It does take an extra amount of will to memorize all the details such as the proteins involved, stages, experiments, processes, etc. in every chapter. Nevertheless, I'm very much satisfied with this book, I learned a lot of wonderful things. I wanted to give this a 3.5 stars but unfortunately amazon won't let me.

good quality
good quality, brand new book with VCD
fast delivery,
also cost me much less than buying from some other book stores.

very good!
This is an excellent textbook for undergrad or grad students who are beginner or intermediate in the field,
or a neat reference book for grad students and postdocs. ... Read more

Product Description
When the molecular processes of epigenetics meet the ecological processes of phenotypic plasticity, the result is a revolutionary new field: ecological developmental biology, or eco-devo. This new science studies development in the real world of predators, pathogens, competitors, symbionts, toxic compounds, temperature changes, and nutritional differences. These environmental agents can result in changes to an individual s phenotype, often implemented when signals from the environment elicit epigenetic changes in gene expression. Ecological developmental biology is a truly integrative biology, detailing the interactions between developing organisms and their environmental contexts. Ecological developmental biology also provides a systems approach to the study of pathology, integrating the studies of diabetes, cancers, obesity, and the aging syndrome into the framework of an ecologically sensitive developmental biology. It looks at examples where the environment provides expected cues for normal development and where the organism develops improperly without such cues. Data from research on teratology, endocrine disruptors, and microbial symbioses, when integrated into a developmental context, may have enormous implications for human health as well as the overall health of Earth s ecosystems. The study of epigenetics changes in gene expression that are not the result of changes in a gene s DNA sequence has recently provided startling insights not only into mechanisms of development, but also into the mechanisms and processes of evolution. The notion that epialleles (changes in chromosome structure that alter gene expression) can be induced by environmental agents and transmitted across generations has altered our notions of evolution, as have new experiments documenting the genetic fixation of environmentally induced changes in development. The widespread use of symbiosis in development provides new targets for natural selection. Ecological developmental biology integrates these new ideas into an extended evolutionary synthesis that retains and enriches the notion of evolution by natural selection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Instructive introduction to development
Excellent paperback on biological development; the text reads well and the figures are instructive. Commendable

Meaty!and well written
We read this book for my evo-devo book group. It's pretty meaty for a group of recreational readers, but we got quite a lot out of it. To give you an idea of where these readers were coming from, we're a mix of professionals, only some of whom are even in the life sciences. We've read books like Sean Carroll's before this one. If you've read Carroll's books and want to take the next step, I do recommend this one. I don't know if it's used as a textbook, but it's certainly beyond most popularizations.

With this perspective, let me say: the whole group really enjoyed this one. We took three sessions to read it, but found the writing clear and the pictures very helpful. The chapter on endocrine disruptors was especially eye-opening.

Finally, a book that tells the Whole Story!
Finally we have a truly excellent account of how the environment affects various developmental processes that make plants and animals!
This is a masterpiece in scholarship yet at the same time this book is written in a way that everyone can enjoy.
Gilbert and Epel are world experts in this new field of "Eco-Devo" and they clearly show us how living things, including humans, are intimately affected by changes in the environment. Using beautiful colour images to illustrate their story, they tell us how the same genome can produce different phenotypes (forms) in a wide range of organisms. This book will also be of great interest to readers interested in the history and philosophy of biology as Gilbert and Epel clearly discuss the historical roots of 'eco-devo' along with the philosophical implications of 'eco-devo'. This book is a 'must read' for anyone interested in biology, especially those who are biased in thinking that genetics alone, in the absence of understanding environmental input, explains how living forms arise and evolve. Folks who are interested in conservation biology will want to read this book as the authors discuss many examples of how toxins released into the environment adversely affect fundamental developmental mechanisms leading to the extinction of organisms. What is really wonderful about this book this that we are not burdened with endless technical information and jargon, instead we are given a passionate story about how all things on this planet are inter-connected, reminding me of the ancient Indian "Diamond Net of Indra" metaphor that if you touch (disturb) any part of the net, you actually affect the whole net (the entire planet!). So this book introduces the reader to a new view of science that we might call "Wholistic Biology" in which ecology, development, health science, molecular genetics and evolution are united together as they actually are in the 'real world', instead of being discussed as separate fields of study as they usually are in universities.
What more can I say other than "Ecological Developmental Biology" is most definitely one of the most significant books to be written in the field of science in the last few decades. Please read it! Thank you Scott and David for this Gift to us all!

Wm. Bates
University of British Columbia
Canada ... Read more

Product Description
This thoroughly revised 4th edition offers both clear descriptions and explanations of human embryonic development based on all the most up-to-date scientific discoveries and understanding. Particular attention is paid to the fundamental aspects of molecular mechanisms in development, introducing you to major families of important developmental molecules. Clinical aspects of development are covered throughout in boxed sections of text. First-rate illustrations and Student Consult access, including online animations, complete this essential package.

• Integrates contemporary developmental knowledge with classical embryological understanding.
  
• Interprets complex molecular developments, to help you learn how exactly the embryo develops.
  
• Presents first-rate clinical photos and clear drawings, to help you to memorize and understand normal and abnormal development.
  
• Uses clear sections within the chapter and summaries at the end of each to help you navigate this complex subject.
  
• Includes review questions at the end of each chapter to help you assess your knowledge.

Customer Reviews (4)

Not bad, but not great either
While the book does have a lot of diagrams that are clear and often helpful, they sometimes must be so at the expense of textual content that is very muddled, overly wordy, and difficult to follow.Topics are often discussed in an indirect, roundabout fashion that makes comprehending what the author is trying to say more of a challenge than learning the embryological processes should be.I find myself constantly becoming frustrated at having to read over passages two or three times just to figure out what exactly is going on - much more so than with any other text I've yet to come across in medical school.

Get Langman's instead, if you have the option.Much clearer and more concise.And funny enough, a lot of the better illustrations in Carlson cite being adapted from images previously published by Langman.

so-so
I teach developmental biology and study invertbrate devlopment and evolution.For my course I use Scott Gilbert's excellent text and teach my course as a general introduction.I just became pregnant and purchased this book to exapand my knowledge on human development.

I'm rather disppointed.It's not detailed enough and while the illustrations are nice, there are several diagrams that illustrate paracrine factor targets but are never mentioned in the text or explained. why diagram them then?Even more disturbing is a underlying teological bias that many intelligent designers would salivate over reading.For instance page 209 "a master blue print" is used to describe the interactions of several tissue types to form the limbs.It's disturbing to think that our MD's might be using this text for their human embryology courses- its a very basic pass frought with poor word choices that would satisfy any creationist.

The best embryology book
I use the book to my embryology class and I have to say that is the best book of embryology I find. The contents are very up-date, and handle much information of the molecular basis of the development and the genes that are expressed in every step of the human development. The book have a very good redaction and the gene information of the book is the best one. It's a very up-dated book.

It is a good basic book in developmental biology.
Carlson's "Human embriology and developmental biology" is a good book for biology and, most of all, medicine students, who want to understand the basical principles of development. It doesn't have a lot of developmental anatomy, but it explains clearly and simply the ultimateadvances in experimental embriology. If you are for the first time studyingdevelopmental biology, you should read it. It also contains at the end ofeach chapter a lot references, which will help you if you want to learnmore about any specific topic. ... Read more

Product Description
The completely revised and updated New Edition delivers comprehensive, clearly written coverage of the development of the human embryo from conception to birth. Using a classical morphological approach to embryology, it offers mechanistic explanations for both normal and abnormal human development, enabling readers to understand development in terms of cellular and molecular controls. And, a wealth of reader-friendly features make this resource exceptionally user friendly.

The smart way to study!
Elsevier titles with STUDENT CONSULT will help you master difficult concepts and study more efficiently in print and online! Perform rapid searches. Integrate bonus content from other disciplines. Download text to your handheld device. And a lot more. Each STUDENT CONSULT title comes with full text online, a unique image library, case studies, USMLE style questions, and online note-taking to enhance your learning experience.

Your purchase of this book entitles you to access www.studentconsult.com at no extra charge. This innovative web site offers you...

• Access to the complete text and illustrations of this book.
  
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Product Description
This timely account provides a comprehensive contemporary analysis of morphogenetic processes in vertebrate and invertebrate embryos.Morphogenesis, the generation of tissue organization in embryos, is an increasingly important subject.This is partly because the techniques for investigating many morphogenetic mechanisms have only recently become available and partly because studying the genomic basis of embryogenesis requires an understanding of the developmental phenotype.Following an introduction covering case studies and historical and technical approaches, the book reviews the mechanistic roles of extracellular matrices, cell membranes and the cytoskeleton in morphogenesis.A detailed discussion of how mesenchymal and epithelial cells cooperate to build a wide range of tissues is also included.The book concludes with a dynamical analysis of the subject. With its extensive literature review (more than 500 titles), this book will interest developmental biologists and will also serve as an advanced textbook for postgraduate and final year students. ... Read more

Product Description
Sex Differences serves as an advanced text for courses in evolutionary and human biology, psychology, and sexuality and gender studies. It also serves as a reference source for academic professionals in these disciplines. The book covers the evolution of sex and sex differences, and sex differences and sexual strategies in non-human and human animals. The final chapter addresses issues of sex and gender in interpersonal relationships, organizations and politics. Diagrams, graphs, charts, and tables illustrate key concepts; cartoons and photos provide visual breaks and an element of humor.

Key Features
* Examines sexual differences from a multi-level comparative approach
* Contains a thorough coverage of literature through 1998 and into 1999
* Illustrates pages with a generous use of cartoons, photos, figures, and diagrams
* Invites bonus learning with special interest boxes interspersed throughout text
* Presents a critical analysis
* Includes a combination of feminist and evolutionary thinking ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

good quality and quick delivery
good book very informative. found it when researching human evolved sexuality for a research paper in an anthropology class, but bought it for me.

Clear and Informative
This is an excellent, clearly written, well-organized scholarly review of sex differences. The author takes a broad look at the topic, which makes the book useful for a broad range of readers: biologists, psychologists, medical practitioners, ecologists, clinicians,counselors, and the well-informed general reader. The clear writing style and careful review of the literature make this a very accessible and informative book. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is aimed at students taking courses on evolution in universities and colleges. Its approach and its structure are very different from previously-published evolution texts. The core theme in this book is how evolution works by changing the course of embryonic and post-embryonic development. In other words, it is an evolution text that has been very much influenced by the new approach of evolutionary developmental biology, or 'evo-devo'.

Key themes include the following: developmental repatterning; adaptation and coadaptation; gene co-option; developmental plasticity; the origins of evolutionary novelties and body plans; and evolutionary changes in the complexity of organisms. As can be seen from this list, the book includes information across the levels of the gene, the organism, and the population. It also includes the issue of mapping developmental changes onto evolutionary trees. The examples used to illustrate particular points range widely, including animals, plants and fossils.

"I have really enjoyed reading this book. One of the strengths of the book is the almost conversational style. I found the style easy to read, but also feel that it will be invaluable in teaching. One of our tasks in university level teaching is to develop students' critical thinking skills. We need to support them in their intellectual development from a "just the facts" approach to being able to make critical judgements based on available evidence. The openness and honesty with which Arthur speaks to uncertainty in science is refreshing and will be a baseline for discussions with students."
-Professor Patricia Moore, Exeter University 

"This book, written as an undergraduate text, is a really most impressive book. Given the burgeoning interest in the role of developmental change in evolution in recent times, this will be a very timely publication. The book is well structured and, like the author's other books, very well written. He communicates with a clear, lucid style and has the ability to explain even the more difficult concepts in an accessible manner."
---Professor Kenneth McNamara, University of Cambridge ... Read more

Product Description
Fred Wilt and Sarah Hake's Principles of Developmental Biology is a modern new text for the undergraduate course in developmental biology, informed by the molecular and cell biology revolutions that have changed the field over the last fifteen years. Designed for the one-semester undergraduate course, Principles of Developmental Biology stresses fundamental concepts, a select number of instructive experiments and cases, and contemporary research in its historical context. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

short and to the point!
This is a great textbook for developmental biology students, or for people looking for general information on the subject!The text contains background "boxes" with information on genetics and biochemistry so you dont really need background knowledge in those subjects to understand the content of the book.It is short, so it doesn't go into too much detail but there's enough information to understand the concepts!This text is not like most texts where they are so boring and hard to read that you just give up.It's fairly easy reading and keeps things interesting enough to read the assigned pages. ... Read more

Product Description
Developmental biology is a growing field that is attracting much interest because of exciting findings being made using a combination of classical embryo manipulation with more modern techniques. This book brings together for the first time and in comprehensive, easy-to-follow protocols, practical instructions for all of the main techniques, from traditional embryology to cellular and molecular methods. It includes complete reprints of all the stage tables in common use for the main laboratory species. This work will become an essential addition to laboratory benches of those using any technique as applied to embryos, cells, or tissues. It will also help teachers to design practical classes suitable for undergraduate and graduate courses. ... Read more

Product Description
Coverage of the field in Instant Notes in Developmental Biology is current and focuses largely on the principles of embryonic development. It is designed to provide a clear summary of the principles of developmental biology in a compact and easily manageable structure. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Devo Bio
Not recommended for quick review right before exams. This book reinforces and/or clarifies any material you may covered during lecture. ... Read more

Product Description
Essential Developmental Biology is a comprehensive, richly illustrated introduction to all aspects of developmental biology. Written in a clear and accessible style, the second edition of this popular textbook has been expanded and updated to include:new chapters on evolution and development, gut development, and growth and agingextended treatment of mammalian fertilization, the heart, and stem cellsa glossary, further reading arranged by subject, and boxes featuring classic experiments and key directions for research.In addition, an accompanying website - blackwellpublishing.com/slack - provides instructional materials for both student and lecturer use, including animated developmental processes, and all artwork in downloadable format.With an emphasis throughout on the evidence underpinning the main conclusions, this book is an essential text for both introductory and more advanced courses in developmental biology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Essential? Maybe, but not an introduction to Developmental Biology.
Are you studying and working in the area of developmental biology of animals? Then maybe this book is ok for you. Are you an undergraduate student in a Biology department that just wants to be introduced to the essentials of Developmental Biology? Then this book maybe is not for you!

I've got this book in order to be introduced in what we describe as developmental biology. My previous knowledge was mostly (but not least) on the areas of Cellular Biology, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Genetics, Microbiology, Chemistry, Botany, Human Physiology and other scientific areas that an undergraduate student is being exposed to. There was a subject about Essentials of Developmental Biology in my Biology Department. BUT: This book was so hard to give me an introductive knowledge on the subject.
1.There's not a reasonable flux in what you read. (You start reading the first chapters, don't understand many things and you finally find out something about them in the final chapters.)
2.The pictures are very few. (You read the text, wondering how all these things that are described on the text would look like but there not a pic for lots of them! The only help is your imagination.)
3.TOTAL lack of 3d-pictures. (I think it's impossible to discuss about cells that start from a zygote and finishing into an organism without having 3d-pictures! All the pictures are totally flat.)

In an nutshell. Maybe this book is not intented to be an introduction to Developmental Biology. Maybe it's a good book for somebody that has already knoweledge on this particular subject. But I think that it's not suited for an undergraduate Biology student that wants to be introduced to the subject.

BIOLOGICAL EYE!!
Are you studying and working in the area of developmental biology of animals? If you are, this book is for you! Author J. M. W. Slack, has written an outstanding 2nd edition of a book about basic ideas and facts of modern developmental biology of animals.

Slack, begins with an overview of modern biological research and how the mechanisms of development are very simple for animals, including humans. Then, he explains how the structure of organisms changes over time. The author continues by discussing how all of the genes in the genome have functions that are specifically concerned with development. In addition, he also discusses why it was the experimental embryologists who gave most thought to mechanism. The author also considers a further set of techniques that are derived from cell and molecular biology, but that have particular relevance to the study of development. Then, the author focuses on a very small number of animal species which are often described as model organisms. Next, he explores the experimental production of Xenopus. Then, the author focuses on the zebrafish-specific features rather than repeating the description of the common features. Next, he reviews the visible course development of the chick, and how it is superficially very different from the lower vertebrates and is much closer to the mammalian type. The author continues by describing how the developmental biology of the mouse has depended to a much greater extent on genetic manipulation. He also discusses why the first organism whose development was understood in molecular detail was the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. In addition, he also discusses Caenorhabditis elegans, which is a small, free-living soil nematode and has been used for developmental biology research since the 1960s. Next, he deals with the chief tissue types found in the vertebrate body with special attention to their cellular renewal. Then, the author explores the enormous overall complexity of the vertebrate nervous system. Next, he discusses why the invertebrate mesoderm does not show the same regional subdivision as vertebrate mesoderm. The author continues by describing how the endoderm is the innermost of the three germ layers formed during gastrulation. He also discusses the metamorphosis of Drosophila imaginal discs. In addition, he explores the overall growth, aging and the development of cancer in cells. Next, the author discusses the ability to regrow missing body parts. Finally, the author discusses the interface between developmental biology and evolutionary biology.

Special attention has been given to keeping this most excellent book compact and concise. New findings in the evolving fields of stem cells, regeneration, and aging should make this book attractive to a wide range of readership.
... Read more

Product Description
Evolutionary developmental biology, or 'evo-devo', is the study of the relationship between evolution and development. Dealing specifically with the generative mechanisms of organismal form, evo-devo goes straight to the core of the developmental origin of variation, the raw material on which natural selection (and random drift) can work. Evolving Pathways responds to the growing volume of data in this field, and its potential to answer fundamental questions in biology, by bringing together contributions that represent a diversity of approaches. Topics range from developmental genetics to comparative morphology of animals and plants alike, and also include botany and palaeontology, two disciplines for which the potential to be examined from an evo-devo perspective has largely been ignored until now. Researchers and graduate students will find this book a valuable overview of current research as we begin to fill a major gap in our perception of evolutionary change. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Exellent Resource
This new photographic atlas is head and shoulders above the alternatives in the marketplace.

1) Color photos, and lots of them
2) Intact embryos as well as extensive serial sections
3) Good labeling
4) Useful diagrams (also color)
5) Extensive descriptions of developmental processes
6) Descriptions of some visualization techniques to observe particular structures/systems

BUT. . .

There are some important omissions.
1) No zebrafish
2) No Drosophila ... Read more

Product Description
This is a charming memoir of the recently deceased professor emeritus of biology at Yale University. In it, J. P. Trinkaus ("Trink") describes his upbringing, scientific education, research activities, and philosophy of his interesting life as one of America's most distinguished and beloved developmental biologists. Few scientists can match Trink's record of publication in eight decades, starting with his first research publication in 1939 and continuing until 2003 with the posthumous publication of his life story. Through all these years, Trink used his extraordinary strength of character and dedication to science to investigate the mysteries of the development of early vertebrate embryos. Along the way, through his affiliations with Yale University and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA, Trinkaus enriched the scientific and personal lives of countless friends, students, and colleagues. His scientific career extended from the classical period of experimental embryology to the modern day molecular approach to understanding problems of development. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A must have...
Young investigator starting your own lab? Fresh Ph.D student on the verge of giving up science? READ THIS BOOK! As an embryologist (and an embryologist's wife) struggling to find a position in today's difficult economic situation, this book put things in perspective. In this book, personal and scientific stories are intertwined in a formidable fashion. This makes the whole book understandable by most: even if you don't get the scientific part, you will understand and possibly relate to the personal account of this 20th century man. I did not have the honor to meet "The Trink" but I met or read many of his former student. I had the utmost respect (to say the least) for the scientist. Now, I wish I had met the man.

Joie de Vivre
My first and last time meeting Professor John Philip Trinkaus was in 1995 at the annual meeting of the Society for Developmental Biology. He was there to receive the first E. G. Conklin Medal. It was an award to "a developmental biologist who has made and is continuing to make outstanding contributions to the field."

The book editor asked Professor Trinkaus to write his life down. I think Professor Trinkaus did just that. It is a story of his love of science, his study of epiboly, his teaching philosophy, his marriages, his view on religion, his political activity (and how it affected employment), his account on anti-Semitism at Yale, and more.

His scientific lineage traced back to Georges Cuvier, and Louis Agassiz. He wanted to see a comprehensive understanding of a complex biological phenomenon by piecing molecular, cytological, and behavioral studies together. He described his fun at Wood Holes. He pointed out Ross Harrison's view on the determination concept. He explained the failure to identify the chemical nature of the organizer, his experiments on glucose that stimulated quite a lot of morphogenesis in blastoderm (but no heart), the advantage of cross-disciplinary training, and the reason for the joy of research. Personality does make a difference in science, at least it determines if you would seek someone out or not. He also explained how to choose a Ph.D. dissertation topic, the benefits of being independent, and the function of a professor in attracting students, assigning problems, providing students with independence, and setting high standards by example. He revealed the rationale for sole authorship of graduate students, and the problems of basing evaluation on the number of publications. He cautioned the understanding of pathways and epigenetic process has been ignored in the cytoplasm starting from the genes. He expressed his uneasy feeling about prizes to individual scientists because of the collectivity nature of science, and his guiding principle for serious research.

In addition to biologists, people interested in American history will find this book fascinating.

Life should be fun
Life should be fun, as well as interesting. Few scientists have the knack of optimizing this fun, for others as well as themselves. For many decades, the best parties in Woods Hole were notoriously those given by JP Trinkaus, who died this past spring just after completing this autobiography.
This man was remarkable in two main ways. One was the steadiness of his own research. In every decade from the 1930s to the 2000s, he published substantial contributions to embryology. These included the key labeling experiments that proved sorting out by dissociated cells of higher vertebrates. He also wrote the leading book on how cell movements relate to embryology, Cells Into Organs: The Forces that Shape the Embryo (Second Edition, 1984. Englewood Cliffs (NJ): Prentice Hall).
His other special talent was social. This included the courage and instant wit to puncture powerful scientific bullies. On of these, who habitually pontificated negatively after lectures by younger scientists, got what he had long deserved in this reply: "Did everyone get the question, or shall I repeat it?" Such irreverence was frequent. More often, however, his social talents were positive: a skill for stirring people up, getting them together, encouraged, enthusiastic, or sometimes exasperated. His research seminars, like his parties, were famously stimulating. During both, his guests magically became smarter and happier than usual. That warm magic comes through in this book.
There are also surprises: his mother became New York State chair of the Women's Christian Temperence Union (WCTU); he was briefly in a secret cell of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CP-USA); and he was friends with Judge Bork. Few scientific biographies have so skillfully woven actual research discoveries into the personal details of a life. Readers can learn a lot about fish embryos here, as well as how much fun it is to make discoveries. This book would be a good gift for nonscientist friends, or for a young person thinking of going into science, to show them what a research career can be like. Researchers themselves can find a lot of wisdom, such as what we really mean by criticizing research as "too descriptive," how cell sorting is related to normal development, and how to manage graduate students.
Other reasons to buy this book include Phillip Armstong's beautiful drawings of developing fish embryos, printed at the outer upper corners of each page, so one can flip through the pages and produce a time lapse. People who knew Trink will enjoy this book, and those who did not know him will find out how much they missed.
Book review by Albert K. Harris, Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill from Quarterly Review of Biology, 79(1), March 2004, reprinted with permission of The University of Chicago Press.

candid and perceptive
Embryologist: My Eight Decades in Developmental Biology by John Philip Trinkaus combines the passion and diligence of the researcher with a rare frankness about himself, his colleagues, and his discipline. Candid and perceptive, he brings to life crowds of people and takes us with them on a voyage of discovery into some of today's most important scientific advances.
Submitted for Dr. Trachtenberg by Dr. Kurt E. Johnson, President and Publisher, J&S Publishing Company

A literary gem
This personal memoir by the world's leading authority on morphogenetic movements in early embryonic development is a literary gem. The writing is lucid and expressive, and the author's style conveys in a clear, direct voice that will be easily grasped by lay people, the fundamental questions in the early development of animals. I was sorry when I finished reading the book because I wanted more.

Of greater importance, in my opinion, is the obvious passion Trinkaus evinced for his craft and for the animal material he worked with all of his life. This emerges not only from his careful, critical discussions of basic questions concerning cellular movements, and the reasons for the experimental approaches taken by him and his scientific colleagues, but in his descriptions recounting the excitement of discovery, starting in his late teens when he studied the genetics of pigmentation in goldfish, and continuing into his sixties, when, in a darkened laboratory at the Roscoff Biological Station in France, he discovered for the first time directed (pigment) cell movement in the developing eggs of the blenny, a small marine fish. A sentient reader can follow through the pages of this latter journey of discovery and experience the fervor that gripped this outstanding scientist on the cusp of one of the last important scientific forays of his productive life.

Trink's friends and colleagues who have not already purchased a copy of this memoir should do so, because they will have the experience of revisiting, in a delivery redolent of his characteristic bluntness and panache, the personal and professional passions that directed his life and the obvious pleasure he derived from his close personal relationships. As someone who knew and admired this exceptional scholar for fifty years, I promise you that reading this memoir will be a moving experience. Trink is gone but his remarkable spirit lives on in his memoir.

Review submitted by Kurt E. Johnson, Ph. D. on behalf of Dr. Mellon. ... Read more

Product Description
Designed for advanced undergraduates and graduate students, A Practical Guide to Developmental Biology provides a solid foundation in classic developmental biology and modern techniques in immunohistochemistry and homeobox gene expression. It also covers plant development, allowing students to see the differences and commonalities among animal and plant life. In addition, the book includes a wide variety of organisms-not only the most popular ones-making it an ideal companion for Wolpert: The Principles of Development, 2/e or other texts in developmental biology. ... Read more

Product Description
Developmental Biology has been revolutionized by the flood of methods and insights from molecular biology and genetics, as well as a resurgence of interest in developmental pathways and fields. This concise, readable, and splendidly illustrated textbook describes the organizational, cellular, biochemical and molecular processes by which a fertilized egg is transformed in an adult animal. The book is noteworthy for its treatment of development in model organisms, whose contributions to modern biology were recognized in the 1995 Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine. The reader will also find overviews of major themes such as fertilization, developmental genetics, and sexual development. An outstanding feature of Developmental Biology is a wealth of exceptionally clear and vivid illustrations that complement the text, resulting in a succinct yet fully up-to-date treatment of this rapidly changing field. ... Read more

Product Description
The beauty and variety of plants has fascinated mankind for thousands of years, and this fascination continues today as plant developmental biologists discover mechanisms that control the establishment of specialized cell types, tissues, and organs from the fertilized egg during a plant’s life. In Plant Developmental Biology: Methods and Protocols, expert researchers provide a collection of protocols for many of the common experimental approaches in plant developmental biology, including diverse methods that range from grafting over bimolecular fluorescence complementation to chromatin immunoprecipitation. Chapters are divided into six major parts: growth protocols, manipulation of gene activity, assaying developmental phenotypes, assaying gene activity, testing protein-protein interactions, and probing chromatin. Composed in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology™ series format, each chapter contains a brief introduction, step-by-step methods, a list of necessary materials, and a Notes section which shares tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls.Comprehensive and revolutionary, Plant Developmental Biology: Methods and Protocols is an essential guide for all plant developmental geneticists, biochemists, and researchers in stress physiology and plant nutrition. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Forms of Becoming
Stimulating with just too many ideas to digest in one reading. Months of food for thought after many readings !

Finally, a primer on evo-devo for the rest of us.
Several of the wonderful new popular works on evolution have referred to some extent to the exciting new field of evo-devo and have waved exicted fingers in its direction as an important new area of research.But so far only Minelli has had the patience to explain in accessible lay language exactly what is meant by the term, and its implications for evolutionary theory.Who new that something as trivial seeming as the segmentation of a worm might offer such profound biological insights?

Minelli has a real knack for drawing readers along through lively, concrete examples and explantory prose that doesn't linger too long on technical distinctions that are no doubt critical to academics, but only act as obstacles to understanding for the interested layperson.

This has been a very exciting few years for communication about evolution.One suspects that a combination of events contribute to this state: the fairly recent ruling in the Dover case that Intelligent Design is not science, the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin and 150th anniversary of the publication of "On the Origin of Species," and the string of exciting fossil findings (Tiktaalik, Darwinius, etc.) among them.The publication of the human genome and our ability to compare it to other genomes (especially champanzee) also no doubt plays an important role.It has been thrilling to see each tributary that feeds into the deep and powerful river that is evolutionary theory contribute a book or books in the past few years.Sean Carroll's evo-devo oriented books ("Making of the Fittest") have been exemplars, but were more apt to use insights FROM evo-devo to make a point rather than to lay out explicitly and in detail what evo-devo IS.And Nick Lane's excellent "Life Ascending" ties evo-devo to his field of biochemistry, no work goes farther or deeper, better, in the exact mechanics of structure, shape and organization than does "Forms of Becoming."

I cannot recommend this as the ONLY book on evolution a layperson should read, nor the first.But once one has Carroll's works, and Shubin's, and Zimmer's, and a few other wonderful pop evolutionary biologists under one's belt, "Forms" makes a fine complement to the other types of knowledge gained, fixing ever more firmly in mind the dictum that nothing in biology (including forms) makes sense except in the light of evolution.

Remarkable!
An exceptionally clear and well written book on the fundamental ideas of
evolutionart developmental biology (evo-devo). Concepts are presented within theirhistorical context, motivating the discussion and illuminanting the latest research. Outstanding. My only complaint is that it could contain more figures and diagrams. ... Read more