Discovery Science as a Window to the World

by Lewis, Ricki

• ISBN13: 9780632044528
• ISBN10: 0632044527
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-11-02
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

The goal of Discovery: Science as a Window to the World is to relay the excitement of sciene by exploring selected topics in biology and medicine in a way that reveals the process of discovery. Each chapter will focus on the curiosity and creativity that drives scientists to wonder, observe, question and experiment.One impetus for this project is the recognition of a growing demand among instructors for a book that departs from fact-stuffed textbooks and instead engages students in the discovery process at a personal level. Emphasizes the process of discovery through interviews and key experiments. Written by a best-selling author. Provides an in-depth, conversational look at the science behind several "hot topics" in biology. Each chapter traces the beginnings of the field with stories of how serendipity and scientific inquiry intertwine. Presents the background to a field by including the scientific literature-so the reader does not have to do a literature search or plow through a review article. Many essays introduce the work of overlooked scientists or "unsung heroes." Alexey Olovnikov (telomeres), Leroy Steven (stem cells), to name a few. Also, well-known scientists are interviewed: Stanley Miller, Carl Woese, John Gearhart, and others. The essays show how ideas interact and coalesce from different lines of research. Highlights the role of the media in interpreting science for the public.

Author Biography

Ricki Lewis is Adjunct Professor of Medical Education at Alden March Bioethics Institute, Albany Medical Center, US. She has a PhD in Genetics, writes the DNA Science blog at the Public Library of Science, is a genetic counsellor, and is the author of several popular titles.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
On Discovery	1	(22)
Serendipity	4	(1)
Following A Hunch: The Road to Cisplatin	5	(3)
Seeing Connections: From Lethargic Guinea Pigs to Lithium	8	(3)
Systematic Searches	11	(12)
Natural Products Chemistry	11	(3)
Synthetic Versus Combinatorial Chemistry	14	(1)
Sequencing Genomes	15	(2)
The Human Genome Project	17	(6)
The Origin of Life: When Chemistry Became Biology	23	(24)
Sidestepping the Question of How Life Began	25	(6)
Debunking Spontaneous Generation	25	(1)
Disproving Vitalism	26	(1)
Life from Space: Perhaps Some Evidence	27	(4)
Setting the Scene	31	(2)
When Might Life Have Originated?	31	(1)
I Where Could Life Have Arisen?	31	(2)
Prebiotic Simulations	33	(4)
The Miller Experiment	33	(3)
Other Prebiotic Simulations	36	(1)
After the Building Blocks form: Polymerization	37	(2)
Prelude to an RNA World	39	(4)
Why RNA?	39	(1)
Evolution in a Test Tube	40	(2)
A Pre-RNA World?	42	(1)
Between The RNA World And The First Organism	43	(1)
A Final Word On Controversy	43	(4)
Going out on a Limb for the Tree of Life	47	(18)
In the Legacy of Galileo	48	(1)
Inspiration from the Genetic Code	49	(3)
Enter Evolution	52	(1)
The Experiments	52	(4)
The Arkies' Debut, in Print	54	(1)
Making the Case	54	(1)
Details Emerge	55	(1)
Arkies Affect Biological Classification	56	(5)
History of Biological Classification	57	(2)
Domains Arrive-Fur Some	59	(2)
It's Small World after all	61	(1)
A Final note on Perspective	62	(3)
On Pursuit of Prions	65	(34)
Early Clues: Scrapie, Rida, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease	67	(2)
Of Kuru and Cannibals	69	(3)
Into the Lab to Isolate the Agent	72	(2)
Iatrogenic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Arises	74	(1)
Human Growth Hormone from Cadavers Causes a Prion Disease	75	(1)
Prusiner and Prions	76	(2)
The British Beef Scare	78	(11)
1985 to 1987: 420 New BSE Cases	79	(1)
1988: 3072 New BSE Cases	80	(1)
1989: 7627 New BSE Cases	81	(1)
1990: 14,371 New BSE Cases	81	(1)
1991 to 1992: The Numbers of New BSE Cases Peak at 25,644 and 36,924	82	(2)
1993: The Number of New BSE Cases Begins to Fall (33,574)	84	(1)
1994	84	(1)
1995	85	(1)
1996	86	(2)
1997	88	(1)
1998	88	(1)
1999	88	(1)
Fatal Insomnia	89	(3)
Visualizing Prisons	92	(1)
The Yeast Connection	93	(1)
What's Next?	94	(5)
The Tale of Telomeres	99	(28)
Discovering Sticky Ends	100	(2)
The Hayflick Limit	102	(4)
The End Replication Problem	106	(1)
The Hayflick Limit Meets the end Replication Problem	107	(3)
Clues From Ciliates	110	(2)
Probing Human Telomeres	112	(2)
The Puzzle Pieces Assemble	114	(1)
Tracking Telomerase in Different Cell Types	114	(3)
Manipulating Telomekase	117	(3)
Shutting Telomerase Off	117	(1)
Turning Telomerase On	118	(2)
The Future: Telomere Medicine?	120	(7)
Stem Cells: The Science of Self-Renewal	127	(30)
From Bone Marrow to Brain Marrow	128	(3)
A Cell's Potential Gone Haywire: Teratomas	131	(1)
Strain 129 Leads to Identifying Stem Cells	132	(3)
Tracing the Origin of a Teratoma	135	(1)
A Surprise Announcement Catalyzes Cells Culture	136	(2)
Knockouts Begin With Embryonic: Stem Cells	138	(2)
Enter Embryonic Germ Cells	140	(2)
Beyond The Mouse	142	(1)
Finally-Human Embryonic Stem Cells	143	(1)
Enter Ethics and Politics	144	(3)
Adult Stem Cells: Bone Marrow to Brain, Liver, Muscle, and Beyond	147	(4)
Brain Marrow Revisited	151	(2)
More Questions Than Answers	153	(4)
The Roots of Cloning	157	(32)
The Amphibian Years	159	(4)
The Mouse, Take 1	163	(1)
Of Bovines and Ovines-Cows and Sheep	164	(3)
Megan and Morag Prove the Principle of Cloning-But Are Ignored	167	(4)
Sheep 6LL3: Dolly	171	(1)
Hyped Reporting, Calls for ''No Clone Zones,`` and Other Overreactions	172	(3)
After Dolly	175	(3)
The Mouse, Take 2	178	(4)
Calves, Revisited	182	(1)
Cloned Others	183	(1)
Human Cloning: When and Why?	184	(2)
Closing Comes Full Circle	186	(3)
Homocysteine and Heart Health	189	(24)
Of LDL, HDL, and Homocysteine	190	(1)
Cycles and Pathways	191	(3)
Clues from Sick Children	194	(2)
A Key Connection	196	(5)
A Flood of Studies Links Higher Homocysteine Level to Cardiovascular Disease	201	(3)
The Vitamin Connection: Focus on Folate	204	(1)
Establishing Causality and Mechanism	205	(3)
The Bigger Picture	208	(5)
On Technology; Gene Therapy and Genetically Modified Foods	213	(18)
The First Reported Gene Therapy Death	214	(7)
Will Gene Therapy Following in the Footsteps of Transplants?	221	(6)
A Butterfly Symbolizes Technofear	227	(1)
The Future	227	(4)
Index	231