T Swain – författare

Chemical Plant Taxonomy focuses on the classification of plants based on their chemical composition. Composed of contributions of authors, the text first considers the methods of plant taxonomy. Folk taxonomy; Linnaean and post-Linnaean taxonomy; Darwin and ""Evolutionary Taxonomy""; and the development of taxonomic practice are considered. The book continues with discussions on the theoretical and practical aspects of the ""species"" concepts and an outline of the history of chemical taxonomy. The selection also looks at the qualities of chemotaxonomy, the usefulness of chemistry in plant taxonomy, biosynthetic pathways, and the factors affecting the production of secondary plant products. The text discusses the distribution of alkanes. The isolation and characterization of alkanes; taxonomic applications of alkanes; biogenesis of alkanes; and fossil alkanes are discussed. The selection highlights the chemical taxonomy of acetylenic compounds, the distribution of fatty acids in plant lipids, distribution of aliphatic polyols, cyclitols, plant glycosides, and alkaloids. The text is a good source of information for readers wanting to study the taxonomy of chemical plants.

Anti-Chance: A Reply to Monod''s Chance and Necessity is a critique of Jacques Monod''s essay on the natural philosophy of modern biology. It explores the concepts of chance and necessity, central themes of Monod''s work, and specifically whether life is the result of coincidence of diverse independent chains of causality or, on the contrary, whether it obeys the more fundamental concept of chance as proposed by the Danish School of physicists. Questions such as the chance or the inevitability of it all, the sites and sizes of the knowledge gaps and as to whether they will be filled with physics and chemistry on the one hand or seasoned with metaphysics on the other, are examined. This book is comprised of 10 chapters and begins with reflections on biology and the argument that biology can only enrich itself by abandoning a teleological or finalist mode of thought. The discussion then turns to probabilities of chance, with emphasis on three different mechanisms of the intervention of chance. Subsequent chapters focus on the link between thermodynamics and biological order; the basis for a theoretical biology and 14 propositions to which the fundamental attributes of cells can be reduced; the molecular basis of instinct; and the relationship between speech and consciousness. The applicability of cybernetics to biological systems and their component metabolic cycles is also considered, along with the structure of chance. This monograph will be of interest to scientists in fields ranging from biology and natural philosophy to physics, chemistry, and physiology.

Progress in Phytochemistry, Volume 4 deals with developments in phytochemistry and covers topics ranging from the pathway of nitrogen assimilation in plants to the biochemistry of plant amines and functions of steroids in plants. The naturally occurring cyanogenic glycosides are also considered, along with transfer RNA and aminoacyl-transfer RNA synthetases from higher plants. This volume is comprised of eight chapters and begins with a discussion on the pathway of nitrogen assimilation in plants and the enzymes involved in the process, with particular reference to glutamate synthase. The reader is then introduced to advances in the biochemistry of plant amines; the naturally occurring cyanogenic glycosides; phenylalanine ammonia lyase; and natural products such as flavonoid sulfates and sesterterpenes. The final chapter focuses on steroid functions in plants, giving emphasis to sterols, steroidal sapogenins and alkaloids, pregnane derivatives, cardiac glycosides, and sex hormones. This book will be of interest to phytochemists as well as non-specialists who want to obtain a clear picture of the problems involved in phytochemistry.

Progress in Phytochemistry, Volume 6 reviews advances in the field of plant biochemistry, including the C4 dicarboxylic acid pathway of photosynthesis in certain tropical grasses and the synthesis and turnover of the lipid components of plant membranes. Other topics include cellular compartmentation and channeling of secondary metabolism in microorganisms and higher plants; applications of paleobiochemical techniques to paleobotany; and the photodynamic action of photosensitizers from plants. This volume is comprised of seven chapters and begins with an analysis of photosynthetic carbon metabolism in C4 plants and C3-C4 intermediate species, followed by a discussion on the synthesis and turnover of plant membrane phospholipids. The next chapter covers cellular compartmentation of secondary constituents in both microorganisms and higher plants. The remaining three chapters are devoted to the more static aspects of comparative plant biochemistry, focusing on paleochemotaxonomy, stilbenoids, and photosensitizers in plants. The final chapter considers the effects of fungal phytotoxins on the plant plasmalemma and on ion transport through the membrane. This monograph will be of value to botanists, physiologists, biologists, and biochemists.

Progress in Phytochemistry, Volume 7, provides an overview of the state of knowledge in phytochemical research. This book is dedicated to Dr. E. C. Bate-Smith, CBE, one of the leading pioneers of the subject. Many of the topics in this volume represent aspects of phytochemical research which he has encouraged in others or to which he has himself contributed. The book begins with a chapter on chemotaxonomy. It considers in critical detail the contribution of isozyme electrophoresis to the understanding of plant variation at the population level. This is followed by separate chapters on carbonic anhydrase; biochemical developments in seed germination; the role of plant hormones in the control of the germination process; non-protein amino acids of plants; and the production of phenolics in plants in response to microbial disease. Subsequent chapters cover the terpenoid variation encountered within a single genus of marine algae, among species of Laurencia; and plants with hallucinogenic activity.

Anti-Chance: A Reply to Monod''s Chance and Necessity reflects the most fundamental biological facts about human behavior, representing constants that are difficult to modify by religious, moral or social constraints. This book provides a simplistic view which neglects the profound meaning of physico-chemical determinism and most elementary rules of structuration of biological systems. The topics discussed include the probabilities of chance, thermodynamics and biological order, basis for a theoretical biology, and great inventions. The molecular basis of instinct, speech and consciousness, cybernetics and biology, and the structure of chance are also deliberated in this text. This publication is beneficial to students and researchers interested in the analysis of human affairs.