Victoria L. Korogodina - Böcker

This book is dedicated to the great scientist and outstanding individual Nikolay Wladimirovich Timofeeff-Ressovsky. The book brings together a number of brief stories/essays about Timofeeff-Ressovsky including “Stories told by himself”, and scientific chapters addressing his major research areas: genetics, radiobiology, radiation ecology and epidemiology, and evolution. Timofeeff-Ressovsky contributed to several fields of biology and established new directions of scientific research. He often repeated the phrase, which would later become famous: “Science should not be approached with the ferocity of wild animals”. In keeping with that philosophy, the issues discussed here are still open. Each scientific part starts with a current review; the chapters present leading scientific schools and views. The main theme discussed in the genetics part is mutation variability in the context of linear (replication, transcription, translation) and conformational template processes, and its dependence on phylogenetic group. In turn, the radiobiology chapters focus on the reorganization of DNA, cell, and population variability under low-dose irradiation, sparking indirect processes and adaptive response. The radiation ecology and epidemiology parts present data on the consequences of nuclear plants and related accidents for ecological systems and human beings. Here some approaches to estimating radiation risks are also offered. Evolution laws are demonstrated in the genomic universe, plant-microbe symbiosis, stabilizing and destabilizing (directional) selection. The last essay demonstrates the principles of organization operating in local animal populations, which are approached as social organisms of complex systemic nature.The chapter 'Radiation-Induced Aging and Genetic Instability of Mesenchymal Stem Cells: An Issue for Late Health Effects?' is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.

This book is dedicated to the great scientist and outstanding individual Nikolay Wladimirovich Timofeeff-Ressovsky. The book brings together a number of brief stories/essays about Timofeeff-Ressovsky including “Stories told by himself”, and scientific chapters addressing his major research areas: genetics, radiobiology, radiation ecology and epidemiology, and evolution. Timofeeff-Ressovsky contributed to several fields of biology and established new directions of scientific research. He often repeated the phrase, which would later become famous: “Science should not be approached with the ferocity of wild animals”. In keeping with that philosophy, the issues discussed here are still open. Each scientific part starts with a current review; the chapters present leading scientific schools and views. The main theme discussed in the genetics part is mutation variability in the context of linear (replication, transcription, translation) and conformational template processes, and its dependence on phylogenetic group. In turn, the radiobiology chapters focus on the reorganization of DNA, cell, and population variability under low-dose irradiation, sparking indirect processes and adaptive response. The radiation ecology and epidemiology parts present data on the consequences of nuclear plants and related accidents for ecological systems and human beings. Here some approaches to estimating radiation risks are also offered. Evolution laws are demonstrated in the genomic universe, plant-microbe symbiosis, stabilizing and destabilizing (directional) selection. The last essay demonstrates the principles of organization operating in local animal populations, which are approached as social organisms of complex systemic nature.The chapter 'Radiation-Induced Aging and Genetic Instability of Mesenchymal Stem Cells: An Issue for Late Health Effects?' is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.

In recent decades radiobiologists’ efforts have been directed at identifying the mechanisms of radiation effects; the general mechanisms have since been studied extensively. This book describes and analyzes radiation-induced adaptation as processes produced in cells, tissues, and populations. This viewpoint helps to understand the nature and factors of induced processes, to determine the characteristics of observed radiation effects and their limitations. The investigations presented here were founded on proper lab experiments, ecological studies of plant population growth near an operating nuclear power plant and a thorough epidemiological examination of human populations living in territories polluted fifty years ago, as well as on relevant published data. This research demonstrates the radiation-induced adaptation processes that continue even when the radiation itself is no longer at a critical background level. The investigations utilized the method of statistical modeling on the basis of distributions on the number of abnormalities. This method allows us to investigate the processes induced by low-dose factors when accompanied by Darwinian selection in different systems; the distribution parameters can then be used to study the characteristics of adaptation processes and system resistance. The consequences of background-level radiation continue to provoke debate, and the mathematical bases of the adaptation model are shown, while due consideration is paid to the components of adaptation: instability, selection, and proliferation. The book will be especially useful to specialists in radiation pollution, ecology, epidemiology, and radiology for studies of radiation-induced processes; the method presented here can also be adapted to investigate low-dose effects in other fields. In addition, the book presents a number of reviews in the fields of radiation biology, including pioneering investigations in Russia which were previously unavailable to Westernscientists.