Heidelberg Science Library - Böcker

THE idea of collecting these essays occurred to me when, in the leisure of retire­ ment, I scanned some of my own books and found that two of the more widely read show a startling change of attitude to some of the fundamental concepts of science. These are Einstein's Theory of Relativity of 1921 and the American edition of The Restless Universe of 1951. I have taken the introduction of as the former the first item of this collection, the postscript to the latter as its last. These books agree in the relativistic concept of space and time, but differ in many other funda­ mental notions. In 1921 I believed-and I shared this belief with most of my contemporary physicists-that science produced an objective knowledge of the world, which is governed by deterministic laws. The scientific method seemed to me superior to other, more subjective ways of forming a picture of the world­ philosophy, poetry, and religion; and I even thought the unambiguous language of science to be a step towards a better understanding between human beings. In 1951 I believed in none of these things. The border between object and subject had been blurred, deterministic laws had been replaced by statistical ones, and although physicists understood one another well enough across all national frontiers they had contributed nothing to a better understanding of nations, but had helped in inventing and applying the most horrible weapons of destruction.

In the limited scope of this book I wish to present a brief review of the progressive destruction of nature, particularly in the domain of animal life, and at the same time to ill- trate some of the possibilities by BIII:- Ion-.--------------, which man can prevent this de- 3 ~----------~f_4 struction. As the mightiest creation of na- 2,51-______ a _ ___ ~L...-_j ture, man extends his influence into all of nature's provinces and in- 2 1--- - -------1---; habits all zones of the earth. ,,51----------1'------1 Civilization and technology, ulti- mate consequences of his unique 1 cerebral development, have pro- moted man to this position of O~>,I,.,oo-="'------------I power. An enormous population increase in recent centuries has 1850 1100 1700 1800 1BIIO 1800 .110.2000 made him one of the most numer- An ous of all animal forms. A com- h parison of the alarming climb of 5 earth's population curve (Fig. la) - ",0 with the graphical representation r-- of exterminated animal species 30 r- (Fig. Ib) establishes a striking conformity.The steeper the human 20 r-- population curve climbs, the higher 10- stretch the bars representing the h -r-- number of exterminated animal 1650 1700 17150 1800 18SO 1900 19SO 2000 species.

According to Roth (1964), the term "psychopharmakon" was used for the first time by Reinhardus Lorichius of Hadamar who, in 1548, edited a collection of prayers of comfort and in preparation for death under the title "Psychopharmakon, hoc est: medicina animae". With the introduction of chlorpromazine in 1952, the era of psychopharma- cology began. The "psychopharmakon" of the Renaissance and the twentieth century differ from each other in concept and meaning; the spiritual support in times of increased anxiety and fear has been replaced by drugs which "tranquilize" the agitated and brighten the mood of the depressed. Thus, the pioneering discovery by Delay et al. (1952) of the usefulness of phenothiazines in schizophrenics, followed by the report of Loomer et al. (1957) on the antidepressant effect of iproniazid and Kuhn's (1957) observation of the thymoleptic property of imipramine triggered a revolution in psychiatry. Subsequently, numerous new psychopharmaka have been introduced. Parallel with this development, the interest in experimental behavioral research which began to utilize the newly discovered drugs as tools grew rapidly.The experience gained from studies of human and animal behavior found expression in the attempt to introduce a nomenclature and classify psychopharmaka on a purely psychological basis.

Mihail Moiseevich Botvinnik is an electrical engineer by profession; during World War II he headed a high-tension laboratory in the Urals and was decorated by the USSR for his accomplishments. At present, he is the head of the alternating-current machine laboratory at the Moscow Institute of Power Engineering. He is also a world-renowned chess player. He was born in 1911, and by 1935 had become a Grandmaster of Soviet chess. In 1948 he won the world chess championship and held the title until 1963 (except for a two-year break). His chess style has been characterized as deep, objective, serious, and courageous. In this book, the quality of his thinking is revealed in his study of the basic thought processes of master chess players, and his reduction of these processes to mathematical form. This formalization of thought processes is a contribution to science at three levels: at the immediate level, it provides a basis for a computer program that seems likely to succeed in playing chess; at the middle level, game-playing programs help us to study and rationalize the processes of planning and decision-making; and, at the highest level, the study of the mind in action, as in the game of chess, leads to an understanding of human thought and of the human psyche.

There can hardly be any doubt that radiation will continue to be an im­ portant factor in our lives. Present and future advances in atomic tech­ nology urgently require further work on research and development in the field of radiation biology if the maximum benefit is to be obtained at minimal risk from the various kinds of radiation that form a major by­ product of nuclear processes. Consequently, it is also necessary to prepare students and younger scientists for doing such work. The present book originates from teaching experience gained in lectures, seminars, and discussion groups started by the undersigned in 1957 and more recently held together with Drs. Dertinger and Jung. The friendly comments given to the German edition made us feel that it might be worth­ while to put the results of our efforts at the disposal of those to whom English is more familiar. In agreement with the view, based on well-known facts, that most if not aIl of the more striking practical achievements have resulted from patient and careful investigations into some basic problem, the book aims at introducing the reader to the methods of thought and experiment used in molecular radiation biology as weIl as to the results obtained thereby.

The titling of this book - "Facing Reality" - came to me unbidden, presumably from my subconscious! But, when it came, it seemed to be right, because that essentially is what I am trying to do in this book. " Facing" is to be understood in the sense of "looking at in a steadfast and unflinching manner". It thus contrasts with "Confronting" which has the sense of "looking at with hostility and defiance". As I face life with its joys and its sorrows, its successes and its failures, its peace and its turmoil, my attitude is one of serene acceptance and gratitude and not one of angry and arrogant confrontation and rejection. The other component of the title - "Reality" - is the ultimate reality for each of us as conscious beings - our birth - our self-hood in its long stream of becoming throughout our life - our death and apparent annihilation. This is the Reality that we each of us must face if we are to live and adventure as free and responsible beings and not as mere playthings of chance and circumstance, going through a mean­ ingless farce from birth to death with the search ever for distraction and self-forgetfulness. As a brain scientist I have specialist knowledge of that wonderful part of the body that is alone concerned in the whole Iife-Iong interplay between the conscious self and the extern al world, including other selves.

This book is based on Hans Zahner's Biologie der Antibiotica, published in 1965. There is a vast literature on antibiotics, covering chemical, phar­ macological, and clinical aspects. We have made no attempt to cover this literature comprehensively. Our effort is directed toward discuss­ ing antibiotics as biological agents. They are substances produced by living cells, yet they are able to inhibit the growth of living cells - in many cases even the cells that produce them. We have taken this apparent biological paradox as our point of departure and have tried to look in this light at the production of antibiotics and at their mode of action. In a sense antibiotics are comparable to mutations. They are useful as tools in the study of metabolism by blocking specific reactions. At the same time their mode of origin and their effects on the organisms that produce them are interesting problems in their own right. We have tried to incorporate both aspects into our consider­ ations. This little book, designed for biology students and medical stu­ dents, provides them with a framework into which to fit more specialized and detailed information on antibiotics.

Teaching a course on nucleic acid structure is a hazardous undertaking, especially if one has no continuous teaching obligations. I still have done it on several occasions in various French universities, when colleagues, suffering from admin­ istrative overwork and excessive teaching obligations, had asked me to do so. This was generally done with a pile of notes and a dozen slides, and I always regretted that no small, concise, specialized book on nucleic acid structure for students at the senior or beginning graduate level ex­ isted. Every year, the lecture notes became more and more voluminous, with some key reprints intermingled. Everything changed when, in the spring of 1973, I re­ ceived an invitation to teach such a course, under the UNESCO-OAS-Molecular Biology Program at the Universi­ dad de Chile in Santiago during October 1973. I had ac­ cepted rather enthusiastically, but soon discovered that it would be necessary to produce a photocopied syllabus for the students. This was the fi rst premanuscript of this book. For nonscientific reasons, the course was first canceled and then postponed until December 1973. Nearly a year later, the course, in slightly amended form, was presented at the Lemonossow-State University in Moscow.

There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact. Mark Twain The recent explosion in ou. r knowledge of basis physiologic processes, molecular biology, and genetic regulatory mech- anisms has resulted, in large measure, from a single concep- tual advance: the realization that, at the molecular level, evolutionarily divergent organisms are more similar than different. Thus, in Escherichia coli and Homo sapiens, the enzymatic pathways for the utilization of galactose and glu- cose are the same, although more than a single sequence of enzymatic reactions can lead to the utilization of either sugar. Also, extensive studies have revealed the essential of the genetic code, the mechanism of decxy- universality ribonucleic acid (DNA) repli~ation, and the processes by which genetic information is transcribed to ribonucleic acid (RNA) and RNA is translated into protein. A detailed com- parative examination of anyone area of biologic interest, of course, reveals differences among phylogenetically distinct organisms.In prokaryotic organisms protein synthesis is initiated with N-formyl methionyl-transfer RNA (tRNA), whereas methionyl tRNA serves this function in the cyto- plasm of the eukaryote. Mechanistic differences may have evolved to accommodate the differing degrees of com- plexity of cellular construction or to coordinate functions of differentiated cells in a multicellular organism. Yet, we must realize that the basic, life-endowing molecular pro- cesses had to exist prior to extensive evolutionary diverg- ence-before the appearance of two distinct cell types.

The aim of DEALING WITH DILEMMA is to inte­ grate medical and genetic information with the psychoso­ cial aspects of genetic counseling, in order to provide a working manual for genetic counselors. The book fills a gap in the genetic counseling field because it emphasizes the humanistic aspects of genetic counseling, and is primarily concerned with communica­ tion between genetic counselor and counselee. The few genetic counseling books available at this time are devoted almost entirely to the medical and genetic aspects of the subject. This book is written in nontechnical language, but it presupposes some knowledge of Mendelian genetics, poly­ genic inheritance, and chromosomal anomalies. No prior study of psychology or counseling is necessary, however. DEALING WITH DILEMMA is intended for physi­ cian and nonphysician genetic counselors, private practice physicians in pediatrics, obstetrics, family and general practice, internists, nurses, public health professionals, genetic counseling students, social workers, and other health professionals. Much of the material presented should be useful to those who deal with the psychosocial ramifications of many nongenetic diseases as well-prob­ lems of the mentally retarded, handicapped, or chronically ill. In addition, it is hoped that professionals who plan state and federal health policy can use this book to gain a better knowledge of the humanistic side of genetic counseling.

Norbert Wiener, perhaps better than anyone else, understood the intimate and delicate relationship between control and communication: that messages intended as commands do not necessarily differ from those intended simply as facts. Wiener noted the paradox when the modem computer was hardly more than a laboratory curiosity. Thirty years later, the same paradox is at the heart of a severe identity crisis which con­ fronts computer programmers. Are they primarily members of "management" acting as foremen, whose task it is to ensure that orders emanating from executive suites are faithfully trans­ lated into comprehensible messages? Or are they perhaps sim­ ply engineers preoccupied with the technical difficulties of relating "software" to "hardware" and vice versa? Are they aware, furthermore, of the degree to which their work­ whether as manager or engineer-routinizes the work of others and thereby helps shape the structure of social class relation­ ships? I doubt that many of us who lived through the first heady and frantic years of software development-at places like the RAND and System Development Corporations-ever took time to think about such questions. The science fiction-like setting of mysterious machines, blinking lights, and torrents of numbers served to awe outsiders who could only marvel at the complexity of it all. We were insiders who constituted a secret society into which only initiates were welcome. So today I marvel at the boundless audacity of a rank out­ sider in writing a book like Programmers and Managers.

Although a human embryo possesses so much grace that the untutored spectator can only admire it in awe, this minute and humble embryo is still almost unknown to many. For some, it seems to belong to the animal kingdom only; others see in it man in his most primordial and elementary aspect. The early life of man thus has become a problem. The development of man as individual (individual development) begins with fertilization. The following pages, therefore, concentrate above all on the develop- ment from the ovum to the embryo. The description given below of the ontogenesis of the human embryo and its early functions has been completely documented by our human-embryological collection. Numerous original pho- tographs and systematically revised drawings were pub- lished in 1973 under the title Die praenatalen Organsys- teme des Menschen (The Prenatal Organ Systems of Man); the supplementary scientific commentaries were published in 1977 in Biokinetics and Biodynamics of Human Differentiations. A complete series of portrait illustrations is located at the Science Centre in Toronto, Canada.

This book attempts to present the concepts which underlie the various optimization procedures which are commonly used. It is written primarily for those scientists such as economists, operations researchers, and en­ gineers whose main tools of analysis involve optimization techniques and who possess a (not very sharp) knowledge of one or one-and-a-half year's calculus through partial differentiation and Taylor's theorem and some acquaintance with elementary vector and matrix terminology. Such a scientist is frequently confronted with expressions such as Lagrange multi­ pliers, first-and second-order conditions, linear programming and activity analysis, duality, the Kuhn-Tucker conditions, and, more recently, dy­ namic programming and optimal control. He or she uses or needs to use these optimization techniques, and would like to feel more comfortable with them through better understanding of their underlying mathematical concepts, but has no immediate use for a formal theorem-proof treatment which quickly abstracts to a general case of n variables and uses a style and terminology that are discouraging to people who are not mathematics majors. The emphasis of this book is on clarity and plausibility. Through examples which are worked out step by step in detail, I hope to illustrate some tools which will be useful to scientists when they apply optimization techniques to their problems. Most of the chapters may be read independently of each other-with the exception of Chapter 6, which depends on Chapter 5. For instance, the reader will find little or no difficulty in reading Chapter 8 without having read the previous chapters.

This book was written after one of us published two editions of a smaller book (Atomic Structure and Valency by R. D. Brown, 1961 and 1966) and from the experiences of all three of us teaching a first-year university course in valency at Monash University. Our object has been to give enough of an historical introduction to quantum mechanics to enable a student to grasp the fundamental ideas without being subjected to much mathematical formalism. We have also tried to avoid making erroneous statements in the interest of simplicity (e. g" the widespread tendency to ignore the difference between 2Pl, 2po, 2p-l and 2px, 2py, 2p z) because these lead to irritation and confusion of the better students, when they proceed to further studies of chemical quantum mechanics. The topics we have chosen to expand upon-i. e. , energy levels of electrons in atoms, energetic considerations of bonding in diatomic molecules, and packing of ions in the simplest solid state structures­ we believe form a good basis for students to progress to more complicated systems in a qualitative way. Both space and the intended level ofthe book have necessitated that the experimental section on spectroscopic and diffrac­ tion methods be very introductory. Again we believe that it is essential for a student to have some acquaintance with this, if the whole subject is to have a firm basis.

There are many technical and popular accounts, both in Russian and in other languages, of the non-Euclidean geometry of Lobachevsky and Bolyai, a few of which are listed in the Bibliography. This geometry, also called hyperbolic geometry, is part of the required subject matter of many mathematics departments in universities and teachers' colleges-a reflec­ tion of the view that familiarity with the elements of hyperbolic geometry is a useful part of the background of future high school teachers. Much attention is paid to hyperbolic geometry by school mathematics clubs. Some mathematicians and educators concerned with reform of the high school curriculum believe that the required part of the curriculum should include elements of hyperbolic geometry, and that the optional part of the curriculum should include a topic related to hyperbolic geometry. I The broad interest in hyperbolic geometry is not surprising. This interest has little to do with mathematical and scientific applications of hyperbolic geometry, since the applications (for instance, in the theory of automorphic functions) are rather specialized, and are likely to be encountered by very few of the many students who conscientiously study (and then present to examiners) the definition of parallels in hyperbolic geometry and the special features of configurations of lines in the hyperbolic plane. The principal reason for the interest in hyperbolic geometry is the important fact of "non-uniqueness" of geometry; of the existence of many geometric systems.

There is growing evidence that an amalgamation of systems theories and communication and information theories will become the leading conceptual model for addressing human behavior. In this book we have used a theoretical frame which focuses on the coding, storage, and movement of information within and among open systems. We believe this to be a productive working concept which allows the student of human behavior to avoid the mind/body dichotomy. This conceptual framework also allows the integration of the biologic and sociologic aspects of human behavior. Using this theoret­ ical model we may see science and art as a continuum of imaginative ways of organizing information. Hence, the primary aim of this text is to provide a conceptual frame for students of human behavior which utilizes systems theories and information and communi­ cation theories in an integrated approach which is both theoretical and practical. It is written for the student in the behavioral sciences who may be planning a career in medicine, social work, psychology, nursing, guidance and counseling, the ministry, or other health and service professions. In addition, students in biology, sociology, and philosophy may benefit from this conceptual ap­ proach. It is also written for the practitioner who is cur­ rently delivering counseling and other health services to a variety of clientele.

The history of science is mostly written retrospec­ tively, a generation or two after the actual events being discussed. Science historians are now analyzing and evaluating the origins of evolutionary and genetical theory in the nineteenth century and a sort of "Darwin industry" seems to have grown up. A history of mammalian cytogenetics by one of the main participants is, hence, a very welcome change, since it has a vividness, an immediacy and a personal flavor which these scholarly tomes and the official biog­ raphies of scientists mostly lack. The life of the author, Chinese-born, T. C. Hsu, has been a romantic and color­ ful one, and he is himself a unique personality, so that his book is a very unusual blend of reminiscences, history of his special field (which has transformed human genetics) and wise comments on the mistakes made along the way. The best qualities of a very fine Chinese mind have contributed to Dr. Hsu's career, including this book. Those qualities (which seem to me especially Chinese) include a kind of transparent honesty, a very direct em­ pirical approach to problems and superb technical ability.

The reception of the original volume by students, pedagogues, and reviewers has been most gratifying. It appears to have both satisfied a need and served a useful educational purpose. Hence, some ten years later it has been deemed advisable to bring it up to date, if only in a slightly expanded form. The purpose for writing this book and its level remain the same. Many new polymers have been synthesized in the last decade that have found meaningful and novel uses. Examples of these applications are included in this new edition. Major advances have also been made in biophysics and in molecular biology, as well as in our understanding of natural processes on a molecular level. Foremost among these has been the development of recombinant DNA technology. With it has come the potential for large scale synthesis of hormones and proteins. These new developments have also been incorporated into the present volume. It is my hope that this new edition will still have a widespread appeal to students in all of the natural sciences whatever their major interest. It should also be of use and inter­ est to those starting industrial or academic careers who have not had an extensive background in macromolecular science.

This book represents the interests and attitudes, the information, and the philosophy that define my work and career as it has evolved over the years. Not written as a substitute for any of the many textbooks on ecology, it is meant to present the simplest and most direct approach to a complex field as distilled out of my work as an applied ecologist, who deals with concrete daily problems in the real-world context of economics, politics, and logis­ tics. I hope that it is useful to the reader who seeks an overview of applied ecology, including sufficient specific detail to make that reader more com­ fortable with the field and more conversant with the capabilities and limits of ecologists and their tools. Each chapter is followed by a bibliography which has two functions. The first is to represent the main sources or reviews of information upon which the associated chapter is partly based. The second is to give sources for some of the examples utilized in the chapter and some of the illustrations summarizing and clarifying the text, which have been adapted, cited, or derived, from those references. In that sense, I must most sincerely thank all those fellow ecologists who have preceeded me and who have made my work far more diverse and interesting to me than might otherwise have been the case.

I believe that the most intriguing thing in the world, be­ sides the world itself, is the human brain. Moreover, I am sure that a coherent natural philosophy will only be possible once we have understood how the brain, itself an object of physics, generates the description of the physical word. Therefore a book on the brain, be it the fly's or the mouse's brain, needs no justification. It is important, however, to point out the limits of its ambi­ tions. The first three Chapters are introductory and are written in a lighthearted philosophical vein. An idea is introduced that turns up repeatedly in the rest of the book, namely, that the structure of brains is information about the world. Chapter 4 is didactic: in it the neuron and its function are sketched as the element of the nerv­ ous tissue. Chapters 5 to 8 are a collection of essays loosely tied together mainly by the vagaries of my own interests. They do not intend to be definitive statements about the cerebellum, the cerebral cortex, or the visual ganglia of insects but rather illuminate these structures from a personal point of view. Accordingly, many au­ thors will find their own contributions only insufficiently represented in the text and frequently without explicit quotation. I beg their pardon and remind the reader that enough competent reviews are available in the fields that I touch upon, easily accessible through the references.

We shall limit our observations to the conditions in natural ecosystems, since it would be beyond the scope of this book to embark upon a consideration of secondary, man-made ecosystems. 2. Classification of the Geo-biosphere into Zonobiomes The biosphere is the thin layer of the earth's surface to which the phenomena connected with living matter are confined. On land, this comprises the lowest layer of the atmosphere permanently inhabited by living organisms and into which plants extend, as well as the root-containing portion of the lithosphere, which we term the soil. Living organisms are also found in all bodies of water, to the very depths of the oceans. In a watery medium, however, cycling of material is achieved by means other than those on land, and the organisms (plankton) are so different that aquatic ecosystems have to be dealt with separately. The biosphere is therefore subdivided into (a) the geo-biosphere comprising terrestrial ecosystems, and (b) the hydro-biosphere, comprising aquatic ecosystems, which is the field of hydrobiologists (oceanographers and limnologists) . Our studies are confined to the geo-biosphere (Walter 1976), which constitutes the habitat of man and is, therefore, of special interest. The prevailing climate, being the primary independent factor in the environment, can be used as a basis for further subdivision of the geo-biosphere since the formation of soil and type of vegetation are dependent upon it (see p. 3), and it has not yet been substantially influenced by man.

The possession of plasmids was for a long time recognized only in the bacteria. It is now evident that plasmids, or replicative forms of DNA structurally and experimentally comparable to bacterial plasmids, exist in eukaryotic organisms as well. Such plasmids are in fact common among fungi and higher plants. The present review is undertaken to provide a comprehensive account of the data available on plasmids found in eukaryotic organisms. This review will not consider plasmids of prokaryotic origin, even though certain bacterial plasmids, such as the tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmids of Agrobacterium tumefaciens, may be intimately associated with transformation of the eukaryotic host. This book, moreover, does not consider transformation experiments in eukaryotic hosts involving viral DNA as vectors, although indeed such vectors have been developed for use in plant and animal systems. After a general introduction, providing historical perspective on the nature and role of plasmids, a list of eukaryotic plasmids will be presented according to their origin. This is followed by a detailed discussion of known structure and function. In subsequent chapters the practical implications of eukaryotic plasmids for molecular cloning and biotechnology will be discussed. This latter part traces the development of interest'in biotechnical genetics and gives special consideration to the use of eukaryotic systems for gene cloning. The terminology biotechni­ cal genetics is introduced to the reader and is used in a general sense as equivalent to genetic engineering. Biotechnical genetics includes, but is not limited to, gene cloning through recombinant DNA technology.