This work is designed for use as a lab manual in college-level courses in developmental biology or animal development. In each exercise, students examine gametes and developing embryos of a single species, and also perform several experiments to probe its developmental process.

Originally published in 2005, this unique resource presents 27 easy-to-follow laboratory exercises for use in student practical classes in developmental biology. These experiments provide key insights into developmental questions, and many of them are described by the leaders in the field who carried out the original research. This book intends to bridge the gap between experimental work and the laboratory classes taken at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. All chapters follow the same format, taking the students from materials and methods, through results and discussion, so that they learn the underlying rationale and analysis employed in the research. The book will be an invaluable resource for graduate students and instructors teaching practical developmental biology courses. Chapters include teaching concepts, discussion of the degree of difficulty of each experiment, potential sources of failure, as well as the time required for each experiment to be carried out in a class with students.

The effective design of scientific experiments is critical to success, yet graduate students receive very little formal training in how to do it. Based on a well-received course taught by the author, Experimental Design for Biologistsfills this gap. Experimental Design for Biologistsexplains how to establish the framework for an experimental project, how to set up a system, design experiments within that system, and how to determine and use the correct set of controls. Separate chapters are devoted to negative controls, positive controls, and other categories of controls that are perhaps less recognized, such as “assumption controls†and “experimentalist controls†. Furthermore, there are sections on establishing the experimental system, which include performing critical “system controls†. Should all experimental plans be hypothesis-driven? Is a question/answer approach more appropriate? What was the hypothesis behind the Human Genome Project? What color is the sky? How does one get to Carnegie Hall? The answers to these kinds of questions can be found in Experimental Design for Biologists. Written in an engaging manner, the book provides compelling lessons in framing an experimental question, establishing a validated system to answer the question, and deriving verifiable models from experimental data. Experimental Design for Biologistsis an essential source of theory and practical guidance in designing a research plan.

Developmental Biology: A Guide for Experimental Study, Second Edition is a laboratory manual for college-level courses in developmental biology. It teaches students to work as independent investigators on problems in development, and provides extensive background information and instructions for each experiment. It emphasizes the study of living material, intermixing developmental anatomy in an enjoyable balance, and allows students to make choices in their work. The manual contains challenging experiments requiring minimal equipment that are suitable for both large and small classes. Recipes for solutions, annotated bibliographies, and lists of scientific suppliers are also included.

This intensive manual provides students with valuable information and insights into animal development at the organismal, cellular, and subcellular levels. The book uses both descriptive and investigative approaches that emphasize techniques, key experiments, and data analysis. - Provides a broad introductory view of developmental systems - Teaches both classical embryology and modern experimental approaches - Contains seventeen laboratory exercises, written in step-by-step style - Organized with additional notes to students and preparators - Lists questions and references for each exercise - Special chapters give introductions to the scientific process, use of the microscope, and the writing of scientific papers - Illustrated with detailed line drawings

Dynamics of Development: Experiments and Inferences provides an understanding of the dynamic order of living systems. This book presents a methodical approach to the unrestricted exploration of all the aspects that a living system offers, which is evaluated logically through experiment and inference. Organized into five parts encompassing 24 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the adaptive features of the nervous system. This text then examines the molecular control of cellular activity. Other chapters focus on resolving the fragments of the chemical endowment of the cell. This book discusses as well the mechanisms of respiration and photosynthesis, which have been connected with arrays of macromolecular complexes in definite sequential order. The final chapter deals with the fundamental principle of neural intercommunication. This book is a valuable resource for biochemists, biologists, zoologists, neurophysiologists, and scientists. Students and research workers interested in the dynamic order of living systems will also find this book useful.

The history of developmental biology is interwoven with debates as to whether mechanistic explanations of development are possible or whether alternative explanatory principles or even vital forces need to be assumed. In particular, the demonstrated ability of embryonic cells to tune their developmental fate precisely to their relative position and the overall size of the embryo was once thought to be inexplicable in mechanistic terms. Taking a causal perspective, this Element examines to what extent and how developmental biology, having turned molecular about four decades ago, has been able to meet the vitalist challenge. It focuses not only on the nature of explanations but also on the usefulness of causal knowledge – including the knowledge of classical experimental embryology – for further scientific discovery. It also shows how this causal perspective allows us to understand the nature and significance of some key concepts, including organizer, signal and morphogen. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Construction of the international space station, scheduled to start in late 1998, ushers in a new era for laboratory sciences in space. This is especially true for space life sciences, which include not only the use of low gravity as an experimental parameter to study fundamental biological processes but also the study of the serious physiological changes that occur in astronauts as they remain in space for increasingly longer missions. This book addresses both of these aspects and provides a comprehensive review of ground-based and space research in eleven disciplines, ranging from bone physiology to plant biology. It also offers detailed, prioritized recommendations for research during the next decade, which are expected to have a considerable impact on the direction of NASA's research program. The volume is also a valuable reference tool for space and life scientists.