5 Biology and Genetics eBooks #2

From the Farm to the Table: What All Americans Need to Know about Agriculture (Culture of the Land)
A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929
Brain Arousal and Information Theory: Neural and Genetic Mechanisms
Annual Plant Reviews, Control of Primary Metabolism in Plants
A Rhino in my Garden: Love, life and the African bush

From the Farm to the Table: What All Americans Need to Know about Agriculture (Culture of the Land)
English | May 28th, 2014 | ASIN: B00IO8Y0K6, ISBN: 0813124190, 0813192269 | 388 Pages | EPUB | 1.92 MB
As with other areas of human industry, it has been assumed that technological progress would improve all aspects of agriculture. Technology would increase both efficiency and yield, or so we thought.The directions taken by technology may have worked for a while, but the same technologies that give us an advantage also create disadvantages. It's now a common story in rural America: pesticides, fertilizers, "big iron" combines, and other costly advancements may increase speed but also reduce efficiency, while farmers endure debt, dangerous working conditions, and long hours to pay for the technology. Land, livelihood, and lives are lost in an effort to keep up and break even.There is more to this story that affects both the food we eat and our provisions for the future. Too many Americans eat the food on their plates with little thought to its origin and in blind faith that government regulations will protect them from danger. While many Americans might have grown up in farming families, there are fewer family-owned farms with each passing generation. Americans are becoming disconnected from understanding the sources and content of their food. The farmers interviewed in From the Farm to the Table can help reestablish that connection. Gary Holthaus illuminates the state of American agriculture today, particularly the impact of globalization, through the stories of farmers who balance traditional practices with innovative methods to meet market demands. Holthaus demonstrates how the vitality of America's communities is bound to the successes and failures of its farmers.In From the Farm to the Table, farmers explain how their lives and communities have changed as they work to create healthy soil, healthy animals, and healthy food in a context of often inappropriate federal policy, growing competition from abroad, public misconceptions regarding government subsidies, the dangers of environmental damage and genetically modified crops, and the myths of modern economics. Rather than predicting doom and despair for small American growers, Holthaus shows their hope and the practical solutions they utilize. As these farmers tell their stories, "organic" and "sustainable" farming become real and meaningful. As they share their work and their lives, they reveal how those concepts affect the food we eat and the land on which it's grown, and how vital farming is to the American economy.

A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929
English | September 5th, 2008 | ASIN: B0078XFM2I, ISBN: 0813125197 | 241 Pages | EPUB | 2.29 MB
At a time when food is becoming increasingly scarce in many parts of the world and food prices are skyrocketing, no industry is more important than agriculture. Humans have been farming for thousands of years, and yet agriculture has undergone more fundamental changes in the past 80 years than in the previous several centuries. In 1900, 30 million American farmers tilled the soil or tended livestock; today there are fewer than 4.5 million farmers who feed a population four times larger than it was at the beginning of the century. Fifty years ago, the planet could not have sustained a population of 6.5 billion; now, commercial and industrial agriculture ensure that millions will not die from starvation. Farmers are able to feed an exponentially growing planet because the greatest industrial revolution in history has occurred in agriculture since 1929, with U.S. farmers leading the way. Productivity on American farms has increased tenfold, even as most small farmers and tenants have been forced to find other work. Today, only 300,000 farms produce approximately ninety percent of the total output, and overproduction, largely subsidized by government programs and policies, has become the hallmark of modern agriculture. A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929 charts the profound changes in farming that have occurred during author Paul K. Conkin's lifetime. His personal experiences growing up on a small Tennessee farm complement compelling statistical data as he explores America's vast agricultural transformation and considers its social, political, and economic consequences. He examines the history of American agriculture, showing how New Deal innovations evolved into convoluted commodity programs following World War II. Conkin assesses the skills, new technologies, and government policies that helped transform farming in America and suggests how new legislation might affect farming in decades to come. Although the increased production and mechanization of farming has been an economic success story for Americans, the costs are becoming increasingly apparent. Small farmers are put out of business when they cannot compete with giant, non-diversified corporate farms. Caged chickens and hogs in factory-like facilities or confined dairy cattle require massive amounts of chemicals and hormones ultimately ingested by consumers. Fertilizers, new organic chemicals, manure disposal, and genetically modified seeds have introduced environmental problems that are still being discovered. A Revolution Down on the Farm concludes with an evaluation of farming in the twenty-first century and a distinctive meditation on alternatives to our present large scale, mechanized, subsidized, and fossil fuel and chemically dependent system.

Brain Arousal and Information Theory: Neural and Genetic Mechanisms
English | 2005 | ISBN: 0674019202 | PDF | 216 Pages | 2.6 mb
Arousal is fundamental to all cognition. It is intuitively obvious, absolutely necessary, but what exactly is it? In Brain Arousal and Information Theory, Donald Pfaff presents a daring perspective on this long-standing puzzle. Pfaff argues that, beneath our mental functions and emotional dispositions, a primitive neuronal system governs arousal. Employing the simple but powerful framework of information theory, Pfaff revolutionizes our understanding of arousal systems in the brain.Starting with a review of the neuroanatomical, neurophysiological, and neurochemical components of arousal, Pfaff asks us to look at the gene networks and neural pathways underlying the brain's arousal systems much as a design engineer would contemplate information systems. This allows Pfaff to postulate that there is a bilaterally symmetric, bipolar system universal among mammals that readies the animal or the human being to respond to stimuli, initiate voluntary locomotion, and react to emotional challenges. Applying his hypothesis to heightened states of arousal-Csex and fear-CPfaff shows us how his theory opens new scientific approaches to understanding the structure of brain arousal.
A major synthesis of disparate data by a preeminent neuroscientist, Brain Arousal and Information Theory challenges current thinking about cognition and behavior. Whether you subscribe to Pfaff's theory or not, this book will stimulate debate about the nature of arousal itself.

Annual Plant Reviews, Control of Primary Metabolism in Plants
English | 2006 | ISBN: 1405130962 | PDF | 412 Pages | 2.7 mb
The ability to control the rates of metabolic processes in response to changes in the internal or external environment is an indispensable attribute of living cells that must have arisen with life's origin. This adaptability is necessary for conserving the stability of the intracellular environment which is, in turn, essential for maintaining an efficient functional state. The advent of genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics has revolutionised the study of plant development and is now having a significant impact on the study of plant metabolism and its control. In the last few years, significant advances have been made, with the elucidation of enzyme gene families and the identification of new proteinaceous and allosteric regulators.
The first part of this volume is devoted to generic aspects of metabolic control, with chapters on the key control points in pathways. Part Two considers the control of specific pathways, with detailed descriptions (including structures) and discussions of the regulation of these pathways, particularly in terms of the enzymology. The book is directed at researchers and professionals in plant biochemistry, physiology, molecular biology and cell biology.

A Rhino in my Garden: Love, life and the African bush
English | March 1st, 2018 | ASIN: B0785S926Y, ISBN: 1431425958 | 324 Pages | EPUB | 3.72 MB
A story of love and life in the African wild.
Conita Walker tells the story of the love match that lured her from the world of international air travel to plunge, somewhat na?vely, into the life of a conservationist. It's a tale of adventure, mishaps, humour and heartbreak.
Conita's life begins on a remote missionary station; she survives the WWII bombing of Berlin, witnesses the defeat of political systems in both Europe and South Africa, and eventually finds her true mission in the rescue and hand-rearing of black and white rhino orphans. There was a baby hippo to rescue and re-wild too, conservation organisations to found and support, wilderness battles to fight, but it was the rhinos that became her life's work.
Along with Clive, the Walkers' commitment to preserving these magnificent creatures continues to this day, and they form an invaluable part of what is now one of the leading private rhino sanctuaries in South Africa. A Rhino in my Garden is an intimate and loving portrait of the life of a conservationist, from the inside. A must-have for all book clubs.