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The evolutionary roots of human communication are difficult to trace, but recent comparative research suggests that the first key step in that evolutionary history may have been the establishment of basic communicative flexibility—the ability to vocalize freely combined with the capability to coordinate vocalization with communicative intent. The contributors to this volume investigate how some species (particularly ancient hominids) broke free of the constraints of "fixed signals," actions that were evolved to communicate but lack the flexibility of language—a newborn infant's cry, for example, always signals distress and has a stereotypical form not modifiable by the crying baby. Fundamentally, the contributors ask what communicative flexibility is and what evolutionary conditions can produce it.

The accounts offered in these chapters are notable for taking the question of language origins farther back in evolutionary time than in much previous work. Many contributors address the very earliest communicative break of the hominid line from the primate background; others examine the evolutionary origins of flexibility in, for example, birds and marine mammals. The volume's interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives illuminate issues that are on the cutting edge of recent research on this topic.

Contributors: Stéphanie Barbu, Curt Burgess, Josep Call, Laurance Doyle, Julia Fischer, Michael Goldstein, Ulrike Griebel, Kurt Hammerschmidt, Sean Hanser, Martine Hausberger, Laurence Henry, Allison Kaufman, Stan Kuczaj, Robert F. Lachlan, Brian MacWhinney, Radhika Makecha, Brenda McCowan, D. Kimbrough Oller, Michael Owren, Ron Schusterman, Charles T. Snowdon, Kim Sterelny, Benoît Testé, Gert Westermann.

Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology ... Read more

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The interaction of water at organic surfaces or interfaces is of fundamental and technological interest and importance in chemistry, physics and biology. Progress towards an in-depth, molecular interpretation of the structure and dynamics of interfacial water needs a range of novel experimental and simulation techniques. We are now reaching the stage at which we understand, at the molecular level, the mutual perturbation at a macromolecule/water interface. The aims of this book are to provide with a comprehensive background to the properties of bulk water at the microscopic level and with a substantial account of the theoretical and experimental contributions which have been done to understand the role of water in various systems from some model systems to the more complex ones such as the biological systems. ... Read more

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The book requires only rudimentary physics knowledge but ability to program computers creatively and to keep the mind open to simple and not so simple models, based in individuals, for the living world around us.

* Interdisciplinary coverage
* Research oriented
* Contains and explains programs
* Based on recent discoveries
* Little special knowledge required besides programming
* Suitable for undergraduate and graduate research projects ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

A mathematical view of selfishness and altruism
The calculus of selfishness begins with a calculated approach towards the daily incidents an individual can experience. Completely devoid of any mathematical intricacies, borrowing heavily from real life, the first chapter summarizes and justifies the calculations, which are seen in the rest of the book. This draws the reader deeply into the plot making more curious about how mathematics can encapsulate such complex scenarios? This is exactly is what is answered in the second chapter which essentially describes the foundations of evolutionary game theory and explores its roots in traditional game theory and the concepts and terminologies are made clear.
The chapters after that make clear the title of the book. Exploring the effects (or the cause?) of direct and indirect reciprocity, models involving reputation, rewards and punishment are analyzed for the evolution and maintenance of cooperation. Lastly how collective actions are sustained and maintained is theorized, again involving the above-mentioned subjects. The role of structured populations is touched upon briefly but not without presenting the important results which have been popularized until now.
In a nutshell, Karl Sigmund shows us again what makes him an authority in the field of evolutionary game dynamics and puts together the most important concepts which have been developed in this field since its inception. His earlier book "Games of Life" generated interest in many a physicists and mathematicians in biology and made biologists look towards biology through the looking glass of the mathematics of dynamical systems creating a generation of evolutionary dynamicists. It wouldn't be surprising if this one did the same and more.

A great book!
In "The calculus of selfishness", Karl Sigmund provides an excellent overview on recent research on the evolution of cooperation. The first chapters are non-technical and written in the brilliant and refreshing style of the popular science book "Games of life" by the same author. The transition to the more mathematical parts is very smooth and all calculations are transparent enough to allow the reader to repeat them. Most importantly, no results are left uncommented. Whenever Karl Sigmund calculates something, he tells us why and what the result means. This book is is a great way to introduce someone to this field and to get a comprehensive overview on recent developments. I will certainly recommend it to my students and collaborators! ... Read more

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This volume features highlights from the DIMACS Special Year on "Mathematical Support for Molecular Biology". Top researchers presented both new research results and comprehensive overviews on the use of mathematics (especially discrete mathematics) and theoretical computer science in molecular biology. The book provides a unique "snapshot" of this growing area of study. It will be of interest to both experts and novices seeking information on the state of the research. ... Read more

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L systems are language-theoretic models for developmentalbiology. They wereintroduced in 1968 by Aristid Lindenmayer(1925-1989) and have proved to be among the most beautifulexamples of interdisciplinary science, where workin onearea induces fruitful ideas and results in other areas. Lsystemsare based on relational and set-theoretic concepts,which are more suitable for the discrete and combinatorialstructures of biology than mathematicalmodels based oncalculus or statistics. L systems have stimulated new worknot only in the realistic simulation of developing organismsbut also in the theory of automata and formal languages,formal power series, computer graphics, and combinatorics ofwords.This book contains research papers by almost all leadingauthorities and by many of the most promising youngresearchers in the field. The 28 contributions areorganizedin sections on basic L systems, computer graphics,graphgrammars and map L systems, biological aspects and models,andvariations and generalizations of L systems. Theintroductory paper byLindenmayer and J}rgensen was writtenfor a wide audience and is accessible to the non-specialistreader.The volume documents the state of the art in the theory of Lsystems and their applications. It will interest researchersand advanced students in theoretical computer science anddevelopmental biology as well as professionals in computergraphics. ... Read more

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The weak or non-conventional hydrogen bond has been the subject of intense scrutiny over recent years. Although the existence of this type of hydrogen bond was suggested many years ago, research has traditionally focused on the stronger and more well-known forms of hydrogen bonds. However, a growing body of experimental and theoretical evidence now confirms that hydrogen bonds like C-H...O, O-H..., C-H... and even bonds such as O-H...metal play distinctive roles in structural chemistry and biology. This book provides a critical assessment of this interesting and occasionally controversial interaction type. It will be a useful resource for a wide range of researchers in structural and supramolecular science. ... Read more

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A beautiful book...
Chemistry is all about interactions, and chemists have traditionally classified interactions into various categories such as covalent and ionic, hydrogen bonding and Van der Waals. But this classification is primarily for convenience, and there are many borderline cases which any chemist should be aware of, if he wants to notice interesting phenomena.

One such borderline interaction that is very important in maintaining the structure of crystals is the weak hydrogen bond. Crystallographers are in a unique position to observe and catalog such an interaction, because they are constantly looking at structures frozen in time in the solid state. These are also structures that represent the dazzling chemical diversity inherent in nature. In this book, the authors, both of whom are leading authorities in the field, provide a comprehensive and extremely readable overview of this unique interaction, which should challenge the traditional wisdom of any chemist, and should allow him or her to greatly expand his or her horizons in the world of molecular interactions.

The book starts with a lucid and excellent introduction to what are usually described as 'normal' and 'strong' hydrogen bonds. The authors then gracefully demonstrate in the rest of the book by virtue of countless examples of organic, organometallic, and biological structures, how the strong and all important traditional picture of a hydrogen bond smoothly transitions to the domain of the weak hydrogen bond. Many of the rules that chemists usually apply to the notion of the hydrogen bond need to be modified and challenged, and excursions into weak hydrogen bonds actually exemplify the whole paradigm of weak intermolecular interactions. The authors explore all the evidence for such weak interactions including statistical, energetic, and spectroscopic. The crystal structures included reinforce the astonishing variety of molecular structures around us, both artificial as well as natural. There is also great simplicity in some of these structures, which makes them and the interactions in them truly beautiful to comprehend, in terms of their stability and symmetry. The discussion in every chapter is lucid, to the point, and shows the authors' own appreciation of their subject and its ramifications.

Their discussions drive home the point that chemists always need to think in terms of a continuum of interactions, if they truly want to understand the nature of molecules. In today's specialized compartments, with rigid definitions and rules, chemistry is often perceived as a science with rigid boundaries. This is far from being the case, and the weak hydrogen bond is a superb vehicle for proving the continuous nature of the science. It also demonstrates the much more general paradigm of always thinking in terms of all kinds of interactions, 'strong' and 'weak', which any chemist, no matter what his specialty, has to appreciate. More than anything else, the study of such weak interactions proves that chemistry is still very much an art with many thin boundaries between concepts, and not just a science. It is not an exact science like physics, but it is precisely this ambiguity in it which nonetheless can be classified, that makes it a unique discipline. This book is a striking example of this fact. ... Read more

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The rapidly developing methods of systems biology can help investigators to make inference and predictions from their data that intuition alone would not discern; however, the difficulty lies in the broad knowledge of mathematics and engineering that seems to be required to even evaluate the applicability of the methods to the problem at hand. In "Systems Biology", scientists who possess that mathematical knowledge and have applied it effectively to various biological problems contribute methods which reflect their experience, crystallized in a form very similar to typical biological laboratory protocols. In order to best aid researchers, the chapters supply the theory behind the method, its step-by-step implementation, and the pitfalls explained thoroughly and from the practical angle. As a volume of the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology™ series, this work provides the kind of detailed description and implementation advice that is crucial for getting optimal results.

Cutting-edge and easy to use, "Systems Biology" shatters the perceived insurmountable barrier between the laboratory and systems-biological research techniques.

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The theory of stochastic processes provides a huge arsenal of methods suitable for analyzing the influence of noise on a wide range of systems. Noise-induced, noise-supported or noise-enhanced effects sometimes offer an explanation for as yet open problems (information transmission in the nervous system and information processing in the brain, processes at the cell level, enzymatic reactions, etc.), or pave the way to novel technological applications. Noise can play a prominent role in structure formation in physics, chemistry and biology, e.g. current filaments in semiconductors, catalytic reactions on surfaces, complex dynamics of the heart, brain, or of ecosystems. The book reviews those aspects of applied stochastics addressing researchers as well as students. ... Read more

Product Description
L systems are language-theoretic models for developmental biology. They were introduced in 1968 by Aristid Lindenmayer (1925-1989) and have proved to be among the most beautiful examples of interdisciplinary science, where work in one area induces fruitful ideas and results in other areas. L systems are based on relational and set-theoretic concepts, which are more suitable for the discrete and combinatorial structures of biology than mathematical models based on calculus or statistics. L systems have stimulated new work not only in the realistic simulation of developing organisms but also in the theory of automata and formal languages, formal power series, computer graphics, and combinatorics of words. This book contains research papers by almost all leading authorities and by many of the most promising young researchers in the field. The 28 contributions are organized in sections on basic L systems, computer graphics, graph grammars and map L systems, biological aspects and models, and variations and generalizations of L systems. The introductory paper by Lindenmayer and Jürgensen was written for a wide audience and is accessible to the non-specialist reader. The volume documents the state of the art in the theory of L systems and their applications. It will interest researchers and advanced students in theoretical computer science and developmental biology as well as professionals in computer graphics. ... Read more

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Electron Transfer in Chemistry and Biology An Introduction to the Theory Alexander M. Kuznetsov Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia Jens Ulstrup Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark Electron transfer is perhaps the single most important physical event in chemical, electrochemical, photochemical, biochemical, and biophysical processes. The focus and ubiquity of electron transfer is intriguing and exciting but a coherent and comprehensive approach to this topic is at the same time a challenge. Electron Transfer in Chemistry and Biology provides a thorough and didactic approach to the theoretical basis of electron transfer phenomena. Not only does it offer a full introduction to this area and a discussion of its historical development, it also gives detailed explanations of difficult issues, for example, long-range electron transfers, stochastic and dynamic processes, and biological features. A wide variety of readers will find this volume of great interest, ranging from final year undergraduate students, postgraduate students and university lecturers, to research staff in numerous fields including medical companies, electronics industry, catalysis research and development, chemical industry and some hospitals. ... Read more