To see accurate pricing, please choose your delivery country.
 
 
United States
£ GBP
All Shops

British Wildlife

8 issues per year 84 pages per issue Subscription only

British Wildlife is the leading natural history magazine in the UK, providing essential reading for both enthusiast and professional naturalists and wildlife conservationists. Published eight times a year, British Wildlife bridges the gap between popular writing and scientific literature through a combination of long-form articles, regular columns and reports, book reviews and letters.

Subscriptions from £33 per year

Conservation Land Management

4 issues per year 44 pages per issue Subscription only

Conservation Land Management (CLM) is a quarterly magazine that is widely regarded as essential reading for all who are involved in land management for nature conservation, across the British Isles. CLM includes long-form articles, events listings, publication reviews, new product information and updates, reports of conferences and letters.

Subscriptions from £26 per year
Academic & Professional Books  Organismal to Molecular Biology  General Biology

Symmorphosis On Form and Function in Shaping Life

By: Ewald R Weibel(Author)
263 pages, 32 b/w photos, 42 b/w illustrations, 8 tables
Symmorphosis
Click to have a closer look
  • Symmorphosis ISBN: 9780674000681 Hardback Apr 2000 Not in stock: Usually dispatched within 6 days
    £82.95
    #101047
Price: £82.95
About this book Contents Customer reviews Biography Related titles

About this book

This book addresses a simple question: Are animals designed economically? The pronghorn can run at speeds of up to 60 kilometers an hour and can maintain this speed for nearly a full hour. Clearly, the form of this elegant animal is beautifully matched to the function it needs to perform.

This is symmorphosis. The theory of symmorphosis predicts that the size of the parts in a system must be matched to the overall functional demand. Moreover, it predicts that animals must provide their complex systems with a functional capacity that can cope with the highest expected functional demands, possibly including some safety margin to prevent the system from failing when it is overloaded. In Symmorphosis, Ewald Weibel tests these predictions by working out the quantitative relations between form and function.

Physiologists will value this book because Weibel shows them that morphological information can be as quantitative as physiological data. Anatomists will value the book for its demonstration that advanced integrative physiology crucially depends on adequate but rigorously quantitative and testable information on structural design. Finally, anyone interested in the origins of the diverse forms of animals will be fascinated by Weibel's demonstrations that show how animals as different as shrews, pronghorns, dogs, goats – even humans – all develop from essentially the same blueprint by variation of design. This is a hidden beauty of the animal kingdom, which can be uncovered by a rigorous investigation of the quantitative relations of form and function.

Contents

Preface

1. Form and Function
    The Relation of Form and Function
    Adaptation of Function as a Design Principle
    Integration of Function as a Design Principle
    Economy as a Design Principle
    The Principle of Symmorphosis
2. Cells and Tissues: Oxidative Metabolism in Muscle
    Energy Supply and Mitochondria
    Is Mitochondrial Structure Matched to the Demand for Oxidative Energy?
    Testing for a Quantitative Match of Form and Function in Muscle Mitochondria
    Is 6VO2 Related to V(mi) in Exercising Muscle Cells?
    Natural Variation in Energy Demand and Mitochondria
    Are Muscle Capillaries Adjusted to Mitochondrial Oxygen Needs?
    Symmorphosis in the O2 Pathway in Muscle
3. Muscle: Supplying Fuel and Oxygen to Mitochondria
    Differences between Oxygen and Fuel Supply
    Variations in Fuel Supply to Mitochondria in Working Muscle Cells
    Partitioning of Fuel Consumption between Glucose and Fatty Acids
    Estimating the Capillary Supply of Substrates
    Revising the Model for Capillary Oxygen and Substrate Supply
    Fuel Supply from Capillaries versus Intracellular Stores
    Conclusions on Form and Function in Muscle Cells and Tissue
4. Organ Design: Building the Lung as a Gas Exchanger
    Modeling Gas Exchange in the Lung
    A Large Surface and a Thin Barrier Determine the Gas Exchange Capacity of the Lung
    The Diffusing Capacity of the Human Lung
    How Much Lung Diffusing Capacity Do We Really Need?
    The Gas Exchanger of the Most Athletic Animal
    The Effect of Reducing the Gas Exchanger
    Conclusion
5. Problems with Lung Design: Keeping the Surface Large and the Barrier Thin
    A Fiber Continuum Supports Parenchymal Structures
    Controlled Surface Tension Determines Parenchymal Mechanics
    Keeping the Barrier Dry and Thin
    Conclusion
6. Airways and Blood Vessels: Ventilating and Perfusing a Large Surface
    Morphogenesis of Airways, Vessels, and Gas Exchanger
    Designing the Airway Tree for Efficient Ventilation
    Are Airways Designed as Fractal Trees?
    Conclusion
7. The Pathway for Oxygen: From Lung to Mitochondria
    Testing the Hypothesis of Symmorphosis
    The Strategy: Exploiting Comparative Physiology
    The Model and Predictions
    Testing the Respiratory System for Symmorphosis
    Does Symmorphosis Prevail in the Respiratory System?
8. Adding Complexity in Form and Function: The Combined Pathways for Oxygen and Fuels
    Strategies for Oxygen and Fuel Supply
    Design of the Fuel Supply Pathway
    Design of Nutrient Uptake Systems
    The Substrate Pathways for Fueling Muscle Work
    The Test of Symmorphosis
    On Symmorphosis in Complex Pathways
9. Symmorphosis in Form and Function: Concepts, Facts, and Open Questions
    How to Perform a Test of Symmorphosis: Future Prospects
    Conclusions

References and Further Reading
Credits
Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Ewald R. Weibel is Professor of Anatomy, University of Bern, Switzerland.

By: Ewald R Weibel(Author)
263 pages, 32 b/w photos, 42 b/w illustrations, 8 tables
Media reviews

"Weibel's treatment serves as an excellent introduction to mammalian respiratory and exercise physiology. His writing is as concise and linearly organized as the pathway for oxygen that he so eloquently describes [...] Weibel has done an admirable job of describing both morphology and functional performance."
– Robert Dudley, American Scientist

"Symmorphosis is (and I use the term advisedly) magisterial: the best description anywhere of a provocative and creatively stimulating research approach to a large number of very important basic questions in animal – more specifically mammalian and human – anatomy, physiology, and evolution. This book is synthetic in the best sense of that word."
– Malcolm S. Gordon, University of California, Los Angeles

Current promotions
New and Forthcoming BooksNHBS Moth TrapBritish Wildlife MagazineBuyers Guides