Life Unfolding: How the Human Body Creates Itself

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Jamie A. Davies (Professor of Experimental Anatomy, Professor of Experimental Anatomy, University of Edinburgh)

Life Unfolding

How the Human Body Creates Itself

Jamie A. Davies (Professor of Experimental Anatomy, Professor of Experimental Anatomy, University of Edinburgh)

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English

Oxford University Press
13 March 2014

Mathematics & Sciences; Popular science; Biology, life sciences; Developmental biology

Where did I come from? Why do I have two arms but just one head? How is my left leg the same size as my right one? Why are the fingerprints of identical twins not identical? How did my brain learn to learn? Why must I die? Questions like these remain biology's deepest and most ancient challenges. They force us to confront a fundamental biological problem: how can something as large and complex as a human body organize itself from the simplicity of a fertilized egg? A convergence of ideas from embryology, genetics, physics, networks, and control theory has begun to provide real answers. Based on the central principle of 'adaptive self-organization', it explains how the interactions of many cells, and of the tiny molecular machines that run them, can organize tissue structures vastly larger than themselves, correcting errors as they go along and creating new layers of complexity where there were none before. Life Unfolding tells the story of human development from egg to adult, from this perspective, showing how our whole understanding of how we come to be has been transformed in recent years. Highlighting how embryological knowledge is being used to understand why bodies age and fail, Jamie A. Davies explores the profound and fascinating impacts of our newfound knowledge.

By: Jamie A. Davies (Professor of Experimental Anatomy Professor of Experimental Anatomy University of Edinburgh)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 168mm, Spine: 30mm
Weight: 634g
ISBN: 9780199673537
ISBN 10: 0199673535
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 13 March 2014
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Acknowledgements ; Ethical Statement ; Introduction ; 1. Confronting an alien technology ; 2. From one cell to many ; 3. Making a difference ; 4. Laying down a body plan ; 5. Beginning a brain ; 6. Long division ; 7. Fateful conversations ; 8. Great migrations ; 9. Plumbing ; 10. Organizing organs ; 11. Taking up arms ; 12. The Y and how ; 13. Wired ; 14. Dying to be human ; 15. Making your mind up ; 16. A sense of proportion ; 17. Making friends and facing enemies ; 18. Maintenance mode ; 19. Perspectives ; Glossary ; Further reading ; References

Since 1995, Jamie A. Davies has run his own laboratory at the University of Edinburgh, with a multi-disciplinary focus on discovering how mammalian organs construct themselves and how we can use this knowledge to build new tissues and organs for those in need. He has published around 90 research papers in the field of mammalian development, published a major specialist monograph, Mechanisms of Morphogenesis, and edited three multi-author books in the fields of development, stem cells, and tissue engineering. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Biologists, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, and a Fellow of the HIgher Education Academy. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Organogenesis.

Reviews for Life Unfolding: How the Human Body Creates Itself

From egg to adult body, Life Unfolding by Jamie Davies is a demanding but wonder-filled account of the simple interactions that create complex structures. -- Claire Ainsworth, New Scientest Davies offers a detailed ride through the mind-boggling number of simultaneous self-organizing activities of growth. - Publishers Weekly