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Patterns of adaptation in the past and the genetic basis of traits likely to be under selection in the dynamically changing environment are also discussed in relation to these responses.".
The notion of the Anthropocene is founded on the premise that traces of human activity on the earth will remain legible in the geological strata for millions of years to come, showing evidence of an anthropogenic ‘signature’ inscribed in the rock by the human species. Spectrality and Survivance shows how embedded in this understanding of the Anthropocene is a speculative and specular gesture that transforms the notion of the future into an anthropocentric reflection of the present, prohibiting any true engagement with the possibility of a non-anthropocentric and post-anthropocenic world. In this volume, Marija Grech develops an alternative conceptual paradigm from which to think the Anthropocene beyond any limited notion of human language, human thought, human systems of meaning, or even a human world. Grech considers how the geological trace of the Anthropocene might be said to ‘survive’ outside of the possibility of any human readership, and how the very survival of the human in and beyond the Anthropocene might necessitate such thought.
Learning from Fukushima began as a project to respond in a helpful way to the March 2011 triple disaster (earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown) in north-eastern Japan. It evolved into a collaborative and comprehensive investigation of whether nuclear power was a realistic energy option for East Asia, especially for the 10 member-countries of ASEAN, none of which currently has an operational nuclear power plant. We address all the questions that a country must ask in considering the possibility of nuclear power, including cost of construction, staffing, regulation and liability, decommissioning, disposal of nuclear waste, and the impact on climate change. The authors are physicists, engineers, biologists, a public health physician, and international relations specialists. Each author presents the results of their work.
Mothers have the ability to profoundly affect the quality of their offspring--from the size and quality of their eggs to where, when, and how eggs and young are placed, and from providing for and protecting developing young to choosing a mate. In many instances, these maternal effects may be the single most important contributor to variation in offspring fitness. This book explores the wide variety of maternal effects that have evolved in plants and animals as mechanisms of adaptation to temporally and spatially heterogeneous environments. Topics range from the evolutionary implications of maternal effects to the assessment and measurement of maternal effects. Four detailed case studies are also included. This book represents the first synthesis of the current state of knowledge concerning the evolution of maternal effects and their adaptive significance.
This landmark essay collection explains the Anthropocene as a scientific concept and as a human dilemma, showing how it limits our future but liberates our imaginations.
After the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear explosion in Ukraine, scientists believed radiation had created a vast and barren wasteland in which life could never resurface. But the Dead Zone, as the contaminated area is known, doesn't look dead at all. In fact, wildlife seems to be thriving there. The Zone is home to beetles, swallows, catfish, mice, voles, otters, beavers, wild boar, foxes, lynx, deer, moose—even brown bears and wolves. Yet the animals in the Zone are not quite what you'd expect. Every single one of them is radioactive. In Chernobyl's Wild Kingdom, you'll meet the international scientists investigating the Zone's wildlife and trying to answer difficult questions: Have some animals adapted to living with radiation? Or is the radioactive environment harming them in ways we can't see or that will only show up in future generations? Learn more about the fascinating ongoing research—and the debates that surround the findings—in one of the most dangerous places on Earth.
This book remembers and commemorates many brave radiation scientists, most of whom are no longer with us. These scientists published findings that radiation risks were more dangerous than officially accepted at the time. However they often suffered as a result from official displeasure, defamatory articles, and public obloquy. Scientific findings, especially recently, have revealed that these defamed and/or disadvantaged scientists were actually correct in their assessments that official risk factors for radiation were too low and needed to be increased. The lives of these scientists are discussed, from early radiation pioneers including Ernest Rutherford, Hermann Mueller and Linus Pauling, to contemporary scientists such as Steve Wing.
This book highlights the multiple ways of telling stories of radiation exposure; they include stories about Japan, Australia, the United States, the Canadian Arctic, and more, and they probe the framing of major incidents such as Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. All the chapters in this book are written by authors who participated in our work at Oregon State University and have benefited from hearing not only from scientists but also from those whose lives were directly affected by the history of radiation exposure. The question ‘What is at stake when researching and narrating the histories of radiation exposure?’ is discussed, but the book does not reinforce existing frameworks, such as legal decisions or government policies, but rather highlights what narrative framings accomplish and commit by scrutinizing them with rigorous research, varied approaches, and, above all, listening to those whose lives were most affected by exposure. Previously published in Journal of the History of Biology Volume 54, issue 1, April 2021