Understanding Development

Using familiar examples and clear arguments, this volume offers fresh alternatives to widespread misconceptions about biological development.

Alessandro Minelli (Author)

9781108836777, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 May 2021

192 pages
18.5 x 13.3 x 1.5 cm, 0.29 kg

'The text assumes a basic acquaintance with evolution, genetics, and embryology and is at once well written, entertaining, and loaded with fascinating examples of organisms that defy expectations … Highly recommended.' J. L. Hunt, Choice Magazine

Developmental biology is seemingly well understood, with development widely accepted as being a series of programmed changes through which an egg turns into an adult organism, or a seed matures into a plant. However, the picture is much more complex than that: is it all genetically controlled or does environment have an influence? Is the final adult stage the target of development and everything else just a build-up to that point? Are developmental strategies the same in plants as in animals? How do we consider development in single-celled organisms? In this concise, engaging volume, Alessandro Minelli, a leading developmental biologist, addresses these key questions. Using familiar examples and easy-to-follow arguments, he offers fresh alternatives to a number of preconceptions and stereotypes, awakening the reader to the disparity of developmental phenomena across all main branches of the tree of life.

1. Defining development, If possible
2. Cells and development
3. Development as the history of the individual
4. Revisiting the embryo
5. Developmental sequences: sustainability vs adaptation
6. Genes and development
7. Emerging form
8. The ecology of development
Concluding remarks.

Subject Areas: Cellular biology [cytology PSF], Molecular biology [PSD], Developmental biology [PSC], Genetics [non-medical PSAK], Evolution [PSAJ], History of science [PDX], Philosophy of science [PDA]