[...]... logos, meaning xiii FoS -Biological- final.indd 13 12/8/09 12:48:28 PM xiv Biological Sciences word or knowledge The biological sciences include a range of related disciplines—physiology, genetics, ecology, botany, molecular biology, and the study of specific biological systems such as the nervous system The book discusses six topics that encompass a wide range of the biological sciences In Leeuwenhoek’s... ecosystems But there are still many frontiers in the biological sciences awaiting exploration Each chapter of this book explores one of these frontiers Reports published in journals, presented at conferences, and reported in news releases describe research problems of interest in the biological sciences, and how scientists are tackling them Biological Sciences: Notable Research and Discoveries discusses... Expansion of knowledge by means of technology, such as with a microscope, is a common theme in biology, as it is in other sciences Biological Sciences: Notable Research and Discoveries, one volume of the Frontiers of Science set, is about scientists who explore the frontiers of the biological sciences and often find things they do not expect Biology is the study of living organisms or processes involved in... information in action potentials, which travel down the axon and initiate the release of neurotransmitters that bind to receptors in the recipient neuron Some receptors are excitatory, increasing the chance that the recipient neuron will fire its own action potential, but some receptors are inhibitory, decreasing the chance FoS -Biological- final.indd 5 12/8/09 12:48:42 PM  Biological Sciences usually act... needed by the cells in order for them to generate energy The production of action potentials is expensive in terms of energy—action potentials require the flow of ions across a neuron’s membrane, and the ions must be pumped back or the neuron will lose its ability to produce more action potentials Some neurons generate action potentials at rates of up to several hundred per second The idea motivating the... skeptical The passage through the skull and scalp distorts the signal, and unrelated activity, such as that which comes from the muscles, makes unwanted contributions 1 FoS -Biological- final.indd 1 12/8/09 12:48:29 PM  Biological Sciences As a pioneer, Berger blazed a trail for others to follow, although his death in 1941 came before his work was duly appreciated Instruments and recording techniques... the posterior (rear) structure, tucked underneath the cerebrum, is the cerebellum (“little” brain) The cerebrum consists of two cerebral hemispheres Each hemisphere has FoS -Biological- final.indd 3 12/8/09 12:48:30 PM  Biological Sciences four main lobes—frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital—that the 19th-century French anatomist Louis Pierre Gratiolet (1815–65) named for the adjacent bones of... electricity known as an action potential The action potential proceeds down a long, thin section of the neuron called an axon, as shown in the figure At the tip of an axon, the impulse causes the release of small membranous packets, called vesicles, filled with certain molecules These neurotransmitter molecules drift across a small gap between the neurons known as a synapse, and FoS -Biological- final.indd 4... Sciences: Notable Research and Discoveries discusses a selection of these reports—unfortunately FoS -Biological- final.indd 14 12/8/09 12:48:28 PM Introduction xv there is room for only a fraction of them—that offer the student and other readers insight into the methods and applications of biology The biological sciences can be complicated subjects Students need to keep up with the latest developments in these... basic elements In the case of vision, the elements include boundaries (for example, lines that form the outline of objects or separate one object from another) and color FoS -Biological- final.indd 7 12/8/09 12:48:42 PM  Biological Sciences Recording from single neurons allows researchers to learn exactly what that neuron contributes to the processing of information But these experiments do not reveal . PH.D. Notable Research and Discoveries BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES FoS -Biological- final.indd 3 12/8/09 12:48:24 PM BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES: Notable Research and Discoveries Copyright. meaning INTRODUCTION FoS -Biological- final.indd 13 12/8/09 12:48:28 PM BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES xiv word or knowledge. e biological sciences include a range