This new edition, written with five new authors, has been brought fully up to date, and incorporates insights very recently derived from genome sequencing in a variety of organisms. The book is an authoritative and comprehensive survey of the fundamentals of molecular biology, from basic mechanisms to the elaborate role of gene regulation in embryonic development and evolution. Although updated, the twentyone chapters of the new edition retain the distinctive and celebrated features of the original work, including introductory chapters on the history of genetics and molecular biology and an emphasis throughout on the chemical underpinnings of molecular biology. The new team of authors brings to this edition awardwinning teaching experience and outstanding research achievements. By revealing the intellectual framework and experimental approaches that made new discoveries in the field possible, the new edition highlights the significance of the molecular approach for all of biology.

    This approach is characterized by the need for careful observation of the variety of social phenomena occurring in nature; by emphasis on a balanced study of the three main biological problems - function, causation, evolution; by emphasis on an appropriate sequence of description, qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis; and finally by emphasis on the need for continuous re-synthesis. The book covers a range of aspects of animal behaviour, including mating, fighting, family and group life, and social organizations, as well as some unrelated analytical evidence, acquired under such special laboratory conditions it is at present impossible to say how it is related to the normal life of the species concerned. The significance of intraspecific fighting, the causation of threat and courtship behaviour, the functions of releasers and other problems are discussed in detail and an attempt has been made to give them their proper place in the complex system of problems.