Best of
Biology

1973

Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living


Humberto R. Maturana - 1973
    It demands a radical shift in standpoint, an almost paradoxical posture in which living systems are described in terms of what lies outside the domain of descriptions. Professor Humberto Maturana, with his colleague Francisco Varela, have undertaken the construction of a systematic theoretical biology which attempts to define living systems not as they are objects of observation and description, nor even as in teracting systems, but as self-contained unities whose only reference is to them selves. Thus, the standpoint of description of such unities from the 'outside', i. e., by an observer, already seems to violate the fundamental requirement which Maturana and Varela posit for the characterization of such system- namely, that they are autonomous, self-referring and self-constructing closed systems - in short, autopoietic systems in their terms. Yet, on the basis of such a conceptual method, and such a theory of living systems, Maturana goes on to define cognition as a biological phenomenon; as, in effect, the very nature of all living systems. And on this basis, to generate the very domains of interac tion among such systems which constitute language, description and thinking."

Flora of the Pacific Northwest: An Illustrated Manual


C. Leo Hitchcock - 1973
    Leo Hitchcock, Arthur Cronquist, Marion Ownbey, and J. W. Thompson, and published serially from 1955 to 1969 by the University of Washington Press as volume 17 of the University of Washington Publications in Biology. The sequence of families is the same in the two works except for the transposition of the monocotyledons and dicotyledons; the dicotyledons are in the traditional Englerian sequence, and the monocotyledons are arranged according to the system of Cronquist as presented in "The Evolution and Classification of Flowering Plants." The genera within each family in this manual are alphabetically arranged, as in the earlier work, but for convenience in presentation it has bee necessary to number the species.

Children of the universe -The tale of our existence


Hoimar von Ditfurth - 1973
    

What Bird Is That: A Guide To The Birds Of Australia


Neville W. Cayley - 1973
    

Three Adventures: Galapagos, Titicaca, the Blue Holes (Undersea Discoveries of Jacques-Yves Cousteau)


Jacques-Yves Cousteau - 1973
    

Octopus and Squid: The Soft Intelligence (Undersea Discoveries of Jacques-Yves Cousteau)


Jacques-Yves Cousteau - 1973
    124 photographs in full color.

The Triumph of the Darwinian Method


Michael T. Ghiselin - 1973
    Ghiselin constructs a unified theoretical system that explains the major features of Darwin's investigations, evaluating the literature from a historical, scientific, and philosophical perspective.

Humboldt And The Cosmos


Douglas Botting - 1973
    This work looks at the man, what drove him, the age he lived in, and follows his journeys of discovery along the Casiquiare canal and the Upper Orinoco of Venezuela.

The Shrub Identification Book


George W.D. Symonds - 1973
    The Keys are designed for easy visual comparison of details which look alike, narrowing the identification of a shrub to one of a small group -- the family or genus.Then, in the Master Pages, the species of the shrub is determined, with similar details placed together to highlight differences within the family group, thus eliminating all other possibilities. The details of laurel blossoms on this plate are an example and are followed in the book by details of laurel fruit, leaves, and bark.All of the 3,550 photographs were made specifically for use in this book and were taken either in the field or of fresh material carefully selected from the more than 20,000 specimens collected. Wherever possible, details such as leaves, fruit, twigs, etc., appear in actual size; otherwise, similar details are reproduced in the same scale.

Singing for Power: The Song Magic of the Papago Indians of Southern Arizona


Ruth M. Underhill - 1973
    Ruth Underhill published the songs she heard sung by Tohono O'odham [Papago] elders more than half a century ago, and Singing for Power has since become a classic of Native American literature.

Numerical Taxonomy: The Principles and Practice of Numerical Classification


Peter H.A. Sneath - 1973
    

Darwin and His Critics: The Reception of Darwin's Theory of Evolution by the Scientific Community


David L. Hull - 1973
    

Origins of Life on the Earth (Concepts of Modern Biology)


Leslie E Orgel - 1973