Slayers, Saviors, Servants and Sex PDF Download

Author: David Moore
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461301351
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
In this highly entertaining book, mycologist David Moore presents a fascinating and lively guide to the fungal kingdom. He explores their role in food and agriculture and their dual role as infectious agents and providers of the most potent antibiotics. He also explores their fascinating evolutionary origins and shows us how life would not be possible without them. Throughout, the book relates interesting stories such as the Irish Potato famine and the discovery of penicillin. Anyone interested in biology and the natural world will find this an enjoyable and informative read.

Author: David Moore
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781461301363
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description

Author: Merlin Sheldrake
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 052551032X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “brilliant [and] entrancing” (The Guardian) journey into the hidden lives of fungi—the great connectors of the living world—and their astonishing and intimate roles in human life, with the power to heal our bodies, expand our minds, and help us address our most urgent environmental problems. “Grand and dizzying in how thoroughly it recalibrates our understanding of the natural world.”—Ed Yong, author of An Immense World ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—Time, BBC Science Focus, The Daily Mail, Geographical, The Times, The Telegraph, New Statesman, London Evening Standard, Science Friday When we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that supports and sustains nearly all living systems. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel, and behave. In the first edition of this mind-bending book, Sheldrake introduced us to this mysterious but massively diverse kingdom of life. This exquisitely designed volume, abridged from the original, features more than one hundred full-color images that bring the spectacular variety, strangeness, and beauty of fungi to life as never before. Fungi throw our concepts of individuality and even intelligence into question. They are metabolic masters, earth makers, and key players in most of life’s processes. They can change our minds, heal our bodies, and even help us remediate environmental disaster. By examining fungi on their own terms, Sheldrake reveals how these extraordinary organisms—and our relationships with them—are changing our understanding of how life works. Winner of the Wainwright Prize, the Royal Society Science Book Prize, and the Guild of Food Writers Award • Shortlisted for the British Book Award • Longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize

Author: David Moore
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108807844
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 611

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Book Description
The mysterious world of fungi is once again unearthed in this expansive second edition. This textbook provides readers with an all-embracing view of the kingdom fungi, ranging in scope from ecology and evolution, diversity and taxonomy, cell biology and biochemistry, to genetics and genomics, biotechnology and bioinformatics. Adopting a unique systems biology approach - and using explanatory figures and colour illustrations - the authors emphasise the diverse interactions between fungi and other organisms. They outline how recent advances in molecular techniques and computational biology have fundamentally changed our understanding of fungal biology, and have updated chapters and references throughout the book in light of this. This is a fascinating and accessible guide, which will appeal to a broad readership - from aspiring mycologists at undergraduate and graduate level to those studying related disciplines. Online resources are hosted on a complementary website.

Author: Katherine Borkovich
Publisher: American Society for Microbiology Press
ISBN: 1555814735
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1959

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Book Description
An ideal starting point for any research study of filamentous fungi. • Incorporates the latest findings from such disciplines as physiology, taxonomy, genomics, molecular biology and cell biology. • Begins with an historical perspective, cell morphology and taxonomy, and moves on to such topics as cell growth, development, metabolism, and pathogenesis. • Presents the full range of the fungal kingdom and covers important topics as saprophytes, pathogens and endophytes. • Serves as a recommended text for graduate and undergraduate students.

Author: Robert John Koestler
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN: 1588391078
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 574

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Book Description
Despite the perception that artworks are timeless and unchanging, they are actually subject to biological attack from a variety of sources--from bacteria to fungi to insects. This groundbreaking volume, which publishes the proceedings of a conference held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2002, explores how the development of these organisms can be arrested while preserving both the work of art and the health of the conservator.The richly illustrated text, containing the writings of over 40 scientists and conservators, is divided into sections on stone and mural paintings, paper, textiles, wood and archaeological materials, treatment and prevention, and special topics. The artworks and cultural properties discussed include, among many others, Paleolithic cave paintings, Tiffany drawings, huts built by early Antarctic explorers, and a collection of toothbrushes taken from Auschwitz victims.

Author: David Moore
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387224572
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Most genetics textbooks deal adequately with plant and animal genetics, but tend to neglect fungi. The authors have produced a book that will compensate for this imbalance. This book discusses the genetics of fungi in a way that is attractive and challenging, succinct yet comprehensive, sensitive to commercial and applied aspects, yet also theoretical, dealing with their genetics from molecules to individuals to population. This short text will be an ideal supplement to the established basic genetics texts or can be used as the sole text for an advanced course devoted to fungal genetics.

Author: Nicholas P. Money
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190291494
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Molds are everywhere: we inhale their microscopic spores from birth to death. But when an investigation in Ohio revealed that babies suffering from a serious lung illness had been exposed to a toxic black mold in their homes, millions of Americans became nervous about patches of mold in their own basements and bathrooms. Before long, lawsuits were filed by the residents of mold-contaminated homes in every state. By failing to address water damage, building contractors, plumbers, and insurance agents were held liable for exposing families to an unprecedented microbiological hazard. The mold crisis soon developed into a fully-fledged media circus. In Carpet Monsters and Killer Spores, Nicholas Money explores the science behind the headlines and courtroom dramas, and profiles the toxin-producing mold that is a common inhabitant of water-damaged buildings. Nicholas Money tells the most important mycological story since potato blight, with his inimitable style of scientific clarity and dark humor.

Author: Nicholas P. Money
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190288582
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Stinkhorns, puffballs, the "corpse finder," deadly galerina, Satan's bolete, birch conks, black mold, the old man of the woods--the world of fungi is infinitely varied and not a little weird. Now, in Mr. Bloomfield's Orchard, Nicholas Money introduces readers to a dazzling array of fungi, from brewer's yeast and Penicillium to the highly lethal death cap. This is an entertaining book that also provides a solid introduction to the biology of fungi as well as much insight into how scientists study fungi in the lab and in the field. Readers will be intrigued by the many exotic fungi discussed. One fungus in Oregon, for instance, covers 2,000 acres and is now considered the world's largest organism. We learn of Madurella, which can erode bones until they look moth-eaten; Cordyceps, which wracks insects with convulsions, kills them, then sends a stalk out of the insect's head to release more infectious spores; and Claviceps, the poisonous ergot fungus, which causes hallucinations (the women charged with "demonic possession" in Salem in 1691 may have been victims of ergot consumption). Money also showcases the lives of famed mycologists--including Reginald Buller who wore horse blinders as he walked to work, the better to study luminescent fungi in his dark lab, and Charles Tulasne, the Audubon of fungi, whose illustrations of specimens border on art. And he recounts his own childhood introduction to fungi in Mr. Bloomfield's orchard, where trees and fruit were devoured by a rogue's gallery of bitter rot, canker, rust, powdery mildew, rubbery wood, and scab. Told with a refreshing sense of humor, Mr. Bloomfield's Orchard will fascinate anyone interested in the natural world.

Author: Rebecca Stefoff
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
ISBN: 9780761426967
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 102

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Book Description
Enormous underground mushrooms and microscopic molds belong to an immensely varied group of organisms that occupy a unique branch in the tree of life. The Fungus Kingdom traces the history of this half-billion-year-old kingdom and explores its diversity, as well as its complex reproductive methods. The Fungus Kingdom also examines the effects of fungi on human life, which are both helpful and harmful. From poisonous mushrooms and disease-causing spores to life-saving penicillin and the yeasts used in making food and drinks, fungi are woven into the fabric of life in important, and sometimes unexpected, ways. Book jacket.