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Bacillus subtilis has become widely adopted as a model organism for laboratory studies and is one of the best understood prokaryotes in terms of molecular and cellular biology. Its superb genetic amenability and relatively large size have provided powerful tools to investigate a bacterium in all possible aspects. Extensively revised and updated, the second edition of this valuable reference work provides a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the current knowledge and new research in Bacillus molecular and cellular biology. Internationally renowned authors contribute critical reviews on the most recent and topical research. The subjects covered include: chromosome replication * DNA repair * chromosome segregation * cell division * transcription and translation * RNA-mediated regulation * general and regulatory proteolysis * the actin-like MreB cytoskeleton * the membrane proteome * the cell wall * endospore formation * biofilms * multicellularity and social behavior * competence * transformation.
(18)Why is the future so different from the past? Why does the past affect the future and not the other way around? What does quantum mechanics really tell us about the world? In this important and accessible book, Huw Price throws fascinating new light on some of the great mysteries of modern physics, and connects them in a wholly original way.
Price begins with the mystery of the arrow of time. Why, for example, does disorder always increase, as required by the second law of thermodynamics? Price shows that, for over a century, most physicists have thought about these problems the wrong way. Misled by the human perspective from within time, which distorts and exaggerates the differences between past and future, they have fallen victim to what Price calls the "double standard fallacy": proposed explanations of the difference between the past and the future turn out to rely on a difference which has been slipped in at the beginning, when the physicists themselves treat the past and future in different ways. To avoid this fallacy, Price argues, we need to overcome our natural tendency to think about the past and the future differently. We need to imagine a point outside time -- an Archimedean "view from nowhen" -- from which to observe time in an unbiased way.
Offering a lively criticism of many major modern physicists, including Richard Feynman and Stephen Hawking, Price shows that this fallacy remains common in physics today -- for example, when contemporary cosmologists theorize about the eventual fate of the universe. The "big bang" theory normally assumes that the beginning and end of the universe will be very different. But if we are to avoid the double standard fallacy, we need to consider time symmetrically, and take seriously the possibility that the arrow of time may reverse when the universe recollapses into a "big crunch."
Price then turns to the greatest mystery of modern physics, the meaning of quantum theory. He argues that in missing the Archimedean viewpoint, modern physics has missed a radical and attractive solution to many of the apparent paradoxes of quantum physics. Many consequences of quantum theory appear counterintuitive, such as Schrodinger's Cat, whose condition seems undetermined until observed, and Bell's Theorem, which suggests a spooky "nonlocality," where events happening simultaneously in different places seem to affect each other directly. Price shows that these paradoxes can be avoided by allowing that at the quantum level the future does, indeed, affect the past. This demystifies nonlocality, and supports Einstein's unpopular intuition that quantum theory describes an objective world, existing independently of human observers: the Cat is alive or dead, even when nobody looks. So interpreted, Price argues, quantum mechanics is simply the kind of theory we ought to have expected in microphysics -- from the symmetric standpoint.
Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point presents an innovative and controversial view of time and contemporary physics. In this exciting book, Price urges physicists, philosophers, and anyone who has ever pondered the mysteries of time to look at the world from the fresh perspective of Archimedes' Point and gain a deeper understanding of ourselves, the universe around us, and our own place in time.
Anaerobic bacteria are a large and diverse group of microorganisms which occur and often predominate in a variety of natural habitats. Whilst those associated with man are relatively well documented, increasing attention is now being given to anaerobes in other situations, including animals in health and disease, foods, the aquatic environment, systems for waste digestion and methane production, and the corrosion of metal and concrete. This present book brings together a number of contributions from researchers in the above areas, and as a reference it will be of value to research workers, students and to those in relevant industrial laboratories. As well as illustrating the metabolic diversity of the organisms in question, the book gives due consideration to current problems in identification and taxonomy and to methods for isolating, characterizing and preserving anaerobes.
The peroxiredoxins represent an important emerging family of sulfhydryl-linked antioxidant proteins, apparently ubiquitously present in all known organisms. The antioxidant function of the peroxiredoxins complements that of other enzymic and non-enzymic systems within the cell. In addition, there is increasing evidence that the peroxiredoxins play a role in cell signalling, by controlling and/or sensing hydrogen peroxide and peroxynitrite levels.
In this, the first book containing a broad survey on the peroxiredoxins, the editors succeeded to involve almost all groups that contributed significant insights into the emerging field. The diverse biological roles of the new protein family are discussed in the context of other antioxidant systems like those based on heme or selenium catalysis. Finally, related future perspectives, which range from antimicrobial therapy up to the understanding of human development and carcinogenesis, are highlighted. Specifically, the book will be of outstanding interest to researchers who want to understand how micro-organisms, plants and animals cope with oxidative stress and how such stress is recognized and linked to adaptive responses via redox regulation of cellular processes.
(1)The last work by Antoine Béchamp, a man who should, by rights, be regarded today as one of the founders of modern medicine and biology.
During his long career as an academic and researcher in nineteenth century France, Béchamp was widely known and respected as both a teacher and a researcher. As a leading academic, his work was well documented in scientific circles.
Few made as much use of this fact as Louis Pasteur, who based much of his career on plagiarising and distorting Béchamp’s research; in doing so, Pasteur secured for himself an undeserved place in the history of medical science.
The Blood and its Third Element is Béchamp’s explanation of his position, and his defense of it against Pasteur’s mischief. This final major work of Béchamp’s embodies the culmination of his life’s research. This book contains, in detail, the elements of the microzymian theory of the organization of living organisms and organic materials. It has immediate and far reaching relevance to the fields of immunology, bacteriology, and cellular biology; and it shows that more than 100 years ago, the germ, or microbian, theory of disease was demonstrated by Béchamp to be without foundation.
There is no single cause of disease. The ancients thought this, and Béchamp proved it and was written out of history for his trouble. The relevance of his work to the dilemmas that plague modern medical science remains as yet unrealized.
