The biology of death : how dying shapes cells, organisms, & populations /
"Death is not just the last event of life. Death is interwoven into our growth, development, protection against disease, and more. It foreclosed evolutionary pathways, thus shaping all life. And it involves fascinating questions. How do we define life and death? How do we know when a person is...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
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New York, NY :
Oxford University Press,
[2021]
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| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | "Death is not just the last event of life. Death is interwoven into our growth, development, protection against disease, and more. It foreclosed evolutionary pathways, thus shaping all life. And it involves fascinating questions. How do we define life and death? How do we know when a person is dead? Why do we age and can we do anything about it? Will medical advances continue to extend human life span and even defeat death? Death also involves a host of ethical questions. Most amazingly, living organisms evolved systems to use death to their advantage. The death of specific cells refines our immune system, gives us fingers, allows fruit to drop from trees, and tadpoles to become frogs. Even single-celled organisms use "quorum sensing" to eliminate some cells to ensure the overall survival of the colony in harsh environments. Death is far more than dying, and this book looks at how death is part of life at every level, including cells, tissues, organisms, and populations."-- |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xii, 291 pages) : illustrations. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780197601433 019760143X 9780190687731 0190687738 9780190687748 0190687746 |