Biological Weapons: From the Invention of State-Sponsored Programs to Contemporary Bioterrorism

Biological Weapons: From the Invention of State-Sponsored Programs to Contemporary Bioterrorism
by Jeanne Guillemin (Author)

Product Details:
* Hardcover: 256 pages
* Publisher: Columbia University Press (November 1, 2004)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 0231129424

Book Description:
Until the events of September 11 and the anthrax attacks of 2001, biological weapons had never been a major public concern in the United States. Today, the possibility of their use by terrorists against Western states looms large as an international security concern. In Biological Weapons, Jeanne Guillemin provides a highly accessible and compelling account of the circumstances under which scientists, soldiers, and statesmen were able to mobilize resources for extensive biological weapons programs and also analyzes why such weapons, targeted against civilians, were never used in a major conflict.
This book is essential for understanding the relevance of the historical restraints placed on the use of biological weapons for today's world. It serves as an excellent introduction to the problems biological weapons pose for contemporary policymakers and public officials, particularly in the United States. How can we best deter the use of such weapons? What are the resulting policies of the Department of Homeland Security? How can we constrain proliferation? Jeanne Guillemin wisely points out that these are vitally important questions for all Americans to consider and investigate -- all the more so because the development of these weapons has been carried out under a veil of secrecy, with their frightening potential open to exploitation by the media and government. Public awareness through education can help calm fears in today's tension-filled climate and promote constructive political action to reduce the risks of a biological weapons catastrophe.
Biological Weapons is required reading for every concerned citizen, government policymaker, public health official, and national security analyst who wants to understand this complex and timely issue.

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Life in Extreme Environments

Life in Extreme Environments
Ricardo Amils (Editor), Cynan Ellis-Evans (Editor), Helmut G. Hinghofer-Szalkay (Editor)

Product Details:
* Hardcover: 452 pages
* Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (August 2007)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 1402062842

Book Description
From the deepest seafloor to the highest mountain, from the hottest region to the cold Antarctic plateau, environments labeled as extreme are numerous on Earth and they present a wide variety of features and characteristics. The life processes occurring within these environments are equally diverse, not only depending on stress factors (e.g. temperature, pressure, pH and chemicals) but also on the type of life forms, ranging from microbes to higher species. How is life limited by and adapted to extreme external biotic and abiotic factors? This key question summarises the deliberations raised by this exciting and fascinating research area. Addressing the challenge of answering this question would help to reveal new insights and refine theories concerning the origin and evolution of life on our planet, as well as life beyond Earth. Investigating life processes under extreme conditions can also bring clues for understanding and predicting ecosystems' responses to global changes. Furthermore, this area of research has a wide application potential in the fields of (bio)technology, chemical industry, pharmaceutics, biomedicine or cosmetics.

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Microbial Phylogeny and Evolution: Concepts and Controversies

Microbial Phylogeny and Evolution: Concepts and Controversies
by Jan Sapp (Editor)

Product Details:
* Hardcover: 352 pages
* Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (February 2, 2005)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 0195168771

Book Description
The birth of bacterial genomics since the mid-1990s brought withit several conceptual modifications and wholly new controversies. Working beyond the scope of the neo-Darwinian evolutionary synthesis, a group of leading microbial evolutionists addresses the following and related issues, often with markedly varied viewpoints: DT Did the eukaryotic nucleus, cytoskeleton and cilia also orginate from symbiosis? DT Do the current scenarios about he origin of mitochondria and plastids require revision? DT What is the extent of lateral gene transfer (between "species") among bacteria? DT Does the rDNA phylogenetic tree still stand in the age of genomics? DT Is the course of the first 3 billion years of evolution even knowable?

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