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The Biotech Century: Harnessing the Gene and Remaking the World
by Jeremy RifkinIn this seminal book, Jeremy Rifkin explores the epic marriage between computer technology and genetic engineering, and the historic transition into the Age of Biotechnology. Already, Rifkin explains, our economy is undergoing a massive shift away from the Industrial Age and into an era in which giant life-science corporations are fashioning a bioindustrial world. Humanity is on the brink of wielding greater control over the shape of life--how we are born; how our food supply is created; the traits our children may have--than has ever been imagined. But with each step into this new era, we must ask ourselves: At what cost?
Biotechniques for Air Pollution Control: Proceedings of the 3rd International Congress on Biotechniques for Air Pollution Control. Delft, The Netherlands, September 28-30, 2009
by Jan Bartacek Christian Kennes Piet N.L. LensEnergy and feedstock materials for the chemical industry show an increasing demand. With constraints related to availability and use of oil, the energy and chemical industry is subject to considerable changes. The need for the use of cheaper and widely available feedstocks, and the development of sustainable and environmentally friendly c
Biotechnological Approaches for Pest Management and Ecological Sustainability
by Hari C SharmaDue to increasing problems occurring from massive applications of pesticides, such as insect resistance to pesticides, the use of biotechnological tools to minimize losses from insect pests has become inevitable. Presenting alternative strategies for alleviating biotic stresses, Biotechnological Approaches for Pest Management and Ecological Sustain
Biotechnological Innovations in the Mineral-Metal Industry (Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation)
by Sandeep Panda Srabani Mishra Ata Akcil Eric D. Van HullebuschThe book presents the most advanced biotechnological information with respect to microbial applications in the treatment of mineral-metal bearing wastes. With growing interest in practical industrial applications of biomining microbes, of late, a lot of research has been devoted towards exploring their biotechnological potential for processing wastes derived from both primary and secondary resources for metal recovery. The chapters in the book present compiled information on several aspects of this exciting area of mineral biotechnology, that include fundamental, applied, bioprocess engineering and environment in separate chapters. These chapters provide updated information on the microbe-mineral interactions; resource specific bioleaching covering base, precious and rare earth elements leaching from primary and/or secondary resources; processing of leach solutions through biosorption, biomineralization, bio-electrochemical systems for resource recovery; treatment of mine waters, engineering and scale-up aspects of bioreactor systems for bioleaching of specific wastes and environmental challenges related to bio-mining. The book provides a unique platform for the dissemination of the state-of-the-art research on mineral biotechnology and serves as a bridge between academia and industry. Authored by well-renowned experts, it is an appropriate reference for graduate students, scientists, engineers, environmentalists working in the area of mineral biotechnology and industrial technologies.
Biotechnological Intervention in Production of Bioactive Compounds: Biosynthesis, Characterization and Applications (Sustainable Landscape Planning and Natural Resources Management)
by Jyoti DeviThis book provides an overview of the state of our understanding regarding the biosynthesis of bioactive compounds from plant and microbial sources. Additionally, examples of how these compounds have been used in food, agriculture, and human health are provided, as well as the biotechnological approach for screening and characterizing bioactive compounds. In the pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, and agrochemicals industries, bioactive molecules are crucial to the production of high-value products. The discovery of bioactive chemicals from diverse sources has supported their use as medications, functional food ingredients, herbicides, and insecticides due to their medicinal advantages, nutritional importance, and protective impacts in healthcare and agriculture. The systematic investigation of biologically active products and the prospective biological activities of these bioactive compounds, comprising their medical uses, standardization, quality control, mode of action, and possible biomolecular interactions, are among the greatest sensational expansions in modern natural medication and healthcare. This book is a useful resource for graduate and undergraduate biomedical chemistry and agriculture students who are interested in learning more about the possibilities of bioactive natural products. This book is useful to researchers in a variety of scientific domains where natural products are important.
Biotechnological Strategies for Effective Remediation of Polluted Soils
by Bhupendra Koul Pooja Taak<p>This book presents a comprehensive collection of various in situ and ex-situ soil remediation regimes that employ natural or genetically modified microbes, plants, and animals for the biodegradation of toxic compounds or hazardous waste into simpler non-toxic products. These techniques are demonstrated to be functionally effective in connection with physical, chemical, and biological strategies. <p>Soil and water contamination through heavy metals, hydrocarbons and radioactive wastes is of global concern, as these factors have cumulative effects on the environment and human health through food-chain contamination. The book discusses the utilization of algae, plants, plant-associated bacteria, fungi (endophytic or rhizospheric) and certain lower animals for the sustainable bioremediation of organic and inorganic pollutants. In addition, it explores a number of more recent techniques like biochar and biofilms for carbon sequestration, soil conditioning and remediation, and water remediation. It highlights a number of recent advances in nanobioremediation, an emerging technology based on biosynthetic nanoparticles. Lastly, it presents illustrative case studies and highlights the successful treatment of polluted soils by means of these strategies.</p>
Biotechnology, Agriculture, Environment and Energy: Proceedings of the 2014 International Conference on Biotechnology, Agriculture, Environment and Energy (ICBAEE 2014), May 22-23, 2014, Beijing, China.
by Fangli ZhengThe 2014 International Conference on Biotechnology, Agriculture, Environment and Energy (ICBAEE 2014) was held May 22-23, 2014 in Beijing, China. The objective of ICBAEE 2014 was to provide a platform for researchers, engineers, academics as well as industry professionals from all over the world to present their research results and development act
Biotechnology and Agricultural Development: Transgenic Cotton, Rural Institutions and Resource-poor Farmers (Routledge Explorations in Environmental Economics)
by Robert TrippThis book addresses the continuing controversy over the potential impact of genetically modified (GM) crops in developing countries. Supporters of the technology claim it offers one of the best hopes for increasing agricultural production and reducing rural poverty, while opponents see it as an untested intervention that will bring corporate control of peasant farming. The book examines the issues by reviewing the experience of GM, insect-resistant cotton, the most widely grown GM crop in developing countries. The book begins with an introduction to agricultural biotechnology, a brief examination of the history of cotton production technology (and the institutions required to support that technology), and a thorough review of the literature on the agronomic performance of GM cotton. It then provides a review of the economic and institutional outcomes of GM cotton during the first decade of its use. The core of the book is four country case studies based on original fieldwork in the principal developing countries growing GM cotton (China, India, South Africa and Colombia). The book concludes with a summary of the experience to date and implications for the future of GM crops in developing countries. This review challenges those who have predicted technological failure by describing instances in which GM cotton has proven useful and has been enthusiastically taken up by smallholders. But it also challenges those who claim that biotechnology can take the lead in agricultural development by examining the precarious institutional basis on which these hopes rest in most countries. The analysis shows how biotechnology’s potential contribution to agricultural development must be seen as a part of (and often secondary to) more fundamental policy change. The book should be of interest to a wide audience concerned with agricultural development. This would include academics in the social and agricultural sciences, donor agencies and NGOs.
Biotechnology and Future Cities: Towards Sustainability, Resilience and Living Urban Organisms
by Zaheer AllamThis book explores how biotechnology can lead to the reimagination of cities. In a time where the increasing adoption of technology by cities is leading to unsustainable environmental and economic concerns, biotechnology has enabled new ways of envisioning data and energy storage. Zaheer Allam thus revisits the popular concept of Smart Cities -and its associated Internet of Things (IoT) to explore how the biological sciences, coupled with technology, can be applied to cities; and in doing so, create living urban organisms on an unprecedented scale. This new concept will open up exciting avenues to providing novel solutions for climate change mitigation. The book goes on to address various potential concerns and discusses what regulatory frameworks would be needed to safely implement such a concept. It will be a useful tool for planners, policy makers and engineers as well as for researchers with in interest in the future of our cities.
Biotechnology And The New Agricultural Revolution
by Joseph J MolnarThe advent of new methods in shaping the performance characteristics of plants, animals, and microbes dramatically expands the possibilities for advances in agriculture -- a new "Green Revolution" in the offing. This book examines the impact of such developments on agricultural institutions, agribusiness, and farmers: What happens when a fundamenta
Biotechnology Business - Concept to Delivery (EcoProduction)
by Arpita SaxenaThis book is an effort to foster the entrepreneurial spirit in young minds. It reviews a wide range of product ideas, opportunities and challenges associated with start-ups. In addition, it discusses popular molecular targets for biotechnology research / the biotech industry such as attenuated microbes, gene sequences, biomarkers, and the latest advance in the sector, CRISPR. These molecular targets can be modified for the production of sufficient quantities of food and fuel. Very often, researchers limit their focus to the proof of concept, and fail to successfully convert it into a finished product. To help young entrepreneurs avoid this pitfall, the book addresses various aspects like intellectual property regulations, commerce and management. The book’s contributing authors hail from various specialized sectors, and from around the globe. Taken together, the respective chapters are intended to overcome the borders between disciplines that otherwise rarely interact.
Biotechnology of Major Cereals
by Huw D. JonesBiotechnology of Major Cereals will focus on the recent advances and future prospects in cereal biotechnology. The first part of the book will cover the world's major cereals and focus on new developments and trends. The second part will be technology rather than species-led, detailing fundamental developments in technologies and significant target traits.
Biotectonics: Tectonics as the Driver of Bioregionalisation (SpringerBriefs in Evolutionary Biology)
by Malte C. Ebach Bernard MichauxTectonic plates are constantly moving, either crashing into one another creating a mosaic of mountains and shallow seas, or tearing apart and isolating large swathes of land. In both cases plate tectonics separates populations leading to the evolution of biota. Tectonics is also responsible for the destruction life, for instance when large coral reefs or shallow seas are compressed to form mountain peaks. Could recent research into these processes provide enough evidence to show that tectonics may be the ultimate driver of life on Earth? Our book delves into the current research in tectonics, particularly neotectonics, and its impact on rapid changes on biogeographical classification, also known as bioregionalisation. We also introduce a new term biotectonics that studies the impact of tectonics on biogeoregionalisation. The question we ask is how tectonics directly influences the distribution of biota in four case studies: the Mesozic and early Palaeogene Australides, which spans the Proto-Pacific coast of the South America, Antaractica and Australiasia; and the Neogene of Australia. To conclude we examine the role of neotectonics on tranistion zones and the Amazon Basin and make a case for biotectonic extinction.
Biotectonics of Neotropical Transition Zones (SpringerBriefs in Evolutionary Biology)
by Lize Hermógenes de Mendonça Bernard Michaux Malte C. EbachThis book offers an up-to-date review and synthesis of the role of tectonics in Neotropical bioregionalisation, in particular transition zones. The main questions are "What are transition zones?", "How would we identify them?" and, "What are the tectonic drivers of transition zones?" These questions are pertinent as they may reveal a new transition zone within the Caribbean (Antillean sub-region), and provides an up-to-date account of the biotectonics of the Caribbean. In addition, the book contains a detailed tectonic summary of the development of the Andes and the bioregionalisation of the South American Transition Zone.
Bird Ambulance
by Arline ThomasStories from a woman in New York who began her own shelter for injured wild birds. She talks about assisting falcons, hawks, pigeons and owls, but there is also a chapter on other animals--like squirrels--who come into her life. A fantastic read with helpful information on what to feed injured birds and mammals.
The Bird Atlas (DK Pictorial Atlases)
by Barbara TaylorTake a peek inside the beautiful and absorbing world of birds with this lavishly illustrated children&’s bird atlas.From the Amazon Rainforest to the Rocky Mountains, this fully-fledged children&’s bird guide will take you on a guided tour, continent by continent, to meet some of the most spectacular birds in the world! Get ready to journey through different biomes, like rivers and desserts, to discover fun facts about birds that will fascinate and inspire every budding ornithologist. In this bird book for kids, you&’ll learn why flamingos are pink, why birds migrate and who migrates the farthest, and which bird species are endangered.Packed with hundreds of incredible, life-like illustrations, this educational book is a pictorial guide to the birds of the world. It showcases birds from every continent as you&’ve never seen before with detailed maps pinpointing where different species of birds can be found. See magnificent snowy owls in the Arctic, tiny three-wattled bellbirds in the Caribbean, towering ostriches in Africa, and gorgeous depictions of the flighty American Robin. A Truly Breathtaking Celebration of BirdlifeThe Bird Atlas is arranged in order of continent - Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia, North America, South America, and Antarctica. Every continent is introduced with an overview of the ecology, climate, and landscape, and the typical and incredible birds that live there. This children&’s book is the perfect introduction to our feathered friends and makes a great gift for the new generation of birdwatchers.Inside the pages of this children&’s atlas, you&’ll discover: • Fascinating facts about birds, from why vultures are bald to how bald eagles actually aren&’t • Why some species are endangered and what can be done to protect them • Birds that can be found in different countries and continents of the world, their habitat, geography, and climate More from DK Books:Don&’t miss out on more fascinating atlases! After exploring this fascinating bird book for kids, your child can move on to The Body Atlas to discover the inner workings of the human body. Next up is The Animal Atlas that takes children on a tour to meet the animals of the world.
Bird Cloud
by Annie Proulx"Bird Cloud" is the name Annie Proulx gave to 640 acres of Wyoming wetlands and prairie and four-hundred-foot cliffs plunging down to the North Platte River. On the day she first visited, a cloud in the shape of a bird hung in the evening sky. Proulx also saw pelicans, bald eagles, golden eagles, great blue herons, ravens, scores of bluebirds, harriers, kestrels, elk, deer and a dozen antelope. She fell in love with the land, then owned by the Nature Conservancy, and she knew what she wanted to build on it--a house in harmony with her work, her appetites and her character, a library surrounded by bedrooms and a kitchen. Proulx's first work of nonfiction in more than twenty years, Bird Cloud is the story of designing and constructing that house--with its solar panels, Japanese soak tub, concrete floor and elk horn handles on kitchen cabinets. It is also an enthralling natural history and archaeology of the region--inhabited for millennia by Ute, Arapaho and Shoshone Indians-- and a family history, going back to nineteenth-century Mississippi riverboat captains and Canadian settlers. Proulx, a writer with extraordinary powers of observation and compassion, here turns her lens on herself. We understand how she came to be living in a house surrounded by wilderness, with shelves for thousands of books and long worktables on which to heap manuscripts, research materials and maps, and how she came to be one of the great American writers of her time. Bird Cloud is magnificent.
Bird Day: A Story of 24 Hours and 24 Avian Lives (Earth Day Ser.)
by Mark E. HauberAn hourly guide that follows twenty-four birds as they find food, mates, and safety from predators. From morning to night and from the Antarctic to the equator, birds have busy days. In this short book, ornithologist Mark E. Hauber shows readers exactly how birds spend their time. Each chapter covers a single bird during a single hour, highlighting twenty-four different bird species from around the globe, from the tropics through the temperate zones to the polar regions. We encounter owls and nightjars hunting at night and kiwis and petrels finding their way in the dark. As the sun rises, we witness the beautiful songs of the “dawn chorus.” At eleven o’clock in the morning, we float alongside a common pochard, a duck resting with one eye open to avoid predators. At eight that evening, we spot a hawk swallowing bats whole, gorging on up to fifteen in rapid succession before retreating into the darkness. For each chapter, award-winning artist Tony Angell has depicted these scenes with his signature pen and ink illustrations, which grow increasingly light and then dark as our bird day passes. Working closely together to narrate and illustrate these unique moments in time, Hauber and Angell have created an engaging read that is a perfect way to spend an hour or two—and a true gift for readers, amateur scientists, and birdwatchers.
Bird Food Recipes: Storey Country Wisdom Bulletin A-137 (Storey Country Wisdom Bulletin Ser.)
by Rhonda Massingham HartSince 1973, Storey's Country Wisdom Bulletins have offered practical, hands-on instructions designed to help readers master dozens of country living skills quickly and easily. There are now more than 170 titles in this series, and their remarkable popularity reflects the common desire of country and city dwellers alike to cultivate personal independence in everyday life.
The Bird-Friendly City: Creating Safe Urban Habitats
by Timothy BeatleyHow does a bird experience a city? A backyard? A park? As the world has become more urban, noisier from increased traffic, and brighter from streetlights and office buildings, it has also become more dangerous for countless species of birds. Warblers become disoriented by nighttime lights and collide with buildings. Ground-feeding sparrows fall prey to feral cats. Hawks and other birds-of-prey are sickened by rat poison. These name just a few of the myriad hazards. How do our cities need to change in order to reduce the threats, often created unintentionally, that have resulted in nearly three billion birds lost in North America alone since the 1970s? In The Bird-Friendly City, Timothy Beatley, a longtime advocate for intertwining the built and natural environments, takes readers on a global tour of cities that are reinventing the status quo with birds in mind. Efforts span a fascinating breadth of approaches: public education, urban planning and design, habitat restoration, architecture, art, civil disobedience, and more. Beatley shares empowering examples, including: advocates for "catios,&” enclosed outdoor spaces that allow cats to enjoy backyards without being able to catch birds; a public relations campaign for vultures; and innovations in building design that balance aesthetics with preventing bird strikes. Through these changes and the others Beatley describes, it is possible to make our urban environments more welcoming to many bird species. Readers will come away motivated to implement and advocate for bird-friendly changes, with inspiring examples to draw from. Whether birds are migrating and need a temporary shelter or are taking up permanent residence in a backyard, when the environment is safer for birds, humans are happier as well.
Bird Girl: Gene Stratton-Porter Shares Her Love of Nature with the World
by Jill EsbaumThis lively STEAM picture book is about the life of Gene Stratton-Porter, a pioneering wildlife photographer and popular author from the late 19th and early 20th century, who showed the world the beauty of nature, especially birds, and why it was worth preserving.Gene Stratton-Porter was a farm girl who fell in love with birds, from the chickens whose eggs she collected to the hawks that preyed on them. When she grew up, Gene wanted nothing more than to share her love of birds with the world. She wrote stories about birds, but when a magazine wanted to publish them next to awkward photos of stuffed birds, she knew she had to take matters into her own hands. Teaching herself photography, Gene began to take photos of birds in the wild. Her knowledge of birds and how to approach them allowed her to get so close you could count the feathers of the birds in her photos. Her work was unlike anything Americans had ever seen before—she captured the true lives of animals in their natural habitat. A pioneering wildlife photographer and one of the most popular authors of the early 20th century, this bird girl showed the world the beauty of nature and why it was worth preserving.
Bird Migration: A New Understanding
by John H. RappoleA fascinating and nuanced exploration of why, how, and which birds migrate.Bird migration captivates the human imagination, yet for most of us, key aspects of the phenomenon remain a mystery. How do birds sense the ideal moment to take wing, and once the epic journey has begun, how do they find their distant destinations? Fresh insights about avian movements are still constantly emerging, powered by new tools like molecular genetics and transmitter miniaturization. In this book, renowned ornithologist and author John H. Rappole reveals intriguing results of recent scientific studies on migration, explaining their importance for birders, nature lovers, and researchers alike. Debunking misconceptions about the lives of birds that have persisted for thousands of years, Rappole explores unexpected causes and previously misunderstood aspects of the annual migration cycle. From the role of migrating birds in zoonotic disease transmission to climate change's impact on migration patterns, Rappole tackles crucial questions and ensures that readers come away with a new understanding of why and how birds migrate.
Bird Migration and Global Change
by George W. CoxChanges in seasonal movements and population dynamics of migratory birds in response to ongoing changes resulting from global climate changes are a topic of great interest to conservation scientists and birdwatchers around the world. Because of their dependence on specific habitats and resources in different geographic regions at different phases of their annual cycle, migratory species are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In Bird Migration and Global Change, eminent ecologist George W. Cox brings his extensive experience as a scientist and bird enthusiast to bear in evaluating the capacity of migratory birds to adapt to the challenges of a changing climate. Cox reviews, synthesizes, and interprets recent and emerging science on the subject, beginning with a discussion of climate change and its effect on habitat, and followed by eleven chapters that examine responses of bird types across all regions of the globe. The final four chapters address the evolutionary capacity of birds, and consider how best to shape conservation strategies to protect migratory species in coming decades. The rate of climate change is faster now than at any other moment in recent geological history. How best to manage migratory birds to deal with this challenge is a major conservation issue, and Bird Migration and Global Change is a unique and timely contribution to the literature.
Bird versus Bulldozer: A Quarter-Century Conservation Battle in a Biodiversity Hotspot
by Audrey L. MayerAn examination of the struggle to conserve biodiversity in urban regions, told through the story of the threatened coastal California gnatcatcher The story of the rare coastal California gnatcatcher is a parable for understanding the larger ongoing struggle to conserve biodiversity in regions confronted with intensifying urban development. Because this gnatcatcher depends on vanishing coastal sage scrub in Southern California, it has been regarded as a flagship species for biodiversity protection since the early 1990s. But the uncertainty of the gnatcatcher&’s taxonomic classification—and whether it can be counted as a &“listable unit&” under the Endangered Species Act—has provoked contentious debate among activists, scientists, urban developers, and policy makers. Synthesizing insights from ecology, environmental history, public policy analysis, and urban planning as she tracks these debates over the course of the past twenty-five years, Audrey L. Mayer presents an ultimately optimistic take on the importance of much-neglected regional conservation planning strategies to create sustainable urban landscapes that benefit humans and wildlife alike.
Birder's Conservation Handbook: 100 North American Birds at Risk
by Jeffrey V. WellsUntil now there has been no single, comprehensive resource on the status of North America's most threatened birds and what people can do to help protect them. Birder's Conservation Handbook is the only book of its kind, written specifically to help birders and researchers understand the threats while providing actions to protect birds and their habitats. Jeffrey Wells has distilled vast amounts of essential information into a single easy-to-use volume-required reading for anyone who loves birds and wants to ensure they are protected. At-a-glance species accounts cover in detail North America's one hundred most at-risk birds; each account is beautifully illustrated by today's top bird artists. The text includes status, distribution, ecology, threats, conservation actions and needs, and references. A distribution map accompanies each entry. Chapters discuss birds as indicators of environmental health, the state of North American bird populations, major conservation issues, and initiatives now underway to improve the health of North America's birds. Birder's Conservation Handbook is an indispensable resource for birdwatchers, researchers, naturalists, and conservationists. Reading it will inspire you to become an active steward of our birds and the habitats we share. A comprehensive guide to North America's one hundred most at-risk birds and how to protect them Compact and easy to use, with beautiful illustrations and data organized for convenient, at-a-glance reference Detailed species accounts, including distribution maps Practical advice on conservation Information on leading conservation agencies and resources