To understand how information is processed and stored by the nervous system, and in particular the human brain, has been a major challenge in science for centuries and will remain so for some time to come. Not until recently did neurobiologists agree to seek plasticity of behavior primarily in the modulation of the properties of synapses between nerve cells. This must be understood within the context provided by a neural circuitry. Learning has become a topic of molecular biology. Three systems appear particularly promising for this approach: "Drosophila," the marine snails "Aplysia" and...
To understand how information is processed and stored by the nervous system, and in particular the human brain, has been a major challenge in science ...
From Galileo, who used the hollow stalks of grass to demonstrate the idea that peripherally located construction materials provide most of the resistance to bending forces, to Leonardo da Vinci, whose illustrations of the parachute are alleged to be based on his study of the dandelion's pappus and the maple tree's samara, many of our greatest physicists, mathematicians, and engineers have learned much from studying plants. A symbiotic relationship between botany and the fields of physics, mathematics, engineering, and chemistry continues today, as is revealed in "Plant Physics." The result...
From Galileo, who used the hollow stalks of grass to demonstrate the idea that peripherally located construction materials provide most of the resi...
