Cargando…
Do lemmings commit suicide? : beautiful hypotheses and ugly facts /
In 1929, a group of scientists, working at Oxford University, began "the pursuit of the ecological Holy Grail," an endeavor devoted to the search for the secret mechanisms behind biological life cycles as they occur in many animal populations. By 1935, the group had become the Bureau of An...
| Clasificación: | Libro Electrónico |
|---|---|
| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Electrónico eBook |
| Idioma: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
New York :
Oxford University Press,
1996.
|
| Temas: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Texto completo |
| Sumario: | In 1929, a group of scientists, working at Oxford University, began "the pursuit of the ecological Holy Grail," an endeavor devoted to the search for the secret mechanisms behind biological life cycles as they occur in many animal populations. By 1935, the group had become the Bureau of Animal Population and was joined for one year, part-time, by a newly minted graduate of the University of Toronto. Twenty-six years later, when he returned to Canada. Dennis Chitty had learned much about cycles and even more about the process of science. The results are presented here in an intriguing and often irreverent account of science, not as it should be, but as it was and is. Unlike many science books which tell of successful ventures and satisfactory conclusions, this book reveals the harsher but more common story of a scientific question left unanswered. Written by one of this century's most distinguished small-mammal ecologists, it is both a personal history and a vigorous defense of a life in pure science - even when no final dramatic closure was reached. Included along the way are important accounts of the pioneering work of Charles Elton, from which much of modern population biology has grown, and insights on the philosophy and practice of science. |
|---|---|
| Descripción Física: | 1 online resource (xxi, 268 pages) : illustrations, maps |
| Bibliografía: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-261) and index. |
| ISBN: | 0195097866 9780195097863 0195097858 9780195097856 1423759168 9781423759164 1602560579 9781602560574 1280451424 9781280451423 0198025831 9780198025832 9786610451425 6610451427 0195356977 9780195356977 |