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book: Animal as Machine
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Animal as Machine

The Quest to Understand How Animals Work and Adapt
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2022

About this book

Through the ages natural historians have puzzled over how animals work, wavering between a vitalist belief in a soul animating bodily functions and a mechanistic outlook in which animal body parts are seen as pieces of organic machinery.

Animal as Machine explores the life, work, and ideas of scientists who, branding themselves as physiologists, subscribed to mechanistic concepts to explain how animals acquire and process food, breathe, circulate their blood, and sense their environment. As medical physiology thrived in the nineteenth century, zoologists struggled to forge their own distinctive physiology predicated on understanding animal functions in a context of environmental adaptation and evolutionary forces. Physiological schools with distinct emphases that shaped their outlook sprang up around the world. Dividing their time between fieldwork in marine stations and laboratory experimentation, animal physiologists stood in awe of the diversity and ingenuity of the functional strategies by which animals survived.

Animal as Machine tells a remarkable and insightful story of the larger-than-life personalities and gripping historical episodes that marked the emergence and blossoming of animal physiology.

Author / Editor information

Contributor: Michel Anctil Michel Anctil is honorary professor of biology at Université de Montréal and author of Dawn of the Neuron: The Early Struggles to Trace the Origin of Nervous Systems and Luminous Creatures: The History and Science of Light Production in Living Organisms.

Reviews

“As an account of physiology in the Western world, Animal as Machine represents an impressive consolidation and interweaving of lives and careers. This volume merits inclusion on the bookshelves of any student, educator, or researcher in animal physiology who appreciates knowing where their discipline has been to better chart where it will go.” The Quarterly Review of Biology --- “In the superb Animal as Machine, the author explains the seemingly persistent and puzzling dichotomies of physiological (and zoological) research. Anctil unveils the history of comparative animal physiology from its beginnings to its modern status as a major scientific discipline that has revealed amazing things about animal life. Highly recommended.” Choice --- “Animal as Machine is a good read for both historians who are interested in physiology and animal enthusiasts wanting to learn more about how an experimental, comparative approach has historically developed in the field of physiology. As Anctil argues, the knowledge being produced in this field promises to be fundamental for some of the challenges we humans face today. Learning from animals and adapting their capabilities to our health have always been goals of comparative animal physiology, as Anctil shows throughout the book. And, as he argues at the end, these continue to be important reasons to support the ongoing development of the field.” H-Sci-Med-Tech

Topics

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    Front Matter

    i
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    Contents

    v
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    Prologue

    vii
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    Chronology

    xiii
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    An Unspoken Branch of Natural History

    3
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    The Uncertain Beginnings

    30
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    Building Sound Foundations

    53
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    The Turning Point

    84
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    American Schools of Comparative Physiology

    114
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    The Belgian School and the Rise of Comparative Biochemistry

    138
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    The Canadian Way: Fish Physiology and Biochemistry

    167
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    A Showcase of Animals Living on the Edge

    195
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    Learning How Animal Brains Work

    219
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    Learning How Chemicals Rule Animal Moods

    251
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    Epilogue

    275
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    References

    279
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    Index

    321
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
June 9, 2023
eBook ISBN:
9780228012214
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
View content
https://doi.org/10.1515/9780228012214
eBook ISBN: 9780228012214
Keywords for this book
adaptation; anatomy; Belgian School; Bernd Heinrich; biology; Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen; Brains; C Ladd Prosser; Charles Darwin; comparative biochemistry; Edward Stuart Russell; environment; Eric Kandel; evolution; Fish; form; functional; Georges Cuvier; History; Integrative; learning; Metabolism; modification; Naples Zoological Station; Neural; physiology; science; Steven Pinker; structure; survival; William Hoar; Woods Hole; zoophysiology
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
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