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Thursday 1 March 2007

S204: Book 2 - Generating Diversity

Onwards to book two. Book two is a bit of a mixture - its called Generating Diversity and has quite a mix of chapters.

Chapter 1 is about surviving the winter, and the various strategies that organisms can use to get through that period. It covers things like hibernation, scavenging, and so on.
Chapter 2 looks at food and the various strategies available. Carniovores, herbivores, how digestion works and how often feeding is required.
Chapter 3 looks at diversity through natural selection and the sources of variation.
Chapter 4 is about reproduction, and covers all manner of different breeding strategies, from asexual to sexual and a number of other ways in between.
Chapter 5 is about defence and covers things like immunology, pathogens and so on.
Chapter 6 covers longevity and looks at the causes of death, the trade offs of a longer life and so on.

As I said, its a bit of a mixture, covering a lot of ground. Naturally there is a TMA on this material... It was an interesting book to read, as if you didn't like a particular subject much, it soon changed.

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