Explore how cells, bacteria, and immunity shape evolution. A rigorous look at how living matter adapts and changes over time.
This book surveys key ideas in evolution and the biology of disease, focusing on how organisms acquire new traits, how cells behave, and how immunity and infection influence development. It presents theories and observations in a clear, scientific style, suitable for readers seeking a detailed portrait of early 20th‑century thought on heredity, adaptation, and pathology.
- How adaptation operates in bacteria and higher organisms, with the logic of direct and indirect change.
- The role of cells, nuclei, and metabolic processes in growth, differentiation, and inheritance.
- Connections between immune response, toxins, and disease as they relate to evolution.
- Longstanding debates about heredity, acquired traits, and the origins of cancer and other neoplasms.
Ideal for readers of the history of biology, evolutionary theory, and pathology who want a foundational view of how scientists linked cellular life to the big questions about evolution.