Animal Beauty:On the Evolution of Biological Aesthetics 动物之美 Christiane Nºsslein-Volhard

基本信息

By (author) Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard

Format Hardback | 128 pages

Dimensions 102 x 178 x 16mm | 181.44g

Publication date 26 Jun 2019

Publisher MIT Press Ltd

Imprint MIT Press

Publication City/Country Cambridge, United States

Language English

Illustrations note 47 color illus.; 94 Illustrations, unspecified

ISBN10 026203994X

ISBN13 9780262039949

页面参数仅供参考，具体以实物为准

内容简介

An illustrated exploration of colors and patterns in the animal kingdom, what they communicate, and how they function in the social life of animals.

Are animals able to appreciate what humans refer to as “beauty”? The term scarcely ever appears nowadays in a scientific description of living things, but we humans may nonetheless find the colors, patterns, and songs of animals to be beautiful in apparently the same way that we see beauty in works of art. In Animal Beauty, Nobel Prize–winning biologist Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard describes how the colors and patterns displayed by animals arise, what they communicate, and how they function in the social life of animals. Watercolor drawings illustrate these amazing instances of animal beauty.

Darwin addressed the topic of ornament in his 1871 book The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, and did not hesitate to engage with criteria of beauty, convinced that animals experienced color and ornament as attractive and agreeable in the same way that we do, and that the role this played in mate choice pointed to a “sexual selection” distinct from natural selection. Nüsslein-Volhard examines key examples of ornament and sexual selection in the animal kingdom and lays the groundwork for biological aesthetics. Noting that color patterns have not been a research priority—perhaps because they appeared to be nonessential luxuries rather than functional necessities—Nüsslein-Volhard looks at recent scientific developments on the topic. In part because of Nüsslein-Volhard's own research on the zebrafish, is now possible to decipher the molecular genetic mechanisms that lead to production of colors in animal skin and its appendages and control its pattern and distribution.

对动物界中的颜色和图案，它们所传达的内容以及它们在动物的社会生活中如何起作用的图示说明。

动物是否能够欣赏人类所称的“美丽”？如今，这个术语几乎从未出现在对生物的科学描述中，但是我们人类仍然可以发现动物的颜色，图案和歌曲看起来很美，就像我们在艺术品中看到美一样。在《动物美》中，诺贝尔奖获得者生物学家克里斯蒂安妮·努斯莱因·沃尔哈德（ChristianeNüsslein-Volhard）描述了动物所表现出的颜色和图案如何产生，它们如何交流以及它们如何在动物的社会生活中发挥作用。水彩绘画阐明了这些动物美的惊人实例。

达尔文（Darwin）在1871年的著作《人的下降与性的选择》中谈到了装饰的话题，并毫不犹豫地遵循美的标准，坚信动物会以与我们相同的方式体验到色彩和装饰的吸引力和愉悦感，并且这种在配偶选择中所扮演的角色指向了不同于自然的“性选择”选择。Nüsslein-Volhard研究了动物界中装饰品和性选择的关键实例，并为生物学美学奠定了基础。注意到颜色模式并不是研究的重点，也许是因为它们似乎是不必要的奢侈品，而不是功能上的必需品，Nüsslein-Volhard着眼于该主题的新科学进展。部分是由于Nüsslein-Volhard自己对斑马鱼的研究，

作者简介

Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard is a German developmental biologist. She received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1991 and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1995, with Eric Wieschaus and Edward B. Lewis, for research on the genetic control of embryonic development. Since 1985 she has been Director of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, where she also leads the Genetics Department.

ChristianeNüsslein-Volhard是德国的发育生物学家。她与Eric Wieschaus和Edward B. Lewis一起因胚胎发育的基因控制研究而获得1991年阿尔伯特·拉斯克基础医学研究奖和1995年诺贝尔生理学或医学奖。自1985年以来，她一直担任蒂宾根马克斯·普朗克发展生物学研究所所长，并领导遗传学系。