The life of a leaf
By: Steven Vogel
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Chicago; London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 303
ISBN-13: 9780226859392
Subjects: Leaves; Growth; Physiology
Description: In its essence, science is a way of looking at and thinking about the world. In The Life of a Leaf, Steven Vogel illuminates this approach, using the humble leaf as a model. Whether plant or person, every organism must contend with its immediate physical environment, a world that both limits what organisms can do and offers innumerable opportunities for evolving fascinating ways of challenging those limits. Here, Vogel explains these interactions, examining through the example of the leaf the extraordinary designs that enable leaf to adapt to its physical world. In Vogel's account, the leaf serves as a biological everyman, an ordinary and ubiquitous living thing that nonetheless speaks volumes about our environment as well as its own. Thus in exploring the leaf's world, Vogel simultaneously explores our own. -- from back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Starting the story; title: Seeking illumination; title: Diffusing gases; title: Flowing gases; title: Leaking water; title: Raising that water; title: Interfacing with air; title: Keeping cool; title: Cleaning surfaces; title: Staying unfrozen; title: Staying stiff and high; title: Surviving a storm; title: Making and maintaining; title: Winding it up.