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Science may be used by dominant groups to control their environment, including the people they rule, by either directing research to give them more power or by using supposedly value-free science to justify political & social actions. An example of this is sociobiology, an attempt to discover the biological basis for human & animal social behavior. This recently emerged as a discipline with the publication of E. O. Wilson's Sociobiology: A New Synthesis (Cambridge, 1975). Despite claims to the contrary, sociobiology would be meaningless if it were not basically biologically deterministic so it can be viewed as the latest phase of the "nature vs nurture" question. Biological determinism tends to justify the status quo, as exemplified by sociobiology considerations of the unequal treatment of women in our society. Opposed to biological determinism is radical environmentalism, which has demonstrated an appeal for groups of the Left. Neither extreme position is supported by evidence. The nature-nurture controversy can be best understood in terms of biological & cultural evolution. M. Migalski.

Contesting ideas about what is "normal" human behavior or biology is a core contribution of anthropology. In efforts to provide more inclusive views of what it means to be human, anthropologists challenge judgments about diverse ways of being, which include assumptions about what it means to be normal. Meanings of the term normal encompass the descriptive (statistical) and the evaluative (normative), i.e., judgments about a given characteristic. In biomedicine, "healthy" is often the value ascribed to normal, but embedded in healthy are biases that derive from particular cultural and historical contexts. Here I review how the term normal is understood and used in anthropological and related studies of human biology and biological variation. I propose the biological normalcy framework for understanding how the statistical and normative meanings of normal mutually inform each other and their consequences for human population biology. Several examples provide illustrations of the framework.

This new edition of Biological Oceanography has been greatly updated and expanded since its initial publication in 2004. It presents current understanding of ocean ecology emphasizing the character of marine organisms from viruses to fish and worms, together with their significance to their habitats and to each other. The book initially emphasizes pelagic organisms and processes, but benthos, hydrothermal vents, climate-change effects, and fisheries all receive attention. The chapter on oceanic biomes has been greatly expanded and a new chapter reviewing approaches to pelagic food webs has bee

I Introduction -- 1 A Survey on Biological Rhythms -- 2 Methodology -- 3 Data Analysis -- 4 Mathematical Models -- II Daily Rhythms -- 5 Circadian Systems: General Perspective -- 6 Freerunning and Entrained Circadian Rhythms -- 7 Circadian Systems: Entrainment -- 8 Behavioral Rhythms in Invertebrates -- 9 Neural and Endocrine Control of Circadian Rhythmicity in Invertebrates -- 10 Genetics and Development of Circadian Rhythms in Invertebrates -- 11 Vertebrate Behavioral Rhythms -- 12 Internal Temporal Order -- 13 Neural and Endocrine Control of Circadian Rhythms in the Vertebrates -- 14 Ontogeny of Circadian Rhythms -- 15 Adaptive Daily Strategies in Behavior -- 16 Clock-Controlled Orientation in Space -- 17 The Circadian System of Man -- 18 Rhythms in Performance -- III Tidal, Lunar, and Annual Rhythms -- 19 Tidal and Lunar Rhythms -- 20 Annual Rhythms: Perspective -- 21 Circannual Systems -- 22 Insect Photoperiodism -- 23 Photoperiodism in Vertebrates -- 24 Annual Rhythms in Man -- IV Rhythms Not Directly Related to Environmental Cycles -- 25 Short-Term Rhythms in Activity -- 26 Temporal Characteristics of Sleep -- 27 Cyclic Function of the Mammalian Ovary.