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This article is a critique of the meaning and importance of some of the recently published work in the field whose development as a special area began with papers by Zuckerkandl & Pauling and Pauling & Zuckerkandl entitled Chemical Paleogenetics, Molecular Restoration Studies of Extinct Forms of Life and the paper by Margoliash on the evolution of cytochrome c. The primary emphasis is on conclusions and inferences derivable from amino acid sequences, followed bya section on nucleotide sequences. These are preceded by a brief indication of some of the literature that antedates the origin of the genetic code as it now stands. This will not treat immunoglobulin evolution, reviewed by Gally & Edelma and Smith, Hood & Fitch or related material on the evolution of enzymes and proteins reviewed by Smith and Arnheim. The functional interpretation of these changes has made significant progress [Dickerson and Takano et al]. For the evolution of metabolic pathways, see brew, Vogel, and Lejohn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article profiles scientist Alfred Henry Sturtevant. It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of Sturtevant's scientific contributions to the development of present-day genetic concepts. On looking back on his papers, a biologist is often liable to feel that he could have done the work very much better 20 years later. Because this is not so for Sturtevant's most important papers, they are classics, which any student of genetics may read with profit, and are rightly reprinted. And students may be told tven if you don't discover anything as important as Sturtevant did, at least try to express yourself as clearly.

The purpose of this review is threefold: (a) to provide some of the background work and ideas on phage λ to enable the nonspecialist to follow current studies on λ; (b) to present a usable overview of λ—what is probably true, what may be true, and what remains to be determined or discovered; (c) to present general features of λ as an organism under molecular control—the features that make λ interesting and amenable to study. I feel that control of gene expression and cellular development in higher organisms will not simply be a rehash of λ control circuits. In fact different temperate phages such as P2, P1, and P22 have evolved mechanisms of gene control with varying differences from λ. I do, however, feel that the development of ideas concerning gene control in phages such as λ, and the rigor with which they have been put to test, make λ an intellectual model to emulate in studies of control of gene expression. This is a highly personalized account of λ, with accent on genetic aspects. As a complement, I suggest reading other papers with more emphasis on biochemical aspects. I have attempted to give credit to the appropriate workers who helped me formulate a view of λ. In many cases, these ideas developed in a number of laboratories in parallel, with the full picture being a fusion of different experiments. Apologies are offered in advance for leaving people out. In addition, I have tried to cite the most recent work on different topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses issues concerning the origin, classification, and aspects of the functioning of tropical savanna areas. Rejection by some sectors of the use of the term for its South American connotation; Definition of the term as it is used in the study; Aim of the paper to draw attention to the quantitative data on producers and consumers of savanna areas; Discussions on biomass and production of producers and consumers, seasonality of plant growth, and adaptations of consumers to the savanna environment.

The article presents a review of studies in the physical anthropology of the modern man which concerns papers that have appeared in the period from mid-1969 to mid-1971. This literature review aims to show how much activity there is in each major topic of investigation in the biological study of populations of man that exists, and to pick out any trend in investigation that may be detectable. To limit the range of the study, several topics including behavior studies, psychometric investigations, descriptive osteometry, and epidemiological works relating to particular disease states have been excluded.

Presents a tribute to Hermann Joseph Muller and his contributions to genetics. Profound interest in the properties of the genes as the initiator and organizer of life; Papers authored on the idea of the genes as the basis of life; Properties of the gene material drawing the grandiose picture of evolution by mutation.