" . . . behavior is not, what an organism does itself, but to what we point. Therefore, whether a type of behavior of an organism is adequate as a certain configuration of movements, will depend on the environment in which we de scribe it. " (Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela: El arbol del conocimiento, 1984) "A thorough analysis of behavior must result in a scheme, that shows all regularities that are to be found between the sensorical input and the motorical output of an animal. This scheme is an abstract representation of the brain. " (Valentin Braitenberg: Gehirngespinste, 1973) During the 70ies, when Biomathematics (beyond Biomedical Statistics and Com puting) became more popular at universities and research institutes, the problems dealt with came mainly from the general fields of 'Population Biology' and 'Complex Systems Analysis' such as epidemics, ecosystems analysis, morphogenesis, genetics, immunology and neurology (see the first series of Springer Lecture Notes in Biomathematics). Since then, the picture has not considerably changed, and it seems that "a thorough analysis of behavior" of single organisms and, moreover, of their mutual interactions, is far from being understood. On the contrary, mathematical modellers and analysts have been well advised to restrict their investigations to specific aspects of 'biological behavior', one of which is 'biological motion'. Until now, only a few Conference Proceedings or Lecture Notes have paid attention to this important aspect, some of the earlier examples being Vol. 24: 'The measurement of biological shape and shape changes' (1978) or Vol.

8th Cybernetic Congress

This book presents an overview of the field of bioelectricity by demonstrating the biological significance of electromagnetic fields, electrical properties of tissue, biological effects of electromagnetic energy, and therapeutic applications and health hazards of electromagnetic energy.

This volume represents the published proceedings of an international conference on the Neurobiology and Evolution of the Mechanosensory Lateral Line System held August 31 to September 4, 1987, at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research at the University of Bielefeld, West Germany. The goal of this confer ence was to bring together researchers from all over the world to share informa tion about a major aquatic sensory system, the evolution and function of which have largely remained an enigma since the 18th century. The "lateral line" or "lateralis" system has been used as an umbrella term to describe what originally (without the aid of modern anatomical techniques) looked like a series of pits, grooves, and lines on the head and trunk of fishes and some amphibians. For at least the past 30 years, however, it has been recognized that the lateralis system comprises not one, but at least two functional classes of receptors: mechanoreceptors and electroreceptors. The relative ease with which the appropriate stimulus could be defined and measured for the electroreceptive class has resulted in an explosion of information on this submodality during the past 20 years. As a result, there is little ambiguity about the overall function of the electrosensory system, now generally regarded as an independent system in its own right. A similarly clear definition for the function of the mechanosensory lateralis system has not been as forthcoming.

The first meeting on biosonar that I had the opportunity to attend was held in 1978 on the Island of Jersey in the English Channel. That meeting, organized by Professor R.G. Busne1 and Dr. Jim Fish, was my introduction to an exciting and varied group of hard-working and dedicated scientists studying animal echolocation. They are, by nature, a very diverse group. They tend to publish in different journals and rarely interact despite the fact that they all work on echolocation. When they do interact as a group, as they did in Frascati Italy in 1966, in Jersey i~ 1978, and during the meeting reported in this volume, the meetings are intense, interesting, and exciting. This volume is a composition of a series of contributed papers written to foster an interdisciplinary understanding of the echolocation systems of animals. The echolocation pulse production studies in bats and dolphins have recently been concentrated on the ontogeny of infant pulses, other studies, with three-dimensional computer graphics and x-ray computed tomography, have concentrated on finally resolving the old controversy concerning the site of dolphin echolocation click production. Much has been accomplished on the analysis of bat neural structure and function. The intense effort directed toward understanding the structure, connections, and functional properties of parallel auditory pathways and the parallel and hierarchical processing of information by the mustached bat, has lead to dramatic breakthroughs in understanding brain function.

Insects are the most numerous class of animals or earth, both in terms of their number and their variety. There are 800,000 recognized species, with between 1 and 10 million estimated species yet to be classified. This book will discuss, mechanics of flight, Wing structure, Hovering flight, flight in smaller and larger insects and wing polars.

Human Navigation and Magnetoreception, first published in 1989, was written to draw a line under an academic feud that had enlivened much of the 1980s. Now, thirty years on, a new generation of researchers, students and journalists have voiced a need for the book's contents to be made generally available again - and this digital 30th Anniversary edition (with a new Preface by the author) is the result.Like all mammals, early humans needed to find their way from place to place without becoming lost. For many, the penalty for poor navigation was death. Yet through most of humankind's evolutionary history the only map was in the head and the only compasses in the world around. These were provided by the sun, moon and stars - and something else. In 1980, research at Manchester University, England, led to the claim in the journal Science that during 'natural' navigation humans can use an innate subconscious sense of magnetism. The claim was novel - to some scientists unjustified - and in the years that followed triggered intense and often bitter argument as experiments were criticised, improved, repeated and extended. Even thirty years after first publication, Human Navigation and Magnetoreception remains the most complete book ever written on the subject of the human magnetic sense. It describes over a decade of research by not only the author and his team at Manchester but also by his various critics and others around the world. Although the experiments began on small groups of British students, the studies eventually extended to include many ages and nationalities, including specialist groups such as orienteers, nudists, trans-equatorial travellers, dyslexics and the blind. By the time the Manchester and other studies ended, thousands of people worldwide had taken part. Other mammals - horses and mice - had also been studied and the results for all were exciting. They were also controversial, and the arguments they triggered vitriolic. Aimed primarily but not only at scientists, the book presents detailed experimental evidence in support of its conclusions. It demonstrates how the magnetic sense is used alongside sun and star compasses in natural explorations. It also demonstrates a close link between magnetoreception and sight and makes inferences for the nature of the magnetic sensor itself. Within the book's pages, all of the major points of scientific contention are discussed openly and objectively. The result is a fascinating account of not only a little-researched human sense but also of the hurdles that some new ideas have to clear before they can be accepted.

This definitive monograph focuses on the population, biology, and behavioral ecology of feral pigeons, a familiar but seldom studied bird. Includes a thorough listing of primary references of U.S. and European scholarly literature.