Landmarks in developmental biology 1883–1924
historical essays from Roux's archives
Springer
1997
Abstract
Developmental biology took shape between 1880 and the 1920`s Basic concepts like the developmental role of chromosomes and the germ plasm (today`s genome), self differentiation, embryonic regulation and induction, gradients and organizers hail from that period; indeed, the discipline was defined as a whole by the programmatic writings of Wilhelm Roux as early as 1889. The present essays cover the period up to the Nobel prize-winning work of Hans Spemann and Hilde Mangold. They were originally published in Roux's Archives of Developmental Biology, from Vol. 200 onward to the journal's centennial issues in 1995/96. The essays aim at introducing current adepts of developmental biology to observations and experiments that have lead their predecessors towards basic concepts still influential today.
