The life of a leaf

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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 life 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.
A companion website with demonstrations and teaching tools can be found here: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/sites/vogel/index.html

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface
• 1 Starting the Story
• 2 Seeking Illumination
• 3 Diffusing Gases
• 4 Flowing Gases
• 5 Leaking Water
• 6 Raising Water
• 7 Interfacing with Air
• 8 Keeping Cool
• 9 Cleaning Surfaces
• 10 Staying Unfrozen
• 11 Staying Stiff and High
• 12 Surviving a Storm
• 13 Making and Maintaining
• 14 Winding It Up
• List of Symbols, Abbreviations, and Conversions
• Notes
• References and Index of Citations
• General Index

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

The entire world is contained within a single leaf, and a single leaf can be used to represent the entire world. That, at least, is the message that Vogel (biology, emeritus, Duke Univ.; Glimpses of Creatures in Their Physical Worlds) wants readers to take away from his newest work. Accessible to non-mathematicians, Vogel's work is ordered in a nontraditional way with the equations and quantifiers relegated to footnotes, so that someone more interested in the biological descriptions can bypass the math and physics supporting them. Vogel's obvious enthusiasm for the subject and his skill at writing shine through with clarity and joy. Experiments scattered throughout the chapters allow instructors or even students to physically illustrate the theories that Vogel explains. VERDICT Recommended for undergraduates, graduates, and professionals with an interest in biology and mathematics.-Susan E. Brazer, Salisbury Univ. Lib., MD (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Duke University biomechanist Vogel (Cats' Paws and Catapults) capably demonstrates how a scientist can unite micro and macro perspectives in looking at the natural world. Using the leaf of a plant as his model system of life, he explores aspects of structure, function, and physiology while embedding specific questions in a broader evolutionary context. Thus, as we learn how a leaf (and the plant to which it is attached) uses various strategies to maintain appropriate water balance, we also learn why these strategies are important. Those larger points allow Vogel and his readers to reach beyond botany to the entire natural world. He mixes the principles of biology with those of physics to great effect, demonstrating the constraints the physical world places on living organisms and the limited options available to evolution. Vogel does present a heavy dose of complex equations to support his reasoning, but they are relegated to footnotes and not essential to his message. The larger theme deals with the nature of scientific investigation: how scientists formulate and test hypotheses and the role that chance can play in those inquiries. His firsthand account of many of his own experiments, and the joy with which he recounts them, brings the scientific process to life. 47 color and 18 b&w illus. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

CHOICE Review

Plant leaves provide the pleasantly green backdrop of our world, and in autumn people's visual experience is enriched when leaves put on a showy display of red, yellow, and orange hues. But leaves are much more than just pretty ornaments. Leaves take on the important work of turning sunlight into energy and, as a by-product of this act, releasing life-giving oxygen (a process called photosynthesis). Few appreciate how difficult this task is and how exquisitely leaves have been shaped by evolutionary forces to accomplish this end. Vogel (emer., Duke Univ.; Glimpses of Creatures in Their Physical Worlds, CH, Apr'10, 47-4408) examines leaves through the prism of physics and sheds light on how leaves work. He shows that leaves are multitaskers able to intercept light, stay hydrated, avoid temperature extremes and physical damage, and keep from being eaten by herbivores and sickened by microbes. For teachers or curious readers, the author includes numerous do-it-yourself activities for heuristic learning. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels of academic students and faculty, educators, and general readers. R. B. Pratt California State University--Bakersfield

Booklist Review

Any schoolchild who has ever plucked an interesting leaf and pressed it into a book for safekeeping will know there is something magical about these oddly shaped tree appendages. In this eclectic blend of science textbook and layman's field guide, Duke University biology professor Vogel takes the leaf as a model for probing nature's often overlooked inner machinery. For Vogel, the leaf acts as a kind of biological Everyman representing the multidimensional physical and biological processes at work in our surrounding environment. In studying how leaves draw in moisture, absorb and exploit sunlight, bend with the wind, and conduct heat, we gain greater insight into our own physiology as well as the world around us. Vogel includes an abundance of illuminating photographs and instructions for do-it-yourself exercises readers can perform at home with minimal supplies. While his close inspection of the mechanics of leaf proliferation and evolution may strike many as a little too rigorous (equations and graphs are sprinkled throughout), nature lovers and botanists will delight in the details.--Hays, Carl Copyright 2010 Booklist