Gravity and the Behavior of Unicellular Organisms

Prof. Dr. Donat-Peter Häder holds the chair in botany at the Friedrich-Alexander Universität. He has been interested in gravitational biology and space research for more than 20 years and was involved in numerous space shuttle, sounding rocket, satellite and parabolic flight experiments. He is the author and editor of more than a dozen books and has published more than 450 papers in scientific journals. Michael Lebert is a botanist active in gravity-related research and computer sciences for 10 years. He has been involved as co-investigator in numerous biological experiments in microgravity on airplanes and sounding rockets. Ruth Hemmersbach, zoologist and cell biologist, has been active in gravity-related research for more than 20 years. She has been principal investigator for several biological experiments in microgravity on airplanes, sounding rockets and space shuttles.

• 1. Introduction; 2. Methods in gravitational biology; 3. Image analysis; 4. Fluorescence imaging; 5. Ciliates; 6. Flagellates; 7. Other organisms; 8. Responses to other stimuli; 9. Energetics; 10. Models for graviperception; 11. Evolutionary aspects of gravisensing: from bacteria to men; 12. Perspectives.

'Häder and his colleagues have now produced an absorbing, comprehensive and thoroughly up-to-date treatise … they have produced a work that combines magisterial thoroughness (and 1000 references) with refreshing accessibility.' Biologist