Growth

Abstract

The process of growth is the most characteristic feature of plant and animal function. All of the cellular structures and functions summarized in Chapters 2 and 3 are intrinsic parts of the process of growth. Furthermore, of the many questions remaining in biology some of the most intriguing and exciting ones are concerned with growth. We shall introduce some of the problems in this chapter, and much of the remainder of the book will be devoted to a further description of these problems and some of the current areas of research devoted to their solution. We have very few answers that even approach being final, but the frontiers have been established.