A thought-provoking synthesis of ideas across a spectrum of scientific inquiry.
Naeim offers readers a look at complex adaptive systems and their role in human biology and civilization in this scientific treatise.
In this second edition of his 2005 book, the author, a professor emeritus of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, explores how complex adaptive systems—characterized by self-organization and interconnected parts—facilitated the creation and evolution of life on Earth. Drawing comparisons between the human body, family units, and financial markets, Naeim explains how such systems respond and adapt to changes in their environment. A key part of this adaptability, he says, is in how they maintain a balance between states of order and chaos. Naeim touches on theories about the origin of life and the function of DNA, emphasizing how flexibility and self-organization were essential to the development of everything from human cells to ecosystems. He also addresses how natural selection is about more than mere survival: “modern evolutionary biology defines fitness more precisely as an organism’s reproductive success—the ability to pass on genes to future generations.” In the final chapters, Naeim looks at the rise of Homo sapiens and the way it has passed down beliefs, values, and information. In a final discussion of environmental challenges facing humanity, Naeim finds echoes of the themes of flexibility, self-organization, and evolution in the Gaia hypothesis, which views the Earth itself as a vast complex adaptive system. Over the course of this wide-ranging work, Naeim employs eloquent prose and relatable examples to render complicated topics comprehensible to general readers. In particular, many readers will find that the way in which he links human evolution with climate change and cultural transmission is timely and insightful. The book effectively focuses with specificity on the power of the meme, as originally defined by English evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, in shaping human thought and culture: “Meme may act as a double-edged sword: on one side, reinforcing belief in truth, science, and documented facts; on the other, fueling the spread of lies, fabricated stories, baseless conspiracy theories, and fake news.”
A thought-provoking synthesis of ideas across a spectrum of scientific inquiry.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.
In which the veteran humorist enters middle age with fine snark but some trepidation as well.
Mortality is weighing on Sedaris (Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, 2017, etc.), much of it his own, professional narcissist that he is. Watching an elderly man have a bowel accident on a plane, he dreaded the day when he would be the target of teenagers’ jokes “as they raise their phones to take my picture from behind.” A skin tumor troubled him, but so did the doctor who told him he couldn’t keep it once it was removed. “But it’s my tumor,” he insisted. “I made it.” (Eventually, he found a semitrained doctor to remove and give him the lipoma, which he proceeded to feed to a turtle.) The deaths of others are much on the author’s mind as well: He contemplates the suicide of his sister Tiffany, his alcoholic mother’s death, and his cantankerous father’s erratic behavior. His contemplation of his mother’s drinking—and his family’s denial of it—makes for some of the most poignant writing in the book: The sound of her putting ice in a rocks glass increasingly sounded “like a trigger being cocked.” Despite the gloom, however, frivolity still abides in the Sedaris clan. His summer home on the Carolina coast, which he dubbed the Sea Section, overspills with irreverent bantering between him and his siblings as his long-suffering partner, Hugh, looks on. Sedaris hasn’t lost his capacity for bemused observations of the people he encounters. For example, cashiers who say “have a blessed day” make him feel “like you’ve been sprayed against your will with God cologne.” But bad news has sharpened the author’s humor, and this book is defined by a persistent, engaging bafflement over how seriously or unseriously to take life when it’s increasingly filled with Trump and funerals.
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-39238-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
PROFILES
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