A bold and persuasive alternative to contemporary evolutionary theory.
An author presents a revision of neo-Darwinian evolution and a new understanding of human life.
Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking work on evolution still casts a wide-reaching shadow over contemporary science, but in many ways to its detriment, argues Ambrose Mitchell (Student Manual, 2016, etc.). Darwin overemphasized the inheritance of superficial traits like color and, by extension, assumed that anatomical traits were passed on in the same way. In the last quarter of the 19th century, advances in microscopic technology led to the detection of chromosomes, and it was assumed that what Darwin meant as inheritable traits were transmitted through these. And since chromosomes come from both male and female parents in sexual reproduction, it was always thought that the entirety of evolution is a consequence of the male and female union. In the 1950s, this view was revised so that the inheritable traits were understood to be contained within the DNA molecules of the genes out of which chromosomes were constructed. Therefore, genes were the fundamental building blocks of all life. The celebrated scientist Francis Crick called this the “Central Dogma of Molecular Biology.” Ambrose Mitchell counters that the evidence strongly suggests that the elemental particle of evolution is really the ATPase, an enzyme found in the mitochondria of every known life form. The author also makes the case that all evolution is female and that all anatomy is ultimately generated from the female, a fact obscured by the misplaced focus on chromosomes. This is a remarkably rigorous and erudite study, painstakingly written over a decade. Ambrose Mitchell is refreshingly dismissive of prevailing intellectual conventions and makes a convincing argument that Jean-Baptiste Lamarck’s theory of evolution is superior in certain decisive respects to Darwin’s. He also explains the ways in which the reliance on a genetic interpretation of nature has been not only intellectually misguided, but also practically damaging (for example, with respect to experts’ understanding of disease). And in one of the more philosophical chapters, he discusses the uniqueness of the human mind—“we are the life form with issues”—with admirable nuance and accessible lucidity.
A bold and persuasive alternative to contemporary evolutionary theory.Pub Date: June 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5485-9267-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Unsentimental nature writing that sheds as much light on humans as on eels.
An account of the mysterious life of eels that also serves as a meditation on consciousness, faith, time, light and darkness, and life and death.
In addition to an intriguing natural history, Swedish journalist Svensson includes a highly personal account of his relationship with his father. The author alternates eel-focused chapters with those about his father, a man obsessed with fishing for this elusive creature. “I can’t recall us ever talking about anything other than eels and how to best catch them, down there by the stream,” he writes. “I can’t remember us speaking at all….Because we were in…a place whose nature was best enjoyed in silence.” Throughout, Svensson, whose beat is not biology but art and culture, fills his account with people: Aristotle, who thought eels emerged live from mud, “like a slithering, enigmatic miracle”; Freud, who as a teenage biologist spent months in Trieste, Italy, peering through a microscope searching vainly for eel testes; Johannes Schmidt, who for two decades tracked thousands of eels, looking for their breeding grounds. After recounting the details of the eel life cycle, the author turns to the eel in literature—e.g., in the Bible, Rachel Carson’s Under the Sea Wind, and Günter Grass’ The Tin Drum—and history. He notes that the Puritans would likely not have survived without eels, and he explores Sweden’s “eel coast” (what it once was and how it has changed), how eel fishing became embroiled in the Northern Irish conflict, and the importance of eel fishing to the Basque separatist movement. The apparent return to life of a dead eel leads Svensson to a consideration of faith and the inherent message of miracles. He warns that if we are to save this fascinating creature from extinction, we must continue to study it. His book is a highly readable place to begin learning.
Unsentimental nature writing that sheds as much light on humans as on eels.Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-296881-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Ecco/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
Drawings, words, and a few photos combine to convey the depth of a tragedy that would leave most people dumbstruck.
A new life and book arise from the ashes of a devastating California wildfire.
These days, it seems the fires will never end. They wreaked destruction over central California in the latter months of 2018, dominating headlines for weeks, barely a year after Fies (Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?, 2009) lost nearly everything to the fires that raged through Northern California. The result is a vividly journalistic graphic narrative of resilience in the face of tragedy, an account of recent history that seems timely as ever. “A two-story house full of our lives was a two-foot heap of dead smoking ash,” writes the author about his first return to survey the damage. The matter-of-fact tone of the reportage makes some of the flights of creative imagination seem more extraordinary—particularly a nihilistic, two-page centerpiece of a psychological solar system in which “the fire is our black hole,” and “some veer too near and are drawn into despair, depression, divorce, even suicide,” while “others are gravitationally flung entirely out of our solar system to other cities or states, and never seen again.” Yet the stories that dominate the narrative are those of the survivors, who were part of the community and would be part of whatever community would be built to take its place across the charred landscape. Interspersed with the author’s own account are those from others, many retirees, some suffering from physical or mental afflictions. Each is rendered in a couple pages of text except one from a fellow cartoonist, who draws his own. The project began with an online comic when Fies did the only thing he could as his life was reduced to ash and rubble. More than 3 million readers saw it; this expanded version will hopefully extend its reach.
Drawings, words, and a few photos combine to convey the depth of a tragedy that would leave most people dumbstruck.Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3585-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Abrams ComicArts
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
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