by Peter Ward ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 14, 2018
The best introduction so far to one of the most controversial elements of 21st-century evolutionary science.
A fascinating journey into the relatively new field of epigenetics, which “has a great deal to add to the overall understanding of the history of life, beginning with the origin of the first living species itself.”
According to this outstanding account by paleontologist and astrobiologist Ward (The Flooded Earth: Our Future in a World Without Ice Caps, 2010, etc.), epigenetics is the biological revolution du jour. The author explains that Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829), a predecessor of Charles Darwin, believed that species evolved by passing on acquired characteristics. The oft-repeated example was a giraffe stretching to reach leaves in tall trees and giving birth to offspring with longer necks. However, Lamarck was marginalized by Darwin’s teaching that acquired traits are never inherited but that children vary slightly from their parents. When a variation provides a survival advantage, its possessor produces more offspring, and this “natural selection” slowly drives evolutionary change. Yet fossil evidence doesn’t support it. “New species,” writes Ward, “appear with what seems like too much rapidity to be explained by current theory.” Bacteria routinely pass genes to neighbors, including unrelated species. Does “horizontal gene transfer” occur in complex organisms? The answer came when studies showed stretches of bacterial and viral DNA in the human genome. Biologists also knew that stressful environmental conditions change gene function. They mistakenly assumed that these changes vanish when the organism produces sex cells for reproduction. It turns out that “major environmental changes during the life of an individual can cause heritable changes to that organism, that can then be passed on to the next generation.” This defines epigenetics: a better explanation for life’s history and the quick appearance of unique body plans after mass extinctions. Skilled in both science and writing, Ward walks readers through its history, mechanisms, and the current fierce debate over its role.
The best introduction so far to one of the most controversial elements of 21st-century evolutionary science.Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-63286-615-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
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by Lulu Miller illustrated by Kate Samworth ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2020
A quirky wonder of a book.
A Peabody Award–winning NPR science reporter chronicles the life of a turn-of-the-century scientist and how her quest led to significant revelations about the meaning of order, chaos, and her own existence.
Miller began doing research on David Starr Jordan (1851-1931) to understand how he had managed to carry on after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed his work. A taxonomist who is credited with discovering “a full fifth of fish known to man in his day,” Jordan had amassed an unparalleled collection of ichthyological specimens. Gathering up all the fish he could save, Jordan sewed the nameplates that had been on the destroyed jars directly onto the fish. His perseverance intrigued the author, who also discusses the struggles she underwent after her affair with a woman ended a heterosexual relationship. Born into an upstate New York farm family, Jordan attended Cornell and then became an itinerant scholar and field researcher until he landed at Indiana University, where his first ichthyological collection was destroyed by lightning. In between this catastrophe and others involving family members’ deaths, he reconstructed his collection. Later, he was appointed as the founding president of Stanford, where he evolved into a Machiavellian figure who trampled on colleagues and sang the praises of eugenics. Miller concludes that Jordan displayed the characteristics of someone who relied on “positive illusions” to rebound from disaster and that his stand on eugenics came from a belief in “a divine hierarchy from bacteria to humans that point[ed]…toward better.” Considering recent research that negates biological hierarchies, the author then suggests that Jordan’s beloved taxonomic category—fish—does not exist. Part biography, part science report, and part meditation on how the chaos that caused Miller’s existential misery could also bring self-acceptance and a loving wife, this unique book is an ingenious celebration of diversity and the mysterious order that underlies all existence.
A quirky wonder of a book.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6027-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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by Carlo Rovelli ; translated by Simon Carnell & Erica Segre ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2016
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both...
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Italian theoretical physicist Rovelli (General Relativity: The Most Beautiful of Theories, 2015, etc.) shares his thoughts on the broader scientific and philosophical implications of the great revolution that has taken place over the past century.
These seven lessons, which first appeared as articles in the Sunday supplement of the Italian newspaper Sole 24 Ore, are addressed to readers with little knowledge of physics. In less than 100 pages, the author, who teaches physics in both France and the United States, cogently covers the great accomplishments of the past and the open questions still baffling physicists today. In the first lesson, he focuses on Einstein's theory of general relativity. He describes Einstein's recognition that gravity "is not diffused through space [but] is that space itself" as "a stroke of pure genius." In the second lesson, Rovelli deals with the puzzling features of quantum physics that challenge our picture of reality. In the remaining sections, the author introduces the constant fluctuations of atoms, the granular nature of space, and more. "It is hardly surprising that there are more things in heaven and earth, dear reader, than have been dreamed of in our philosophy—or in our physics,” he writes. Rovelli also discusses the issues raised in loop quantum gravity, a theory that he co-developed. These issues lead to his extraordinary claim that the passage of time is not fundamental but rather derived from the granular nature of space. The author suggests that there have been two separate pathways throughout human history: mythology and the accumulation of knowledge through observation. He believes that scientists today share the same curiosity about nature exhibited by early man.
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both scientists and general readers.Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-18441-3
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
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