Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease

Book Description

Read it.

You're already living it.

Was diabetes evolution's response to the last Ice Age? Did a deadly genetic disease help our ancestors survive the bubonic plagues of Europe? Will a visit to the tanning salon help lower your cholesterol? Why do we age? Why are some people immune to HIV? Can your genes be turned on -- or off?

Joining the ranks of modern myth busters, Dr. Sharon Moalem turns our current understanding of illness on its head and challenges us to fundamentally change the way we think about our bodies, our health, and our relationship to just about every other living thing on earth, from plants and animals to insects and bacteria.

Through a fresh and engaging examination of our evolutionary history, Dr. Moalem reveals how many of the conditions that are diseases today actually gave our ancestors a leg up in the survival sweepstakes. When the option is a long life with a disease or a short one without it, evolution opts for disease almost every time.

Everything from the climate our ancestors lived in to the crops they planted and ate to their beverage of choice can be seen in our genetic inheritance. But Survival of the Sickest doesn't stop there. It goes on to demonstrate just how little modern medicine really understands about human health, and offers a new way of thinking that can help all of us live longer, healthier lives.

Survival of the Sickest is filled with fascinating insights and cutting-edge research, presented in a way that is both accessible and utterly absorbing. This is a book about the interconnectedness of all life on earth -- and, especially, what that means for us.

Customer Reviews:

Very,very, interesting.......2007-09-21

This is one of those books that is a delightful read, educating, interesting, and entertaining. The author puts forth his theories that many modern diseases are variations of evolutionary traits that were held by our ancestors that enabled them to survive the ice age and bubonic plague. He goes on to describe how viruses cause certain behavior in their carriers to help the viruses survival. The common cold leaves you well enough to stay moving and go to work so you can spread the virus to others, while the parasitic malaria wants you immobile and in bed because mosquitos can continue to carry it even better with you immobile.
The author also presents a case currently making head way in evolutionary science that is challenging the savannah theory. He proposes that we are evolved form aquatic apes as opposed to grassland dwellers, which would explain our hairlessness like other aquatic mammals and being bipedal. We also have fat stored at the skin like water dwellers and our infants have swimming instincts at birth that have been proven by water birthing that is very successful.
And finally I was really fascinated by the finding that what scientists have believed were "junk DNA" is slowly being shown to actually be a creative force that causes mutations in DNA for the benefit of survival of the species. I have always had trouble believing in the evolutionary theory because no mechanism could be created with causing it outside of God, and God would not need it. I also believed that the key was in DNA. Now I have a cause, the DNA itself creates and casues beneficial mutations.
I really can not do this book justice in a review with out making it far to long so buy the book if the above sounds interesting. The book presents an excellent case and has made me a believer.

Evolution in a way you never knew!.......2007-09-08

Everything out there is influencing the evolution of everything else. The bacteria and viruses and parasites that cause disease in us have affected our evolution as we have adapted in ways to cope with their effects. In response they have evolved in turn, and keep on doing so.

There are many dietary diseases that have had an evolutionary advantage in our ancestors but that today do more harm than good. In a person with hemochromatosis, for example, the body always thinks that it doesn't have enough iron and continues to absorb iron unabated. The excess iron can lead to liver failure, heart failure, diabetes, and even cancer.

Why would a disease so deadly be bred into our genetic code? Remember how natural selection works. If a given genetic trait makes you stronger--especially if it makes you stronger before you have children--then you're more likely to survive, reproduce, and pass that trait on. People with hemochromatosis have therefore an evolutionary advantage--protection against the bubonic plague!

On one set of experiments, macrophages from people who had hemochromatosis and macrophages from people who did not were matched against bacteria in separate dishes to test their killing ability. The hemochromatic macrophages crushed the bacteria. They are thought to be significantly better at combating bacteria by limiting the availability of iron than the nonhemochromatic macrophages. So though hemochromatosis will kill those inflicted with it decades later, they are much more likely than people without hemochromatosis to survive plagues, reproduce, and pass the mutation on to their children.

Diabetes also provided an evolutionary advantage to our ancestors by providing superior ability to withstand the cold by eliminating water and driving up sugar levels (like alcohol, sugar is a natural antifreeze). As a theory, it's hotly controversial, but diabetes may have helped our European ancestors survive the sudden cold, including the ice-age.

Malaria is an infectious disease that infects as many as 500 million people every year, killing more than 1 million of them. But not everyone who gets bit by malaria-carrying mosquitoes gets infected. And not everybody who gets infected dies. So what's helping the malaria survivors? People with a genetic tendency for sickle-cell anemia, another inherited blood disorder, had better natural resistance to malaria.

As you've seen with hemochromatosis, diabetes, and sickle-cell anemia, one generation's evolutionary solution is another generation's evolutionary problem.

At the end of the day, every living thing shares two hardwired imperatives: Survive. Reproduce. To achieve this, some organisms have inherited ingenious techniques to manipulate their hosts--the phenomenon that occurs when a parasite provokes its host to behave in a way that helps the parasite to survive and reproduce.

Orb weavers are a family of spiders that experience host manipulation. A wasp bites the spider, temporarily paralyzing it, then deposits its egg in its abdomen. The spider then goes on with his life oblivious to the egg in him. The egg then hatches, and the larva slowly feeds off the blood of the spider. When it is ready to cocoon, it injects chemicals into the spider's bloodstream to manipulate the spider into building a special web for it--instead of building circular webs, it goes back and forth building a rectangular web. Once the web is completed, the larva kills the spider by sucking off all its blood, and then throwing its carcass to the jungle floor below. It then uses the specially built web for it to cocoon by hanging on it.

A worm that infects ants is a classic example of another host manipulator. As the worms being carried by the ant develop, one of them makes its way to the ant's brain where it manipulates the ant's nervous system. Suddenly, the ant behaves in completely uncharacteristic fashion. At night, it leaves its colony and hangs on the tip of a grass, waiting to be eaten by a sheep. If it does not, it returns to its colony only to resume again its journey at night to the tip of a grass waiting to be eaten. Once eaten by a sheep, the worm would have succeeded in its manipulation, and would grow inside the sheep's stomach, its intended host.

The rabies Virus is another interesting host manipulator. It manipulates its host into becoming aggressive, which will make its host bite others and thus also infecting others.

Here is one amazing example of host manipulation: One researcher has discovered that women infected with T. gondii spend more money on clothes and are consistently rated as beings more attractive than women without the infection. Infected women were more easy-going, more warm-hearted, had more friends, and cared more about how they looked. However, they were also less trustworthy and had more relationships with men. Infected men, on the other hand, were less well groomed, more likely to be loners, and more willing to fight. They were also more likely to be suspicious and jealous and less willing to follow rules.

A normal sneeze occurs when the body's self-defense system senses a foreign invader trying to get in through your nasal passages and acts to repel the invasion by expelling it with a sneeze. But sneezing when you've got a cold? There's obviously no way to expel the cold virus which is already lodged in you. The cold virus has learned this reflex so it can infect your colleagues, family and your friends. Your body is actually being manipulated by the virus into sneezing!

The herpes virus may heighten sexual feeling, which will increase the probability of transmission. In other words, sometimes the herpes virus may want you to get some action in order for it to spread to other hosts.

So what if we made it easier for a given type of bacteria to survive in a healthy human than to survive in a sick human? Would this create evolutionary pressure against behavior that harms us? In fact there is an evolutionary advantage for the malaria parasite to push its hosts toward the brink of death. The more parasites swarming through our blood, the more parasites the mosquito is likely to ingest; the more parasites the mosquito ingests, the more likely it will cause an infection when it bites someone else. Cholera is similar--it doesn't need us moving around to find new hosts, so there's no reason for the bacteria to select against virulence. The bottom line is that if an infectious client has allies (such as mosquitoes) or good delivery systems (such as unprotected water supplies), peaceful coexistence with its host becomes a lot less important. In those cases evolution is likely to favor versions of the parasite that best exploit its host's resources, allowing the parasite to multiply as much as possible. Some researchers believe that we can use this understanding to influence the evolution of parasites away from virulence. The basic theory is this: shut down the modes of transmission that don't require human participation and suddenly all the evolutionary pressure is directed at allowing the human host to get up and get out. According to this theory, the virulence of a cholera outbreak in a given population should be directly related to the quality and safety of that population's water supply. If sewage flows easily into rivers that people wash in or drink from, then the cholera strain would evolve toward virulence--it can multiply freely, essentially using up its hosts, relying on its access to the water supply for transmission. But if the water supply is well protected, the organism should evolve away from virulence--the longer it remains in a more mobile host, the better its chance of transmission.

A series of cholera outbreaks that began in Peru in 1991 and spread across South and Central America over the next few years provide compelling evidence that this theory might actually work. The water supply systems from country to country ranged from relatively advanced to seriously rudimentary. Sure enough, when the bacteria invaded nations with poorly protected water supplies, such as Ecuador, the virus became more harmful as it spread. But in countries with safe water supplies, such as Chile, the bacteria evolved downward in virulence and killed fewer people. The implications of this are huge. Instead of challenging bacteria to become stronger and more dangerous through an antibiotic arms race (which we are currently losing), we could essentially challenge them to get along. If mosquitoes didn't have access to bedridden malaria patients, the microbe would be under evolutionary pressure to evolve in a way that allowed the infected person to remain mobile, increasing the opportunity for it to spread.

A series of groundbreaking research has shown that certain compounds can attach themselves to specific genes and suppress their expression. Let's take a look at a few examples. Depending upon the time of year the vole (a type of mouse) is due to give birth, baby voles are born with either a thick coat or a thin coat. The gene for a thick coat is always there--it's just turned on or off depending on the level of light the mother senses in her environment around the time of conception.

One species of lizard is born with a long tail and large body or a small tail and small body depending on one thing only--whether their mother smelled a lizard-eating snake while pregnant. When her babies are entering a snake-filled world, they are born with a long tail and big body, making them less likely to be snake food.

This is a fascinating book and I highly recommend it. I truly enjoyed reading it and I have learnt things I never imagined! Now that's what I call precious reading!

Understanding genetic disease from an evolutionary point of view.......2007-09-01

We really don't "need" disease. This is a bit misleading. It just so happens that some genetic disorders, such as sickle-cell anemia, favism, diabetes, hemochromatosis, the tendency to obesity, etc., confer on the afflicted compensatory advantages. Thus a predilection for getting fat is adaptive if a drought or a long winter beckons, or a person with a genetic tendency toward sickle-cell anemia is less likely to get malaria, and so on. Note that it is only diseases caused by genetic mutations that Dr. Moalem is talking about.

One of the techniques our bodies use when fighting infection is to reduce the amount of iron available to the invaders. Bacteria need iron to reproduce. If there is a lot of it available their numbers can grow quickly. Without iron they can't reproduce at all. Iron is a limiting factor for many kinds of life. Vast stretches of ocean support little in the way of life because the microorganisms that begin the food chain can't grow where there is so little iron. As Dr. Moalem reports in this wide-ranging and eyebrow-lifting book, sprinkle some iron onto those patches of ocean and they will quickly turn green with microorganisms.

So it is a bit of an irony that people who have hemochromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes them to retain large amounts of iron in their bodies, are able to survival infections like the plague. This is because they starve the invading microbes through "iron locking." They have a lot of iron in their bodies, but they keep it away from the bacteria. Other people who have low levels of iron in their bodies are able to withstand bacterial attacks because they also keep what little iron they have away from the germs. In fact, one of the body's initial responses to microbial invasion is to limit the amount of free iron in the system.

Genetic coding for levels of iron in the body is an example of evolutionary adaptation, part of the ongoing arms race between us and the microbes that live in and on our bodies. This is just one of several interesting and new ideas coming from the growing science of evolutionary medicine that I found in Survival of the Sickest. Incidentally, one way to manage hemochromatosis is through donating blood on a regular basis, which explains in part why physicians of old were sometimes successful when they bled their patients.

This got me to thinking about "only women bleed" which led me to think about hemorrhoids (which prove that it isn't only women who bleed). Perhaps bleeding instead of retaining blood, which seems like the more natural thing for our bodies to do, has adaptive value in some people in some environments.

Another interesting idea is this from page 58: "ACHOO syndrome--its full name is autosomal dominant compelling heliopthalmic outburst syndrome." It is a "disorder that causes uncontrolled sneezing when someone is exposed to bright light, usually sunlight, after being in the dark." Dr. Moalem suggests that "way back when our ancestors spent more time in caves, this reflex helped them to clear out any molds or microbes that might have lodged in their noses or upper respiratory tract." Now this may sound a bit far fetched, but I have suffered from low grade allergies all my life, and used to have asthmatic attacks. I came to believe that the buildup in my lungs and the sneezing were signals to me to move on! Of course now I clean and vacuum like a germaphobe, but the idea is the same. My symptoms were adaptive. They more or less forced me to reduce the level of potential irritants and microbes in my environment.

But there is more. I noticed long ago that sometimes the sun in the morning would cause me to sneeze. I never figured out why until I read the above from Dr. Moalem. I am just the kind of person who would need to sneeze those molds out.

Later on in the book Moalem returns to an evolutionary idea that has been kicking around for decades. Beginning with the work of Elaine Morgan from the 1970s the public became aware of the notion that we humans had an aquatic past. She got the idea from marine biologist Alister Hardy. Through such books as The Descent of Woman (1972) and The Aquatic Ape: A Theory of Human Evolution (1982) Morgan argued that some of our unusual adaptations came about because we had an aquatic past. Taking up the idea, Moalem writes, "Every hairless mammal is aquatic or at least plays in the mud--think of hippos, elephants and the African warthog. But there aren't any hairless primates." (p. 198) Furthermore we have fat directly under our skin to help keep us warm just as aquatic mammals do. Also, Moalem notes, "the ability to survive on land and sea" gives us adaptive flexibility. If "chased by a leopard, the semiaquatic ape could dive into the water; chased by a crocodile, it could run into the forest." (p. 199)

These ideas are familiar but what I didn't know was that an aquatic past could have figured in our evolution toward bipedalism. "[S]tanding upright in water allowed...[aquatic apes] to venture into deeper water and still breathe, and the water helped to support their upper bodies, making it easier to support them on two feet." (p. 199)

This is an easy to read book, aimed at a general readership. An earlier, slightly more technical book that covers some of the same territory is Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine (1994) by Randolph M. Nesse and George C. Williams, which I also recommend.

Razzle dazzle them.......2007-08-27

This book embodies much of what I dislike in popular cience books, while having few of the qualities I admire in such books. It relies more on sleigh of the hand and razzle dazzle, you-wouldn't-have-thought-of-it than on throughly thought out, well substantiated lines of thought.

Let's start with the subtitle: "A medical maverick discovers why we need disease". That is a clear case of fiction: nowhere in the book does the author "discover" anything; he merely retells the study of others. This, of course, is not a demerit, as many interesting scientists have difficulties in explaining their work in clear terms, acessible to the layman. However, the author must be hyped as the "discoverer", as the center figure in the tale.

Since James Burke's "Connections", it seems that popular science must explore all the crossroads, no matter how irrelevant. So Moalem goes on long tangents that have little to do with the theory he is trying to substantiate. In order to show how diabetes works to protect the body against cold, the reader is taken through the mechanism of an ice age, how ice core samples are removed and so on. If one were to remove all this "extra" material, this book would be thin indeed.

The book seems to revolve around this material and the author's use of jokes. Unfortunately, his sense of humour tends more towards ha-ha than funny, which helped to further fray my patience towards this book.

All of this is indeed a pity, as the subject is very interesting. If more pages had been dedicated to developing a central line of thought and substantiation and to showing the debate behind all these ideas (in a real light, instead of "the thickheaded traditionalists who won't accept new ideas"), it would be well worth the read.

Somewhat difficult subject matter for those lacking a background in science or medicine.........2007-07-08

From time to time I pick up a book on a subject I know virtually nothing about. Ordinarily I devour books about history or politics or current events. These are topics I am well versed in and comfortable with.
Dr. Sharon Moalem's "The Survival of the Sickest: sounded like a fascinating departure from my ordinary fare. So I thought I would give it a whirl. Unfortunately for me the results were somewhat mixed. Although Dr. Moalem and her co-author have written this book in fairly simple language that most should be able to follow pretty easily I found myself overwhelmed at times by the number of terms I was simply not familiar with at all. I'm afraid my lack of education in the sciences was showing. Blame me not the good doctor. Yet in spite of these difficulties I was still able to glean some important information from this book. I now have a somewhat better understanding of the whole business of why disease exists in the first place. I also discovered the important role viruses play in our ability to survive and reproduce. I also found out that the development of diabetes in human beings probably emerged as natures response to people having to cope with conditions in regions with extremely cold temperatures. This makes perfect sense and was interesting to me because a number of people in my family have battled this disease. Perhaps the most fascinating thing I learned in "Survival of the Sickest" is that exposure to the sunshine actually helps to convert the cholestorol in our bodies into the vitamin D we all need to ensure strong bones and help avoid osteoperosis. I had never heard this before and found this revelation to be quite interesting indeed!
For me, attempting to read "Survival of the Sickest" was a little like visiting a foreign country and not knowing the language. I was simply unprepared to get the most out of this book. As you can see, other reviewers continue to heap praise on Dr. Sharon Moalem for her book. I suspect their evaluation of this book is right on the money. In the end I found that reading "Survival of the Sickest" was time well spent anyway. After all, it is impossible to expand your horizons if you never make the attempt.

Average customer rating:

Richly detailed overview of modern evolutionary thought
No what I expected!!
If only Campbell were the author...
Makes evolutionary biology interesting
horrible

Evolutionary Analysis (4th Edition)
Scott Freeman , and Jon C. Herron
Manufacturer: Benjamin Cummings
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0132275848

Book Description

By presenting evolutionary biology as an ongoing research effort, this best-seller aims to help readers think like scientists. The authors convey the excitement and logic of evolutionary science by introducing principles through recent and classical studies, and by emphasizing real-world applications. Features a new chapter on Phylogenomics and the Molecular Basis of Adaptation (Ch. 15). Offers an earlier presentation of Reconstructing Evolutionary Trees, reflecting the growing importance of this topic in the field. Includes the latest research and examples, giving students access to the most current developments in the field. Includes full-color photographs, diagrams and data-graphics throughout, developed by the author. Undergraduate courses in evolution

Customer Reviews:

Richly detailed overview of modern evolutionary thought.......2007-04-14

I have used all three earlier editions of this text for my undergraduate 'Evolution' course (I am a college Professor of Biology) and have witnessed the various changes made over the years. The new version has updated much of the information on molecular evolution; the authors should be commended for their very thorough literature review. With the veritable explosion of research into evolutionary phenomena, this must be difficult indeed! The initial chapter on HIV still remains a wonderful introduction to your typically "human oriented" undergraduate and serves to generate interest in the topic early on. The phlogeny/evolutionary tree chapter was moved earlier to the "Introduction" part of the text; not sure why this was done. It was also nice to finally see mention made of reaction norms in the 'Adaptation' chapter (at last!), but there are still no examples of phenotypic plasticity from the vast botanical literature. The 'Evolution and Human Health' chapter is excellent for the medical student. Rather oddly, the important topic of speciation is near the book's end (Chapter 16) and glosses over the many fine examples from the plant evolution literature (polyploid speciation is virtually ignored, except for two paragraphs on p.159). My students are fascinated by the 'evolution of wheat' story, but don't look for that example of speciation here.

My primary complaint with this, and the preceding editions, is still the overwhelming amount of extraneous detail. How I wish I could use my editorial hand on this one! Does an undergraduate student really need over 20 pages on linkage disequilibrium? Are the final details of QTL mapping really necessary at this level of student education? Do we really need 4 pages on the 'fallacy' of the bell-curve (interesting advanced topic, but...) Also, there is an over abundance on phylogeny and systematics (useful for the future molecular systematist, but probably just confusing to the general biology major).

In any event, a great book, a little overwhelming, but well written and free of errors...I'll probably order the lastest (4th) edition anyway for the next 'Evolution' class...

No what I expected!!.......2006-11-13

Advertisement for this book is misleading. I thought it was the actual book, however its merely a workbook full of vocabulary. Not helpful at all!!! Save your money, you will still need the real book anyway!!

If only Campbell were the author..........2005-11-14

There's not much to say. The book isn't confusing because the material is too technical--it's often confusing because the author doesn't go in enough depth; it's frustrating when a crucial concept is presented, such as Hamilton's Law, but no examples on its applications are put forth. I find myself frequently searching the internet to suppliment this textbook. It also doesn't help that the book doesn't come with a cd-rom, or any additional material, unless you purchase the teacher's edition...reading this textbook makes me yearn for Campbell.

Makes evolutionary biology interesting.......2004-05-04

Evolutionary biology can be extremely tedious for undergraduate students if one insists on teaching the more arcane debates as Fisher versus Shifting Balance. That might be good for a second course for future professionals, but if one starts with such stuff, students will lose all the interest in evolution they came with.
Evolutionary Analysis is interesting, wel-informed and up to date, and is meant for general biologists. It cannot be used as a reference book for neo-darwinian debates, so the better.

horrible.......2004-03-05

Bought this one for Evolution class. It is a horrible excuse for a textbook. Do not buy this book unless it is for a middle school student. If the authors think this book has been written for an advanced audience, then I would suggest that anyone interested in learning evolution not attend University of Washington.

Evolutionary Dynamics: Exploring the Equations of Life

Average customer rating:

An engrossing read - highly recommended
Excellent and Approachable Survey
The Marriage of Mathematics and Evolution
A dazzling book
wonderful life

Evolutionary Dynamics: Exploring the Equations of Life
Martin A. Nowak
Manufacturer: Belknap Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0674023382

Book Description

At a time of unprecedented expansion in the life sciences, evolution is the one theory that transcends all of biology. Any observation of a living system must ultimately be interpreted in the context of its evolution. Evolutionary change is the consequence of mutation and natural selection, which are two concepts that can be described by mathematical equations.Evolutionary Dynamics is concerned with these equations of life. In this book, Martin Nowak draws on the languages of biology and mathematics to outline the mathematical principles according to which life evolves. His work introduces readers to the powerful yet simple laws that govern the evolution of living systems, no matter how complicated they might seem.

Evolution has become a mathematical theory, Nowak suggests, and any idea of an evolutionary process or mechanism should be studied in the context of the mathematical equations of evolutionary dynamics. His book presents a range of analytical tools that can be used to this end: fitness landscapes, mutation matrices, genomic sequence space, random drift, quasispecies, replicators, the Prisoner's Dilemma, games in finite and infinite populations, evolutionary graph theory, games on grids, evolutionary kaleidoscopes, fractals, and spatial chaos. Nowak then shows how evolutionary dynamics applies to critical real-world problems, including the progression of viral diseases such as AIDS, the virulence of infectious agents, the unpredictable mutations that lead to cancer, the evolution of altruism, and even the evolution of human language. His book makes a clear and compelling case for understanding every living system--and everything that arises as a consequence of living systems--in terms of evolutionary dynamics.

Customer Reviews:

An engrossing read - highly recommended.......2007-09-05

This is a wonderful book by a master of the field. Prof. Nowak, who teaches at Harvard, has managed a minor miracle: writing a book on mathematical biology that is mathematically rigorous and extremely readable at the same time.

The book is divided into two broad sections. The first nine chapters explore various abstract models of evolution. Simple models of evolution do not demonstrate cooperation between individuals, while examples of it abound in the real world. This fact quite rightly fascinates the author and informs his presentation. The last four chapters of the book use some of the modeling techniques developed in previous chapters to study real-world systems, such as HIV infection and cancer.

This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in the mathematical aspects of biology. More broadly, it will be of interest to anyone who's interested in mathematical models of complex systems.

Excellent and Approachable Survey.......2007-05-23

This book is an accessible introduction to the mathematics of evolution and results in the field of evolutionary dynamics with a heavy emphasis on applications including the immune system, virulence, AIDS, and even the evolution of language. Many of the ideas are from fairly recent papers and results in mathematical biology, particularly the sections regarding the evolution of universal grammar and in the emerging field of evolutionary graph theory, which adds population structure to the mathematical analysis. (This is a now necessary generalization of evolutionary game theory, which assumes uniform population structure.) As noted above, this is the first book to present many of these ideas outside of scientific and mathematical journals.

Although the mathematical content is significant, Nowak diligently explains the implications of the mathematics in the text of the book, widening the potential audience of the book dramatically. Simply put, this book is filled with delicious evolutionary content, backed up with mathematical rigor for the interested reader, but you need not have a degree in mathematics in order to understand much of the material.

Highly recommended for those truly interested in evolution.

The Marriage of Mathematics and Evolution.......2007-01-10

Excellent book for the mathematically and evolutionarily minded. However, not for general reading unless you are doing graduate work in either mathematics or evolutionary biology. Just excellent survey.

A dazzling book.......2006-11-22

This is, quite simply, a dazzling book. Nowak manages to take very deep mathematical ideas that are on the cutting edge of science and make them fun and pretty rigorous at the same time. The review in Nature said "It should be on the shelf of anyone who has, or thinks they might have, an interest in theoretical biology" and I completely agree. The section on HIV, explaining mathematically why there is a long delay between infection and the disease, and how this proposal in 1990 correctly predicted several biolgical facts which were subseqently discovered (but not mentioning execpt in the notes, that this was his work) is truly exceptional. We are moving beyond the "Just So stories" phase of evolution (such as wooly rhetoric about "Selfish Genes") to real, mathematically rigorous, science.

wonderful life.......2006-10-13

This is a remarkable book, absolutely original, containing a lot of material which has never before appeared in book form. It is written in a very accessible style, and leads almost effortlessly from first principles to state-of-the-art research.

The book takes an eagle's view on evolution, covering an vast range of topics from molecules to man. It emphasises analytical methods and presents a large canvas of superbly elegant mathematical models.

The author has chosen a very personal, highly idiosyncratic sample of subjects of amazing diversity, basically because he feels excited about them: and this excitement shows through, and makes the book very engaging, a positively bracing experience. On all of the topics, the author has contributed substantially, and the feel to get it `straight from the horse's mouth' is one of the great assets of the book. I believe that it will be a splendid hit with students, and regret that I did not have anything like that when I was young.

The style of the book is lucid and vigorous, with short, clear sentences, occasionally in staccato style. The mathematics is reduced to the bare minimum. It is incredible how much mileage the author can get out of it. The illustrations play an important role, and are well devised.

The chapters are short, and they address an amazing array of topics, ranging from molecular evolution to evolutionary games, from HIV to cancer, and from cooperation to language. In spite of their different subjects, they are homogenous: first comes a breezy introduction to the biological (or chemical, or linguistic) facts, then a simple model, then an analysis, without heavy machinery, usually leading up to some remarkable results which could not be obtained without mathematics, then a summary in a few short statements and finally an extensive list of references, including both the classics and the very newest results in the field. The fact that in each case, a few pages suffice to start from scratch and lead to the cutting edge of present-day research is quite remarkable.

The book will certainly have a big impact, and raise a lot of follow-up work. There is hardly a better recipe for young PhDs than to pick one of the chapters and start doing their own research. But in addition, `the whole is more than the sum of its parts'. I usually hate this slogan but here it holds in a spectacular way. By simply putting together the different applications of simple models in so spectacularly diverse fields, Nowak's book promotes a radical `hands-on'-approach to evolution which, I am sure, will have seminal repercussions.

Average customer rating:

Fantastic!!
Es un libro basico

Marine Mammals: Evolutionary Biology
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Marine Mammal Biology: An Evolutionary Approach
Cetacean Societies: Field Studies of Dolphins and Whales
Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals
Marine Mammal Research: Conservation beyond Crisis

ASIN: 0120885522
Release Date: 2005-10-13

Book Description

Berta and Sumich have succeeded yet again in creating superior marine reading! This book is a succinct yet comprehensive text devoted to the systematics, evolution, morphology, ecology, physiology, and behavior of marine mammals. The first edition, considered the leading text in the field, is required reading for all marine biologists concerned with marine mammals. Revisions include updates of citations, expansion of nearly every chapter and full color photographs. This title continues the tradition by fully expanding and updating nearly all chapters.

* Comprehensive, up-to-date coverage of the biology of all marine mammals
* Provides a phylogenetic framework that integrates phylogeny with behavior and ecology
* Features chapter summaries, further readings, an appendix, glossary and an extensive bibliography
* Exciting new color photographs and additional distribution maps

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic!!.......2001-11-01

This book is a really great find. It goes through the evolution of cetaceans and pinnapeds. It uses some wild termanology but they are all defined for you. It covers every aspect of marine mammal evolution. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in whales and dolhpins or seals and sea lions.

Es un libro basico.......2000-05-18

Este es uno de los libros basicos para los mastozoologos marinos, ya que se hace una revision sobre la evolucion de los mamiferos marinos.

The Evolution of Morality (Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology)

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Doing to others
Moral Skepticism Defended

The Evolution of Morality (Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology)
Richard Joyce
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong
Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved (The University Center for Human Values Series)
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The Ethical Brain

ASIN: 0262101122

Book Description

Moral thinking pervades our practical lives, but where did this way of thinking come from, and what purpose does it serve? Is it to be explained by environmental pressures on our ancestors a million years ago, or is it a cultural invention of more recent origin? In The Evolution of Morality, Richard Joyce takes up these controversial questions, finding that the evidence supports an innate basis to human morality. As a moral philosopher, Joyce is interested in whether any implications follow from this hypothesis. Might the fact that the human brain has been biologically prepared by natural selection to engage in moral judgment serve in some sense to vindicate this way of thinking--staving off the threat of moral skepticism, or even undergirding some version of moral realism? Or if morality has an adaptive explanation in genetic terms--if it is, as Joyce writes, "just something that helped our ancestors make more babies"--might such an explanation actually undermine morality's central role in our lives? He carefully examines both the evolutionary "vindication of morality" and the evolutionary "debunking of morality," considering the skeptical view more seriously than have others who have treated the subject.

Interdisciplinary and combining the latest results from the empirical sciences with philosophical discussion, The Evolution of Morality is one of the few books in this area written from the perspective of moral philosophy. Concise and without technical jargon, the arguments are rigorous but accessible to readers from different academic backgrounds. Joyce discusses complex issues in plain language while advocating subtle and sometimes radical views. The Evolution of Morality lays the philosophical foundations for further research into the biological understanding of human morality.

Customer Reviews:

Doing to others.......2006-09-03

"Morality", that sense of doing good, or at least avoiding harm, to others is one of humanity's treasured phrases. It is one of the characteristics that supposedly sets us apart from the other animals. We use the values imparted to it in judging others, as we are judged in turn. However, it remains an enigmatic term, carrying a host of definitions. And that's not counting the exceptions. Richard Joyce, for all his assertive title, isn't claiming to have the final word on morality. Instead, he's launching a project with areas of study that should be investigated further. Only one thing he insists on - as a product of evolution by natural selection, human beings will find the origins of that valued concept in our biological heritage.

Joyce's treatise is tightly organised. Given he addresses this complex idea in just over two hundred pages, discipline with words is a must. There are but six chapters in which to deal with questions plaguing our species since at least the invention of writing. In that short stack, he ties anthropology, sociology, evolutionary psychology and other fields together in a very neat package. Even such a short presentation doesn't force him to be terse. The material is clearly presented and sprinklings of wit keep it from bogging the reader down. However, the proposals are carefully, if succinctly, offered and the reader's attention must not flag.

Since "morality" hinges on the interactions between humans [other animals, whatever their behaviour traits, are deemed "amoral"] the key in Joyce's analysis is "reciprocity". Reciprocity hinges on a host of factors, from the genetic proximity of relatives to what kind of reputation one has - even across a large group. Game theory has been employed to demonstrate the variations reciprocity can achieve and the lengths to which it might go. The other aspect of interaction is language. For Joyce, setting moral standards and assessing behaviour against these can only be effective when the norms are understood. It's not possible to derive moral values from actions alone.

The expression of moral statements and the expectation that these will be respected is a significant aspect of maintaining human communities. The exchange of views within a group and the acceptance of certain behaviour patterns strengthens the identity of the community. As values were tested, individuals could discern who among the group could be trusted, particularly in times of difficulties. Those accepting the norms are more likely to gain status and, hence, reproductive success. These conditions lead to reinforcement of the values under consideration, making a moral sense an innate human characteristic. Not only is the application of moral values universal, but these values are projected beyond the small group to more extended communities with seamless ease. Joyce makes no attempt to define when, or even where, this process began. It was sufficiently distant in time to have made a sense of moral values part of the baggage our species carried out of Africa.

Having concluded that there's sufficient evidence to warrant declaring the morality is a evolved trait, Joyce asks "So what?" in a "philosophical tone of voice". This "tone" is applied to a number of philosophers who have addressed the issue of morality as a result of evolutionary development. He examines "The Naturalistic Fallacy" that has been attributed to George Moore early in the 20th Century. The claim imputed to Moore, that "ought" cannot be derived from "is", is misdirected, says Joyce. Several scholars, such as Robert Richards, William Casebeer and Daniel Dennett are reviewed on this and other issues - what, for example, is "virtue" and does it determine what is "ethical"? From this, Joyce moves to a discussion of which moral standards we should value. He is careful to caution readers not to feel they should derive specific moral beliefs from evolution. There's a massive leap from evolution giving us a moral sense to which elements we choose to apply it to. The capacity for moral judgement doesn't provide a prescription for specific behaviours.

Although Joyce is hardly the first philosopher to consider our evolutionary roots for ethics and morality, the succinct approach and clear writing make this an excellent starting point for someone new to the concept. Avoiding arcane propositions and pedantic language, the author provides a clear pointer for future study. No reader should feel intimidated by the prospect of taking up this book. We need more such work and workers dealing with defining what makes a human being. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Moral Skepticism Defended.......2006-02-04

Moral philosophers tend to take the content of morality as given, perhaps by intuition or our cultural heritage, and attempt to derive moral truth from a sparse set of assumptions, such a utilitarianism (Bentham, Mill), virtue theory (Aristotle), or synthetic a priori deontological notions (Kant). Other philosophers attempt to derive valid moral rules themselves on the basis of a neo-Platonic foray into the juggling of abstract universals (Rawls, Nozick, Singer, Dworkin). Perhaps I betray my position as a behavioral scientist by believing that morals are things that people have, like noses and tendencies to procrastinate, and should be studied scientifically rather than philosophically. Happily, I am not alone, however, as Richard Joyce takes the same position in his book, The Evolution of Morality.

Joyce recites the extensive body of evidence showing that there is a universal human morality observed in virtually all societies ever studied, including the thousand or so primitive hunter-gather societies that exist in the contemporary world. Of course, there are also strong contrasts in some moral principles across societies, but these tend to be confined to a few delicate areas, including gender relations and political philosophy, and they can doubtless be explained by level of economic development and political integration. But, if this is the case, it is unlikely that "ethical theory" can stand as a bastion of philosophizing. Rather, ethical theory is the study of the structure and evolution of human morality. This is the "moral skepticism" that Joyce embraces, and it is well taken.

The problem with traditional moral philosophy is that it has not recognized that morality is an evolved trait of our species, and had we evolved differently, we would have radically different morality. Therefore, morality cannot be derived from abstract, ahistorical axioms that would hold for any intelligent, social creature. Darwin understood this clearly when he wrote that if we had evolved from bee-like ancestors (quote in Joyce, p. 229), "unmarried females would, like the worker-bees, think it a sacred duty to kill their brothers, and mothers would strive to kill their fertile daughters." Similarly, political philosophy would be much different in a race of intelligent termites, or even of chimpanzees, than of humans.

It is safe to say humans are the only species with a moral sense, although we have bred our domestic pets to appear to conform to our morality. Why has this occurred? Joyce suggests that in a complex society with many subtle norms of behavior and multi-dimensional relations among individuals, a moral sense is individually fitness-enhancing. The amoral sociopath, who behaves morally only when this suits his purpose, should in theory do better than the moral person, who is willing to sacrifice personally in order to uphold moral rules. But, humans tend to be "present-oriented", overvaluing immediate pleasures and undervaluing long-term gains. A moral sense helps us be reasonable prosocial and prudential concerning our long-term interests, because it substitutes present pleasures and pains for future ones. For instance, I brush my teeth, and am courteous to my boss, because I would feel bad if I did otherwise, not because I am reckoning some trade-off between present and future well-being. As Hamlet says, "Conscience doth make cowards of us all," except the coward, who obeys societies rules, lives to have more offspring, while the hero is remembered only in books.

The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation

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The Greatest Book Ever Written
Interesting book about cooperative behavior, marred by libertarian bias
Interesting argument about human cooperation and evolution
Provocative with some confusing conclusions
Very entertaining

The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation
Matt Ridley
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature
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ASIN: 0140264450

Amazon.com

Human life, scientific journalist Matt Ridley suggests, is a complex balancing act: we behave with self-interest foremost in mind, but also in ways that do not harm, and sometimes even benefit, others. This behavior, in a strange way, makes us good. It also makes us unique in the animal world, where self-interest is far more pronounced. "The essential virtuousness of human beings is proved not by parallels in the animal kingdom, but by the very lack of convincing animal parallels," Ridley writes. How we got to be so virtuous over millions of years of evolution is the theme of this entertaining book of popular science, which will be of interest to any student of human nature.

Book Description

If, as Darwin suggests, evolution relentlessly encourages the survival of the fittest, why are humans compelled to live in cooperative, complex societies? In this fascinating examination of the roots of human trust and virtue, a zoologist and former American editor of the Economist reveals the results of recent studies that suggest that self-interest and mutual aid are not at all incompatible. In fact, he points out, our cooperative instincts may have evolved as part of mankind's natural selfish behavior--by exchanging favors we can benefit ourselves as well as others. Brilliantly orchestrating the newest findings of geneticists, psychologists, and anthropologists, The Origins of Virtue re-examines the everyday assumptions upon which we base our actions towards others, whether in our roles as parents, siblings, or trade partners. With the wit and brilliance of The Red Queen, his acclaimed study of human and animal sexuality, Matt Ridley shows us how breakthroughs in computer programming, microbiology, and economics have given us a new perspective on how and why we relate to each other.

• Ridley's previous book, The Red Queen, was short-listed for the Writers' Guild Award for nonfiction.

Customer Reviews:

The Greatest Book Ever Written.......2007-09-11

Don't pick up this book unless you want life-changing revelations about the way you view friends, family, and all other relationships. Everything is a give and take.

Interesting book about cooperative behavior, marred by libertarian bias.......2007-05-06

Why should people or animals be nice to one another? The thesis of the book is that such behavior arises because it is in the mutual interest of individuals to exchange goods and services. The book does a good job of showing examples from animal and anthropological studies as well as providing theoretical arguments. Along the way you will be disabused of any notions that you may have of "noble savages" and of any idyllic images of the behavior of dolphins and chimpanzees.

Unfortunately the author has a dislike of large scale government, which causes him to ignore investigating the benefits not only of government but of special purpose organizations at all levels from gardening clubs to Medieval guilds to large scale charitable organizations. There are, for example, things that governments do well that simply are not possible at the individual level, like organizing poice and armies and constructing highways. Also worthy of mention would be the comparatively modern concept of voting. This is not something done by hunter-gatherers, because they do not have the required abstract concept of number, which is not something that we are born with.

Despite its title the book does not really explain the origin of virtue as a concept. He says that the ideal of self-less behavior is an illusion, yet even if this is the case it requires an explanation. Why are we moved by the suffering of others? Why do so many people contribute to charitable organizations? Why do we have a concept of justice, leading to what the author calls the "irrational" attitude of revenge, which he notes is peculiar to our own species.

The book provides a good starting point for a discussion of virtue, but, as I have indicated it is certainly not the final word on the subject.

Interesting argument about human cooperation and evolution.......2007-03-19

The book opens with a daring jail break. The story notes that the person escaping the grim Russian prison is, in fact, a member of the nobility, one of the Czar's favorites when the escapee was much younger. The person breaking out, of course, is Peter Kropotkin, the anarchist prince. However, it is not his philosophy so much as his work in natural history that drew Matt Ridley's attention.

Kropotkin, on an exploration of Siberia, observed what he saw was cooperation among multitudinous animal species. He drew from that the conclusion that Huxley, who had described nature as "red in tooth and claw," was missing an important part of the evolution picture--the evolution of cooperation. And this leads to Ridley's thesis in this well written volume (page 5): "Society works not because we have consciously invented it, but because it is an ancient product of our evolved predispositions. It is literally in our nature." He goes on to note that (page 5): "This is a book about human nature, and in particular the surprisingly social nature of the human animal."

The volume proceeds by reviewing theories and research on cooperation, evolution, and so on, a wide ranging review of the human condition and of our evolutionary impulses. He notes that our primate relatives set the stage for understanding the evolution of human cooperation. He notes the importance of a game, adopting game theory, developed by political scientist Robert Axelrod, in which humans will cooperate unless double crossed, at which point individuals will respond in negative kind. But, according to some theorists, as long as individuals are willing to cooperate with one another, they will get cooperation in return.

His conclusion is intriguing (page 264): "If we are to recover social harmony and virtue, if we are to build back into society the virtues that made it work for us, it is vital that we reduce the power and scope of the state." He calls for (page 265) ". . .social and material exchange between equals for that is the raw material of trust, and trust is the basis for virtue."

All in all, an intriguing and interesting volume. Not all, of course, will be convinced of the thesis. But it is a well written effort to integrate many different bodies of work to make his point.

Provocative with some confusing conclusions.......2007-01-10

I gave this book four stars out of five because most of the book seems to develop a sound argument for virtues and traits arising out of evolutionary development. Where it fails is in some of its conclusions. Here I am echoing the Editorial Review From Library Journal as shown here on Amazon.com. After pointing out how mankind, many times as hunter-gather tribes, has caused massive destruction and drove many species to extinction, he concludes that the best way to be environmentally friendly is through small, local cooperatives rather than large, especially state sponsored or directed, environmental organizations. (He arrives at other similar conclusions in other areas as well). This seems to be a dichotomy. While he does provide some evidence, it is not nearly as conclusive as he seems to believe. At one point he speaks of the English medieval common. He points out that stinting is still an on-going practice in some regions, thus leading to the conclusion that local control and cooperation is best. However, this argument leaves a lot to be desired. First, the commons system mostly broke down for a variety of reasons, one of which was cheating. This lead to the enclosures. This ended up leading to wealthier individuals who ended up purchasing more property and reducing his neighbors to fuedal status and eventual poor management. If the commons system was so successful, it is hard to understand why it almost completely collapsed. To be sure, the collapse can be partially explained to some degree by other aspects of human nature. Yet, a truly successful system should have been able to resist such corruption.

Likewise, the attacks on the larger "do good" organizations seems questionable. After all, it has been a defining nature of man to organize in ever larger groups for at least 10,000 years, the time of the earliest known permanent settlements. While 10,000 years is a mere blip on the evolutionary scale, the need to organize seems pervasive, as he points out early on using the complex systems of plants and animals as examples. While the frailties of human nature do not always lead these organizations to performing the best good, it is unquestionable that many people involved in these organizations are selfless. Also, another counter-argument to his conclusions is the fact that much of the Industrial world democratically votes for things that will cost them, but are for some sort of larger good.

What this book does well is demonstrate that many virtuous traits did come out of evolutionary development, rather than cultural or religious forces. While these latter undoubtedly have an effect on these traits, they are not the source. It does a good job explaining what the base behavioral tendencies are, thus providing a basis for evaluating our institutions, finding ways to reward positive traits and to punish the negative traits that always arise.

This book is an easy read. If the subject is interesting to you, purchase the book, just keep on mind some of the weaknesses. A newer book you may want to consider is Moral Minds. Or, perhaps, read both.

Very entertaining.......2006-11-21

Matt Ridley does a good job of explaining the origins of virtue as pro-social, instinctive behaviors that serve individual or genetic self-interest via a cohesive and cooperative group. The flip-side of this is tribal 'us' vs 'them' thinking and behavior which can lead to the horrors of war and genocide.

Free-trade is seen as the way to improve relations between groups. Reduced state power with private or communal property ownership is seen as the way to improve conservation of resources and to improve relations between people who are then equally engaged in exchange. Exchange is built on trust which is the foundation of virtue.

Ridley acknowledges the problem that the recognition of the motivation of self-interest in people can lead to people becoming more selfish.

My greater concern is his assumption of exchange being between equals. Or, indeed, how decision-making power will be shared equally considering, for example, how much authority men have had over women throughout evolution and history. Can women be equal exchangers considering their reproductive and 'caring' roles in society that are so difficult to cost or even for men to value? Ridley himself says that tribalism is more of a male problem so is this all really just directed at men and traditional male activities? If so, where does it leave women, children, the elderly etc? The practicalities are far from clear.

Nonetheless, this is a strong argument and Ridley is a very entertaining writer. Certainly well worth reading.

Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour

Average customer rating:

Sorting out the Issues
God sense, not nonsense
A breath of fresh air

Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour
Kevin N. Laland , and Gillian Brown
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Defenders of the Truth: The Sociobiology Debate

ASIN: 0198508840

Book Description

Evolutionary theory is one of the most wide-ranging and inspiring of scientific ideas. It offers a battery of methods that can be used to help us understand human behaviour. Nevertheless, the legitimacy of this exercise is at the centre of a heated controversy that has raged for over a century. Many evolutionary biologists, anthropologists and psychologists have taken these evolutionary principles and tried using them to explain a wide range of human characteristics, such as homicide, religion and sex differences in behaviour. Others, however, are sceptical of these interpretations. Moreover, researchers disagree as to the best ways to use evolution to explore humanity, and a number of schools have emerged. 'Sense and Nonsense' provides an introduction to the ideas, methods, and findings of five such schools, namely, sociobiology, human behavioural ecology, evolutionary psychology, memetics, and gene-culture co-evolution. Carefully guiding the reader through the mire of confusing terminology, claim and counter-claim, and polemical statements, Laland and Brown provide a balanced, rigorous analysis that scrutinizes both the evolutionary arguments and the allegations of the critics. This is a book that will be make fascinating reading for popular science readers, undergraduate and postgraduate students (for example, in psychology, anthropology and zoology), and to experts on one approach who would like to know more about the other perspectives. Having completed this book the reader will feel better placed to assess the legitimacy of claims made about human behaviour under the name of evolution, and to make judgements as to what is sense and what is nonsense.

Customer Reviews:

Sorting out the Issues.......2005-08-13

Kevin Laland is a prominent researcher in gene-culture coevolution, niche construction (the study of how organisms modify their social and physical environment, and thereby modify their own gene pool) and animal social learning. Gillian Brown is a primatologist who studies parenting behavior. Their book is a study of six strands of evolutionary theory as applied to human behavior: (a) Darwin and his pre-sociobiology followers (including Galton, Spencer, Lorenz, Tinbergen, von Frisch, and Ardrey); (b) the founders of sociobiology, including Dawkins, Trivers, Hamilton, Maynard Smith, and E. O. Wilson; and three offshoots of sociobiology, (c) behavioral ecology (including Hill, Kaplan, Hawkes, and Chagnon); (d) evolutionary psychology (including Cosmides, Tooby, Daly, Margo Wilson, Pinker, Buss); (e) memetics; and (f) gene-culture coevolution (including Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman, Boyd and Richerson, and Laland himself).

The title is inspired by the authors' impression that, despite the fact that the academic social sciences have virtually ignored evolutionary approaches, the public finds them very sexy and provocative, to the point where evolutionary research is continually influenced by political and journalistic concerns, and the science tends to be overwhelmed by the junk and the hype. I fully share this impression, and I think they have done a fine job in extracting the "sense" from the "nonsense." They even manage to treat memetics seriously, despite the fact that memetics' attempt to detach culture from reproduction, production, cooperation, conflict, and the other basic activities of social life cannot possibly succeed.

Laland and Brown vigorously defend the early Darwinists and sociobiologists against the many politically motivated attacks against them (they do not deal with religious critiques). While the authors recognize that their ideas have often eclipsed by more contemporary research, they find no major fault in the constitution of these two schools. I think this is a bad mistake. In the century from Darwin to E. O. Wilson, evolutionary researchers managed to isolate themselves from every mainstream social science, including economics, sociology, psychology, political science, and to a lesser extent, anthropology. It is futile to blame this on the mainstream. The fault lies squarely with the evolutionary theorists, who failed to make a convincing case for the position.

This is quite unforgivable, because mainstream social science has made many central contributions that must be integrated into evolutionary theory to provide a solid, scientific body of knowledge concerning human behavior. Laland and Brown give no reason for this isolation of evolutionary theory, except the trivial commonplaces mouthed by virtually everyone in this tradition (traditional social science is ideology, the mainstream is afraid of being tainted with the sins of eugenics and racist genetic determinism, and so on). The major problem facing evolutionary theory today is not to shuck the nonsense, but to account for its failure to become part of the mainstream, I believe, and Laland and Brown do not recognize this.

The very idea of forming schools of thought, such as behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology, and gene-culture coevolution is an indication of the inability of evolutionary theory to consider itself a science. Scientists seek integration, not fragmentation. Behavioral ecologists, for instance, are anthropologists who study simple societies, while evolutionary psychologists are psychologists who study commonalities in human behavior across all societies. How could they possibly consider themselves "alternative" theories? They very idea is absurd, a capitulation to the natural human tendency to congregate in small groups of "insiders" whose major motivation is to triumph over the many groups of "outsiders" whose strange ways are threatening and unsettling.

This one issue aside, I find Laland and Brown very convincing in adjudicating among the various approaches, and in their plea for tolerance and exchange of information among them. Like the authors, I believe that gene-culture coevolution is the overarching principle that includes the others as subclasses. I also believe that gene-culture coevolution is the most promising basis for the integration of evolutionary with mainstream social science. The authors' only critique of gene-culture coevolution is that it tends to be highly mathematical and does not generate many empirical studies. I do not agree with this critique. Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman, as well as Boyd and Richerson, have done admirable empirical work, and with the use of experimental game theory in recent years, we will have much more such research in the near future. The true critique of gene-culture coevolutionary theory, in my view, is its ignorance of and contempt for traditional social science. Unless this is overcome, evolutionary social theory will remain marginalized for the foreseeable future.

Of course, most potential readers of this book will have the same prejudices concerning the traditional disciplines as do the authors, and they should find this book a welcome and incisive corrective to the disarray within evolutionary social theory.

God sense, not nonsense.......2004-02-18

The final chapter of E O Wilson's Sociobiology was a bombshell whose shockwaves reverberate today. Kevin Laland and Gillian Brown set out to sift through the morass of evolutionary approaches to human nature that is has spawned.

This is a useful review of the various schools of research, although I would have liked a firmer conclusion than 'a pluralistic approach is best'. Sometimes the authors could be a little less polite and have a little more bite.

Good stuff overall though, probably most helpful for those new to the area, or for students looking for an introduction. The book is a little light in content, concentrating on methodology, but the emphasis on cultural processes, absent from many evolutionary discussions, is most refreshing.

Do Laland and Brown successfully separate the sense from the nonsense? No. But they do equip the reader with some of the tools to do it for herself.

A breath of fresh air.......2002-07-17

This book is both a great read, and an informative one, for anyone interested in human behavior, evolutionary theory, and the links between the two. The area of potential evolutionary bases to human behavior has traditionally been filled with much controversy, some fighting, scattered irresponsible speculations and pronouncements that at times have produced tragic effects, and quite often, more heat than light. Laland and Brown have produced a book that is truly a breath of fresh air. One of the things I liked most about Sense and Nonsense is that Laland and Brown had actually sat down to talk with--and listen to--many of the leading proponents of different "schools" of thought. They work hard in Sense and Nonsense to give a fair presentation of each different approach, before moving on in each chapter to provide their own analysis of the approach presented from their own perspective as working scientists. In the midst of an area in which some researchers have been prone to simply shout louder--often literally--at those they disagree with, Laland and Brown have truly taken the time to listen, reflect, and form considered and thoughtful judgements. This is a service to all of us: After reading their book, I know that I will always look reflect differently on researchers' claims of evolutionary bases of human behavior, whether that's hearing them at a conference, or reading a journal article, or the latest best-selling book or TV interview. If you want to improve your understanding of evolution and human behavior, get a guided tour through the area and its controversies by two thoughtful experts, and come out with a changed perspective that will likely always stay with you, then read Sense and Nonsense. Great book.

The Evolutionary Ecology of Ant-Plant Mutualisms (Cambridge Studies in Ecology)

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The Evolutionary Ecology of Ant-Plant Mutualisms (Cambridge Studies in Ecology)
Andrew James Beattie
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0521252814

Book Description

Mutualistic interactions between ants and plants involve rewards offered by plants and services performed by ants in a mutually advantageous relationship. The rewards are principally food and/or nest sites, and ants in turn perform a number of services for plants: They disperse and plant seeds; they protect foliage, buds, and reproductive structures from enemies such as herbivores and seed predators; they fertilize plants with essential nutrients; and they may sometimes function as pollinators. In this book Professor Beattie reviews the fascinating natural history of ant-plant interactions, discusses the scientific evidence for the mutualistic nature of these relationships, and reaches some conclusions about the ecological and evolutionary processes that mold them. Mutualisms involving single pairs of species are the exception rather than the rule; usually arrays of ant species interact with arrays of plant species. Variation generated by this complexity results in variation in the function and the effectiveness of the mutualism. The result is that at any given time and place some or all of the interacting species may experience full, intermediate, or episodic benefits, or no benefits at all. This highly dynamic picture is unlikely to be confined to ant-plant mutualisms, but rather may be representative of a host of other kinds of species interactions. This important work is the first broad and thorough treatment of the subject of ant-plant mutualisms. Its natural history, experimental approach, and integration with contemporary evolutionary and ecological literature will appeal to a wide variety of biologists.

Cells, Embryos, and Evolution: Toward a Cellular and Developmental Understanding of Phenotypic Variation and Evolutionary Adaptability

Average customer rating:

The road to a new understanding of multicellular life
Evolution of evolvability
Evolution via development
Destined to be a classic
Excellent - but is afraid to take the next step.

Cells, Embryos, and Evolution: Toward a Cellular and Developmental Understanding of Phenotypic Variation and Evolutionary Adaptability
John Gerhart , and Marc Kirschner
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0865425744

Customer Reviews:

The road to a new understanding of multicellular life.......2002-11-10

John Gerhart and Marc Kirschner have boldly displayed a panorama of recent findings in biology which they methodically piece together into an entirely new understanding of the phylogenic and embryologic mechanisms of evolution. While aimed at the more sophisticated scientific reader (not an introductory text), their facility with modern experiments and exotic findings provide a thrilling ride from intracellular transduction mechanisms, through the differing phylogenetic strategies for embryogenesis (all phyla having been explosively formed in a brief "instant" after the first metazoans) and the secrets of evolvabilily making thier appearance in the embrogenetic regulatory mechanisms, not the structural proteins. For anyone who has ever found random mutation and selection an unsatisfying answer to evolution when all other biological processes are so exquisitely regulated (e.g. "Behavior and Evolution," Jean Piaget), Gerhart and Kirschner demonstrate that evolution is more of an extention of the generally "exploratory" property which is so central to life. This book is sure to spur a generation of new, productive thinking on the entire evolutionary paradigm. Perhaps when linked with work on structural stability in neural networks, a new macroscopic quantum formulation of biology may succeed a less informative and outdated stochastic formulation. [...]

Evolution of evolvability.......2002-03-10

Although somewhat technical this book is highly recommended as an introduction to the issues of both developmental genetics and evolution both, and these in relation to the mystery of the Cambrian explosion in the controversies that surround that question. Molecular phylogenies give us few clues to the molecular changes that underlie species divergence. Students of evolution tend to rely on on theories of selection and population genetics as explanations for evolutionary change. But there are pitfalls here. For selection only provides a filter on the possible forms, screening the forms presented by development. Thus the study of embryological development becomes essential to seeing what is really happening. From this key idea the book proceeds to explore conservation and the evolution of evolvability, to use a phrase of Dawkins. The result is really quite a new subject altogether. The book ends with a question, has evolvability evolved and is it the result of clade selection? At this point I think we are leaving the realm of standard Darwinism into some new unknown terrain. Excellent book,and despite technical issues really quite clear, well presented.

Evolution via development.......2000-11-27

The general reader who has already read some other references on development, will find this reference to be an easy to read yet detailed reference on evolutionary development which takes interesting conceptual viewpoints. The reference starts by pointing out the significant amount of cellular mechanisms conserved in all forms of life. The concept of 'contingency' is then developed, where it is considered to be the dependence of cellular activities on particular conditions, and its importance in metazoans. This leads to the concept of 'exploratory behavior', where it is considered to be responses of the organism to be more than can be explained by contingent mechanisms. For example, a version of the protozoan Stentor that is only .1% of the usual volume, yet its overall shape, the patterns of its cilia and gullet, are not changed. Plasticity observed in the nervous system is another such example. The concept of 'novelty' is then discussed, largely how new proteins have emerged. Multicellularity and differentiation are then considered, followed by the emergence of various body plans. The concept of developmental flexibility and robustness is considered as the development of the embryo is discussed. Limb buds and neural crest cells are then discussed as sources of evolutionary diversification of the vertebrate body plan. The final chapter of the reference considers the concept of 'evolvability', where it is considered to be the capability of organisms to produce nonlethal, phenotypic variations which natural selection can act upon, and thus allow evolution.

Destined to be a classic.......1999-08-08

This book does a great job of unifying the many disparate threads of modern biology. This is one of the few books on biology written in this decade that may actually cause readers to see life from a new point of view. Destined to be a classic, right up there with D'Arcy Thompson's "Growth and Form" or Ptashne's book on phage lambda. Also this book is fun to read because there are tons of illustrations and also lots of interesting factoids about all sorts of weird organisms. If you are going to buy a book about biology, buy this one!

Excellent - but is afraid to take the next step........1998-09-18

The authors of this book have taken a bold step toward a cellular view of evolution. But they shy from taking that final and necessary step of discarding the DNA based information model for a cellular one. Of course, doing this opens a pandora's box of Lamarkian thought. Still, considering the risks, the effort is more than commendable. Thank you for this book.

The Changing Role of the Embryo in Evolutionary Thought: Roots of Evo-Devo (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology)

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The Changing Role of the Embryo in Evolutionary Thought: Roots of Evo-Devo (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology)
Ron Amundson
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0521806992

Book Description

In this book Ron Amundson examines 200 years of scientific views on the evolution-development relationship from the perspective of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo). This new perspective challenges several popular views about the history of evolutionary thought by claiming that many earlier authors made history come out right for the Evolutionary Synthesis. The book starts with a revised history of nineteenth-century evolutionary thought. It then investigates how development became irrelevant to evolution with the Evolutionary Synthesis. It concludes with an examination of the contrasts that persist between mainstream evolutionary theory and evo-devo.

Customer Reviews:

Get this book.......2005-07-07

This gives a great view of the history of evo-devo. My supervisor, one of the reviewers of the book, had joked that it was fantastic "even though it was written by a philosopher".

Admundson gives a great analysis on the Neo-Darwinian Synthesis and its dominance in biological thought. As well, the section on heredity was fantastic as I had been mulling these same ideas over for some time before I came across this, which really helped crystalize things. In short, the notion of heredity was pirated from developmental biology by the geneticists(T Morgan and followers), and this had long term consequences for developmental biology in evolutionary theory. Perfect example today is that "heritability" is stricly a population level concept, which is at odds whith heredity as understood by developmental biologist. However, it seems clear that "heritability" in the individual is a neessary precondition to detection of "heritability" in a population. Failing to recognize the importance of "developmental heredity" will mean that the neo-darwinian synthesis will be incomplete.

Get this book. If you don't know the history of your discipline, you can't understand it fully.

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