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.

Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind, Second Edition

Average customer rating:

high on appeal, low on rigor
HUMAN CIVILIZATION FROM THE PRESENT: WHY WE ACT THIS WAY
A thorough, rigorous, and illuminating book.
Procede with Caution
A Great Introduction to Evolutionary Psychology

Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind, Second Edition
David Buss
Manufacturer: Allyn & Bacon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0205370713

Book Description

Composed of cutting-edge reasearch and featuring an engaging writing style, the author offers compelling scientific answers to the profound human questions regarding love and work. Beginning with a historial introduction, the text logically progresses by discussing adaptive problems humans face and ends with a chapter showing how the new field of evolutionary psychology encompasses all branches of psychology. Each chapter is alive with the subjects that most occupy our minds: sex, mating, getting along, getting ahead, friends, enemies, and social hierarchies. Why is child abuse 40 times more prevalent among step-families than biologically intact families? Why, according to one study, did 75% of men but 0% of women consent to have sex with a complete stranger? Buss explores these intriguing quandaries with his vision of psychology in the new millenium as a new science of the mind. Anyone with an interest in the biological facets of human psychology will find this a fascinating read.

Customer Reviews:

high on appeal, low on rigor.......2005-06-24

I used this book as a text book for a course I taught on Evolutionary Psychology. On the whole, the students really enjoyed the text and they found Buss's writing style to be very engaging and easy to read. I would agree.

Nevertheless, I feel this book--like the whole field of Evolutionary Psychology--requires a far more rigorous scientific framework before it can be considered a field that can substantively explain human behavior from an evolutionary perspective. Don't get me wrong: evolutionary hypotheses can provide a lot of insight into particular human behaviors. However, I would have liked to see much more discussion on what is science, what constitutes a scientifically valid argument, how do we falsify a particular hypothesis, etc. These issues could be covered in a few pages or so, and I think they could help flesh out or perhaps even justify some of the arguments put forth in the text. As it stands now, the book reads more like an apologetic and as I skim the pages, I get the same feeling that I do when I've been pamphleted by evangelicals. Buss's arguments are fraught with generalizations: studies on college kids are extrapolated to the whole human species, studies on plumage color in birds are used to argue for handicaps in humans, and on and on it goes. There are sentences that make pretty extraordinarly claims that go unreferenced and there are sentences that make trivial points that are tailed by six references.

Professor Buss does a good job in conveying the basics of natural selection, but then uses some of the most tenuous definitions of fitness in trying to make an adaptive argument: questionaires, age, symmetry, and even intuition are all stand-ins for fitness. This is a shame because in order to know when selection will operate, we need to know how phenotypic (including behavioral) variation covaries with fitness. Because his fitness proxies are so weak, I have a hard time buying many of the arguments advanced in the book. Other evolutionary forces are rarely discussed; such lapses are unfortunate since it is likely that drift has played some (if not a major) role in getting populations to cross adaptive valleys, as well as affecting the evolutionary dynamics of frequency-dependent selection. But I digress...

I hope future editions (and I'm sure they're on their way) will include a chapter on scientific and evolutionary epistemology. That is, I would like to see a chapter address the question: what steps do evolutionary biologists proceed through when they make an adaptive argument. This would be a timely and useful contribution given that intelligent-design folks are trying to loosen up and poke holes in the definition of science. One chapter starts down this road but never critically discusses how hypotheses are tested (and rejected!), it focuses more on how hypotheses are developed--and believe me, evolutionary psychologists are good at coming up with hypotheses. Professor Buss's book, with its profligate use of unfalsifiable hypotheses, does not help the cause in this respect. Sure, evolutionary psychologists can always hide behind Lakatos as they denigrate Popper for being too severe, or, like Dunbar et al., they can actually learn some math, some scientific epistemology, and help bring evolutionary psychology into a more rigorous, more reputable position. Buss's book does too much of the former and not enough of the latter.

HUMAN CIVILIZATION FROM THE PRESENT: WHY WE ACT THIS WAY.......2004-03-27

Each day for twenty-something years I woke up to see reality as it was presented to me. I noticed many patterns in life that are hard not to notice -- such as the difference between men and women in how they approach sexual opportunities. Men will readily say yes, women firmly no. Why?

Evolution is such an intriguing and elegant theory on its approach to our current behavior. Boss's contention is that the present behaviors we see today in our modern era -- fear of snakes, high male sexual drive -- arose from our ancestors. Those who did not have such characteristics did not become our ancestors. Thus, over time, certain characteristics were more likely to be successful in the mating process, and those are the same characteristics we see today. Boss's insight required a lot of keen intellectual insight into many different hypothesis.

Some of these hypothesis seemed far-fetched at first. Who would think that there would be statistical differences in how maternal grandparents v. paternal grandparents relate to their grandchildren. There are, however. Maternal grandmothers have less risk in investing in a grandchild who is not biologically related since she is confident that her daughter is biologically hers, and she can be certain that her daughter's child is biologically related, too. The hypothesis that paternal grandfathers would be most distant -- since they have the most to lose -- turned out to be true. (Paternal grandfathers cannot be 100% certain that they fathered their son or daughter, and thus, they cannot be sure that that child's son or daughter is biologically related).

This is perhaps one of the most important contributions in scientific literature since Watson and Clark's published report on their findings of DNA.

Michael Gordon

A thorough, rigorous, and illuminating book........2002-06-01

David Buss, author of The Evolution of Desire and The Dangerous Passion, brings his formidable intellect, research experience, knowledge, and writing talent to bear in this impressive introduction to the field of Evolutionary Psychology. It is obvious from reading the book that it was painstakingly researched. An impressive breadth of research studies in evolutionary psychology and relevant work from other disciplines, including anthropology, biology, and sociology are clearly explained and their implications discussed. Alternative hypotheses and interpretations of research, where alternatives have been explicitly proposed, are even-handedly explored. The chapters of the book are organized by the kinds of problems of survival and reproduction faced by our ancestors. This organization makes the broad range of specific research covered in the book easy to understand and integrate into a coherent understanding of the evolutionary origins of human cognition and behavior. Thought-provoking, absorbing, and exceptionally well written: Dr. Buss's Evolutionary Psychology text is an absolute joy to read. It is a must-have for psychologists, biologists, and any student of human nature.

Procede with Caution.......2001-01-13

I have not read the text book. I am a former student of Dr. Buss' and suspect that it will be as vacant in theory as his previous literary attempts. Evolutionary Psychology is an extremely interesting field, but as with any field must be considered in an interdisciplanary manner. The reviewers that make blanket statements about Evolutionary Psychology being the only world view might benefit from reading some philosophy without prejudging it as merely a coping mechanism. For those of you who considering purchasing this book, the last time I spoke with Dr. Buss, he had only very superficial knowledge of the more detailed and sophisticated theories in this field of study and this will probably be reflected in the text book. To be fair, his writing is often enjoyable and as others have said, does read like a novel, but do not mistake this for depth of knowledge.

A Great Introduction to Evolutionary Psychology.......2000-07-12

In "Evolutionary Psychology -- The New Science of Mind," David M. Buss delivers a comprehensive, well-detailed, and illustrative presentation of evolved psychological mechanisms that have become universal across the human species while detailing the biology necessary to understand evolutionary theory and how it applies to human psychology. Organizationally-sound, the textbook reads like a novel, clearly providing theoretical and empirical information requisite for a fundamental understanding of Evolutionary Psychology. Buss' volume is essential reading for students of Evolutionary Psychology and very suitable reading for those of us interested in why we are the way we are. For more advanced readers, "The Adapted Mind," edited by Barkow, Cosmides, and Tooby is an ideal choice.

The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology

Average customer rating:

A self-help book
A very interesting point of view
Great Style and Openness
A very readable and fun book on Evolutionary Psychology
One of the most important books you'll ever read

The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology
Robert Wright
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679763996
Release Date: 1995-08-29

Amazon.com

An accessible introduction to the science of evolutionary psychology and how it explains many aspects of human nature. Unlike many books on the topic,which focus on abstractions like kin selection, this book focuses on Darwinian explanations of why we are the way we are--emotionally and morally. Wright deals particularly well with explaining the reasons for the stereotypical dynamics of the three big "S's:" sex, siblings, and society.

Book Description

Are men literally born to cheat? Does monogamy actually serve women's interests? These are among the questions that have made The Moral Animal one of the most provocative science books in recent years. Wright unveils the genetic strategies behind everything from our sexual preferences to our office politics--as well as their implications for our moral codes and public policies. Illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

A self-help book.......2007-09-03

If you are a modern woman, educated with all the equalitarism lectures, professional, qualified, and have gone through a life very much like that of the girls of "Sex and the City", put your Cosmo aside and read this book. It may shock you, it may even infuriate you but it may help you to understand why certain past relationships did not work, what people thinks of you and it will provide you with a general dynamucs of human relations.
It's not like you are going to accept that every person in the world follows the behavior patterns exposed here but it helps you to comprehend why some people do (even though they preached and believed on exactly the opposite attitudes) and, moreover, once you accept these patterns underlie most human motivations you can use this knowledge for your own benefit... I got a ring on my finger out of it... as well as great success as a HR manager...
And the gossip about Darwin's life is quite interesting too...

A very interesting point of view.......2007-08-28

A series of hypothesis and theories, always supported by a scientific presentation of evidence found in other works on the relevant subjects. A very interesting insight in the human nature, in the relationship between men and women, with special regard to the driving forces which influence the human behaviour (sexual desire, greed, hunt for power and wealth etc.).

Great Style and Openness.......2007-06-14

Here is a lively discussion of evolutionary psychology and what it means for our views on human morality. Robert Wright has a very good writing style and a way of explaining EP that aids even those of us who have already read widely on the subject. Here he also uses Darwin's own life and experiences to illustrate the subject.

The first section is about the sexes which, contrary to what some people might think, does not present men with anything to be proud of. It does show us why both sexes are a disappointment to each other. Wright overemphasizes female 'monogamy', as many writers do, when promiscuity should really be presented as more relative than the good for men/bad for women dichotomy. There is still much to be debated in this area but Wright does try to cover the subject as broadly as he can. I certainly don't see him as deliberately shying away from any aspect that may be relevant to the discussion. We just need much more input from female evolutionary psychologists to get the bigger picture.

The second section covers sociality - kin selection, reciprocal altruism - and the evolution of emotions, such as gratitude, obligation, guilt, frienship, that aid or aided us in our inclusive fitness maximization behavior. Section three is about hierarchy and status and how we 'deceive ourselves in order to deceive others better'. Wright puts together an interesting whole which meshes genetic and environmental determinisms with developmental and behavioral plasticity and flexibility. Not forgetting how this evolved in an environment we no longer live in and is therefore always potentially maladaptive. Perhaps he only just manages to get away with it!

The final section is a focus on morality. Wright reveals himself, and Darwin, as utilitarians. This obviously will sit best with those readers who are also utilitarians or at least, like myself, have a soft spot for J S Mill and Utilitarianism. Wright is not afraid to discuss how problematic morality can be for EP. 'The situation is, in short, a mess' he admits at one point. But most evolutionary psychologists agree with Wright that out evolved instincts for survival as social beings gives most of us a sense of how to behave in what we term a moral way.

It would be possible to argue with many things in this book but it is so successful in getting the general ideas across and facing the problems that arise from these ideas that disagreement with some of the actual content is almost irrelevant. It should not be the only book read on EP but it deserves to be one of the first. It has a great style and an essential openness and honesty.

A very readable and fun book on Evolutionary Psychology.......2007-06-12

This was one of my first books on the topic - and to this day I find it one of the most thoroughly enjoyable and eye opening books for laymen in this field, like myself.

Robert Wright has written a very engaging and well organized book in explaining why we behave the way we do. Citing Darwin's own life through the chapters to illustrate the points of Darwinism was a brilliant idea and fun to read. Most part of the book explains viewing 'morality' (or the lack of it), in biological terms. It doesn't draw any lessons out of the story, in a way advocating to accept (our) human nature the way it is. The last few chapters, however, start drawing some conclusions and 'lessons' on morality which get rather flaky (e.g.: that a woman murdering a husband for self-defence should be punished as a lesson to others for the 'greater common good'), and frankly, annoying -- in particular as the end of such a great book.

Overall, it is still a must read for all those curious and intelligent souls out there who understand that self-awareness is the first step towards real happiness.

One of the most important books you'll ever read.......2007-05-07

While most theoretical science books can be rather dry, this one has a wry sense of humor, plus an excellent presentation of how the mind (brain) evolves through natural selection along with the already accepted physicality of the species.

The first half of the book many women might not like, but Robert Wright allows in the second half for the ability of mankind to rise above his or her innate nature.

You could almost imagine Charles Darwin saying-"Drat, why didn't I think of that,. It's a natural extension of my physical take on natural selection."

The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture

Average customer rating:

An important introduction to evolutionary psychology
Evolution from Several Vantages
A fresh start
Great work
More Tooby & Cosmides, please

The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0195101073

Book Description

Although researchers have long been aware that the species-typical architecture of the human mind is the product of our evolutionary history, it has only been in the last three decades that advances in such fields as evolutionary biology, cognitive psychology, and paleoanthropology have made the fact of our evolution illuminating. Converging findings from a variety of disciplines are leading to the emergence of a fundamentally new view of the human mind, and with it a new framework for the behavioral and social sciences. First, with the advent of the cognitive revolution, human nature can finally be defined precisely as the set of universal, species-typical information-processing programs that operate beneath the surface of expressed cultural variability. Second, this collection of cognitive programs evolved in the Pleistocene to solve the adaptive problems regularly faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors--problems such as mate selection, language acquisition, cooperation, and sexual infidelity. Consequently, the traditional view of the mind as a general-purpose computer, tabula rasa, or passive recipient of culture is being replaced by the view that the mind resembles an intricate network of functionally specialized computers, each of which imposes contentful structure on human mental organization and culture. The Adapted Mind explores this new approach--evolutionary psychology--and its implications for a new view of culture.

Customer Reviews:

An important introduction to evolutionary psychology.......2007-03-17

This is one of the earliest texts in the field called Evolutionary Psychology (EP). This specialization evolved from what Edward O. Wilson termed "Sociobiology" in the mid-1970s. EP applies the logic of sociobiology to human psychology. That is, how has natural selection shaped how humans think and make decisions? As editors Leda Cosmides, John Tooby, and Jerome Barkow put it (page 7): "Evolutionary psychology is psychology informed by the fact that the inherited architecture of the human mind is the product of the evolutionary process." The book, in their conceptualization, has two goals (page 3): "The first is to introduce the newly crystallizing field of evolutionary psychology to a wider audience. . .The second goal of this volume is to clarify how this new field. . .supplies the necessary connection between evolutionary biology and the complex, irreducible social and cultural phenomena studied by anthropologists, economists, and historians."

They locate their perspective by juxtaposing evolutionary psychology with what the term "the standard social scientific model." The chapter by Tooby and Cosmides (Chapter 1) outlines this model in much more detail.
As we know, the SSSM insists that, for all practical purposes, human nature - and thus human behavior - is shaped by culture. Put less laconically, the SSSM rests on three cardinal tenets - two of them explicit, the third usually implicit. These are: (1) that humans have no innate behavioral tendencies; (2) that, consequently, human nature is solely the product of learning and socialization (in short, of "nurture"); from which it follows (3) that human nature (and consequently human behavior) is essentially quite malleable (my rendering of the perspective). Of course, evolutionary psychology moves in a different direction, emphasizing the effects of the evolutionary process on human behavior and thinking.

This edited volume includes a series of chapters exploring different aspects of human behavior. The section titles illustrate the variety of topics covered: Section II focuses on cooperation and social exchange, noting that these have evolutionary bases; III examines the psychology of mating and sex; IV looks at parental care and children; V considers perception and language as evolutionary adaptations; VI takes a look at environmental aesthetics (such as evolved responses to landscapes); VII has only one chapter--looking at the evolution of psychodynamic mechanisms. The volume closes with an essay by Jerome Barkow.

Not all readers will be convinced by the arguments raised in this volume. However, it serves an important purpose by unapologetically claiming that we cannot understand much of human psychology (and other social behaviors) without considering human evolution. Indeed, it is hard to complain about this overarching perspective. However, readers may well dispute specific applications of the perspective. In the end, this is a rich volume and will prod the reader to think differently about "human nature."

Evolution from Several Vantages.......2002-06-10

This book is a massive tome on evolutionary factors that influence human behavior. It begins with clarification of the kind of Darwinism the authors appeal to, so that everyone is on the same page, and considers the general psychological foundations of Darwinism on culture.

The book then moves on to discuss cognitive adaptations for social exchange, citing human and non-human examples. The book also includes the evolutionary psychology of mating and sex, examining preferences for mate selection and competition, mechanisms for sexual attraction, and the evolutionary use of women as chattel (something any Old Testament and Quran reader can relate to).

A significant portion of the book is devoted to parental care and children, examining how pregnancy sickness, patterns between twins, maternal-infant vocalizations, and child play in the form of chasing each other are all evolutionary mechanisms that continue to be featured.

Steven Pinker adds an essay on natural language and natural selection; Roger Shepard contributes an essay on the man's perceptual adaptation to the natural world; both of which demonstrate the interconnectedness between perception, language, and adaptation.

The book concludes with some of its most esoteric issues: environmental aesthetics, intrapsychic processes, and the theoretical implications of culural phenomena.

The whole book, while not necessarily over-academic, is ultimately dense reading. Most of the concepts and conceptualizations require mental work to apprehend, while the statistics and empirical evidence are clearly described. While drawing from many disparate areas of evolutionary biology, all the essays find their ultimate significance in how the mind, in particular, has adapted to environmental forces. A demanding, but facinating, read.

A fresh start.......2000-04-26

The argument - and it is an argument - is that human behaviour is strongly influenced by evolved psychological mechanisms, and that those mechanisms are numerous and specific, rather than just one general learning mechanism - ie a human baby comes with an installed operating system and quite a lot of free software, and is definitely not a blank slate. What makes the argument persuasive is the attempt to import the scientific method - hypotheses falsifiable by experiment - to an area previously characterised by mumbojumbo and pseudoscience. Not all the attempts are successful, but as they say it's a start. 100 years late (for psychology) it is saying (a) the brain is an organ so it must have evolved too - let's think about it in a Darwinian fashion and (b) let's try to make pyschology a science not a humanity. It is potentially very offensive to existing psychology practitioners, because it implies that most existing psychologists are witch doctors. It is also very offensive to large bodies of public policy wonks (let's not beat about the bush here - in American speak this book is very offensive to liberal Democrats), essentially saying that most of the "science" behind social and educational policy has no foundation. And because it is polemical - it is shooting at a century of vested interests after all - it overstates its case in some places, although the writers are usually very careful to stress that while behavioural programmes may be partly pre installed, behaviour itself is not hardwired.

It was the start for me of looking at the way we think in a completely different light and led me to later, more detailed, more balanced statements of the case.

It is pretty hard going in places, particularly as they do rather tiresomely go out of their way trying to avoid giving direct offence, but they're not fooling anyone (not mss67 for a start.)But in reality they are yelling that the Emperor ("learning/nurture is all") has no clothes. For all its faults it's the book that has most influenced my thinking in the last 10 years, and definitely a five star performance.

Great work.......2000-03-22

Finally, a branch of psychology which does not use the standard psycho-babble which distorted our views of human-kind in the 20th century.

More Tooby & Cosmides, please.......2000-02-07

I was prompted to respond by the review from the individual in Virginia. He or she didn't like the Tooby & Cosmides chapters whereas I feel they were by far the most interesting chapters in the book. Reading their long essay (Chapter 2)is one of the best favors psychologists can do for themselves. Being a psychology major, I know that I was often confused about psychology before reading it, but their combination of cognitive psychology with evolutionary biology finally gave me an idea of where psychology should be going in the future. If only social psychologists and domain-general cognitive psychologists would read it, their research and approach might not be so sterile and boring. My only regret is that the book contained some chapters that were not as strong as the early chapters, but the importance of the good chapters greatly outweighs any weaknesses in the other ones.

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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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.

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.

Differential Evolution: A Practical Approach to Global Optimization (Natural Computing Series)

Average customer rating:

Good introduction book for DE

Differential Evolution: A Practical Approach to Global Optimization (Natural Computing Series)
Kenneth V. Price , Rainer M. Storn , and Jouni A. Lampinen
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 3540209506

Book Description

Problems demanding globally optimal solutions are ubiquitous, yet many are intractable when they involve constrained functions having many local optima and interacting, mixed-type variables. The differential evolution (DE) algorithm is a practical approach to global numerical optimization which is easy to understand, simple to implement, reliable, and fast. Packed with illustrations, computer code, new insights, and practical advice, this volume explores DE in both principle and practice. It is a valuable resource for professionals needing a proven optimizer and for students wanting an evolutionary perspective on global numerical optimization. A companion CD includes DE-based optimization software in several programming languages.

Customer Reviews:

Good introduction book for DE.......2006-03-01

Some one who wants to beagin with DE. This the good starting point. Book started with good conceptual backgroud and carried away with codeing details of DE. Kenneth puts enough efforts to clear concept behind DE. Only thing missing is that book demands little background with GAs, EAs and optimization theory.Other wise nice book for those who are familiarized with concept of evolutionary techniques.

Evolutionary Pathways in Nature: A Phylogenetic Approach

Average customer rating:

Great, but a little elementary

Evolutionary Pathways in Nature: A Phylogenetic Approach
John C. Avise
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521674174

Book Description

Reconstructing phylogenetic trees from DNA sequences has become a popular exercise in many branches of biology, and here the well-known geneticist John Avise explains why. Molecular phylogenies provide a genealogical backdrop for interpreting the evolutionary histories of many other types of biological traits (anatomical, behavioral, ecological, physiological, biochemical and even geographical). Guiding readers on a natural history tour along dozens of evolutionary pathways, the author describes how creatures ranging from microbes to elephants came to possess their current phenotypes. Essential reading for college students, professional biologists and anyone interested in natural history and biodiversity, this book is packed with fascinating examples of evolutionary puzzles from across the animal kingdom; how the toucan got its enormous bill, how reptiles grow back lost limbs and why Arctic fish don't freeze.

Customer Reviews:

Great, but a little elementary .......2006-11-06

This a great book, well put together and an easy read. I would suggest it for those who are not familiar with phylogenetics. Otherwise it is a bit simplified for those who know and understand most of the concepts already. perfect for an undergraduate level class or advanced high school students.

Introduction to Evolutionary Computing (Natural Computing Series)

Average customer rating:

Excellent textbook
Evolution as a practical tool
Excellent introduction
An excellent textbook suitable for all levels
an excellent introduction

Introduction to Evolutionary Computing (Natural Computing Series)
A.E. Eiben , and J.E. Smith
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 3540401849

Book Description

Evolutionary Computing is the collective name for a range of problem-solving techniques based on principles of biological evolution, such as natural selection and genetic inheritance. These techniques are being increasingly widely applied to a variety of problems, ranging from practical applications in industry and commerce to leading-edge scientific research.

This book presents the first complete overview of this exciting field aimed directly at lecturers and graduate and undergraduate students. It is also meant for those who wish to apply evolutionary computing to a particular problem or within a given application area. To this group the book is valuable because it presents EC as something to be used rather than just studied.

Last, but not least, this book contains quick-reference information on the current state-of-the-art in a wide range of related topics, so it is of interest not just to evolutionary computing specialists but to researchers working in other fields.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent textbook.......2006-10-31

I have used evolutionary programming in my research in the past and have read several books on the topic. This is one of the most well written books available, that can easily be read by a beginner despite its depth. The conclusions that they draw are logical and supported by the appropriate references. If you had to read only one book in evolutionary programming, consider this as a candidate.

Evolution as a practical tool.......2006-04-04

The authors emphasise from the get-go that this book is meant as a practical introduction to the application of evolutionary computing. It is not a high brow, abstruse monograph. (Which indeed Springer texts often are.)

The level of discussion can be adequately understood by someone with a good background in computing and hopefully also in some science or engineering field. Certainly, there are important abstractions that must be mastered. Like how the evolutionary search can be seen as a path across a fitness landscape or potential energy surface. But there appears to be a careful explanation of the minimum necessary maths to convey an idea. And where a chapter's references might point to more specialised texts or journal papers that give a fuller math treatment.

It may well be, as another reviewer remarked, that there is insufficient detail in some passages of this book. But perhaps the text is not meant to be a low level "user's manual" type of discussion.

If you do find this book useful, consider a more advanced text, "Foundations of Genetic Programming" by Langdon and Poli, also published by Springer. It takes you deeper into the subject.

Excellent introduction.......2005-02-02

I taught our introduction to evolutionary computation class from this book. It is a well rounded introduction to the topic covering most of the introductorty material you would expect. There is an real dearth of good introductory books for EC. This is probably the best because of its breadth. Its weakness is its lack of detail. It would not hurt if they covered the same material in about 50% more pages. As soon as they start a topic its over and on to the next topic. But if you are new to the field they give plenty of references and touch on most topics in enough detail for students to implement. All in all a good solid job.

An excellent textbook suitable for all levels.......2004-06-06

This is an excellent textbook which covers most aspects of the Evolutionary Computing. It's suitable for all levels. It's easy to follow, rich in content and has many references (439 to be precise) for further information. The table of contents from the book's web site is as follows:

1. Introduction
2. What is an Evolutionary Algorithm?
3. Genetic Algorithms
4. Evolution Strategies
5. Evolutionary Programming
6. Genetic Programming
7. Learning Classifier Systems
8. Parameter Control in Evolutionary Algorithms
9. Multi-Modal Problems and Spatial Distribution
10. Hybridisation with Other Techniques: Memetic Algorithms
11. Theory
12. Constraint Handling
13. Special Forms of Evolution
14. Working with Evolutionary Algorithms
15. Summary
16. Appendices
17. Index
18. References

Recommended to everyone interested in EC.

an excellent introduction.......2004-01-29

The book is easy and refreshing to read. Assuming only a minimum of prior knowledge, all the relevant aspects are covered. The focus is on practical applications, with numerous examples, simple equations and plenty of practical advise for the user.

As should be the costum with every scientific introduction, the authors are at great pains to clarify the relationship between the different flavours of EC and to show how they historically developed.

The book does not provide much on the mathematical level, though. Not even a basic graph theoretical analysis of mutation and recombination.

Book Description

As human threats to the Earth's biota span unprecedented temporal and spatial scales, it has become urgent to integrate currently disparate areas of conservation biology into a unified framework. Combining conservation genetics, demography, and ecology, this book presents an integrative approach to managing species as well as ecological and evolutionary processes. The contributions are intended for students, professionals, and researchers in conservation biology, ecology, genetics, and evolution.

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