Book Description
Most people, when they contemplate the living world, conclude that it is a designed place. So it is jarring when biologists come along and say this is all wrong. What most people see as design, they say--purposeful, directed, even intelligent--is only an illusion, something cooked up in a mind that is eager to see purpose where none exists. In these days of increasingly assertive challenges to Darwinism, the question becomes acute: is our perception of design simply a mental figment, or is there something deeper at work?
Physiologist Scott Turner argues eloquently and convincingly that the apparent design we see in the living world only makes sense when we add to Darwin's towering achievement the dimension that much modern molecular biology has left on the gene-splicing floor: the dynamic interaction between living organisms and their environment. Only when we add environmental physiology to natural selection can we begin to understand the beautiful fit between the form life takes and how life works.
In The Tinkerer's Accomplice, Scott Turner takes up the question of design as a very real problem in biology; his solution poses challenges to all sides in this critical debate.
Customer Reviews:
Integration of physiology and evolution.......2007-01-15
Turner's first book (The Extended Organism) was interesting, and well written. The same is true of this book but I would add a third descriptor as well, ambitious. Turner acknowledges at the start that some readers may be inclined to throw the book across the room in disgust, so he asks the reader's indulgence to stay with him to the end of the book. I think persistence will be rewarded with some very intriguing insights and a very challenging thesis.
First, Turner is attempting an integration of physiology with evolution. Second, he is using his integration to explain what he sees as an ignored problem, obvious design in the form and functioning of animals. Turner refers, somewhat indirectly, to a frequently mentioned problem with the results of modern DNA sequencing of whole genomes. There aren't enough genes to specify all of the complex structure and function that we see in animals. So where does it come from if we are not going to just leave the problem for intelligent design advocates to exploit? Turner's answer is homeostatic mechanisms, the ability of organisms to regulate their internal structure and function within narrow limits. A really fun part of the book for me was his series of examples on muscle and bone structure, circulation, embryogenesis and development, and intestines. Turner is a wonderful writer as he models thinking like a physiologist. Tuner's point is that each of his examples can be thought of as a Bernard Machine, named after the French physiologist who first identified the central role of homeostasis in physiology. Each of his examples show how homostasis can produce (design) an adapted structure that is not directly a result of genes.
Then Turner wisely admits that the thesis of his next section is where the reader's irritation is likely to build. Homeostasis can be used as an explanation for the origins of consciousness. I told you that this book was ambitious. I will be very interested in seeing if anybody takes up Turner's hypothesis as the basis for a research program. This idea really needs some more data. I, for one, would like to see somebody try to flesh out this idea.
A year of two ago, a writer in the journal Science pointed out that comparative physiology had become something of a moribund research discipline. That writer's suggested solution was the use of gene expression patterns by using DNA chips. Turner may well have presented another way to energize the field, integrate physiology into evolution in a really deep way, similar to what has happened to developmental biology recently.
I am tentatively convinced by Turner's arguments; they are reasonable if speculative at times. Turner points out that he doesn't think that any of the ideas in his book originate with him. He is just trying to put them together in a coherent form. I hope that biologists don't just ignore him.
One problem that readers will face in this book has nothing to do with the ideas but rather the presentation. Sometimes the material is quite accessable and other times it can be challenging. The neurobiology can be slow going. The general reader may have difficulty in places; the trained biologist will not have significant difficulty. The conversational style of writing and Turner's obvious enthusiasm will carry any reader along.
Read this book and let the debate begin.
Book Description
Biological evolution is a fact--but the many conflicting theories of evolution remain controversial even today. In 1966, simple Darwinism, which holds that evolution functions primarily at the level of the individual organism, was threatened by opposing concepts such as group selection, a popular idea stating that evolution acts to select entire species rather than individuals. George Williams's famous argument in favor of the Darwinists struck a powerful blow to those in opposing camps. His Adaptation and Natural Selection, now a classic of science literature, is a thorough and convincing essay in defense of Darwinism; its suggestions for developing effective principles for dealing with the evolution debate and its relevance to many fields outside biology ensure the timelessness of this critical work.
Customer Reviews:
The potency of natural selection is largely underestimated.......2004-01-04
Another reader has already given an excellent summary of this book. I would like to stress only some important points in my comment.
One should have a rather good knowledge of basic algebra, statistics, botany and biology to fully understand this book.
This is a key text about Darwinism. Its influence cannot be overestimated, as show a few excerpts hereafter: 'there is nothing in the basic structure of the theory of natural selection that would suggest the idea of any kind of cumulative progress' and 'Evolution was a by-product of the maintenance of adaptation'.
These sentences are cornerstones of today's theories on Darwinism (see the works of the late S.J. Gould or Richard Dawkins).
In a cool style, but with compelling arguments, the author wipes the floor with his opponents' theories about group adaptations, instead of adaptations on the individual level.
He also stresses the fundamentally different roles of male and female mammals for the production of offspring and the evolutionary impact of female choice.
But there is more: (adapted sentence)'If some organisms were not entirely self-seeking, they, and Nature in general, would be more ethically acceptable. In most theological systems it is necessary that the creator be benevolent and that this benevolence is shown in his creation. If Nature is found to be malicious or morally indifferent, the creator is presumably too. For many, peace in mind might be difficult with the acceptance of these conclusions, but this is hardly a basis for making decisions in biology'.
This sentence is still today too big a swallow for the moral elite, unable to comprehend their own Darwinian behaviour and unable to think about the fact that 'natural selection, albeit stupid, is a story of unending arms races, slaughter and suffering' (G.C. Williams in 'Plan and Purpose in Nature').
An essential book by a superb free mind.
'Adaptation and Natural Selection' Précis.......2002-12-13
The significance of George C. Williams analysis in "Adaptation and Natural Selection" lies in his detailed argument of why natural selection functions on the level of the individual and not the group. His defense of Darwinism rewrites the generally held assumption that adaptation characterizes species and populations, and emphasizes the role that natural selection plays in shaping the individual genotype. He thus makes possible the explanation of evolution without the use of terms such as 'group selection,' 'population adaptation,' or 'progress.' While Williams acknowledges that group selection plays a significant role in some of earth's biota, such as the eukaryotes, individual selection characterizes most organisms which reproduce sexually (xii). In the process of showing why individual selection vis a vis group selection is significant, Williams also, significantly, argues that the term adaptation cannot yet be understood in terms of any principles or procedures.
The significance of Williams' starting point - a clarification of what an adaptation is and isn't - is definitional. An evolutionary 'adaptation' has specific meanings: 1) Adaptations should only be called 'functions' when shaped by design and not chance (8); 2) the level of organization of an adaptation shouldn't be higher than that admitted by the evidence (19); 3) only natural selection could have given rise to adaptations (8). Thus the scientific study of an adaptation awaits more developments in biology.
Williams argues that natural selection operates and is effective only at levels measured statistically (22), for example, in terms of rates of random change, quantitative relationships among sampling errors, and selection coefficients (37). Mendelian populations selected for at the level of alleles exclusively meet these requirements (24). For Williams, natural selection of alternative alleles operates to choose between worse and better options at the level of individuals in a population (45).
Genetic, somatic and ecological factors, i.e. the environment, contribute to selecting for genes. Thus, environmental factors don't directly affect populations (58).
Williams identifies processes relating to the genetic system, such as sex-determining mechanisms (156), stability of genes (138), diploidy (126), introgressive hybridization (144), and the way sexual and asexual reproduction in the life cycles are distributed in the life-cycle (133) as short-term adaptations. Group survival, therefore, is a chance consequence of the these adaptations, as well as related errors such as mutation and introgression. In chapter 5, Williams also suggests that decent evidence does not exist for other mechanisms of evolutionary change or other genetic system adaptations, thus highlighting the exclusive role of natural selection in shaping life.
Reproductive physiological variations of organisms seem designed to maximize organisms' reproductive success. Instances such as unbridled fecundity (161) and sex differences in reproductive strategies all suggest that an individual organism's reproductive strategy is oriented to replicating its own genetic information and not the groups' or the populations'.
The significance of Williams' analysis of social adaptations (193) suggests that the benefits of cooperative social adaptations leading to cooperative relations among related individuals rest on a genetic basis; cooperation with individuals of alternative genetic information is less significant. For Williams, therefore, benefits to groups are consequences of incidental statistics; harmful group effects may accumulate in a similar way.
Williams concludes (251) by arguing that there are no established guidelines to answer the question "What is the function of an adaptation?" The approaches he outlines are significant because they lay the groundwork for further developments in biology to understand what an adaptation is in terms of individual selection.
It's a classic!.......2000-05-30
You will find a very good book about the misinterpretation of Darwin's texts and ideas. This book is about being a careful reader, too.
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Adaptation
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Adaptation and Natural Selection
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Evolutionary Dynamics: Exploring the Equations of Life
ASIN: 0125964218 |
Book Description
The study of evolutionary adaptation returns to the center stage of biology with this important volume. This innovative treatise discusses new developments in adaptation, with new methods, and new theoretical foundations, achievements, and prospects for a rich intellectual future. Once again adaptation is established as a fundamental cornerstone of evolution by means of natural selection. This is an insightful reintroduction to the themes that Darwin and his successors regarded as central to any profound understanding of biology.
Key Features
* Wide-ranging and comprehensive coverage of adaptation
* Thoroughly reviews adaptation in an up-to-date and advanced treatment
* Includes contributions by leading authorities
* Encourages various conflicting viewpoints
Customer Reviews:
A Quickstart to the central issues in developmental biology.......2000-12-17
I was prompted to write this after reading the review below from the New Mexico reader. He misses the point, not Maynard-Smith. This little book (45 pages)is based on a lecture given by Smith at the London School of Economics. The central theme of his lecture was to make the point that the two views in developmental biology i.e. dynamic-holistic view and the local-reductionist view are both important. But, he extends this thinking by suggesting that this dichotomy in biology is a pattern that exists in all aspects/spheres/disciplines in life. This is what I found so revealing. Gore Vs Bush could not be a better (current) example that comes to mind when reading the final chapter 5 - Reductionists to the right, Holists to the left.
Total misunderstanding.......1999-11-22
Although I certainly enjoy most books and articles by Maynard Smith, this book was a tremendous disappointment. He argues against self-organization in biology in a very bad way. Instead of a good argument, one finds a subjective, totally biased and unscientific argument (what a splash pattern has to do with morphogenesis? no idea, really ... that's a funny picture but nothing to do with development). Still worse, Maynard Smith tries to "put down" previous and current work on development from the point of view of complexity by claiming that it has to do with some obscure disappointment with Marxism and with some feminist-like reasoning (? ). I find this strategy really unfair and not appropiate for a great scientist and writer such as Maynard Smith. I think that it is clear that selforganization is, **together with information and adaptation** a fundamental part of the understanding of life. In trying to ridiculize complexity and selforganization, the author is (perhaps uncounsciously) acting in a way not far from "scientific creationists".
Book Description
in this broad and highly readable inquiry, Robert Wesson proposes an approach to evolution that is more in harmony with modern science than Darwinism or neoDarwinism. He emphasizes the importance for evolution of inner direction and the self-organizing capacities of life, a view that is better able to account for the chaotic nature of the evolutionary process and the inherent propensity of complex dynamic systems to grow more complex with time. Many examples of plants and animals support this idea, and Wesson includes both carefully documented scientific facts and intriguing anecdotes about the odd aberrations in natural selection.
Books by Robert Wesson include Cosmos and Metacosmos.
Customer Reviews:
Yes -- but not Intelligent Design .......2007-04-23
This is a valuable look at self-organization in evolution. Citing many cases where a reductionistic explanation of genetic variation and natural selection is inadequate, Wesson argues that complex biological structures owe their emergence to a fusion of physical processes at the edge of "Chaos." You will find similar themes in the work of Ilya Prigogine, Brian Goodwin, Niles Eldredge, and others.
Advocates of so-called Intelligent Design often cite this book, while "ultra-Darwinians" dislike it. Actually, however, Wesson's presentation offers a third way, neither reductionist nor theistic. (I do not know what Wesson's personal views are, but it is his work here that is in question.)
Why has the Darwinist establishment ignored this book?.......2006-01-04
I highly recommend this book, which is a powerful critique of conventional Darwinist wisdom. Yet it is by no means an attack on evolution. To the contrary, it appears that Wesson is attempting to rescue evolutionism by challenging his fellow evolutionists to admit that Natural Selection is simply insufficent as a mechanism to explain the evolution of biological realities we see before our eyes.
Wesson present his case thoroughly in an extremely well researched and interesting book. What's frustrating is that the evolutionary establishment has failed to take him up on the challenge, as far as one can tell. My suspicion is that they don't want outsiders to know just how weak their case is until they can come up with a replacement mechanism.
A must read for anyone interested in the origins of life.......2001-05-07
Unlike most of the books which deal with theories of evolution, this one takes an objective non-partisan approach. The author sticks to the facts and depicts an incredible array of behaviors and facts regarding just about any life form found on earth. This can be sometimes a bit tedious, most of the time very interesting though. I do not think the style is appalling, it is scientific and precise. Chapter 12 (evolution and humanity) could justify the book by itself. I command the author for his amazing and thorough scientific approach, as well as his philosophical insights. In my search for truth and virtue about the humane, i stumbled upon too many one-sided books, and the more thorough i became the more confusing everything grew. I could have just bought this book. For it is also a book about faith, and what it means to be human. Mr Wesson, thank you.
The falsifiability of natural selection.......2000-03-15
This is one of the most helpful critiques of the dogma of natural selection, along with Soren Lovtrup's Darwinism: Refutation of a Myth, and Robert Reid's Evolutionary Theory: The Unfinished Synthesis. Filled with the hard evidence you won't find in textbooks and that explodes Darwin's claims,without rejecting the broad context of evolution, the book cogently attempts to reach a broader systems view that looks at the transformations of the genome as a whole. Although the intimations of chaos theory here are a bit simplistic, no substitute theory is required to demonstrate the fact that natural selection simply cannot account for the rising number of factual discrepancies. This type of exploration of new ground is both vital and timely. The author's wry suggestion that the six-leggedness of insects falsifies natural selection is but one of the many insights. His disposal of sexual selection is another. Any Darwin dogmatist should be afraid of this book. If you read it, you will snap out of it and end up a Darwin doubter. Bravo. John Landon nemonemini@eonix.8m.com
The best collection of arguments against Darwinism........1999-10-02
This is a spectacular collection of the best and most pertinent biological anomalies that one has to come to grips with in explaining neo-Darwinian natural selection. At the same time, it is abysmally written. The author knows nothing about sentence structure, paragraph structure, or connectives. If the book were well-written (perhaps in its second edition), it might become a world-class best seller. It's worth five stars only because of the superbly selected information it contains. == Anthony D'Amato Leighton Professor of Law Northwestern University
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- Evolutionary Biology - A Subterranean Study
- A truly unique study in the field of evolution
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Adaptation and Natural Selection in Caves: The Evolution of Gammarus minus
David C. Culver ,
Thomas Kane , and
Daniel Fong
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
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ASIN: 0674004256 |
Book Description
The harsh environment of caves--dark, damp, sparse of food--is home to a variety of "bizarre" creatures. Biologists, for their part, often treat these delicate, colorless organisms having no eyes, or at least greatly reduced eyes, as mere oddities with little to tell us about a topic as grand as evolution. Focusing on one cave-dwelling crustacean, Gammarus minus, this book shows that, to the contrary, cave life can provide a valuable empirical model for the study of evolution, particularly adaptation.
Authors David Culver, Thomas Kane, and Daniel Fong marshal many years of extensive research into the genetics, ecology, morphology, and systematics of Gammarus minus. They explain how these biological factors have been shaped by physical constraints, such as the structure and development of caves and karst terrains, groundwater hydrology, and drainage basin patterns. Their work reveals the advantages of caves for studying natural selection: the highly simplified habitats found underground serve as a natural laboratory for the evolutionary biologist, and the distinctive morphological features of cave fauna provide a wealth of data on evolutionary history and natural selection.
A detailed evolutionary study of a single organism in a particular environment, this book advances Gammarus minus as a paradigm for cave colonization and adaptation, and as a general case study of the role of natural selection and adaptation in evolution.
Customer Reviews:
Evolutionary Biology - A Subterranean Study.......2003-04-14
The evolution of Gammarus minus is the subject of a remarkably interesting text published by Harvard University Press. Gammarus who? Gammarus what? Gammarus minus is a little freshwater crustacean, an isopod, that inhabits surface streams, springs, and caves.
We all have some knowledge of the theory of natural selection and evolution, and yet, I suspect that few fully recognize the complexity and difficulty in conducting research in evolutionary biology. Just how does one go about proving or disproving some aspect of evolutionary theory?
David Culver, Thomas Kane, and Daniel Fong argue that caves and cave animals are valuable empirical models for the study of evolution, particularly for the study of adaptation. The unusual morphology of cave fauna makes them "quintessential examples of evolutionary tradeoffs, a recurring theme in the study of adaptation". Also, as the cave environment is more uniform and less complex than most habitats, the analysis of environmental effects on selection is accordingly less difficult. And convergent evolution in many isolated cave systems offers a degree of repeatability that is often absent in evolutionary studies.
This text, Adaptation and Natural Selection in Caves, is remarkably well-organized and clearly written, and is accessible to the layman interested in cave biology and ecology.
However, I caution the reader. This is not a popular book on evolution for the layman. This is a detailed, well-documented, thoughtful, multidisciplinary scientific study whose primary audience is active researchers and graduate students in the biological sciences.
Evolutionary biology requires a wide background. The reader will encounter biospeleology, ecology, electrophoresis, genetics, isopod morphology, karst geology, stream hydraulics, and systematics. As advanced statistical techniques are commonly used in genetic and evolutionary studies, the reader will meet the F statistic, dendrograms, k-means clustering, rank-3 biplots, correlation matrices, and short discussions on determining the optimal splines for curve fitting.
The glossary was quite helpful with terms like adaptive radiation, allozyme, apomorphic, exaptation, electrophoresis, gene flow, homoplasy, neoteny, and vicariance.
While this text may require some persistence, it is well-worth the effort. I commend Culver, Kane, and Fong for providing an intriguing look at a complex, interdisciplinary research topic.
I recommend first reading, chapter by chapter, the concise introductions and the concluding summaries. Then return to the beginning of the book to study the chapters in more detail. The summaries are clearly written and allow the reader to quickly and easily develop an overview of each chapter.
As a final comment, Adaptation and Natural Selection in Caves would be an excellent choice for a reading assignment for undergraduates in biology, ecology, genetics, morphology, and limnology. Culver, Kane, and Fong clearly answer the question: Just how does one go about proving or disproving some aspect of evolutionary theory?
A truly unique study in the field of evolution.......1998-01-28
When it comes to evolution, almost anyone can quote Darwin's theory of natural selection...but how many people set out to prove it? In this book, the authors present the beginnings of tackling this ambitious task. Their approach is truly unique...rather than examining the diversity of all life, they have focused twenty-plus years of research on a tiny, rather obscure, cave crustacean. By drawing from numerous scienfific fields (ecology, systematics, mathematics, limnology, evolutionary theory, even molecular genetics) the authors have produced one of the most complete pictures of the effect of natural selection on a single animal. Amateur cavers might find the techical aspects of the book somewhat daunting, while expert scientists may view the study as too limitied -- yet both can appreciate the ramifications of what this study, of a little shrimp, might someday teach us about ourselves.
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The Evolution of Darwinism: Selection, Adaptation and Progress in Evolutionary Biology
Timothy Shanahan
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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ASIN: 0521541980 |
Book Description
No other scientific theory has had as great an impact on our understanding of the world as Darwin's theory outlined in his Origin of Species. Yet the theory has been the subject of controversy from its very beginning. This book focuses on three issues of debate in Darwin's theory of evolution--the nature of selection, the nature and scope of adaptation, and the question of evolutionary progress. It traces the varying interpretations to which these issues were subjected historically through the fierce contemporary debates continuing to rage.
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Adaptation and Environment
Robert N. Brandon
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
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ASIN: 069108548X |
Book Description
By focusing on the crucial role of environment in the process of adaptation, Robert Brandon clarifies definitions and principles so as to help make the argument of evolution by natural selection empirically testable. He proposes that natural selection is the process of differential reproduction resulting from differential adaptedness to a common selective environment. By focusing on the crucial role of environment in the process of adaptation, Robert Brandon clarifies definitions and principles so as to help make the argument of evolution by natural selection empirically testable. He proposes that natural selection is the process of differential reproduction resulting from differential adaptedness to a common selective environment.
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Adaptation And Survival (Reading Essentials in Science)
Susan Glass
Manufacturer: Perfection Learning
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ASIN: 0756944791 |
Books:
- The Voyage of the Beagle: Charles Darwin's Journal of Researches (Penguin Classics)
- Water and the Search for Life on Mars (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration)
- Why Is Sex Fun?: The Evolution of Human Sexuality (Science Masters)
- Why Is Sex Fun?: The Evolution of Human Sexuality (Science Masters)
- Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul
- Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
- Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century
- Worlds in Collision
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