The Soul in the Brain: The Cerebral Basis of Language, Art, and Belief Review

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(More customer reviews)After a lifetime studying epilepsy and other neurological disorders, Michael Trimble has taken his considerable experience and used it as a means to explore how we become poets, prophets, or madmen (or all of the above). Those interested in the work of Oliver Sacks, Antonio Damasio, and V.S. Ramachandran will welcome this highly interesting volume. Trimble is Professor of Behavioral Neurology at the Institute of Neurology, University of London. His work has concentrated on the study of epilepsy but he has also edited an excellent and comprehensive volume entitled Biological Psychiatry (1996). His understanding of broad issues in neuropsychiatry is second to none. But what distinguishes The Soul in the Brain from Trimble's previous work is its focus on topics important to all of us. As he writes "The main theme of this book is the cerebral representations of emotional experiences that relate to music and religion and associated activities such as poetry" (53).
Trimble does a superb job reviewing loads of material and highlighting those pieces most relevant to the issues at hand. Here is a neurologist with a longstanding and passionate commitment to understanding all things human. Trimble's expressed admiration of William James, Freud, and John Hughlings Jackson confirm his desire to bring the field variously entitled neuropsychiatry or behavioral neurology to bear upon vital aspects of human experience.
The Soul in the Brain reviews such varied topics as poetry and religiosity, music and madness. Trimble highlights the cerebral mechanisms that contribute to such aptitudes. He demonstrates a genuine appreciation for these topics and for the disciplines that have traditionally sought to understand them. Trimble is not militant in his scientism. Concerning religion, for instance, he writes "Profane man is a descendant of H. religiosus, and he cannot wipe out his own history" (19). Not by simplifying or reducing the phenomena at hand will we come to an understanding but through a systematic revelation of underlying mechanisms we can gain greater clarity.
Of particular interest is the consideration of the right cerebral hemisphere and its relation to language, a topic Trimble feels has been neglected in the past. While Broca's and Wernicke's areas (the main regions associated with language) are typically located in the left hemisphere, other critical aspects of language including our abilities to work with metaphor, prosody, and tone probably derive from the right hemisphere's special capabilities.
Trimble's writing is clear and competent with some literary flourishes occasioned, no doubt, by his regard for poetry. In my opinion, the volume could have used a bit more editing, it felt `uneven' in numerous places. Several times while reading The Soul in the Brain I wished Trimble would have abbreviated some material and elaborated elsewhere. Most importantly, I wish he had discussed the relationship between temporal lobe epilepsy and religion at even greater length. Trimble devoted a chapter to this topic but given his expertise and the number of times I came across his name while reading about temporal lobe epilepsy elsewhere I had hoped for an even lengthier analysis. Those specifically interested in temporal lobe epilepsy would do well to read this volume but ought to read Eve LaPlante's excellent book Seized (1993) also.
The scope of the book is vast and in spite of this ambitious scope Trimble manages to synthesize most of the material he relates. Without any grand unifying theories to help us adequately combine biological and social insights books, like this one, that attempt to bring together diverse fields necessarily feel a bit scattered. This is less an insufficiency than a demonstration of bold vision and the desire to bring together fields that have previously allowed themselves to pass like ships in the night.

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In this provocative study, Michael R. Trimble, M.D., tackles the interrelationship between brain function, language, art -- especially music and poetry -- and religion. By examining the breakdown of language in several neuropsychiatric disorders, neuroscientists have identified brain circuits that are involved with metaphor, poetry, music, and religious experiences. Drawing on this body of evidence, Trimble argues that religious experiences and beliefs are explicable biologically and relate to brain function, especially of the nondominant hemisphere.Inspired by the writings and reflections of his patients -- many of whom have epilepsy, psychosis, or affective disorders -- Trimble asks how the human species, so enamored of its own logic and critical facilities, has held from the dawn of civilization strong religious beliefs and a reverence for the arts. He explores topics such as the phenomena of hypergraphia and hyper-religiosity, how religious experiences and poetic expression are neurologically linked with our capacity to respond to music, and how neuropsychiatric disorders influence behaviors related to artistic expression and religiosity by disturbing brain function.With the sensitivity of a dedicated doctor and the curiosity of an accomplished scholar, Trimble offers an insightful analysis of how the study of people with paradigmatical neuropsychiatric conditions can be the cornerstone to unraveling some of the mysteries of the cerebral representations of our highest cultural experiences.

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The Major Transitions in Evolution Review

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(More customer reviews)This is arguably John-Maynard Smith's most challenging project in popular science writing. Written along with Eros Szathmary, a chemist, " The Major Transitions in Evolution" is written primarily for biology students, but can be understood by anybody with a solid background in evolutionary theory. How have the ways in which information is transmitted between generations changed through time and what were the crucial transitions that made these changes possible? One early example that illustrates the effect of these transitions is the origin of chromosomes. Nucleic acid strands (genes) capable of independent replication, at some point became linked and thereafter could replicate only as a set of lined genes (chromosomes). A new way of storing information,a new information system had evolved. How was this transition maintained through time? Would'nt unlinked genes which replicate faster be favoured by natural selection over linked genes? In effect, would'nt selection at a lower level disrupt higher level organizatins? This is a common feature of many of the major transitions and forms the fundamental theme of this marvellous book. In a series of chapters the authors discuss the evolutions of various level of complexity. The chapters are arrange in a logical sequence begining with the origin of life and moving on to successive transitions including the origin of the genetic code, the origin of the eucaryotes, the origin of sex, multicellularity, societies and language. The list here is not complete. I read the book from start to finish in a sequence, but readers with a good background in the subject could probably start anywhere depending on their interest. For non-biologist this is not easy reading at all, and I would imagine that even biology students will find portions challenging. An impressive quality of this book is the constant attempt to incorporate the pecularities of a particular system in developing an explanation to explain its origin. A discussion on the origin of the genetic code includes the possibilty that there could be a stero-chemical basis for specific amino acid-codon assigments, rather than it being a 'frozen accident'. Another example is whether there is a causal connection between haplodiploidy and evolution of sociality in eusocial insects. The author warn against making this apparently intuitive connection, and instead seek an explanation in split sex ratios and in some cases the particular features of insect ecology. The highlight of the book for me was the last chapter on the origin of language. From Noam Chomsky's work on the structure of grammer , syntax and language and representation, to an evolutionary explanation for its origin, this was really an informative essay. The ever recurring argument against the evolution of complex adapatations, in this case language, by a series of adaptive intermediate stages, has been dealt with using examples from animal speech, the genetics of language disorders and a section on the transitions from pigdin to creole. The book strikes a good balance between explaining theory and then discussing the experimental evidence available. Wherever possible, new experimental approaches are suggested. Finally, like any really good book on science the authors not only bring you up to date with what has been done, but also stress just how much more needs to be done. It is this feature about the book that leaves a lasting impression.

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Over the history of life there have been several major changes in the way genetic information is organized and transmitted from one generation to the next.These transitions include the origin of life itself, the first eukaryotic cells, reproduction by sexual means, the appearance of multicellular plants and animals, the emergence of cooperation and of animal societies, and the unique language ability of humans.This ambitious book provides the first unified discussion of the full range of these transitions. The authors highlight the similarities between different transitions--between the union of replicating molecules to form chromosomes and of cells to form multicellular organisms, for example--and show how understanding one transition sheds light on others.They trace a common theme throughout the history of evolution: after a major transition some entities lose the ability to replicate independently, becoming able to reproduce only as part of a larger whole.The authors investigate this pattern and why selection between entities at a lower level does not disrupt selection at more complex levels.Their explanation encompasses a compelling theory of the evolution of cooperation at all levels of complexity.Engagingly written and filled with numerous illustrations, this book can be read with enjoyment by anyone with an undergraduate training in biology.It is ideal for advanced discussion groups on evolution and includes accessible discussions of a wide range of topics, from molecular biology and linguistics to insect societies.

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An Infinity of Things: How Sir Henry Wellcome Collected the World Review

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(More customer reviews)Collecting things is a human trait that almost anyone participates in, whether it is a formal hobby like stamp collecting or just accumulating books or Toby jugs. Every now and then we hear about some poor fellow who has filled his house with a collection, usually of worthless stuff, so that he can do nothing but tunnel through the mass. This would have been the fate of Henry Wellcome, who collected a huge amount of valuable ethnographic and historically important items, but he had the money to keep the collection from impinging, much, upon his living quarters. Wellcome was obsessed with collecting all of human history, and this resulted in huge warehouses filled with crates jammed with a jumble of fetish items, spears, masks, tools, paintings, pestles, whole shopfronts and the shops behind them, walking sticks, and more. The mass of the collection can never be fully appreciated (and was not, even by him); when it was disbursed in the 1940s, there was, for example, an embarrassingly large number of weapons, so many that along with the good stuff there were six tons of swords, guns, cannon, helmets, and shields that were suitable only for scrap. Wellcome was sure his collection would prove to be a beacon of research, but in the fascinating _An Infinity of Things: How Sir Henry Wellcome Collected the World_ (Oxford University Press), anthropologist and historian Frances Larson shows how Wellcome's pathological acquisitiveness doomed itself into making a collection so huge it was unusable, and how his great ambition blighted his life. It is a story of genuine tragedy.
The wealth he Wellcome made from pharmaceuticals he employed in building his collection. It was not a one-man operation; given the scope of his purchases, the wide regions from which they were obtained, and the need to store and preserve them, Wellcome required an army of helpers. Many of his doings he wanted kept secret, and bidding on items was often a cloak-and-dagger affair. His need for secrecy became pathological. Wellcome aspired to an academic appreciation for his collection (although he wrote only two papers about items within it). This would have meant that scholars would obtain access to the items in the collection, a simple requirement that he had difficulty accepting. Proposals for collaborating with academic institutions were met with a cool postponement; there would be plenty of time for such work when the collection was complete, and making it complete was his all-consuming (and illusory) goal. The secrecy extended even to the exhibit of the items. When he did open a museum, he only wanted doctors to come in, or if you weren't a doctor, you had to bring a note from your doctor.
The stance of mistrust may have poisoned his marriage, to a much younger woman whom he divorced in 1916. Wellcome suspected that she was having an affair. The collecting mania, however, certainly had worsened any romance between them. She was to write of their travels, "the greatest part of our time has been spent, as he well knows, in places I detested collecting curios." He was, for those who worked with him, a difficult taskmaster, insisting on secrecy and on driving hard bargains. Other tycoons spent their fortunes on, say, paintings that cost thousands of pounds; most of the items in Wellcome's collection cost only a few pounds, and if he could get a relic for shillings, he was thrilled. He never settled down from buying and storing, and the warehouses filled up with exhibits that would be exhibited to no one. He wanted to show every bit of human history with artifacts that pertained to all societies and endeavors, and surely he accumulated more towards that goal than anyone else ever could. Larson, however, has produced a sad picture of an unlikeable but driven man, whose unremitting goal of collecting precluded any usefulness of his collection.


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Richly illustrated throughout, including 8 pages of color plates, An Infinity of Things tells the story of the greatest private collection ever made, and the life of the man behind it. American-born Henry Wellcome made his millions as one of the world's first pharmaceutical entrepreneurs. Drawing on his massive wealth, he planned a great museum filled with treasures from all corners of the globe, charting the history of human health from prehistory to the present day. Demonstrating what can happen when a collector's aspirations are left unconstrained by wealth, Frances Larson explores Wellcome's life through his possessions, revealing the many tensions in his character: between his talents as a businessman and his desire for scholarly recognition; his curiosity and his perfectionism; and his philanthropic aspirations and his drive for personal glory. During the opening decades of the twentieth century he acquired a collection so large that later generations of staff took to describing its contents by the ton. But Wellcome's museum was never finished, and his collection was still stored in vast warehouses when he died, unseen and incomplete.

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Human Genetic Diversity: Functional Consequences for Health and Disease Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a great book for learning more about human genetics. Its diagrams are not always well placed with the text, so it loses one star for lack of clarity. Keep in mind that there is an expected knowledge of basic biology including the cell and its basic DNA-related processes. Good textbook for college-level class.

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The secrets of our genetic heritage are finally being unlocked. The massive scientific effort to sequence the human genome is in fact just the beginning of a long journey as the extraordinary genetic diversity that exists between individuals becomes clear. Work in this field is yielding profound insights into the wider implications for understanding biology, human health and history. It promises much: to understand our evolutionary origins, to define us as individuals, to predict our risk of disease and to more effectively understand, treat and prevent illness. Genetics can help us understand both rare inherited disorders and common multifactorial disease like asthma, heart disease and diabetes. Huge investments are being made and great advances have been achived, but the challenges remain daunting. This book provides an authoritative overview of this topical and very rapidly advancing field of biomedical research. Human Genetic Diversity provides a concise, authoritative overview of human genetic diversity. It documents the insights that human genetics have brought to an understanding of human evolution and history, focusing on the implications of human genetic diversity for disease susceptibility and treatment. The book describes the genetic basis for diseases such as HIV, AIDS, Crohn's disease, asthma and type I diabetes. It also examines the emerging field of pharmacogenomics and individualized medicine. Human genetic variation has implications across a broad range of disciplines (both biological and medical) and this text neatly consolidates work in diverse fields to highlight common themes and principles. An accessible style and the extensive use of illustrations promote its relevance to a broad audience ranging from those interested in human and population genetics to molecular biologists, evolutionary biologists, biological anthropologists and individuals working in the health sciences and clinical medicine.

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A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness: From Impostor Poodles to Purple Numbers Review

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(More customer reviews)I attended the 2005 Skeptics Society conference on Brain, Mind, and Consciousness at Caltech, where Ramachandran had been scheduled to speak but was unable to do so because of a family emergency. Although I was not previously familiar with his work, the description led me to believe he was a speaker I would be interested in hearing, and this book, which I purchased at the conference, provides a strong case for that. I've long had an interest in philosophy of mind and cognitive science, and minored in cognitive science in my Ph.D. studies (never completed) at the University of Arizona. I've been out of academia for 11 years now, and apart from reading occasional works like Daniel Dennett's Consciousness Explained and Freedom Evolves, I've not been keeping close tabs on the field. The conference and this book were quite a pleasure--it is clear that there have been some significant developments over the last decade.
It is hard to believe that there are still people who think the brain is little more than a radio receiver, a set of mechanical controls for a disembodied spirit to manipulate the body. Ramachandran's book--like the case studies of Oliver Sacks and A.N. Luria--shows how wrongheaded that view is.
This is a thin (112 pages of text, 45 pages of notes), very accessible and entertaining book. If you enjoy the works of Sacks and Luria, you are likely to enjoy this as well. This is not a collection of case studies, though there are some descriptions of particular patients--it is written from a higher elevation, bringing together recent results, explaining unusual phenomena, and speculating about how those phenomena may tie in to a further understanding of the details of the brain's function.
The book came from Ramachandran's BBC Reith lectures, so it is for a popular audience, with the notes providing some more underlying detail. There are five chapters, each dealing with a single topic. The first chapter is about amputees who experience pain in their "phantom limbs" and how the parts of the brain which had been devoted to the now-absent limbs can become mapped to still-present parts of the body which are handled by physically proximate parts of the brain. For example, a patient whose left arm had been amputated could feel contact to the nonexistent fingers of his left hand from touches to parts of his face or upper arm. Ramachandran then uses this remapping phenomenon to speculate about the causes of Capgras' syndrome (where a patient believes people he knows have been replaced withimpostors), synesthesia, and pain asymbolia, where a patient responds to pain stimulus with laughter.
The second chapter is about vision, and specifically about the phenomena of blindsight (where a person has no experience of seeing, but at an unconscious level does see), hemisphere neglect, and mirror agnosia. In this chapter Ramachandran discusses "mirror neurons," neurons found in monkeys which activate when a monkey performs some task, but also when the monkey sees another monkey perform the same task.
The third chapter, "The Artful Brain," is the most speculative, and provides Ramachandran's suggested ten "universal laws of art," which he offers as features we find aesthetically pleasing in art, and discusses some reasons why those features might be pleasing to the brain.
The fourth chapter deals in more detail with synesthesia, the perception of stimuli with multiple senses, such as experiencing colors corresponding with sounds or numbers. He links this to cross-activation of sites in the brain (similar to his discussion in the first chapter), points out some similar phenomena that most people share (such as a tendency to associate certain kinds of abstract shapes with certain sounds or names), and speculates that such associations may have paved the way for the evolution of language from non-verbal communication.
The fifth and final chapter is titled "Neuroscience--The New Philosophy." Ramachandran discusses how some of the phenomena of neuroscience might bear on questions from philosophy of mind about qualia, free will, and self-awareness. The chapter doesn't get very deep into any of these philosophical issues, but it's clear that more has been learned in the last few decades of neuroscience than in the last few millenia of philosophy.
I highly recommend this book as an introduction to these topics.

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Skin: A Natural History Review

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(More customer reviews)Enhanced with the inclusion of 14 color photographs, 2 color maps, 36 black/white photographs, and 13 line drawn illustrations, "Skin: A Natural History" by Nina G. Jablonski (Head of the Department of Anthropology at The California Academy of Sciences) is a thoroughly "reader friendly" and scholarly introduction to the biological and cultural functions of human skin. "Skin" addresses such questions and issues as how and when human skin came to look, fell, and function as we know it today; why we turn pale when anxious but red when we are embarrassed or angry; why touch is one of the fundamentally important senses of the body and relates to every aspect of human life; what is the real purpose of fingerprints; skin as a canvas for self-expression; the effects of aging, environmental stress, insect bites, burns, and diseases upon skin; advancing medical technologies relevant to skin issues, and so much more. Surveying more than 300-million-years of evolutionary development as it relates to the skin of homo sapiens, "Skin" addresses the critical role skin plays in human health (including processing sunlight for Vitamin D), the role of melanin in protecting us from the sun's rays, and the advances toward to the creation of artificial skin, gene therapies, reversing the aging process of skin, and other fascinating issues related to our skin. "Skin: A Natural History" is an informed and informative addition to medical school, academic library, and Anthropological Studies collections, as well as a very highly recommended study for non-specialist general readers with an interest in the biology and sociology of skin issues.

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G. Evelyn Hutchinson and the Invention of Modern Ecology Review

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(More customer reviews)Dr. Slack has written what I believe is the first book-length biography of G. Evelyn Hutchinson, a visionary scientist and polymath who played a central role in the development of modern ecology. This is a fabulous book that describes Hutchinson's myriad accomplishments in the context of his early life in England and then his long and productive career at Yale. This book is a must-read for college students currently working in any aspect of ecology, the life sciences, natural resource management, or anyone interested in the history of science.

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Stephen J. Gould declared G. Evelyn Hutchinson the most important ecologist of the twentieth century. E. O. Wilson pronounced him "one of the few scientists who could unabashedly be called a genius." In this fascinating book, Nancy G. Slack presents for the first time the full life story of this brilliant scientist who was also a master teacher, a polymath, and a delightful friend and correspondent.

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Molecular Evolution and Phylogenetics Review

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(More customer reviews)Nei and Kumar's "Molecular Evolution and Phylogenetics" is basically an updated version of Nei's 1987 "Molecular Evolutionary Genetics" book. Accordingly, attention is shifted to reviewing many recent advances in methods of phylogenetic inference with an obvious bias towards distance methods, particularly those which the senior author devised. In fairness, they give decent coverage to the more popular parsimony and likelihood methods as well. The great strength of the book is the number of real examples used to illustrate properties of the methods, and their focus on statistical methodology without miring the reader in detailed mathematics. The disappointment is that while breadth of coverage is tolerable, depth is lacking. Expanding their views on the shortcomings of likelihood in choosing tree topology and likelihood ratio-tests in choosing models of sequence evolution would have been most enlightening, particularly as these issues have been brushed lightly aside by phylo-likelihoodists. Other methods (Hadamard transformations, Bayesian phylogenetic inference) were absent altogether. Further the chapter on molecular clocks was disappointing--old 1980s controversies were rehashed, while there was nothing on methods that relax the assumption of rate constancy while still allowing divergences to be dated. Admittedly some of this is very new and research is ongoing, but there isn't even a hint of these developments in this chapter. Another plus though is the addition of a chapter on inferring ancestral states of molecular sequences.
Unlike Molecular Evolutionary Genetics, far too little of the book is devoted to methods at the population level, and what is there again smacks of state-of-the-art 15-20 years ago. I was hoping for much more coverage of microsatellite and AFLP data. There was very little for either, while now rarely-used RFLPs were given extensive coverage.
In short, this book was too short, particularly for the price, and I almost gave it 3 stars rather than 4. However, if you are a phylogeneticist, you will probably want to have this book on your shelf. A lighter introduction for the uninitiated would be Rod Page's "Molecular Evolution" or Graur and Li's "Fundamentals of Molecular Evolution". However, my hopes for a good comprehensive text and reference on phylogenetic methods now rest on publication of Joseph Felsenstein's "Inferring Phylogenies".

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During the last ten years, remarkable progress has occurred in the study of molecular evolution. Among the most important factors that are responsible for this progress are the development of new statistical methods and advances in computational technology. In particular, phylogenetic analysis of DNA or protein sequences has become a powerful tool for studying molecular evolution. Along with this developing technology, the application of the new statistical and computational methods has become more complicated and there is no comprehensive volume that treats these methods in depth. Molecular Evolution and Phylogenetics fills this gap and present various statistical methods that are easily accessible to general biologists as well as biochemists, bioinformatists and graduate students. The text covers measurement of sequence divergence, construction of phylogenetic trees, statistical tests for detection of positive Darwinian selection, inference of ancestral amino acid sequences, construction of linearized trees, and analysis of allele frequency data. Emphasis is given to practical methods of data analysis, and methods can be learned by working through numerical examples using the computer program MEGA2 that is provided.

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Evolutionary Genetics Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a Physicist trying to learn a bit about Genetics. I take the book seriously and I solve the problems and the computer proyects that the author poses. The book is highly readable and interesting (just some few type mistakes). This I warranty since I have had not the need of much consulting outside the book and this is not my field of research!!. The author goes from the basics up to some remarks of unsolved problems and controversy.

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The first edition of Maynard Smith's Evolutionary Genetics (first published in 1989) was welcomed as the first comprehensive introduction to the molecular and population aspects of evolutionary genetics, and has now become one of the definitive textbooks in the field. Aimed at advanced undergraduates in the biological sciences, the book covers basic population and quantitative genetics, evolutionary game theory, behavioral evolution, sexual selection and mating systems, speciation, and macroevolution. Theory and mathematics are clearly explained, with the aid of problems at the ends of the chapters, and the author takes care to place these within the context of questions central to current research in evolutionary biology.This Second Edition has been revised and updated throughout to reflect new findings and research interests. In the chapter on phenotypic evolution, the author incorporates new research on game theory. The discussions of sex and host-parasite interactions have been extensively revised and the author has added a new chapter on molecular genetics and the reconstruction of evolutionary history. Evolutionary Genetics remains the essential textbook for advanced undergraduates seeking a clear, comprehensive, and up-to-date account of the theory of evolutionary biology.

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Evolutionary Ecology: Concepts and Case Studies Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is really great for students interested in evolutionary ecology. All topics are up to date and each chapter is written by experts in their field. A must have for anyone in ecology and evolution!

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Evolutionary Ecology simultaneously unifies conceptual and empirical advances in evolutionary ecology and provides a volume that can be used as either a primary textbook or a supplemental reading in an advanced undergraduate or graduate course. The focus of the book is on current concepts in evolutionary ecology, and the empirical study of these concepts. The editors have assembled a group of prominent biologists who have made significant contributions to this field. They both synthesize the current state of knowledge and identity areas for future investigation. Evolutionary Ecology will be of general interest to researchers and students in both ecology and evolutionary biology. Researchers in evolutionary ecology that want an overview of the current state of the field, and graduate students that want an introduction the field, will find this book very valuable. This volume can also be used as a primary textbook or supplemental reading in both upper division and graduate courses/seminars in Evolutionary Ecology.

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Are We Hardwired?: The Role of Genes in Human Behavior Review

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(More customer reviews)I loved Clark's "Sex and the Origin of Death” and "At War Within”. By comparison, I was disappointed in Hardwired. It is a serious , very informative book, and I believe you can trust Clark. The earlier chapters, about one celled animals, a worm, and a fly, were brilliant, and a lot about the basis of human behavior may be learned from them. The material in the first chapter about studies of twins separated at birth is provocative. The problem is that once Clark, or was it Grunstein, got to vertebrates, the material was just not well integrated. Too often the book read as a series of summaries of successive findings, some of which were inconsistent. Yes, Clark had some overarching themes, repeated a number of times, but that doesn't replace a good synthesis. There is much that is partially understood at best, and a lot of research which casts light only on a small piece of the puzzle, making a good synthesis more difficult for conscientious authors, but that just makes their job harder, not impossible. Bottom line: if you are interested in the subject AND in science, including technical details, read this book, until a better one comes along.

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Evolutionary Medicine and Health: New Perspectives Review

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(More customer reviews)The book has to be more about theory than fact, though. Evolutionary medicine is a field with so many brand new insights that they have yet to be tested to any great degree. Definately good stuff in this book though.

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Building on the success of their groundbreaking anthology Evolutionary Medicine (OUP, 1999), Wenda R. Trevathan, E. O. Smith, and James J. McKenna provide an up-to-date and thought-provoking introduction to the field with this new collection of essays. Ideal for courses in evolutionary medicine, medical anthropology, and the evolution of human disease, Evolutionary Medicine and Health: New Perspectives presents twenty-three original articles that examine how human evolution relates to a broad range of contemporary health problems including infectious, chronic, nutritional, and mental diseases and disorders. Topics covered include disease susceptibility in cultural context, substance abuse and addiction, sleep disorders, preeclampsia, altitude-related hypoxia, the biological context of menstruation, and the role of stress in modern life. An international team of preeminent scholars in biological anthropology, medicine, biology, psychology, and geography contributed the selections. Together they represent a uniquely integrative and multidisciplinary approach that takes into account the dialogue between biology and culture as it relates to understanding, treating, and preventing disease. A common theme throughout is the description of cases in which biological human development conflicts with culturally based individual behaviors that determine health outcomes. Detailed, evidence-based arguments make the case that all aspects of the human condition covered in the volume have an evolutionary basis, while theoretical discussions using other empirical evidence critique the gaps that still remain in evolutionary approaches to health. Evolutionary Medicine and Health: New Perspectives features an introductory overview that covers the field's diverse array of topics, questions, lines of evidence, and perspectives. In addition, the editors provide introductions to each essay and an extensive bibliography that represents a state-of-the-art survey of the literature. A companion website at www.oup.com/us/evolmed offers a full bibliography and links to source articles, reports, and databases. Written in an engaging style that is accessible to students, professionals, and general readers, this book offers a unique look at how an evolutionary perspective has become increasingly relevant to the health field and medical practice.

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Epigenetics in Biology and Medicine Review

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(More customer reviews)The book gathers together papers that show the current state of knowledge of a branch of developmental biology. It is suitable for researchers in this field.
Of the topics covered, sirtuins might possibly be the best known to outsiders. These are found in resveratrol, an active ingredient of red wine. Several papers look at the role of these in aging. The exciting promise of being able to increase the replicative lifespans of cells, beyond the Hayflick limit, is mooted. Beyond this is the prospect that in turn the chronological lifespan of an entire organism might thusly be enhanced.
Overall, for sirtuins and other topics, the book shows an impressively growing understanding of mechanisms at the cellular level.

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Anomalous epigenetic patterns touch many areas of study including biomedical, scientific, and industrial. With perspectives from international experts, this resource offers an all-inclusive overview of epigenetics, which bridge DNA information and function by regulating gene expression without modifying the DNA sequence itself.
Epigenetics, in its most basic form, means heredity is not the sole determining factor in disease development. Rather, environmental and dietary factors can trigger a gene to behave in an unintended way, while the gene itself remains unchanged.
Epigenetics in Biology and Medicinediscusses cell biology and epigenetics' role in human, animal, and plant diseases, including distortions in DNA methylation. The text also covers histone modifications, and epigenomics, as well as dietary and environmental impacts on epigenetic changes.
Addresses These Important Questions:
How promising are HDACi drugs asanti-tumor agents?
Will restoring normal levels ofmiRNAs change the course of devastating diseases?
Is it possible to alter epigeneticmechanisms once they are triggered?
Is it possible to correct theabnormalities in methylation patterns that impact auto-immunities?
Represents a Landmark Publication in this Cutting-Edge Field
Dr. Manel Esteller, the editor of the volume, is a leading expert in molecular genetics of endometrial carcinoma. Under his editorial guidance, this publication goes beyond heredity to explain the crucial role of epigenetics in plants and physical and psychological diseases.
This text is applicable to a wide range of researchers, including those invested in the applications of cell biology, those involved in disease research and deciding genetic patterns, and those coalitions concerned with the impact of epigenetics and possible cures. As a result, it has the potential to launch the development of a new class of pharmaceuticals that could have the potential to drastically change the medical landscape in the near future.

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The Art of Genes: How Organisms Make Themselves Review

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(More customer reviews)I always had the feeling that evolution was the inventor of new things and development was a secondary problem of how to build an organism from information already present in the fertilised egg. Now I know what problems need to be solved in building a multicellular organism from a single cell in the first place. Enrico Coen magnificently explains how the head-tail, ventral-dorsal, left-right and inside-outside axis is build out of nearly nothing. The subtitle of the book is a perfect illustration of the task: How organisms make themselves (without help from outside). The problem looked only harder since the discovery of DNA : the information in DNA is one-dimensional, so how to build a 3-dimensional organism on the basis of that? No wonder that people in previous centuries saw miniature humans in egg or sperm. But since that 'solution' was refuted, the problem confronted us again: how do organisms make themselves? Enrico Coen gives deep insights with the help of metaphors derived from art and with the necessary scientific details and without confusing us with too many complexities. Coen explains the crucial role of genes without being a genetic reductionist. His examples are both from animals and plants, wich I find an advantage. This book is an achievement. The only criticism I have is that the main metaphor Coen uses is about colors and all the illustrations are in black-and-white! At least the hardback edition should have color illustrations!

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Over the past twenty years there has been a revolution in biology--for the first time scientists have been able to unravel the details of how organisms make themselves.The mechanisms by which a fertilized egg develops into an adult can now be grasped in a way that was unimaginable a few decades ago. The Art of Genes is the first account of these exciting new findings, and of their broader significance in how we view ourselves. Through a highly original synthesis of sciece and art, Enrico Coen vividly describes this revolution in our understanding of how plants and animals develop.Drawing on a wide range of material--from flowers growing petals instead of sex organs, and flies that develop an extra pair of wings, to works of art by Leonardo and Magritte--he explains in lively accessible prose the meaning of genes.Coen draws parallels between the way genes respond to the developing pattern of an organism and the way an artist responds to a painting being created on canvas, a memorable analogy that shows how the organism develops through an interactive dialogue in which there is no separation between plan and execution. There have been many attempts to resolve the paradox of how organisms make themselves. Lucid, authoritative, and entertaining, The Art of Genes offers fresh and exciting insights into the nature of evolution, development, and human creativity.

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The Evolution and Emergence of RNA Viruses (Oxford Series in Ecology and Evolution) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is a tour de force introduction to the field of emerging RNA viruses by one of the world's leading experts in virus evolution. The book progresses rapidly from concise chapters on RNA virus biology, origins and microevolution to detailed discussions of RNA virus macroevolution, (contentious) quasi-species concepts, phylogeography and patterns of RNA virus emergence. Though each chapter may stand alone as a significant contribution, the succession of chapters provides a strong logical framework for understanding the observed epidemiological patterns of RNA emergence. This narrative structure culminates in a series of case studies of emerging RNA viruses that are a fitting conclusion to a book that ties together the molecular evolution of RNA viruses with their emergence and epidemiological dynamics.
In sum, any biologist interested in evolution and/or RNA viruses, from novices to experts, would benefit from and enjoy reading this claret-colored addition to the OUP catalog.

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RNA viruses provide unique insights into the patterns and processes of evolutionary change in real time. The study of viral evolution is especially topical given the growing awareness that emerging and re-emerging diseases (most of which are caused by RNA viruses) represent a major threat to public health. However, while the study of viral evolution has developed rapidly in the last 30 years, relatively little attention has been directed toward linking work on the mechanisms of viral evolution within cells or individual hosts, to the epidemiological outcomes of these processes. This novel book fills this gap by considering the patterns and processes of viral evolution across their entire range of spatial and temporal scales. The Evolution and Emergence of RNA Viruses provide a comprehensive overview of RNA virus evolution. This is the first book to link mechanisms of viral evolution to epidemiological outcomes, incorporating case studies in RNA virus emergence and evolution using topical examples such as influenza, HIV, dengue fever, and rabies. It reveals the underlying evolutionary processes by which emerging viruses cross species boundaries and spread in new hosts.

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Genes, Peoples, and Languages Review

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(More customer reviews)Cavalli-Sforza's invaluable contribution to the understanding of why, before the more recent diasporas, we lived were we lived, spoke what we spoke and looked like what we looked like, was made concrete with the publication, in 1994, of the excellent "The History and Geography of Human Genes". Much less complete than this book were the more recent "The Great Human Diasporas" and Sforza's last book, "Genes, Peoples and Languages". These somewhat summarize what can be found in the pages of "The History and Geography of Human Genes", by the same author,with which they share several maps and tables.
Nevertheless, "Genes, Peoples and Languages" was worth reading, since it incorporates more recent genetic data and linguistic research, and this is what you are looking for if you want to keep up with the advances in this field. A more comprehensive explanation to statistical methods used to define genetic trees and to draw principal component maps, plus an interesting chapter on cultural transmission explaining how, in the microsphere, it helps to operate genetic and linguistic evolution, are novelties in this publication.
Putting aside race and its seemingly subjective definitions, racism and its definetely scientifically undermined fundaments, I would like to recommend this book to those who, like myself, are curious laymen fascinated by the matter of human biological and cultural origins. A more thorough approach to the subject(more maps, tables, trees, drawings and text)you'll find in "The History and Geography of Human Genes, though.

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Haldane, Mayr, and Beanbag Genetics Review

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(More customer reviews)I find myself very perturbed that this book, which closely follows the previously published excellent and comprehensive paper by Rao and Nanjundiah in the Journal of the History of Biology, makes no mention of the prior work at all. Surely the author and the Oxford University Press must have been aware of the previous study which bears almost the same title and content. What is one to think?

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Haldane, Mayr, and Beanbag Genetics presents a summary of the classic exchange between two great biologists - J.B.S. Haldane and Ernst Mayr - regarding the value of the contributions of the mathematical school represented by J.B.S. Haldane, R.A. Fisher and S. Wright to the theory of evolution. Their pioneering contributions from 1918 to the 1960sdominated and shaped the field of population genetics, unique in the annals of science. In 1959, Mayr questioned what heregarded as the beanbag genetic approach of these pioneers to evolutionary theory, "an input or output of genes, as the adding of certain beans to a beanbag and the withdrawing of others." In 1964, Mayr's contention was refuted by Haldane in a remarkably witty, vigorous and pungent essay, "A defense of beanbag genetics" which compared the mathematical theory to a scaffolding within which a reasonably secure theory expressible in words may be built up. Correspondence between Haldane and Mayr is included.Beanbag genetics has come a long way since 1964. Mayr's (1959) critique of simple uncomplicated population genetics is no longer valid. Population genetics today includes much more than Mayr's beanbag genetics. Population genetics models now include multiple factors, linkage, dominance and epistasis. These may be regarded as the advanced beanbag models. Furthermore, population genetics and developmental genetics have become interdependent. Contemporary beanbag genetics includes molecular clocks, nucleotide diversity, coalescence and DNA-based phylogenetic trees, along with the four major holdovers from classical genetics, mutation, selection, migration and random drift. Molecular genetics has made it possible to study evolution rates at the nucleotide level. It is also possible today to compare DNA similarities and divergence in diverse species of animals and plants, which were not previously crossable.

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