| ISCID Recommends... | |
ISCID will, from time to time, highlight five books that we think are worth reading. |
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Truly a magnum opus, On the Origin of Phyla will take its place as one of the classic scientific texts of the twentieth century, affecting the work of paleontologists, morphologists, and developmental, molecular, and evolutionary biologists for decades to come. |
Origination
of
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The field of evolutionary biology arose from the desire to understand the origin and diversity of biological forms. In recent years, however, evolutionary genetics, with its focus on the modification and inheritance of presumed genetic programs, has all but overwhelmed other aspects of evolutionary biology. This has led to the neglect of the study of the generative origins of biological form. Drawing on work from developmental biology, paleontology, developmental and population genetics, cancer research, physics, and theoretical biology, this book explores the multiple factors responsible for the origination of biological form. It examines the essential problems of morphological evolution--why, for example, the basic body plans of nearly all metazoans arose within a relatively short time span, why similar morphological design motifs appear in phylogenetically independent lineages, and how new structural elements are added to the body plan of a given phylogenetic lineage. It also examines discordances between genetic and phenotypic change, the physical determinants of morphogenesis, and the role of epigenetic processes in evolution. The book discusses these and other topics within the framework of evolutionary developmental biology, a new research agenda that concerns the interaction of development and evolution in the generation of biological form. By placing epigenetic processes, rather than gene sequence and gene expression changes, at the center of morphological origination, this book points the way to a more comprehensive theory of evolution. |
The
Crucible of Creation
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In The Crucible of Creation, paleontologist Simon Conway Morris describes the marvelous finds of the Burgess Shale--a fantastically rich deposit of Cambrian fossils discovered in Western Canada. One of the few paleontologists ever to explore the Burgess Shale, he provides a complete overview of this remarkable find, ranging from a fascinating description of the painstaking on-site scientific work to an informative discussion of the origins of life on earth. At the heart of the book, Conway Morris takes the reader on imaginative trip in a time machine back to the Cambrian seas, bringing the fossilized creatures to life as they existed then. And perhaps most important, he applies the revelations of the Burgess Shale to modern evolutionary thinking. In particular, he lays out a critique of Stephen Jay Gould's ideas, drawing quite different conclusions from Gould on the nature of evolution. This finely illustrated volume takes the reader to the forefront of paleontology as it provides fresh insights into the nature of evolution and of life on earth. |
Biased
Embryos and Evolution
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Aimed primarily at a general readership and college students of biology, this book focuses on the question of how embryonic development changes in the course of evolution, thus giving rise to new types of creatures. It takes the view that biases in the ways that embryos can be altered are as important as natural selection in determining the directions that evolution has taken, including the one that led to the origin of humans. |
The
Emergence of Life on Earth: A Historical and Scientific Overview
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How did life emerge on Earth? Is there life on other worlds? These questions, until recently confined to the pages of speculative essays and tabloid headlines, are now the subject of legitimate scientific research. This book presents a unique perspective-a combined historical, scientific, and philosophical analysis, which does justice to the complex nature of the subject. The book's first part offers an overview of the main ideas on the origin of life as they developed from antiquity until the twentieth century. The second, more detailed part of the book examines contemporary theories and major debates within the origin-of-life scientific community. Topics include: - Aristotle and the Greek atomists' conceptions of the organism - Alexander Oparin and J.B.S. Haldane's 1920s breakthrough papers - Possible life on Mars? - The search for extraterrestrial intelligence - Recent discoveries of extrasolar planets |
| Past Recommendations: | Jan. 2005 |
