Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2017 -

Lidgard (Univ. of Chicago) and Nyhart (Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison) have compiled a superb collection of essays concerning recent work on the concept and nature of biological individuals. The volume consists of a short introduction, followed by 13 essays that integrate research from biologists, historians of science, and philosophers of biology. The overarching question "What is a biological individual?" is demonstrated to have an intricate history, changing and evolving as biologists learned more about organismic structures and functions, life cycles, cellular systems, and ecological interactions. Notions of what counts as an individual are shown to have carried over into social and political identities and practices. In addition, philosophical, conceptual underpinnings and commitments are shown to interplay with these changing biological understandings. Following an initial overview chapter, the next nine chapters provide clear and substantive explorations of varying conceptions and uses of what counts as a biological individual. The final three chapters give broad commentaries on the preceding essays and serve as excellent summaries, critiques, and extrapolations. The volume is marvelous! While not for the casual reader, it is exemplary of the best current work in biological philosophy.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.

This excellently "integrated" and edited volume of 14 chapters (plus introductory and concluding chapters) is the essential resource for any individual seeking to understand the central role that hierarchical thinking has played over the past several centuries in efforts to understand relationships between and change within and among organisms. With a strong emphasis on speciation and unifying theoretical and philosophical perspectives, these chapters combine the ecological (spatial, system, "niche construction," and dynamic relationships) and genealogical (temporal, lineage, "niche evolution," and emergent properties) aspects of evolution so often studied in isolation. Nested hierarchies of individuals, species, niches, populations, and communities interacting causally with genetic and epigenetic developmental and ecological processes are used to understand dichotomies such as macro and microevolution, tempo and mode, and pattern and process in evolution. Many chapters, including the introduction, highlight these themes in a historical context, an approach that integrates the chapters to reveal just how deeply rooted hierarchical perspectives are in the quest to understand organismal relationships and evolution. Dual categories, such as evolution and development, pattern and process, and nature and nurture begin to fall away in the light of the approach expounded in this illuminating volume.Summing Up: Essential. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.

This is a wonderful book! Ungar (Univ. of Arkansas) is a world-class researcher on dental evolution (see his Mammal Teeth, CH, Mar'11, 48-3875) who also knows how to write captivatingly for a general reader. The book is hard to put down, blending stories about colleagues with clear explanations of scientific analyses. Teeth are important in tracking evolution because they are covered with enamel (the hardest substance in the body), and their surface features reflect diet and relationships among species. Ungar explains how teeth are used by living animals and how, in turn, they serve as guides to what extinct organisms ate from the "biospheric buffet," as he refers to the range of foodstuffs available for dietary choice. He then turns to the fossils, in chapters discussing the recovery of early ancestors of humans from Africa dating between three and one million years ago (and African climatic fluctuation over that time period, which led humans to adapt to environmental variation rather than a specific environment or diet), laboratory methods of dietary analysis, and testing hypotheses of human evolution related to diet and environmental pressures. He concludes with a "detour" into the Neolithic (or "agricultural revolution") of eight to five thousand years ago and the resulting changes in modern human diet.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

In Kin, Ingraham (emer., Univ. of California, Davis), a leading figure in microbiology, has written a masterwork on evolution with emphasis on microbes. The book critically discusses various efforts to "construct" the Tree of Life and addresses the proposed positions of microbes (bacteria, archaea, and viruses) in the Tree. He explains how advances in genome analysis have illuminated our understanding of the relationships between various microbes and between microbes and eukaryotic organisms. His discussion of the means by which microbes exchange genetic material and how gene transfer affects the Tree is particularly informative and thought provoking. Ingraham uses real world examples to illustrate how an understanding of the evolutionary relationships between microbes can directly affect aspects of human health and medicine. The narrative is enhanced by anecdotes of Ingraham's own work and his interactions with other scientists. Each chapter includes suggestions for further reading. The writing is engaging but, in places, may be too sophisticated for the general reader. Overall, this is a captivating and thorough treatise on the evolutionary relationships of micro-organisms and is most appropriate for readers with a background in the biological sciences.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above; faculty and professionals.

This account is informative and entertaining. Dolnick, author and the former chief science writer for The Boston Globe, recounts the story of the eventual discovery of "seeds" that begin with nothing and produce life. The narrative is superb--a story book account of marginal successes and abysmal failures in the search of aspects that first produce an embryo that eventually grows into an adult. Dolnick's discussion of the individuals working to this end is quite good. He details how a major obstruction to the research was the staunch belief in God as the maker of all, with no errors. The initial successes in research were enabled by the manufacture and then improvement in microscopy. This was followed by curious individuals who refused to give up their research after coming close to success. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek contributed greatly with his microscopic observations--almost succeeding. A major hurdle in the research was the fact that non-mammalian eggs (e.g., from birds) presented as large and obvious objects, while mammalian eggs were difficult if not impossible to find, and semen was just a fluid with almost magical powers. The ultimate research goal was eventually achieved when "the union of sperm and egg" was observed. This text superbly documents the discovery of the origins of life.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.