Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2024 -

Much of the modern understanding of evolutionary theory can be traced back to the 19th century and Charles Darwin. Even with the emergence of the "modern synthesis," Darwin's core principles of evolutionary theory have stood the test of time. It was not until 1990 that the scientific community recognized the concept of evolvability, the disposition or capacity to evolve. The science of evolvability focuses on the biological promoters of this capacity and the constraints on the scope and scale of this disposition. Contributors to this edited volume provide perspectives on the historical origins of the concept, along with how it is viewed through the lenses of a variety of scientific disciplines. While readers will find much of the narrative philosophical and primarily focused on the semantic nature of the concept, several of the essays posit ways that evolvability can be quantified. Readers will benefit from a strong background in evolutionary theory. The volume is replete with references and fully indexed.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Myriad factors, both human and natural, have driven or influenced evolution, affecting both its direction and rate, which has accelerated during the Anthropocene. This work explores evolution and focuses on developments in genetic engineering with the potential to have a tremendous impact. Earlier examples of human-driven evolution are given, including extinctions, dog breeds, attenuated vaccines, and drug-resistant pathogens. Major emphasis is on CRISPR-Cas9 genetic scissors, the discovery for which Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020. Using the CRISPR-Cas9 technique, humans can alter the genomes of any species, even their own, to make gene drives, which change heterozygotes into homozygotes but solely in the place on the chromosome where they are encoded--a process Cutter (Univ. of Toronto, Canada) calls genetic welding. This change, which essentially subverts Mendelian genetics, will be transmitted to subsequent generations. Other topics covered include de-extinction, rewilding, genetic drift, introgression, comparisons with different methods of genetic engineering, medical applications, ethical considerations, unintended consequences, and the possible creation of new species. Very well written, this book contributes to the understanding of genetic editing and the significant changes that may result from it.Summing Up: Essential. All readership levels.

How does a cell in a developing animal embryo know what to become? The classic answer is that as changes to developing cells are made during repeated divisions, daughter cells progressively narrow their possible fates. Recent identification of stem cells in both developing and adult organisms has questioned this notion by showing that cells are far more plastic in their eventual fates than previously thought: cells of one type may become another if conditions permit. But is this true of every cell type, even germ cells? Germ cells have long been considered fundamentally different from somatic (body) cells, as they carry only half the DNA of somatic cells. MacCord (Arizona State Univ.), a philosopher of science, argues persuasively that it is time to challenge the long-held assumption of a barrier between somatic cells and germ cells. Every animal clade, she shows, can shape somatic cells into the cells of a germline. This finding has profound practical consequences for both stem cell therapies and gene-editing technologies such as CRISPR. MacCord presents a well-reasoned argument built on solid historical and scientific analysis, yet accessible to almost every curious reader.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates through faculty; professionals.

Why do animals, including human animals, sleep? References to this question appear as far back as the time of Aristotle, but a rigorous scientific approach to understanding sleep has been undertaken only within the last century. Miller, an award-winning author and contributing editor for Discover, employs the historical journey of four "sleep explorers" to show how the modern view of sleep has evolved. His account of sleep research includes wildly intrusive experimental designs such as sleep deprivation studies and cave living, all of which have provided critical evidence supporting a mechanistic understanding of this mysterious physiological phenomenon. Miller not only provides an engaging and accessible survey of the history of sleep science but also addresses what is currently known about the public health consequences of poor sleep quantity and quality. As an example, He describes how the work of sleep researcher Mary Carskadon at Brown University on adolescent sleep requirements resulted in changes in public policies related to school start times. The book will appeal to those interested in understanding the physiological causes and correlates of sleep and those who study the history of science. The text is fully indexed and replete with references and notes.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Those who study human evolution have long been familiar with two classic depictions that show the "progression" of apes becoming taller and more erect as they march from left to right, finally reaching the upright human form. One depiction is the frontispiece to Thomas Huxley's Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature (1863), and the other is "The Road to Homo Sapiens," a fold-out illustration in the best-selling book Early Man (1965), which was first published by Time-Life Books. This linear, progressive view of evolution continues to have a significant impact on public perception, which is unfortunate because it is incorrect and contradicts the modern understanding of evolution as complex and branching instead of unilinear. This is a known fact and teachers often refer to the erroneous depictions in the classroom, but Dawson is the first to examine the origins and history of these ubiquitous, flawed illustrations. A valuable resource for those in a broad range of disciplines, including anthropology, biology, and paleobiology, not to mention lay readers interested in how scientific perspectives change over time. Simply put, this excellent book deserves all the praise it receives.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

This is a book to explore, not read straight through. Within a single two-page spread that includes a couple of perfectly selected macrophotographs and perhaps a well-planned diagram or two, Grimaldi (entomologist and curator, American Museum of Natural History; professor at the museum's Gilder Graduate School) condenses several years of research, debate, and scientific review into an accurate, clearly told story. Perhaps his position at the American Museum of Natural History pushes him to create museum-quality exhibits (those two-page spreads), or perhaps he is just a natural-born storyteller. This reviewer repeatedly found himself stuck on a page marveling at the hours and hours of work that had gone into the research and photography behind the detail. Like a good exhibit designer, Grimaldi does not titillate or terrify with close-ups of the monsters that typically haunt other "bug" books. Rather, he draws readers into a world populated by wonderful, colorful insects, creating an appreciation for entomology. The 524 photographs alone are worth the price of admission. Grimaldi's unapologetic use of standard entomological terms--a 100-entry glossary is provided--makes it clear the author believes a story well told in its native language will create a page-turner.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

In this volume, noted biologist and expert in the behavioral ecology of ants, Gordon (Stanford Univ.), presents an expansive view of the theory of collective behavior on interactions ranging from the molecular level to the social groups of animals. Gordon draws from many disciplines of biology as well as mathematics, network theory, and engineering to present hypothesis-testing models for how rate, feedback, and modularity interact to adjust collective behavior in a range of environments. The book is organized systematically, assembling key components with appropriate theory and rich explanatory examples from many fields of investigation. Science advances as new hypotheses are put forth and tested, and this book provides ones worth testing. Gordon's thesis of collective behavior--with its emphasis on the role of environmental conditions (e.g., stability, predictability, resource distribution, etc.) in influencing how collective behaviors evolve and meet the demands of changing environments--goes beyond earlier models proposed in evolution and ecology (e.g., individual versus group selection). Gordon proposes new and productive avenues for studying the complex interactions of organisms and environment that manifest as collective behaviors.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals; general readers.

Information permeates every level of life, including molecules, organelles, cells, tissues, organs, systems, living organisms, and societies. Yet, textbooks on biological evolution don't typically address the foundational and ubiquitous role of information. Using theoretical, observational, and experimental evidence, Adami (Michigan State Univ.) explains how information emerges and is stored, copied, altered, and used to communicate, cooperate, and make adaptive predictions about future states and changing environments. He strives to demonstrate that information theory can provide valid qualitative and quantitative measures of biocomplexity in the structure and functioning of genes, proteins, viruses, bacteria, brains, and measures of digital complexity in simulated agents and sentient machines. As a result, the capacity for information processing also evolves. This refreshing look at biology and the principles of Darwinian evolution in light of information has implications for computational research on alien forms of life, including artificial intelligence. Adami's approach is original, logical, clear, thorough, and convincing. Such a powerful and well-referenced argument could have been strengthened by a discussion of the parallels between the mechanisms and evolution of biological units of information (e.g., genes) and cultural units of information (e.g., memes).Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.

The modern synthesis of evolution combines Darwinian natural selection with our present understanding of genetics. Mindell acknowledges the modern synthesis and goes one step further. He believes that the metaphor of the tree with modern species at the ends of the branches is no longer appropriate. He substitutes for this imagery a network in which species are connected by vertical and horizontal branches. Genes in an organism not only get passed down but also are laterally transferred via viruses, bacteria, and interchanges with other eucaryotic organisms. The text is broken into two parts of four chapters each. Section 1 explores the proposed mechanisms, and section 2 explains why Mindell believes that the old understanding should transition to the proposed narrative. The very last chapter dives into the human relationship with technology, a connection that exemplifies his concept of horizontality. His ideas are supported in every chapter by full-page tables of terms and ideas, figures that supplement the text, and black-and-white photos of organisms discussed in the text. The book ends with chapter notes and an index of terms and scientists. There are a number of books on networks in the biological and computer sciences, but none that explore the horizontal connections that Mindell finds so important. A valuable book for professionals and nonprofessionals interested in the origin and evolution of life.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Elliot Sober (philosophy, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison) wanted this work to be more than a revision of his 1993 work, Philosophy of Biology. Because of enormous advances in the biological sciences in the past 30 years, particularly in molecular biology, Sobel feels that a fresh examination of the philosophical underpinnings of Darwinian evolution is necessary. Sobel examines which elements of Darwin's theory continue to be accepted and which parts have been discarded. He focuses on Ernst Mayr, the late biologist who was one the pioneers in the 20th-century synthesis of Darwinian evolution with population genetics. Mayr reduced Darwinism into five components: evolution "as such," common descent, gradualism, the multiplication of species, and natural selection. Sobel explains how modifications to different aspects of evolutionary theory have been incorporated into Darwinism. For example, although modern biology recognizes the validity of universal common ancestry--that all the organisms now on earth descended from a single ancestor--this does not mean that life evolved from non-living materials only once. This excellent book should appeal to scholars from many different disciplines.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty.

All living organisms reproduce, but the processes through which organisms produce new organisms vary widely across the diversity of life. Discussion of reproductive variety is often hampered by divergent terminology and schemes applied to taxa--ranging from short- to long-lived, from unicellular to large-bodied--and encompass both asexual and sexual reproduction. Fusco and Minelli (both, Univ. of Padua) distill these complexities into a concise framework, unified scheme, and common terminology, and they apply that framework across the breadth of living organisms. They take a broad approach that identifies common themes, with examples provided as needed to illustrate important concepts. Presenting material in this manner facilitates comparisons across taxa and reveals commonalities that may otherwise be obscured. A concise "summary of common misunderstandings" at the close of the book is particularly insightful. The authors' succinct transdisciplinary approach, and their use of explanations accessible to nonspecialists, makes this an ideal resource for a general audience as students in seminars.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates; graduate students; general readers.