Book Description

In Oxygen, Nick Lane takes the reader on an enthralling journey as he unravels the unexpected ways in which oxygen spurred the evolution of life and death. He shows how oxygen underpins the origin of biological complexity, the birth of photosynthesis, the sudden evolution of animals, the need for two sexes, the accelerated aging of cloned animals like Dolly the sheep, and the surprisingly long lives of bats and birds. Drawing on this grand evolutionary canvas, Oxygen offers fresh perspectives on our own lives and deaths, explaining modern killer diseases, why we age, and what we can do about it. Advancing revelatory new ideas, following chains of evidence, the book ranges through many disciplines, from environmental sciences to molecular medicine. The result is a captivating vision of contemporary science and a humane synthesis of our place in nature. This remarkable book will redefine the way we think about the world. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

The "O" in Oxygen
In Nick Lane's novel Oxygen, he talks about how important oxygen is, when it was discovered, how it can be hazardous, and how it can cure diseases, such as pneumonia. The element oxygen was discovered in the 1770's. Oxygen is an important element of life, because is we stopped breathing; we would be dead in minutes. Suffocation and drowning is the most human feared way to die. John Scott Haldane used oxygen to cure injuries in World War I. Nick Lane is brilliant when it comes to oxygen. It seems like he can answer almost every question one might have about the interesting subject. He informs the reader about how 4 billion years ago, there was no oxygen on Earth and how it makes up about 21% of the atmosphere. This brilliant novel author explains how oxygen first evolved, how many tiny organisms die when exposed to 0.1% of oxygen because it has no antioxidants and how the first cells evolved in an oxygen-free environment. Many theories and explanation about oxygen are detailed explains how oxygen comes from photosynthesis. I learned so much new and exciting information by reading this tremendous novel. Without the dramatic changes of oxygen, there would be no evolutionary steps. O2 can be extremely hazardous (hydrogen peroxide is hazardous if dissolved iron is present). AN APPLE A DAY COULD KEEP THE DOCTOR AWAY... which is a correct statement. It reduces the risk of heart attacks, strokes and some cancers because all kinds of antioxidants are found in fruits. Our whole body is an antioxidant machine, from the physical structure of individual cells to the physique of a human being. Mitochondria is for producing energy, hemoglobin is for delivering oxygen and vitamin C is for protecting against free radicals (which are at the roots of ageing and disease).
I enjoyed reading this novel because it was extremely informative and I enjoy reading about how oxygen is has been necessary for 4 billion years. I believe Nick Lane is a brilliant author and is extremely informative. I have learned so much about oxygen and how it's necessary in our day-to-day lives. I recommend this novel to everyone, even if one is just looking for a book to read for fun. Lane makes this novel anything but a quick read, however it's very incredibly worth it because it's so informative on an everyday necessity.

Life's dangerousmidwife
In school, we learned of the ubiquity of hydrogen in the universe.It made up the stars, drifted between the galaxies, and, combined with nitrogen, composed the atmosphere of our solar system's giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn.We learned, too, how it combined with oxygen to make our planet's blessing - water.Oxygen was deemed the life-giver, earning our respect even when we burned things with it in the lab.That "burning" is a key element in Lane's treatise.We're all aware that without oxygen, we cannot live.On the other hand, too much of this vital element attacks our cells and contributes to the ageing process.Consequently, we've turned to "anti-oxidants" in hope of diminishing the negative aspects.Lane issues a strong cautionary note about this practice, using a strong evolutionary base to build his case.

Science has long known that the early Earth had little free oxygen in the atmosphere.The famous Urey-Miller experiments used a "reducing" atmospheric environment to build their compounds.Traditional biology argues that oxygen was emitted by photosynthetic bacteria as a waste product.Existing life thus had to adapt to this poisonous atmosphere.Lane challenges this view, describing mechanisms that made early organisms already oxygen tolerant.He contends that the Last Universal Common Ancestor, a minute organism residing in shallow seas, learned to break water into its component gases, using freed energy.In striking a balance between using oxygen as an energy source and preventing that energy from consuming the cell, life developed finely honed processes.Oxygen is more than just used by life, it is constrained and controlled carefully in organic mechanisms.As life gained in complexity it used oxygen to improve those control processes.We tamper with them at our peril.

The key is in how life deals with "free radicals".These compounds steal electrons, which are the basis for life's functioning.Free radicals have had some bad press in recent years, as Lane reminds us.There is much available advice about dealing with them and a pharmacoepia of "medicines" to be had that claim to reduce them or their impact.Lane argues that the complexity of processes and varying conditions within the body make any claims to deal with them highly suspect.The bottom line is that we don't have nearly enough knowledge about how the body copes with free radicals to have confidence in any of the suggested therapies.

Nearly a quarter of this book focusses on a question confronting us all - ageing.There have been countless attempts to understand the ageing process, most with the ambition to thwart or delay it.Their success rate has been notably abysmal, notes Lane.Approaches range from "oxygen pubs" to heavy doses of vitamin C.The author points out that not only is the concentration of oxygen used by each cell miniscule compared to what's available in the atmosphere, the processing system is many levels removed from the source.The body will use what's needed and scorn the rest.Flooding the body with oxygen or vitamins is more likely to impose "oxygen stress" than deliver any real benefit.

Lane's thorough analysis makes this book anything but a quick read.He follows evolutionary paths, historical accounts of research in all aspects of life, and explains organic processes in minute detail.He presents a complicated and long-term story, but his explanations are rendered with clarity and precision.It is simple to condemn this book for its wealth of information.That's the reaction of one seeking simple answers.It's easier to praise this book for its sweep of both history, precise evolutionary biology and breadth of information on a topic critical to our existence.With an extensive glossary and strong list of reference material, it's a boon to those wishing to understand our world and life's foundations.
[stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

More than you can ask for in a book.
The story of Oxygen in the earth environment is detailed, but
goes further in its side explanations of the many various subjects
related to this story.The mystery of photosenthesis was clearly
explained at the molecular lever in such detail as were the other
submentioned processes of this book.I found this man to be a
genius of knowledge, seeming to know something about everything.
I do not know how to write books, but If I did, it would be this way.You will never go wrong remembering the author and buying
what he writes.A 10+ in my experience.

Great book
Fascinating book.The author really knows his stuff and puts together a very persuasive story of how evolution was affected by Oxygen.Although some technical info through me at times, practically every page had some interesting tidbit.I found it hard to put down.

A lot of information about a lot of different topics!
Nick Lane's book, Oxygen The Molecule that made the World, is a surprising volume.It mixes organic and inorganic chemistry with evolutionary studies, paleontology, research medicine, and even a little engineering to explain how the world got to be as it is. The first half of the book is dedicated to what our early atmosphere was like and how it changed as a result of biological activity.It also discusses how the evolving atmosphere, particularly the presence of oxygen, affected the complexity of early life and the sudden flourish of biological diversity after the Precambrian.The last half of the volume deals with the recent research on free radicals and their effect on health and on the phenomena of aging and of immortality.
Doctor Lane's own background is in biochemistry, and his research focus has been on oxygen free radicals and metabolic function in organ transplants. Not surprisingly he went into some detail about the free radical cascade that affects cellular metabolism and DNA integrity.I found this somewhat difficult to understand as I have only a very rudimentary grounding in organic chemistry.Still I have to admit that I know somewhat more about the process than I did before reading this book.
Probably because I know significantly more about geology and paleontology, I enjoyed more fully the author's synthesis and analysis of what we know of the geological and biological development of our atmosphere and our planet. Some of this material was familiar to me from other sources:Certainly that O2 can actually be a "poison" I know from managing patients with ARDS (adult respiratory distress syndrome) on mechanical ventilators with 100% O2; that the earth went through a series of green house earth/snowball earth phases early in its history I had learned from Ward and Brownlee's book Rare Earth; that life had begun almost as early as it was able and much earlier than had been previously believed, I was aware of from works by Gould, Schopf, and others; and that the mitochondria may once have been free-living, aerobic organisms that formed a symbiotic relationship with anaerobic organisms was known to me from my past exposure to microbiology in a nursing class.
New to me however, was the concept that gigantism may have been a means of limiting the negative effects of a periodic increase in oxygen in the environment, as Dr. Lane suggests in his chapter on The Bolsover Dragonfly.Although I had read an article that suggested that the immense sizes achieved by some of the dinosaur species might have been due to a higher percent of O2 at the time, I had also understood that it was because oxygen was a "good" thing, an opportunity of sorts. Lane points out that the negative effects of oxygen on tissues and DNA through the free radical cascade might have been ameliorated by an increased size.An animal--or one presumes also a plant--that increased its size might have been able to distribute negative effects over a greater body mass.One wonders if the rise of the mammalian mega fauna of the ice ages and their sudden almost catastrophic disappearance might not also have been due to some temporary fluxuation in the oxygen level of their atmosphere.(In which case the early Native Americans could be once and for all exonerated of having liquidated them, since their demise would have been dictated by a return to a baseline oxygen level!)If this were the case, one might also question what type of changes might be expected among our own kind as a result of such an increase and decrease of atmospheric oxygen.
I found the doctor's ideas on the trade off between sexual reproduction and immortality a unique approach to the topic of aging.Some of this information--the studies of animal reproduction rates, predation, and age at death, for instance--was known to me.Dr. Lane's discussion brought it together in a much more complete way.
Certainly the concept of sexual reproduction being one of life's mechanisms of perpetuating the fragile, complex organic molecules (DNA) in an oxidative environment was interesting.I had read Ridley's proposal that sexual reproduction evolved as a means of resisting bacterial infection, but Lane's suggests why it began as early as the DNA swapping behavior among early single eukaryotic cells.That the massive increase in biological diversity was an indirect product of the release of oxygen into the atmosphere, is truly an amazing thought.In the event as Lane makes claim in his subtitle, oxygen was truly "The Molecule that made the World." ... Read more

Book Description

* Provides elementary-level discussion of theory relating to evolutionary and adaptive aspects of reproductive behavior. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Informative and Memorable
This is a very intellectual discussion and exploration of sex and its role in evolution and behavior. It's well-written, easily understood, informative, coherent, and memorable. I read it in 1985 and remember much of its material.

How much of your behavior is ruled by sexual evolution?
I read this book in a college class. Mind you, I didn't read most of my college books, but I couldn't put this one down. It gives a clear, intelligent, remarkably well-documented, fascinating description of how sex evolved and how that evolution effects the behavior of everything from bacteria to modern social humans.

This book is very accessible to any reasonably educated reader, regardless of your knowledge of evolutionary biology. And each idea is punctuated with a fascinating example taken from nature.

Why do lightning bugs flash, and what controls the pattern to their flashing? Why are there two sexes? Why is a red sports car sexy? You'll learn the (evolutionary biology) answers to these and countless other intriguing questions. This book is a great lesson in evolution and a revealing investigation of why aniamls do the things they do, from an African hamster to... you. ... Read more

Reviews (25)

Sex, Time and Power
As a white, middle aged, working class male, I found Dr. Shlain's book "Sex, Time and Power" deeply moving, inciteful and inspiring. His profound analysis backed up by thorough research, well referenced and footnoted to other scientists, scholars and authorities of our time gives one pause to contemplate some of the most powerful and important issues of our age. Dr. Shlain tells us how women have made essential contributions to the evolution of our sapien species and how they have been denied the acknowledgement of these accomplishments and their basic human rights. I have bought 4 copies of this book to pass around to my friends and donate to libraries. Great read, I couldn't put it down.

Ferrous Female
Many books have been written regarding relationships between men and women. Some even suggest that we are of different species and it is part of a cosmic joke that we are attracted to and must rely upon one another.

If this is the kind of book you are attracted to, you will be quite disappointed in this work by talented author Leonard Shlain. As in his previous two books "Art and Physics" and "The Alphabet Vs The Goddess" Shlain presents an observation that has troubled him. After a thorough search of the literature fails to satisfy his curiosity, some kind of internal dialectic occurs and a well reasoned "what if" process is presented.

The stimulus for this story started when Shlain, as a young medical student, could not accept the casual dismissal of his question "Why is the normal hemoglobin for women less than for men?" All humans rely on oxygen dependent metabolic processes. Women require just as much oxygen carrying, iron based, hemoglobin as men. Why would nature create women to lose this essential product every month in her menses, while pregnant and also in childbirth?

That question is the basis for a well reasoned work that presents possible answers that should stimulate much further discussion and interest. Shlain, also being an exceptional educator, presents pertinent human physiology, anatomy and psychology in an understandable and yet non-patronizing manner.

While this book reads like an entertaining 'who done it' novel: the reward is not only a provocative explanation but a worth while educational process.

Innovative ideas
I heard Dr. Shlain on NPR discussing this book. Over the next month, I kept wondering about his theories and eventually bought the book. I wasn't disappointed.

The heavy hitting ideas come early and then, like some have noted, it fizzles into random speculation. For example, Chapter 17's Theory of Eights was interesting but not as powerful as the earlier theories.

It was frustrating because I felt he could have expanded his later material into more interesting chapters if he had talked with more anthropologists. For example, Chapter 20 briefly mentions Neanderthals "large, big-boned homid cousins" ... "vanished. No one knows with certainty why." and then plunges into a "this child looks like me" theory. Given his theories from Chapter 2, I expected some mention of the Neaderthal's brain size -- equal or greater tban the modern average human. I would have been more interested in his thoughts about the differences between moderns and Neaderthals and speculations about their extinction/interbreeding than I was in the thoughts of his fictitious Cro-Magnon man.

Also troubling was the lack of discussion of Polygamy when he mentioned age differences in Chapter 7. In polygamous cultures in Africa many first marriages have exactly that same age difference, with young men's first marriages being to older widowed woman. That would be a good reason for the age difference of libidos to exist, yet he seems unaware of it and shows a monogamy bias throughout.

Regardless, his main theories seem rooted in cultural materialism logic, the book's real strength. (What were the material needs that evolving women had and still have?) Also, there are many interesting facts from his medical training and ample research to support all facts presented. His weaknesses, however, were lack of anthropological training, bias towards his own lifestyle and cultural norms, and a willingness to explain EVERYTHING in one book. Overall more of a fun book than a serious evolution text but worth buying because he offers a different perspective to the evolution puzzle.

Entertaining
The author is a genius. He is a medical doctor with excellent imagination and reasonining ability. I was almost stunned by his ability to intuitively and logically link disparate aspects of human society (grandmothers, early menopause, and circumcision for one). I think his conclusion SEEMS unscientific because the author relies heavily on footnotes at the end of the book to validate his claims.

If you are curious as to why:

1)Marriages exist
2)Male\Female sexual peak differs considerably
3)Menstration is so evident and regular (29.5 days)
4)We became meat eating hunters
5)Boys are circumsized
6)Menopause occurs
7)Homosexuals exist
8)Human courtship is so complex

then read this book. It provides valuable insights which will refreshen your perspective.

Let's see who can win the speculation contest
How women's sexuality shaped human evolution. The more I read in this book the more difficult it seemed for me to go on. The author has made one mighty attempt after another to explain why women are the way they are through evolutionary change and why their particular sexual characteristics such as menstruation, menopause, and ever the ability to climax made them more "fit" in the fight for survival of the fittest. Unfortunately, Shlain's conjectures start sounding so far-fetched that one is led to begin questioning Darwin. I don't believe it does anyone a service to be so speculative without more to go on. ... Read more

Book Description

An insightful new work, Function, Phylogeny, and Fossils integrates two practices in paleobiology which are often separated -- functional and phylogenetic analysis. The book summarizes the evidence on paleoenvironments at the most important Miocene hominoid sites and relates it to the pertinent fossil record. The contributors present the most up-to-date statements on the functional anatomy and likely behavior of the best known hominoids of this crucial period of ape and human evolution. A key feature is a comprehensive table listing 240 characteristics among 13 genera of living and extinct hominoids. ... Read more

Reviews (16)

a decent book on human prehistory
Tudge has an interesting book with "The Time Before History." He spends a great deal of the book laying the groundwork for the appearence of the ancestors of humans, with detailed discussions of geology, climate, and the evolution of fauna and flora. The chapter on prehistoric creatures was pretty interesting, and considering the dearth of popular works on extinct mammals make this book a worthwhile read alone.

Tudge though is at his best when describing the various types of early humans and protohumans -from the various types of Australopithecines to Homo sapiens - and how they evolved, how they lived, and in some cases, how they spread. Useful are his discussion of ecomorphs and how the generalized ecomorphs of primates favored the development of bipedal, tool-using, intelligent protohumans, and his coverage of the diet of australopithecines and early humans and how this affected our evolution, as well as what we know of these beings. Tudge also provides a lot of interesting theories and information regarding the spread of not only Homo sapiens into the world but Homo erectus before him; also theories as to what happened to the Neanderthals and if they were a seperate species or not are detailed as well.

The Tudge book is not perfect though. I think he spends too much time on background prior to discussions of early man. Though interesting, they take up a sizeable section of the book. Some of the asides in the chapter on extinct mammals while interesting are controversial, though he does provide citations for those interested in checking on things. Examples include his mentioning of the theory that giant ground sloths may have been arboreal, that the mastodon genus Cuvieronius may have survived in Central America until several centuries after Christ, and that the dwarf mammoth of Wrangel Island (which survived into historic times, this has been well documented) is actually pictured on a pharaoh's tomb in Egypt, according to some having been illustrated when one was presented as a gift!

Still, I wouldn't let some of these controversial statements steer potential readers away from this book. It still provides decent coverage of extinct mammals, concepts in paleontology, and a good coverage of eartly man, his development, and spread around the globe.

best survey of early human extinctions that i have saw.
A book worth reading if intrested in anthropology.

Tudge starts out with a Good review of mammalian evolution hard to find in its detail discussing population ranges and the advantages/disadvantages of big mammals for survival.

The best part of the book is the overview of the extinction theory which proposes that it was not climate change. but human impact that brought so many species to extinction at the end of the ice age. Tudge goes into great detail on this citing evidence on all continents.

The final chapter is also intresting dealing with how humanity can survive the enviromental damage done to the earth and survive as a species.

A good read.

no references, alas
I liked part of this book, especially some of the new ideas he brings up, but I have been unable to find any references to the ones I have tried to pursue further (such as weather control projects in progress in Israel). This leads me to wonder if some of the parts that contain original and stimulating ideas are actually simply untrue or misrepresentations.

For example, he seemed to deliberately misrepresent (or misunderstand) the parallel evolution theory of human origins, so that he could re-present it in more convincing terms as his own original idea.

All in all, the fact checking seems weak, (eg, a change of 6 degrees centigrade is equivalent to a change of 36 degress farenheight !?!? Obviously someone with a pocket calculator mindlessly punched numbers into the temperature formula to get that one) and the lack of references for some of his assertions leaves me wondering about their accuracy. This is a real shame, because a few of his ideas are ones I had not encountered before (for example, exposed rock faces having a major effect on the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and hence having a major impact on global climate), but I reluctantly have to say that I'm not sure he is a reliable source.

Well....
I really wanted to love this book. I had just finished Jared Diamond's _Guns, Germs, and Steel_ (a must read BTW), and picked this one up because I thought it would discuss the period of time before Diamond's book really got into. I didn't really get what I expected.

If you read the book discription on the back cover, it gives the impression that the book would cover human and hominoid development from about 5 million years ago until recent history i.e. 10,000 years ago.

There are some good parts in this book. I particularly liked how he gave an overview on how evolution works. He explained things well and I was able to follow pretty easily despite being a complete novice regarding the specifics on the theory. I also liked the section on human evolution and how he explained the possible causes and effects of the spread of Homo sapiens. His discussion on the overkill hypothesis was top notch.

However, this book is not without its flaws. One major flaw for me was the fact that the main topic only takes up about half of the book. There is a long chapter on mammal development, and at times he just simply lists creatures haphazardly. It would've been nice to have a chart to identify the possible ancestors of animals that are alive today.

A glossary would have been nice as well. I got tired of trying to find the first time he mentioned poikilothermic animals just to name an example. Yeah I know, I could've written down the definition, but is it too much to ask an author to do what most other authors do? A bibliography would've been wonderful too. There didn't seem to be that many references in the text, and I would've liked to see others sources for further reading.

The final problem for me was the fact that the book wasn't really about what the description on the back cover says. For example, the first chapter is a detailed description on how the climate and atmosphere works on earth with a warning about excess CFC's and the depleting ozone. Next he describes the different types of mammals and proceeds to seemingly describe every one that lived in the past and present. There are so many names and descriptions that they kind of all blend together. There is a chart, but it isn't detailed enough for you to really follow the author. Finally, the last chapter is a plea for humanity to be careful and not kill off any more animal species.

Now before people start assuming that I am anti-conservationist let me clarify. I love animals as much [messed] up. However, reading about those topics is not why I bought this book. I bought it to read about the devlopment of Homo sapiens in the past, not a "save the ozone and don't kill the animals" plea, which really took up about a third of the book.

To summarize: If you're looking for a strict account on human evolution then I wouldn't buy this book. There is too many other topics that the author focuses on and really doesn't give that subject the just amount of pages in this book.

An extraordinary, awesome, stimulating read!
Colin Tudge is a very concerned man. Here, he constructs one of the most complete pictures of human evolution's course. Drawing on geology, meteorology and biology in setting a framework, Tudge explains how and to what extent Homo sapiens emerged from Africa to override the planet. That's a hefty task, particularly in less than four hundred pages. Especially given that he allocates ten per cent of those pages to assessing the future. Tudge's concern about human impact on the environment is the theme of his other works, but this one rests on a solid foundation of evolutionary biology.

Tudge Dances Through Time in explaining the movements of continents and the impact of that mobility on life forms. Movement, an adventure life normally avoids, is forced by changes in environment. In seeking to stay with the familiar, life migrates in response to change. With environments continually shifting, life must adapt to survive. Humans have broken the pattern, invading the globe's many environments. We are the most adaptable species to emerge.

The price of our adaptation has been the extinction of many species, particularly large prey animals and birds. On every continent large birds and mammals ceased leaving fossil remains shortly after the appearance of Home Sapiens on the scene. The timing is too consistent to be purely coincidental and the ensuing patterns of human behaviour show we remain essentially ignorant of our impact on Nature's balance. We shouldn't be surprised at his finding. Today we face decimated cod and salmon populations. Whales remain under assault in the face of a 'moratorium' on their killing. The number of populations exterminated due to our occupation of their habitat is beyond counting. Tudge's concern is valid and it must be hoped infectious given the background he provides.

Those who grizzle about Tudge being "wordy" are misleading you. He's precise with words, although this book must set some kind of record for superlatives. New readers take note: Tudge has one disturbing habit. He will introduce a term [edentates, for example] and never find an alternative thereafter. When you encounter a term you don't know, make certain you understand it before continuing. This habit detracts neither from the worth, clarity of presentation nor value of this fine book. At first read the lack of a Bibliography seemed a flaw. Second thoughts showed that a suggested reading list would likely have doubled the size of the book. Build the bibliography yourself as you encounter authors and titles in the text. If the citations are unfamiliar to you, spend the energy. Tudge is too good an introduction to the topic to ignore. ... Read more

Book Description

The large, quadrupedal herbivores known as sauropods were widespread around the planet from the Jurassic to the end of the Cretaceous. With the longest necks and tails of all of the dinosaurs, some sauropods were 40 meters in length and weighed upwards of 100,000 kilograms, more than 20 tons. The popular image of these lumbering giants, placidly consuming ferns has been greatly revised in recent years. New discoveries and new theories about behavior and physiology have continued to enrich the study of these remarkable beasts. This book presents 21 new studies of the sauropods. The book is organized into four parts. The first part looks at some sauropods old and new, the second at juvenile and adult specimens and ontogenetic variation within species. Part three concerns morphology and biomechanics, while part four takes up issues of biogeography.

The contributors are Sebastián Apesteguía, Malcolm W. Bedell, Jr., David S. Berman, Matthew F. Bonnan, Kenneth Carpenter, Sankar Chatterjee, Rodolfo A. Coria,Fabio M. Dalla Vecchia, John Foster, Peter M. Galton, Jacques van Heerden, Takehito Ikejiri, Jean Le Loeuff,D. M. Mohabey, John S. McIntosh, J. Michael Parrish, Bruce M. Rothschild, Leonardo Salgado, Steven W. Salisbury,Allen Shaw, Kenneth Stadtman, Kent A. Stevens, Virginia Tidwell, David Trexler, Ray Wilhite, Adam M. Yates, and Zhong Zheng. ... Read more

Book Description

Popular science writer Stephen Jay Gould debunks the idea that evolution is progressive. He shows how the misinterpretation of data results in bad science and bad social policy. ... Read more

Reviews (41)

Good stuff, bad format! OR Why cheetahs don't run marathons!
Having read many of Stephen Jay Gould's collections of essays with much satisfaction, I was quite excited to try him in the book-length format of "Full House: The Spread of Excellence From Plato to Darwin," expecting it to allow him more room for deeper investigation and fuller development of his "excellent" ideas. Instead, 230 pages allowed Gould, one of science's foremost essayists, to be more exhausting than exhaustive.

His topic is interesting and important: how misconceptions about systems and distorting mental representations of them cause false perceptions of trends. Gould walks the reader through elementary statistical method and makes the abstract real and personal by recounting his own harrowing experience with cancer. He then uses the well kept data of baseball to demonstrate the narrowing of over-all variability in a system being perceived as a directed trend, in this case "downward" as .400 hitting disappears. Gould then combats ideas of "progress" being inherent in natural evolution, explaining that since first life was of the simplest organization ("You can't expect a lion to jump out of the primordial soup"), things could only become MORE complex, not less so. Vast time has therefore delivered more sophisticated organization in some organisms as a result of natural selection, but this does not replace or repudiate life's bacterial beginnings, which Gould takes great joy in showing still "rule" our planet. Instead, the most complex of organisms, a group to which we of course belong but which would have and could have existed without us, only represent expanded statistical variability of the entire system. Finally Gould contrasts the inefficient and random nature of biological evolution with the swift and purposeful development of culture and argues for the elimination of the misleading term "cultural evolution." The most overarching theme is that while representations of systems with a single number or attribute can sometimes be useful, we must recognize that these constructs are of our creation and can be very distorting because they are less than the whole, the "Full House" of the title.

Gould could have accomplished all of this in half as many pages as he presents to us in "Full House." The "book" suffers from two types of redundancy. The most annoying and inexplicable kind is simple repetitiveness, phrases and entire sentences used many times throughout, reminiscent of Homeric epic, and not typical of Gould. The other tautology found here is necessary for scientific journal writing, but tedious to the general reader. While I respect Gould's pride in not "dumbing-down" his work for the public and making them dig in and read hard, unless one is a sabermetrician (studying sport statistics) I am afraid a lot of this stuff is stupefying.

When addressing the "German virus" that created the greats of classical music and wondering where the modern equivalents are, Gould asserts that popular demand of novel form has been unfair to latter-day composers of music because all forms have been exhausted. He then dismisses rock music. Perhaps he has tongue in cheek, but I suspect elitism and codgerism. Gould must recognize that society and technology make the music, and jazz, rock, and rap are certainly innovative, if not inherently progressive.

Gould states in the introduction that "Full House" is a companion to "Wonderful Life," another book-length work of his. While I will next read this for his always fascinating ideas, I look forward to returning to the short essay format which made me a Stephen Jay Gould fan.

I Miss Him Already!
As a long time fan of Professor Gould's essays, I hoped that this full-length work would be equally entertaining and informative. I was not let down. "Full House" contains the author's usual combination of wit, insightful anecdotes, encyclopedic knowledge of biology/geology/paleontology, and wonderful literary style. The reading was all the more poignant in the light of Professor Gould's recent death, and I could not help but wonder if science will ever again have such a brilliant spokesman.

Rather than tackling a specific aspect of natural history, in "Full House" Gould strives to make a philosophical point about the way we (mis)understand systems: "The variation of a 'full house' or complete system should be treated as the most compelling 'basic' reality; averages and extreme values (as abstractions and unrepresentative instances respectively) often provide only partial, if not downright misleading, views of a totality's behavior" (p. 100). The full meaning and greater implications of this statement are difficult to understand at first reading, which is precisely why Gould has written an entire book (see comments below) on the subject.

To breath some life into this statistical idea, Gould discusses two main subjects: the disappearance of .400 batting averages from professional baseball, and the fallacy that evolution is inherently directed towards creating more complex organisms, with Man as the ultimate culmination. Baseball and evolution? Yes, these are admittedly disparate topics, but I liked the variety. After all, I believe the crux of this work is the general statement about our understanding of systems, not one system in particular. So be warned, if you're seeking a book strictly about biology or natural history, this is probably not the best choice.

Much of the criticism here on Amazon focuses on the book's unnecessary length and its redundancy. I must agree that there were several points at which Gould seems to be repeating himself. It feels like he had more to say than he could possibly fit into his usual essays, but not quite enough for an entire book. I wonder if he felt compelled (either by himself or maybe his publisher) to expand the work to at least 200 pages. Depending on your interest in the material, the length might be a real drawback, or simply a slight nuisance. I was not particularly bothered and finished the book in two days.

Even if you are not fully persuaded by Gould's argument, or if the book seems unnecessarily long, I hope you will enjoy the reading. Gould is (alas, was) a brilliant and engaging writer, in my humble opinion. The proper anecdote, allusion, or quotation was always at his fingertips and he knew when to make the reader laugh. (I could not restrain my chuckles as he lambasted M. Scott Peck's fatuous equation of love and evolution [p. 27]). This book contains a fine mix of intriguing content and great writing. I would recommend it to anyone seeking a quick read that will stretch the brain a bit.

Natural selection is not a synonym of progress
This book is a forceful illustration of some basic theorems presented by G.C. Williams in his book 'Adaptation and Natural selection': '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'.

Gould corroborates these theorems by showing that the main modus of life on this planet is and has always been 'bacterial'.

He explains clearly that the second law of thermodynamics is only valid for closed systems, not for the earth.
He stresses also that cultural changes are fundamentally different from Darwinian evolutions. The former are Lamarckian, the latter are forced by the less efficient process of natural selection.
But Gould warns rightly that the enormous technological revolutions are not necessarily cultural or moral improvements because of the real risk of, e.g., environmental poisoning or a nuclear catastrophe.

One needs a basic knowledge of statistics to fully understand the book.

In his vigorous and persuasive style, S.J. Gould puts some good-looking scientific and moral ideas into a coffin.
Not to be missed.

not an essential read, but a pleasant one
I come to the book partly as a result of a direct self-study on the issues of creation-evolution-design debate, and partly because i like SJG's writings. At this point i am rereading some of his collections of essays in order to psych myself up for the week or more that his 'brick' _The Structure of Evolutionary Theory_ will take. I don't like baseball and had only skimmed this book previously, so for a couple of easy reading hours it occupied my mind.

It is basically about how to think about statistics. Summed up on pg 169ff. "Life's necessary beginning at the left wall. This is a takehome message from the excellent example of the drunkard's walk, pg 149ff. Left wall's are 'no one can earn less than zero dollars', 'no one can live and weight less than 50 lbs'. but Bill Gates can make enough money to skew the income and wealth curves so they look like capital 'L's. "Stability throughout time of the initial bacterial mode", most of the world's biomass is bacteria, no you or me. "Life's successful expansion must form an increasingly right-skewed distribution", this is the reply to evolution as progressive complexity to eventually produce US, thinking, creative, human beings. We are the >.400 baseball score, we are the very few that prove the rule that the masses are bacteria. "The myopia of characterizing a full distribution by an extreme item at one end", "Causality resides at the wall and in the spread of variation: the right tail is a consequence, not a cause", The only promising way to smuggle progress back into such a system is logically possible, but empirically false at high probability" and "Even a parochial decision to focus on the right tail alone will not yield the one, most truly desired conclusion, the psychological impetus to our yearning for general progress-that is, the predictable and sensible evolution to domination of a creature like us. endowed with consciousness."

It is not an earth-shaking book by any means, rather a collection of essays where the most interesting part is his explanation of dealing with cancer, which apparently is what he died from nearly 20 years after the first diagnosis, and the reasoning about statistics that started with his predicted death rates from it as he lay there in a hospital bed.

The drunkards walk could have been greatly enlarged, so for instance, by the addition of multiple drunkards bumping into each other, thus temporary right walls. Much like the biosphere is a changing mosaic of different species and different individuals.

But like all his essays, it is time well spent, not just to get a new example or more ways of handling data, but for the pleasant time with SJG and his excellent writing.

Some very good points - if a bit strained philosophically
It is sad that Dr. Gould was taken away so soon. He always made interesting points, offered some startling insights, and was generally fun - he was even acerbic in a fun way.

He wrote this book for the general audience, of which I am a part. I cannot hope to challenge his or even approve of his professional points. I don't really have the training. But I can offer impressions. It seems to me that when he is talking about science he is very good and gave me quite a bit to think about. Honestly, he gave me some new views on distributions and natural selection that will stick with me.

I found his sociological and philosophical conclusions drawn from these observations to be somewhat strained and overburdened his evidence a bit. He really doesn't address the concept of decadence much as it relates to the dying out of things. For example, baseball could very well be played better than ever and yet not be played as well as it could be because of secondary desires such as home runs instead of base hits.

What fans want to see leads to a selection in a style of play that pleases them and brings in money. Then money is the point of the game and not pure excellence in play. Therefore, the best athletes of all time could be playing the game and yet their style of play would be less effective than it could be because of what the fans want to see. But wouldn't a style that led to more wins be adopted? Certainly, no one would adopt a losing strategy. But maybe the optimal difference is only slight but pleasing the fans brings in so much more money that it changes the way everyone plays the game. Football did this to make their game a passing game - which fans like more. Clearly, with the rules and styles all supporting the pass, no team can be based primarily on the run as they used to be.

Anyway, the book has some very interesting points to make, it isn't a difficult read, and I think you will get some good food for thought. Enjoy! ... Read more

Book Description

Charles Darwin remains the subject of continuing energetic debate in the fields of philosophy, history of science, biology and history of ideas. This volume offers a collection of newly commissioned essays from experts in their fields, and will provide a student readership with an accessible guide through Darwin's thought. ... Read more

Book Description

Anthropologist and naturalist Loren Eiseley blends scientific knowledge and imaginative vision in this story of man. ... Read more

Reviews (14)

"...Lie Awake While the Meteors Whisper Greenly Overhead."
This is a very unusual book. It is ostensibly about the "Immense Journey" of man along his long evolutionary trail. But, in the same way that "The Odyssey" is not just an historical travel tale, Eiseley's book is much more. This is a work about the wonders of life, the joys of curiosity, the rewards from solitary time spent in the natural world and the transitory nature of all existence.

This one must have been just fantastic when it was published in 1957. It's still very good in 2003 despite the passage of time, which has exposed several of Eiseley's scientific beliefs and musings to be erroneous. Keep in mind the tremendous advancements in archeology, molecular biology and all other fields of science over the last 46 years and don't get hung up on these anachronisms. Instead, revel in the beautiful language Eiseley uses and the imagery he evokes: "Some lands are flat and grass-covered, and smile so evenly up at the sun that they seem forever youthful, untouched by man or time." Or another favorite: "Tyrannosaurs, enormous bipedal caricatures of men, would stalk mindlessly across the sites of future cities and go their slow way down into the dark of geologic time."

Read this book and you'll want to dig up fossils, listen to the wind, watch other animals and soak up life. And you will probably want to read it again.

Take a Journey through Life
"The journey is difficult, immense, at times impossible, yet that will not deter some of us from attempting it. We cannot know all that has happened in the past, or the reason for all of these events, any more than we can with surety discern what lies ahead." This quote comes from Loren Eiseley's book, The Immense Journey. Eiseley explores the evolution of life through his personal experiences as an anthropologist. Through his explorations of nature, Eiseley produces a model of his personal universe, one that seeks to explain the miracles of the world.
The most interesting aspect of The Immense Journey is the balance that is achieved between scientific fact and the detailed descriptions of the author's experiences. Every chapter contains numerous anecdotes that relate to the scientific topic being explored, without taking away from the scientific purpose. Eiseley uses his travels and observations as an anthropologist to provide entertainment to the average reader. The scientific concepts are easier to understand when a tangible example is included. Although Eiseley doesn't incorporate a lot of jargon into his writings, there are scientific concepts included that are difficult to understand. References are made to discoveries and theories that a person unfamiliar with the scientific world would not understand. Somewhat of a scientific background would be beneficial in understanding the full purpose of the book.
The book explores the origin of life-a topic that is relevant and intriguing to a wide audience of readers. One disadvantage is that the book was written in 1959, and since then, additional discoveries have been made and further research has been done to uncover new theories about life. The book would have been more advantageous in its own time. Eiseley makes references to many leading scientists of the time, including Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace. They are often quoted and material is used out of their books and scientific journals. Each chapter ends with a transitory paragraph that carries the reader into the next one smoothly. It follows a logical order-beginning in the earliest years of life and progressing to the present. Each event of life is studied and it is explained how it relates to man today.
The Immense Journey adequately serves as an interesting, as well as factual, scientific book. Its purpose is clear, and the facts are meshed with entertaining experiences that can be easily related to. Eiseley succeeds in appealing to a wide variety of readers by leading them down the path of his own life journeys.

scholarly treatment of Darwon's ideas - and texts
Eiseley has read all of the different editions of "Origin," and in that way traces the evolution of Darwin's thought in the context of his times. It is well written and argued and somewhat better than normal academic writing, but it still reads like a pedantic text. Perhaps it was too advanced, or simply too detailed, for the level of my interest, but I found a lot of this somewhat boring - and I admit that that is as personal as a reflection on the text. Eiseley is a world-class science writer, up there with Sagan and Gould, and explains with great clarity, etc. You get to know Darwin's mind, his many doubts, and the way he constantly hedged and worried about his reception.

Recommended with this in mind. It really depends on what you are looking for.

Beautiful, introspective, and poetical
This is a wonderful book. Loren Eisley is an anthropologist who writes like John Donne.

I went to the University of Pennsylvania in the 1960s when Loren Eisley was Professor of Anthropology. He was then recognized as the finest writer at Penn. Though his field was anthropology, every semester he was a guest lecturer for the English department in their Creative Writing classes.

Each chapter starts with a theme from nature, archeology, or biology. Gradually his writing turns from scientific observation to philosophical musing, poetry, and introspection. A perfect example is his chapter called "The Dream Animal."

In "The Dream Animal" Eisley starts by pondering a genuine problem in evolutionary biology - the remarkably short period
of time (approx. 500,000 years ago to 150,000 years ago) during which the brain evolved from the size of an apes to modern man. He ends with this -

"The story of Eden is a greater allegory than man has ever guessed. For it was truly man who, walking memoryless through bars of sunlight and shade in the morning of the world, sat down and passed a wondering hand over a heavy forehead. Time and darkness, knowledge of good and evil, have walked with him ever since...a new world of terror and loneliness appears to have been created in the soul of man.

For the first time in four billion years a living creature had contemplated himself and heard with a sudden unaccountable loneliness, the whisper of the wind in the night reeds. Perhaps he knew, there in the grass by the chill waters, that he had before him an immense journey. Perhaps that same foreboding still troubles the hearts of those who walk out of a crowded room and stare with relief in to the abyss of space so long as there is a star to be seen twinkling across those miles of emptiness."

Take your time with this book - read it in a quiet space where Eisley's musings can lead you into musings of your own.

Gentle travels through nature and life
This book was first published over fifty years ago when Americans used to read plenty of naturalists (like Emerson, Thoreau and Muir.) That said, I think this book is just as relevant today as it was fifty years ago when it was first written. I would even put this book up as a healthy alternative to much of our New Age writing (in particular, his passages on the notion of the homonculous man seem to challenge our generation's obsession with Newness, i.e. contempt for certain parts of the past.)

Eiseley's message is simple: a person can find personal meaning and comfort in nature. I enjoyed this book a lot, mostly because Eiseley indirectly reminded me to go outside and poke around. As a result, all of his little explanations about evolution became more clear when I just looked around (like his chapter entitled, "How flowers changed the world.")

I recommend this book to anyone with a natural curiosity or a curiosity in nature. ... Read more

Book Description

This book investigates the question of how matter has evolved since its origin in the Big Bang, from the cosmological synthesis of hydrogen and helium to the generation of the complex set of nuclei that comprise our world and our selves. A central theme is the evolution of gravitationally contained thermonuclear reactors, otherwise known as stars. Our current understanding is presented systematically and quantitatively, by combining simple analytic models with new state-of-the-art computer simulations.

The narrative begins with the clues (primarily the solar system abundance pattern), the constraining physics (primarily nuclear and particle physics), and the thermonuclear burning in the Big Bang itself. It continues with a step-by-step description of how stars evolve by nuclear reactions, a critical investigation of supernova explosion mechanisms and the formation of neutron stars and of black holes, and an analysis of how such explosions appear to astronomers (illustrated by comparison with recent observations). It concludes with a synthesis of these ideas for galactic evolution, with implications for nucleosynthesis in the first generation of stars and for the solar system abundance pattern. Emphasis is given to questions that remain open, and to active research areas that bridge the disciplines of astronomy, cosmochemistry, physics, and planetary and space science. Extensive references are given. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A must for graduate students
"Supernovae and Nucleosynthesis" is not a textbook, but it is extremely useful for astronomy students, especially in stellar and chemical evolution. There are lots of formulae, tables and figures, helping to understand the basics of synthesis and evolution of nuclei in our Cosmos. The thermonuclear reactions are well-explained, but less emphasis was taken in chemical evolution (especially in the observational part). In some parts is similar to the classic stellar evolution textbook by Clayton, but with update material. This book is a must for any astronomy library, serious students and professional astronomers. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

The road to a new understanding of multicellular life
John Gerhart and Marc Kirschner have boldly displayed a panorama of recent findings in biology which they methodically piece together into an entirely new understanding of the phylogenic and embryologic mechanisms of evolution. While aimed at the more sophisticated scientific reader (not an introductory text), their facility with modern experiments and exotic findings provide a thrilling ride from intracellular transduction mechanisms, through the differing phylogenetic strategies for embryogenesis (all phyla having been explosively formed in a brief "instant" after the first metazoans) and the secrets of evolvabilily making thier appearance in the embrogenetic regulatory mechanisms, not the structural proteins. For anyone who has ever found random mutation and selection an unsatisfying answer to evolution when all other biological processes are so exquisitely regulated (e.g. "Behavior and Evolution," Jean Piaget), Gerhart and Kirschner demonstrate that evolution is more of an extention of the generally "exploratory" property which is so central to life. This book is sure to spur a generation of new, productive thinking on the entire evolutionary paradigm. Perhaps when linked with work on structural stability in neural networks, a new macroscopic quantum formulation of biology may succeed a less informative and outdated stochastic formulation. [...]

Evolution of evolvability
Although somewhat technical this book is highly recommended as an introduction to the issues of both developmental genetics and evolution both, and these in relation to the mystery of the Cambrian explosion in the controversies that surround that question. Molecular phylogenies give us few clues to the molecular changes that underlie species divergence. Students of evolution tend to rely on on theories of selection and population genetics as explanations for evolutionary change. But there are pitfalls here. For selection only provides a filter on the possible forms, screening the forms presented by development. Thus the study of embryological development becomes essential to seeing what is really happening. From this key idea the book proceeds to explore conservation and the evolution of evolvability, to use a phrase of Dawkins. The result is really quite a new subject altogether. The book ends with a question, has evolvability evolved and is it the result of clade selection? At this point I think we are leaving the realm of standard Darwinism into some new unknown terrain. Excellent book,and despite technical issues really quite clear, well presented.

Evolution via development
The general reader who has already read some other references on development, will find this reference to be an easy to read yet detailed reference on evolutionary development which takes interesting conceptual viewpoints. The reference starts by pointing out the significant amount of cellular mechanisms conserved in all forms of life. The concept of 'contingency' is then developed, where it is considered to be the dependence of cellular activities on particular conditions, and its importance in metazoans. This leads to the concept of 'exploratory behavior', where it is considered to be responses of the organism to be more than can be explained by contingent mechanisms. For example, a version of the protozoan Stentor that is only .1% of the usual volume, yet its overall shape, the patterns of its cilia and gullet, are not changed. Plasticity observed in the nervous system is another such example. The concept of 'novelty' is then discussed, largely how new proteins have emerged. Multicellularity and differentiation are then considered, followed by the emergence of various body plans. The concept of developmental flexibility and robustness is considered as the development of the embryo is discussed. Limb buds and neural crest cells are then discussed as sources of evolutionary diversification of the vertebrate body plan. The final chapter of the reference considers the concept of 'evolvability', where it is considered to be the capability of organisms to produce nonlethal, phenotypic variations which natural selection can act upon, and thus allow evolution.

Destined to be a classic
This book does a great job of unifying the many disparate threads of modern biology. This is one of the few books on biology written in this decade that may actually cause readers to see life from a new point of view. Destined to be a classic, right up there with D'Arcy Thompson's "Growth and Form" or Ptashne's book on phage lambda. Also this book is fun to read because there are tons of illustrations and also lots of interesting factoids about all sorts of weird organisms. If you are going to buy a book about biology, buy this one!

Excellent - but is afraid to take the next step.
The authors of this book have taken a bold step toward a cellular view of evolution. But they shy from taking that final and necessary step of discarding the DNA based information model for a cellular one. Of course, doing this opens a pandora's box of Lamarkian thought. Still, considering the risks, the effort is more than commendable. Thank you for this book. ... Read more

Amazon.com

The Burgess Shale of British Columbia "is the most precious and important of all fossil localities," writes Stephen Jay Gould. These 600-million-year-old rocks preserve the soft parts of a collection of animals unlike any other. Just how unlike is the subject of Gould's book.

Gould describes how the Burgess Shale fauna was discovered, reassembled, and analyzed in detail so clear that the reader actually gets some feeling for what paleobiologists do, in the field and in the lab. The many line drawings are unusually beautiful, and now can be compared to a wonderful collection of photographs in Fossils of the Burgess Shale by Derek Briggs, one of Gould's students.

Burgess Shale animals have been called a "paleontological Rorschach test," and not every geologist by any means agrees with Gould's thesis that they represent a "road not taken" in the history of life. Simon Conway Morris, one of the subjects of Wonderful Life, has expressed his disagreement in Crucible of Creation. Wonderful Life was published in 1989, and there has been an explosion of scientific interest in the pre-Cambrian and Cambrian periods, with radical new ideas fighting for dominance. But even though many scientists disagree with Gould about the radical oddity of the Burgess Shale animals, his argument that the history of life is profoundly contingent--as in the movie It's a Wonderful Life, from which this book takes its title--has become more accepted, in theories such as Ward and Brownlee's Rare Earth hypothesis. And Gould's loving, detailed exposition of the labor it took to understand the Burgess Shale remains one of the best explanations of scientific work around. --Mary Ellen Curtin ... Read more

Reviews (41)

Gould's genius
This is the first book that I read of Steven Jay Gould. I recieved it as a child and never did much more than skim over a few pages. However, I later read through the whole thing and found that Gould describes things in an amazing way. He explains how unpredictable circumstances have had a lot to do with evolution. It hasn't always been a survival of the fittest. It has sometimes been a survival of the most lucky. This book introduces a lot of the fauna of the Burgess Shale, which is pretty wild. A lot more has been learned about these creatures since this book was written, and many of them have been classified. This book allows us a glimpse of the ancient past of life on earth.

Even Gould Can Be Wrong
I gave this book 3 stars because it is well written, if a bit ornate; the reader is really left with a sense of awe and wonder at the wonderfulness of Life. At least I know I was.

I didn't give it more than 3 stars because, scientifically speaking, it stinks. It is by far Goulds worst book.

I would recommend people to read this book, but when you do, try to remember that the taxonomic rank of phylum, contrary to what Gould claims, lacks a definition; that a 'fundamental body plan' is a wholly arbitrary after-the-fact construction; that neither the rank of phylum or 'fundamental body plans' has any whatsoever evolutionary significance; and that no-one knows why or how the animals of Burgess Shale went extinct.

But on to the book. It is, on the surface, about some remarkable fossils found at a place called Burgess Shale.

Gould spends a substantial part of the book expounding how the psychosocial background of the original discoverer, C. Walcott, led him ("preconditioned" is the word Gould uses) to Get It All Wrong when he classified ("shoehorned") the fossils in known phyla, whereas the zeitgeist of the late 20th century allows a group of whacky new researchers to Get It All Right and see that they belong to previously unknown phyla.

One is then treated to a nice exposé of some really interesting fossils, and there's not much to say about them except that most have since the book was published been re-evaluated, and are today classified as velvet worms, arthropods or annelids (still as interesting, but less enigmatic - and ironically much like Walcott first "shoehorned" them).

Why, Gould asks, did essentially all modern phyla arise in a short period in the cambrian, as well as, allegedly, a large number of phyla which today are extinct, when no new phyla have arisen in the subsequent 550 million years? And the extinct phyla, they seem complex and 'seaworthy' enough - surely which phylum lived and which went extinct must have been purely decided by chance? Surely, if we re-played evolution, the world today would be very different?

There are two errors in that line of reasoning. Firstly the most pervasive: the reification of the taxonomic rank of Phylum and of the concept of 'body plan'.

Gould in this book equals the taxonomic rank of Phylum to the concept of 'fundamental body plan': one body plan = one phylum. This is a bit backwards - the rank of phylum is arbitrary and lacks a definition, but is historically (but not always) afforded the most inclusive groups of animals between which interrelationship is unclear. The concept of 'bauplan' or 'fundamental body plan'is similarly wholly arbitrary - a body plan is a collection of traits deemed characteristic for the group, and can be created for any group, regardless of inclusivity: you take a group of species, such as a phylum, determine what is characteristic for the group, and voilá, there's the fundamental body plan.

What does this mean? That neither the rank of phylum nor the concept of 'bauplan'/'fundamental body plan' has any evolutionary significance - and yet this is what Gould bases his argumentation on in this book.

The second error is a logical one, and is that _even if_ Opabinia, Anomalocaris and the others had represented "new" phyla, and _even if_ phylum had been the same as "fundamental body plan", and _even if_ that had meant something from an evolutionary point of view, this isn't support for Goulds view that evolution is stochastic, driven by chance extinctions rather than adaptation.

All we know is that Burgess Shale organisms went extinct - we do not know why. For all we know these organisms were outcompeted, and would be outcompeted again and again if we 're-played' the history of Earth. The support Gould thinks they give his pet theory isn't there.

So, to sum things up - in this book Gould uses psychosocial arguments to dismiss the science of Walcott and support that of Simon Conway Morris; misunderstands what a phylum is; misunderstands what a "fundamental body plan" is; bases his reasoning on misidentified fossils; and draws conclusions which aren't supported by the supplied evidence.

But he does it in a really enthusing way. There's no denying it's a good read.

Simon Conway Morris, the chief "hero" in this book, has since done his best to distance himself from Gould - to the point that he tends to deem it necessary to explain what a phylum is in his articles, and has written the Gould-critical book "Crucibles of creation" (which isn't that great either).

500 Million Year Old Shale Gives Great Insights
This book is an excellent and fascinating introduction to paleontology - the study of ancient creatures through the study of their fossils. This is not a dull book by any stretch of the imagination. After reading you will want to learn more about the subject.

What differentiates an average scientist to someone that can make a truly new and important discovery is the ability to sees that small variations from the expected. That is looking at raw experimental data experimental a great scientist can see how the observations do not fit theoretical expectations, and they can only be explained by revisions to existing theories. Sometimes these can be dramatic as in the case of radiation from a body or nuclear effects that had inconsistencies that could only be explained with new theories such as quantum mechanics in modern physics.

This book is similar but it applies to the theory of evolution and paleontology. Early theories of evolution were based on a "cone" of evolution that explained increased diversification with time. That concept also fits in with certain religious theories. This book explains how that idea was debunked by a very lengthy and detailed study of The Burgess Shale - located in the Canadian Rockies- that had an explosion of diversity all in a short time span about 500 (plus) million years ago.

These complicated little creatures have been frozen in time, captured in the shale complete with much detail. The study indicates that the number of "body plans" or what the scientists call "disparity" was more diverse at an earlier time which contradicts the idea of increased diversity with time in evolution. Instead scientists think that there is an early "decimation" of the species to give us more species with fewer "body plans" at a later date.

Initially the observations were incorrectly around made and left unchallenged for about 60 years. More recently they were re-discovered after very detailed studies of the shale and new interpretations and conclusions were made.

This is a very unusual and interesting book with many illustrations and comments and insights. Once you read it you will have a grasp of modern paleontology and will want to learn more.

Jack in Toronto

530 million years ago...
530 million years ago something happened that would change the way scientists would look at evolution and it would take the humor, knowledge and artistic skill of Stephen Jay Gould to explain WHY it changed the way they look at evolution and WHY we should all care.
Mr. Gould takes evolution and shows how it worked in the ancient sea and why it seemed to change how it works now. Mr. Gould is an honest writer, brave enough to say that what he says might be proven wrong later on, but is willing to dive right in anyway. He is willing to get his hands messy while trying to work out the paleontological puzzle of the Burgess Shale and he takes us along, we go together during every step, we watch scientists overcome every barrier and we are able to judge the results that we saw built right before our eyes, piece by piece.
Great read.

Another magnificent tome
This is more than an explanation of one particular site of fossils. It is that but the ramifications of that site are stupendous, namely that life on Earth has undergone regular catasclysmic destruction. The Burgess Shale is perhaps the most valuable scientific find of a century in what it proves and disproves.

The shale itself dates from 530 million years ago and teems with an extraordinary variety of life - life that was almost terminated by a rock from space. The important thing Gould determines is that if not for this near extinction, life would have developed in a completely different manner and humans - indeed vertebrates -would not be the dominant creatures.

Must one conclude that our presence is a fluke or an accident? Those opting for a divine plan must surely question why their divinity went to all the trouble to create such an incredible variety of life only to have it destroyed. All we can do is work with what we have.

The descriptions of the shale beings are incredibly interesting as is the discovery, loss and recovery of the site. Then there is Marianne Collins and her magnificent interpretations of the weird inhabitants of the shales. One must remember that most of these were crushed and smashed and had to be reconstructed not only physically but mentally. The Shale asks questions about Evolutions such as how can new species form so rapidly when classic theory calls for long eons in development? Which, if any of the Shale traits survived the destruction? In the end Gould attacks (for about the zillionth time) the standard evolutionary charts as not representative of the "true" status of beings with aphids on the bottom and humans at top.

But then history is written by the winners and though our lifespan has been short and may be shorter still, we are still the only creatures that recognize that face. Perhaps that is why we design anthropomorthic charts and think in terms of low and high evolution. ... Read more

Book Description

This book introduces students to the groups of vertebrates and explores the anatomical evolution of vertebrates within the context of the functional interrelationships of organs and the changing environments to which vertebrates have adapted. The text contains all of the material taught in classic comparative anatomy courses, but integrates this material with current research in functional anatomy. This integration adds a new dimension to our understanding of structure and helps students understand the evolution of vertebrates. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection should be required reading for anyone who happens to be a human being. In it, Hrdy reveals the motivations behind some of our most primal and hotly contested behavioral patterns--those concerning gender roles, mate choice, sex, reproduction, and parenting--and the ideas and institutions that have grown up around them. She unblinkingly examines and illuminates such difficult subjects as control of reproductive rights, infanticide, "mother love," and maternal ambition with its ever-contested companions: child care and the limits of maternal responsibility. Without ever denying personal accountability, she points out that many of the patterns of abuse and neglect that we see in cultures around the world (including, of course, our own) are neither unpredictable nor maladaptive in evolutionary terms. "Mother" Nature, as she points out, is not particularly concerned with what we call "morality." The philosophical and political implications of our own deeply-rooted behaviors are for us to determine--which can be done all the better with the kind of understanding gleaned from this exhaustive work.

Hrdy's passion f