Download or read book Social evolution and the what when why and how of the major evolutionary transitions in the history of life written by Peter Nonacs and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2023-01-27 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Major Transitions in Evolution written by John Maynard Smith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1997-10-30 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During evolution there have been several major changes in the way genetic information is organized and transmitted from one generation to the next. These transitions include the origin of life itself, the first eukaryotic cells, reproduction by sexual means, the appearance of multicellular plants and animals, the emergence of cooperation and of animal societies. This is the first book to discuss all these major transitions and their implications for our understanding of evolution.Clearly written and illustrated with many original diagrams, this book will be welcomed by students and researchers in the fields of evolutionary biology, ecology, and genetics.
Download or read book The Major Transitions in Evolution Revisited written by Brett Calcott and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011-04-22 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on recent advances in evolutionary biology, prominent scholars return to the question posed in a pathbreaking book: how evolution itself evolved. In 1995, John Maynard Smith and Eörs Szathmáry published their influential book The Major Transitions in Evolution. The "transitions" that Maynard Smith and Szathmáry chose to describe all constituted major changes in the kinds of organisms that existed but, most important, these events also transformed the evolutionary process itself. The evolution of new levels of biological organization, such as chromosomes, cells, multicelled organisms, and complex social groups radically changed the kinds of individuals natural selection could act upon. Many of these events also produced revolutionary changes in the process of inheritance, by expanding the range and fidelity of transmission, establishing new inheritance channels, and developing more open-ended sources of variation. Maynard Smith and Szathmáry had planned a major revision of their work, but the death of Maynard Smith in 2004 prevented this. In this volume, prominent scholars (including Szathmáry himself) reconsider and extend the earlier book's themes in light of recent developments in evolutionary biology. The contributors discuss different frameworks for understanding macroevolution, prokaryote evolution (the study of which has been aided by developments in molecular biology), and the complex evolution of multicellularity.
Download or read book The Social Evolution of Human Nature written by Harry Smit and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-03 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Harry Smit examines the elements of current evolutionary theory and how they bear on the evolution of the human mind.
Download or read book Domains and Major Transitions of Social Evolution written by Jacobus J. Boomsma and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-11-03 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolutionary change is usually incremental and continuous, but some increases in organizational complexity have been radical and divisive. Evolutionary biologists, who refer to such events as “major transitions”, have not always appreciated that these advances were novel forms of pairwise commitment that subjugated previously independent agents. Inclusive fitness theory convincingly explains cooperation and conflict in societies of animals and free-living cells, but to deserve its eminent status it should also capture how major transitions originated: from prokaryote cells to eukaryote cells, via differentiated multicellularity, to colonies with specialized queen and worker castes. As yet, no attempt has been made to apply inclusive fitness principles to the origins of these events. Domains and Major Transitions of Social Evolution develops the idea that major evolutionary transitions involved new levels of informational closure that moved beyond looser partnerships. Early neo-Darwinians understood this principle, but later social gradient thinking obscured the discontinuity of life's fundamental organizational transitions. The author argues that the major transitions required maximal kinship in simple ancestors - not conflict reduction in already elaborate societies. Reviewing more than a century of literature, he makes testable predictions, proposing that open societies and closed organisms require very different inclusive fitness explanations. It appears that only human ancestors lived in societies that were already complex before our major cultural transition occurred. We should therefore not impose the trajectory of our own social history on the rest of nature. This thought-provoking text is suitable for graduate-level students taking courses in evolutionary biology, behavioural ecology, organismal developmental biology, and evolutionary genetics, as well as professional researchers in these fields. It will also appeal to a broader, interdisciplinary audience, including the social sciences and humanities.
Download or read book Handbook on Evolution and Society written by Alexandra Maryanski and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-11-17 with total page 981 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Handbook on Evolution and Society" brings together original chapters by prominent scholars who have been instrumental in the revival of evolutionary theorizing and research in the social sciences over the last twenty-five years. Previously unpublished essays provide up-to-date, critical surveys of recent research and key debates. The contributors discuss early challenges posed by sociobiology, the rise of evolutionary psychology, the more conflicted response of evolutionary sociology to sociobiology, and evolutionary psychology. Chapters address the application and limitations of Darwinian ideas in the social sciences. Prominent authors come from a variety of disciplines in ecology, biology, primatology, psychology, sociology, and the humanities. The most comprehensive resource available, this vital collection demonstrates to scholars and students the new ways in which evolutionary approaches, ultimately derived from biology, are influencing the diverse social sciences and humanities.
Download or read book The Routledge Companion to Big History written by Craig Benjamin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-08-01 with total page 507 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Companion to Big History guides readers though the variety of themes and concepts that structure contemporary scholarship in the field of big history. The volume is divided into five parts, each representing current and evolving areas of interest to the community, including big history’s relationship to science, social science, the humanities, and the future, as well as teaching big history and ‘little big histories’. Considering an ever-expanding range of theoretical, pedagogical and research topics, the book addresses such questions as what is the relationship between big history and scientific research, how are big historians working with philosophers and religious thinkers to help construct ‘meaning’, how are leading theoreticians making sense of big history and its relationship to other creation narratives and paradigms, what is ‘little big history’, and how does big history impact on thinking about the future? The book highlights the place of big history in historiographical traditions and the ways in which it can be used in education and public discourse across disciplines and at all levels. A timely collection with contributions from leading proponents in the field, it is the ideal guide for those wanting to engage with the theories and concepts behind big history.
Download or read book The Codes of Life written by Marcello Barbieri and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-10-26 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Building on a range of disciplines – from biology and anthropology to philosophy and linguistics – this book draws on the expertise of leading names in the study of organic, mental and cultural codes brought together by the emerging discipline of biosemiotics. The volume represents the first multi-authored attempt to deal with the range of codes relevant to life, and to reveal the ubiquitous role of coding mechanisms in both organic and mental evolution.
Download or read book The Origins of Life written by John Maynard Smith and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1999 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To create this landmark work--a brilliant, state-of-the-art account of how life evolved on Earth--Smith and Szathmary have completely rewritten their "Major Transitions in Evolution" to bring their ideas to a wider audience of general readers. 42 illustrations.
Download or read book Selfish Genes to Social Beings written by Jonathan Silvertown and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-04-11 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For all the "selfishness" of genes, they team up to survive. Is the history of life in fact a story of cooperation? Amid the violence and brutality that dominates the news, it's hard to think of ourselves as team players. But cooperation, Jonathan Silvertown argues, is a fundamental part of our make-up, and deeply woven into the whole four-billion-year history of life. Starting with human society, Silvertown digs deeper, to show how cooperation is key to the cells forming our organs, to symbiosis between organisms, to genes that band together, to the dawn of life itself. Cooperation has enabled life to thrive and become complex. Without it, life would never have begun.
Download or read book What tumors teach us written by Jana Šmardová and published by Masarykova univerzita. This book was released on 2024-01-01 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lze se pro dobré fungování lidské společnosti poučit nebo inspirovat studiem nádorů? Jak vznikají? Proč nás tolik zajímají? Co nás učí? Mnohobuněčný organismus je v této knize prezentován jako komplexní systém tvořený mnoha buňkami, které spolupracují, zatímco nádory jsou důsledkem opuštění spolupráce a porušování jejích základních principů. Autorka na základě obecné teorie systémů hledá paralely a extrapolace pravidel spolupráce a forem jejich porušování i v jiných komplexních systémech, včetně lidské společnosti. Vedle detailnějšího vhledu do podstaty vzniku a vývoje nádorů kniha nabízí zamyšlení nad otázkou, zda i lidé, podobně jako nádorové buňky, neporušují nebezpečně a sebedestruktivně klíčová pravidla podmiňující dobré fungování systému, jehož jsou součástí.
Download or read book The Major Transitions in Evolution written by John Maynard Smith and published by W.H. Freeman. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During evolution, there have been several major changes in the way that genetic information is organized and transmitted from one generation to the next. These transitions include the origin of life itself, the first eukaryotic cells, reproduction by sexual means, the appearance ofmulticellular plants and animals, the emergence of cooperation and of animal societies, and the unique language ability of humans. This is the first book to discuss all of these major transitions. In discussing such a wide range of topics in one volume, the authors are able to highlight thesimilarities between different transitions - for example, between the union of replicating molecules to form chromosomes and of cells to form multicellular organisms. The authors also show how an understanding of one transition sheds light on others. A common theme in the book is that entities thatcould replicate independently before the transition can replicate afterwards only as part of a larger whole. Why, then, does selection between entities at the lower level not disrupt selection at the higher level? In answering this question, the authors offer an explanation for the evolution ofcooperation at all levels of complexity. Written in a clear style, and illustrated with many original diagrams, this book can be read with enjoyment by anyone with an undergraduate training in the biological sciences. It will be ideal for advanced discussion groups on evolution. Although thecontent ranges widely from molecular biology to linguistics and from intragenomic conflict to insect societies, no detailed knowledge of any of these topics is required. Mathematical models are clearly explained, and equations and formulae are kept to a minimum.
Download or read book Mechanisms of Life History Evolution written by Thomas Flatt and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2011-05-12 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life history theory seeks to explain the evolution of the major features of life cycles by analyzing the ecological factors that shape age-specific schedules of growth, reproduction, and survival and by investigating the trade-offs that constrain the evolution of these traits. Although life history theory has made enormous progress in explaining the diversity of life history strategies among species, it traditionally ignores the underlying proximate mechanisms. This novel book argues that many fundamental problems in life history evolution, including the nature of trade-offs, can only be fully resolved if we begin to integrate information on developmental, physiological, and genetic mechanisms into the classical life history framework. Each chapter is written by an established or up-and-coming leader in their respective field; they not only represent the state of the art but also offer fresh perspectives for future research. The text is divided into 7 sections that cover basic concepts (Part 1), the mechanisms that affect different parts of the life cycle (growth, development, and maturation; reproduction; and aging and somatic maintenance) (Parts 2-4), life history plasticity (Part 5), life history integration and trade-offs (Part 6), and concludes with a synthesis chapter written by a prominent leader in the field and an editorial postscript (Part 7).
Download or read book Chemical Ecology written by Anne-Geneviève Bagnères and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-08-17 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book features comparative perspectives on the field of chemical ecology, present and future, offered by scientists from a wide variety of disciplines. The scientists contributing to this book –biologists, ecologists, biochemists, chemists, biostatisticians – are interested in marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems and work on life forms ranging from micro-organisms to mammals, including humans, living in areas from the tropics to polar regions. Here, they cross their analyses of the present state of chemical ecology and its perspectives for the future. Those presented here include complex, multispecies communities and cover a wide range both of organisms and of the types of molecules that mediate the interactions between them. Up to now, no book has presented a solid scientific treatment of a wide range of examples. This book illustrates a diverse panel of the most advanced aspects of this rapidly expanding field.
Download or read book The Emergence of Sin written by Matthew Croasmun and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We can have a sense that when we try to do right by one another, we aren't merely striving against ourselves. The feeling is that we are struggling against something--someone-else. As if there's a force-a person- that wishes us ill. In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul describes just such a person: Sin, a cosmic tyrant who constrains our moral freedom, confuses our moral judgment, and condemns us to slavery and to death. Commentators have long argued about whether Paul literally means to say Sin is a person or is simply indulging in literary personification, but regardless of Paul's intentions, for modern readers it would seem clear enough: there is no such thing as a cosmic tyrant. Surely it is more reasonable to suppose "Sin" is merely a colorful way of describing individual misdeeds or, at most, a way of evoking the intractability of our social ills. In The Emergence of Sin, Matthew Croasmun suggests we take another look. The vision of Sin he offers is at once scientific and theological, social and individual, corporeal and mythological. He argues both that the cosmic power Sin is nothing more than an emergent feature of a vast human network of transgression and that this power is nevertheless real, personal, and one whom we had better be ready to resist. Ultimately, what is on offer here is an account of the world re-mythologized at the hands of chemists, evolutionary biologists, sociologists, and entomologists. In this world, Paul's text is not a relic of a forgotten mythical past, but a field manual for modern living.
Download or read book In the Light of Evolution written by National Academy of Sciences and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2007-12-28 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In December 2006, the National Academy of Sciences sponsored a colloquium (featured as part of the Arthur M. Sackler Colloquia series) on "Adaptation and Complex Design" to synthesize recent empirical findings and conceptual approaches toward understanding the evolutionary origins and maintenance of complex adaptations. Darwin's elucidation of natural selection as a creative natural force was a monumental achievement in the history of science, but a century and a half later some religious believers still contend that biotic complexity registers conscious supernatural design. In this book, modern scientific perspectives are presented on the evolutionary origin and maintenance of complex phenotypes including various behaviors, anatomies, and physiologies. After an introduction by the editors and an opening historical and conceptual essay by Francisco Ayala, this book includes 14 papers presented by distinguished evolutionists at the colloquium. The papers are organized into sections covering epistemological approaches to the study of biocomplexity, a hierarchy of topics on biological complexity ranging from ontogeny to symbiosis, and case studies explaining how complex phenotypes are being dissected in terms of genetics and development.
Download or read book Comparative Social Evolution written by Dustin R. Rubenstein and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-24 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Darwin famously described special difficulties in explaining social evolution in insects. More than a century later, the evolution of sociality - defined broadly as cooperative group living - remains one of the most intriguing problems in biology. Providing a unique perspective on the study of social evolution, this volume synthesizes the features of animal social life across the principle taxonomic groups in which sociality has evolved. The chapters explore sociality in a range of species, from ants to primates, highlighting key natural and life history data and providing a comparative view across animal societies. In establishing a single framework for a common, trait-based approach towards social synthesis, this volume will enable graduate students and investigators new to the field to systematically compare taxonomic groups and reinvigorate comparative approaches to studying animal social evolution.
