Download or read book Evolution Made to Order written by Helen Anne and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-11-11 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Plant breeders have long sought technologies to extend human control over nature. Early in the twentieth century, this led some to experiment with startlingly strange tools like x-ray machines, chromosome-altering chemicals, and radioactive elements. Contemporary reports celebrated these mutation-inducing methods as ways of generating variation in plants on demand. Speeding up evolution, they imagined, would allow breeders to genetically engineer crops and flowers to order. Creating a new food crop or garden flower would soon be as straightforward as innovating any other modern industrial product. In Evolution Made to Order, Helen Anne Curry traces the history of America’s pursuit of tools that could intervene in evolution. An immersive journey through the scientific and social worlds of midcentury genetics and plant breeding and a compelling exploration of American cultures of innovation, Evolution Made to Order provides vital historical context for current worldwide ethical and policy debates over genetic engineering.
Download or read book The Origins of Order written by Stuart A. Kauffman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1993-06-10 with total page 734 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stuart Kauffman here presents a brilliant new paradigm for evolutionary biology, one that extends the basic concepts of Darwinian evolution to accommodate recent findings and perspectives from the fields of biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics. The book drives to the heart of the exciting debate on the origins of life and maintenance of order in complex biological systems. It focuses on the concept of self-organization: the spontaneous emergence of order that is widely observed throughout nature Kauffman argues that self-organization plays an important role in the Darwinian process of natural selection. Yet until now no systematic effort has been made to incorporate the concept of self-organization into evolutionary theory. The construction requirements which permit complex systems to adapt are poorly understood, as is the extent to which selection itself can yield systems able to adapt more successfully. This book explores these themes. It shows how complex systems, contrary to expectations, can spontaneously exhibit stunning degrees of order, and how this order, in turn, is essential for understanding the emergence and development of life on Earth. Topics include the new biotechnology of applied molecular evolution, with its important implications for developing new drugs and vaccines; the balance between order and chaos observed in many naturally occurring systems; new insights concerning the predictive power of statistical mechanics in biology; and other major issues. Indeed, the approaches investigated here may prove to be the new center around which biological science itself will evolve. The work is written for all those interested in the cutting edge of research in the life sciences.
Download or read book Evolution Order and Complexity written by Kenneth Boulding and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-01-04 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolution, Order and Complexity reflects topical interest in the relationship between the social and natural worlds. It represents the cutting edge of current thinking which challenges the natural/social dichotomy thesis by showing how the application of ideas which derive from biology can be applied and offer insight into the social realm. This is done by introducing the general system theory to the methodological debate on the relation of human and natural sciences.
Download or read book The Evolution of Everything written by Matt Ridley and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2015-10-27 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Mr. Ridley’s best and most important work to date…there is something profoundly democratic and egalitarian—even anti-elitist—in this bottom-up approach: Everyone can have a role in bringing about change.” —Wall Street Journal The New York Times bestselling author of The Rational Optimist and Genome returns with a fascinating argument for evolution that definitively dispels a dangerous, widespread myth: that we can command and control our world Human society evolves. Change in technology, language, morality, and society is incremental, inexorable, gradual, and spontaneous. It follows a narrative, going from one stage to the next, and it largely happens by trial and error—a version of natural selection. Much of the human world is the result of human action but not of human design: it emerges from the interactions of millions, not from the plans of a few. Drawing on fascinating evidence from science, economics, history, politics, and philosophy, Matt Ridley demolishes conventional assumptions that the great events and trends of our day are dictated by those on high. On the contrary, our most important achievements develop from the bottom up. The Industrial Revolution, cell phones, the rise of Asia, and the Internet were never planned; they happened. Languages emerged and evolved by a form of natural selection, as did common law. Torture, racism, slavery, and pedophilia—all once widely regarded as acceptable—are now seen as immoral despite the decline of religion in recent decades. In this wide-ranging, erudite book, Ridley brilliantly makes the case for evolution, rather than design, as the force that has shaped much of our culture, our technology, our minds, and that even now is shaping our future.
Download or read book Evolution of the Word written by Marcus J. Borg and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2012-08-28 with total page 1037 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By presenting the New Testament books in the order they were written, bestselling Bible scholar Marcus Borg reveals how spiritually and politically radical the early Jesus movement began and how it slowly became domesticated. Evolution of the Word is an incredible value: not only are readers getting a deeply insightful new book from the author of Speaking Christian and Jesus, but also the full-text of the New Testament—and one of the only Bibles organized in chronological order and including explanatory annotations that give readers a more informed understanding of the Scripture that is so close to their hearts and lives.
Download or read book Understanding Origins written by Francisco J Varela and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-01-15 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book World Ordering written by Emanuel Adler and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-07 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "We usually identify international orders with stability and established arrangements of units and institutionalization"--
Download or read book Performance and Evolution in the Age of Darwin written by Jane Goodall and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jane Goodall reveals the ways in which the major themes of evolution were taken up in the performing arts during Darwin's adult lifetime and in the generation after his death.
Download or read book Chaos and Life written by Richard J. Bird and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2003-11-26 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why, in a scientific age, do people routinely turn to astrologers, mediums, cultists, and every kind of irrational practitioner rather than to science to meet their spiritual needs? The answer, according to Richard J. Bird, is that science, especially biology, has embraced a view of life that renders meaningless the coincidences, serendipities, and other seemingly significant occurrences that fill people's everyday existence. Evolutionary biology rests on the assumption that although events are fundamentally random, some are selected because they are better adapted than others to the surrounding world. This book proposes an alternative view of evolving complexity. Bird argues that randomness means not disorder but infinite order. Complexity arises not from many random events of natural selection (although these are not unimportant) but from the "playing out" of chaotic systems—which are best described mathematically. When we properly understand the complex interplay of chaos and life, Bird contends, we will see that many events that appear random are actually the outcome of order.
Download or read book Order in Living Organisms written by Rupert Riedl and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 1978 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Structure of Evolutionary Theory written by Stephen Jay Gould and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2002-03-21 with total page 1460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world’s most revered and eloquent interpreter of evolutionary ideas offers here a work of explanatory force unprecedented in our time—a landmark publication, both for its historical sweep and for its scientific vision. With characteristic attention to detail, Stephen Jay Gould first describes the content and discusses the history and origins of the three core commitments of classical Darwinism: that natural selection works on organisms, not genes or species; that it is almost exclusively the mechanism of adaptive evolutionary change; and that these changes are incremental, not drastic. Next, he examines the three critiques that currently challenge this classic Darwinian edifice: that selection operates on multiple levels, from the gene to the group; that evolution proceeds by a variety of mechanisms, not just natural selection; and that causes operating at broader scales, including catastrophes, have figured prominently in the course of evolution. Then, in a stunning tour de force that will likely stimulate discussion and debate for decades, Gould proposes his own system for integrating these classical commitments and contemporary critiques into a new structure of evolutionary thought. In 2001 the Library of Congress named Stephen Jay Gould one of America’s eighty-three Living Legends—people who embody the “quintessentially American ideal of individual creativity, conviction, dedication, and exuberance.” Each of these qualities finds full expression in this peerless work, the likes of which the scientific world has not seen—and may not see again—for well over a century.
Download or read book Relentless Evolution written by John N. Thompson and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At a glance, most species seem adapted to the environment in which they live. Yet species relentlessly evolve, and populations within species evolve in different ways. Evolution, as it turns out, is much more dynamic than biologists realized just a few decades ago. In Relentless Evolution, John N. Thompson explores why adaptive evolution never ceases and why natural selection acts on species in so many different ways. Thompson presents a view of life in which ongoing evolution is essential and inevitable. Each chapter focuses on one of the major problems in adaptive evolution: How fast is evolution? How strong is natural selection? How do species co-opt the genomes of other species as they adapt? Why does adaptive evolution sometimes lead to more, rather than less, genetic variation within populations? How does the process of adaptation drive the evolution of new species? How does coevolution among species continually reshape the web of life? And, more generally, how are our views of adaptive evolution changing? Relentless Evolution draws on studies of all the major forms of life—from microbes that evolve in microcosms within a few weeks to plants and animals that sometimes evolve in detectable ways within a few decades. It shows evolution not as a slow and stately process, but rather as a continual and sometimes frenetic process that favors yet more evolutionary change.
Download or read book The Evolving World written by David P. Mindell and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 150 years since Darwin, evolutionary biology has proven as essential as it is controversial, a critical concept for answering questions about everything from the genetic code and the structure of cells to the reproduction, development, and migration of animal and plant life. But today, as David P. Mindell makes undeniably clear in The Evolving World, evolutionary biology is much more than an explanatory concept. It is indispensable to the world we live in. This book provides the first truly accessible and balanced account of how evolution has become a tool with applications that are thoroughly integrated, and deeply useful, in our everyday lives and our societies, often in ways that we do not realize. When we domesticate wild species for agriculture or companionship; when we manage our exposure to pathogens and prevent or control epidemics; when we foster the diversity of species and safeguard the functioning of ecosystems: in each of these cases, Mindell shows us, evolutionary biology applies. It is at work when we recognize that humans represent a single evolutionary family with variant cultures but shared biological capabilities and motivations. And last but not least, we see here how evolutionary biology comes into play when we use knowledge of evolution to pursue justice within the legal system and to promote further scientific discovery through education and academic research. More than revealing evolution's everyday uses and value, The Evolving World demonstrates the excitement inherent in its applications--and convinces us as never before that evolutionary biology has become absolutely necessary for human existence.
Download or read book The Origins of Order written by Stuart A. Kauffman and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1993 with total page 744 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph extends the basic concepts of Darwinian evolution to accommodate recent findings and perspectives from the fields of biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics. It explains how complex systems, contrary to expectations, can spontaneously exhibit degrees of order.
Download or read book Evolution written by James Alan Shapiro and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2011 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book proposes an important new paradigm for understanding biological evolution. Shapiro demonstrates why traditional views of evolution are inadequate to explain the latest evidence, and presents an alternative. His information- and systems-based approach integrates advances in symbiogenesis, epigenetics, and saltationism, and points toward an emerging synthesis of physical, information, and biological sciences.
Download or read book The Evidence for Evolution written by Alan R. Rogers and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to polling data, most Americans doubt that evolution is a real phenomenon. And it’s no wonder that so many are skeptical: many of today’s biology courses and textbooks dwell on the mechanisms of evolution—natural selection, genetic drift, and gene flow—but say little about the evidence that evolution happens at all. How do we know that species change? Has there really been enough time for evolution to operate? With The Evidence for Evolution, Alan R. Rogers provides an elegant, straightforward text that details the evidence for evolution. Rogers covers different levels of evolution, from within-species changes, which are much less challenging to see and believe, to much larger ones, say, from fish to amphibian, or from land mammal to whale. For each case, he supplies numerous lines of evidence to illustrate the changes, including fossils, DNA, and radioactive isotopes. His comprehensive treatment stresses recent advances in knowledge but also recounts the give and take between skeptical scientists who first asked “how can we be sure” and then marshaled scientific evidence to attain certainty. The Evidence for Evolution is a valuable addition to the literature on evolution and will be essential to introductory courses in the life sciences.
Download or read book Evolving Vegan written by Mena Massoud and published by Tiller Press. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From actor and avid traveler Mena Massoud comes a collection of diverse, delicious, and accessible vegan recipes inspired from dishes all over the world, perfect for the aspiring vegan! It’s safe to say that veganism is no longer just a trend. Lifelong vegans, part-time vegans, and the vegan curious are a diverse and eclectic group of people from all walks of life and backgrounds, and yet, there’s very little out there in mainstream media that reflects this new reality. The Evolving Vegan cookbook celebrates both flavors and stories from a wide array of plant-based eateries all across North America, proving that a plant-friendly diet is truly accessible to all! Some of the recipes you will learn to make include: -Sausage Shakshuka in a Skillet from the restaurant Chickpea in Vancouver -Young Coconut Ceviche from the restaurant Rosalinda in Toronto -BBQ Pulled “Pork” Jackfruit Sandwiches from the Butcher’s Son in Oakland, CA -Indian Tofu Curry from The Sudra in Portland, OR -Boston Cream Pie-Cake from Veggie Galaxy in Cambridge, MA -Plus authentic Egyptian dishes from Mena’s mother, and many from Mena’s own SoCal home kitchen Come travel with Mena to meet Cyrus Ichiza from Ichiza Kitchen in Portland, whose Taiwanese mother inspired him to share his Southeast Asian roots through authentically flavorful vegan dishes. Get a behind-the-scenes peek at the secrets of San Francisco’s Peña Pachamama, a Bolivian plant-based restaurant that serves national dishes like pique macho and aji de fideo. Containing recipes from many different countries and cultures, and including helpful tips for lifelong vegans or flexitarians looking to expand their repertoire of vegan dishes, Evolving Vegan takes you on a food-based road trip to explore the vibrancy of veganism across North America.
