Genetics and the Logic of Evolution

In this book the authors draw on what is known, largely from recent research, about the nature of genes and cells, the genetics of development and animal and plant body plans, intra- and interorganismal communication, sensation and perception, to propose that a few basic generalizations, along with the modified application of the classical evolutionary theory, can provide a broader theoretical understanding of genes, evolution, and the diverse and complex nature of living organisms. Preface.

Acknowledgments.

I. UNDERSTANDING BIOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY: Basic Concepts andPrinciples.

1. Prospect: The Basic Postulates of Life.

2. Conceptual and Analytic Approaches to Evolution.

3. Evolution By Phenotype: How Change Happens in Life.

II. BUILDING BLOCKS OF LIFE: A Genetic Repertoire for EvolvingComplexity.

4. The Storage and Flow of Biological Information.

5. Genotypes and Phenotypes.

6. A Cell is Born.

7. A Repertoire of Basic Genetic Mechanisms.

III. AN INTERNAL AWARENESS OF SELF: Communication withinOrganisms.

8. Making More of Life: The Many Aspects of Reproduction.

9. Scaling Up: How Cells Build an Organism.

10. Communicating Between Cells.

11. Detecting and Destroying Internal Invaders.

IV. EXTERNAL AWARENESS: Information Transfer between Environmentto Organism.

12. Detecting Physical Variability in the Environment.

13. Chemical Signaling and Sensation from the Outside World.

14. Detecting Light.

15. The Development and Structure of Nervous Systems.

16. Perceiving: Integrating Signals from the Environment.

V. FINALE: Evolutionary Order and Disorder between Phenotypesand Genotypes.

17. A Great Chain of Beings.

References.

Index. "...the book is indeed recommendable..." (The QuarterlyReview of Biology, December 2004)

"for anyone who wishes to know more about genes and evolutionand go beyond the classic, classroom theory--this is the book foryou...[will] take you on a ride you won't regret."(Heredity, February 2005)

"For anyone who wishes to know more about genes andevolution and go beyond the classic, classroom theory - this is foryou..." (Heredity, Vol. 94, 2005)

"This book is well written and would probably be mainly ofinterest to students of evolution who have a more philosophicalperspective or to philosophy students interested inevolution." (American Journal of Human Genetics,September 2004)

"This book is highly suited to students and scientists in arange of fields who want to understand how evolution works throughgenetics." (E-STREAMS, August 2004)

"This book represents a valiant effort in expanding evolutionarythinking in many biological specialties." (Choice, June2004, Vol. 41 No. 10)

Kenneth M Weiss is Evan Pugh Professor of Anthropology and Genetics at Penn State University. After majoring in mathematics at Oberlin College, he received graduate training in Biological Anthropology and genetics at the University of Michigan, where he received his PhD in 1972. He has written widely on evolutionary principlesand biology, human genetics and the complexities of therelationships between genes and traits like human disease or developmental patterns. He writes a regular column onproblems and issues in evolution and genetics for the journal Evolutionary Anthropology, and is the author of Genetic Variation and Human Disease: Principles and Evolutionary Approaches. He has also been a professional meteorologist.

Anne Buchanan is Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Anthropology at Penn State University. She has a BA in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts and a DrPH in Population Studies from the University of Texas School of Public Health. She has worked on population-scale problems in relation to health and genetics, and on molecular and developmental genetics, and has published in a diversity of areas, including anthropology, demography, epidemiology, genetic epidemiology, and developmental genetics.

Darwinian theory, with genes at its center, still frames our discussion of evolution. Yet now the picture within the frame–a portrait rendered in detail at the cellular and molecular level–contains the real stuff of today’s big questions about living organisms. Genetics and molecular biology have revealed a new realm of complexity in life, with major implications for how we understand evolution.

Genetics and the Logic of Evolution provides a much-needed overview and analysis of general principles and patterns of evolution in light of contemporary biology. Taking a functional approach to explain how genes are used across the diverse range of species, the authors consider:

• Basic concepts and principles of biological complexity
• Alternative and supplemental principles to Darwinian theory
• Building blocks of life: how DNA, RNA, and genes work in single-cell and multi-cellular organisms
• Communication within an organism
• Detection and perception of the environment
• Evolutionary order and disorder and the sometimes fluid relationships between phenotypes and genotypes

Working outwards from the molecular level, Genetics and the Logic of Evolution moves its discourse towards a broader sense of life and how organisms live it. Written to be both scientifically rigorous and accessible to the layman, this treatment offers students and practitioners a refreshingly grand tour of the most important generalizations to emerge from recent biological research.