Genesis: The Evolution of Biology

Front Cover
Oxford University Press, 2003 - Science - 364 pages
Genesis: The Evolution of Biology presents a history of the past two centuries of biology, suitable for use in courses, but of interest more broadly to evolutionary biologists, geneticists, and biomedical scientists, as well as general readers interested in the history of science. The book covers the early evolutionary biologists-Lamarck, Cuvier, Darwin and Wallace through Mayr and the neodarwinian synthesis, in much the same way as other histories of evolution have done, bringing in also the social implications, the struggles with our religious understanding, and the interweaving of genetics into evolutionary theory. What is novel about Sapp's account is a real integration of the cytological tradition, from Schwann, Boveri, and the other early cell biologists and embryologists, and the coverage of symbiosis, microbial evolutionary phylogenies, and the new understanding of the diversification of life coming from comparative analyses of complete microbial genomes.

The book is a history of theories about evolution, genes and organisms from Lamarck and Darwin to the present day. This is the first book on the general history of evolutionary biology to include the history of research and theories about symbiosis in evolution, and first to include research on microbial evolution which were excluded from the classical neo-Darwinian synthesis. Bacterial evolution, and symbiosis in evolution are also excluded from virtually every book on the history of biology.

From inside the book

Contents

Evolution and Revolution
3
Two Worldviews
4
Revolution to Evolution
5
Lamarckian Myths
6
Simple to Complex
8
Disconnecting the Unity of Life
11
The CuvierGeoflroy Debate
13
The Origin
16
Genotype and Phenotype
134
Disciplinary Design
135
Biology out of Balance
138
Are Genes Real?
140
Darwinian Renaissance
143
Merging Mendelism
144
The Importance of Sex
146
Population Genetics
147

When Making Other Plans
17
Darwins Bible
18
The Beagle Voyage
20
Natural Selection and Natural Theology
22
Wallaces Manuscript
24
Concepts of the Origin
26
Darwins Champions
31
Natural Theology and Agnosticism
33
Archetype and Idealism
35
Ontogeny and Phylogeny
36
Materialism for Mysticism
40
Darwinism and Sociopolitical Thought
43
Laissezfaire
44
Social Darwinism Exported
46
War and Racism
47
Darwinism on the Left
48
Was Darwin a Social Darwinist?
49
Social Theory in Evolution
50
Darwin and Malthus
52
Mutualism
55
Between Individuals
57
Between Species
58
Roots in Natural Theology
61
Dissent from Darwin
63
Is the Earth Old Enough?
64
What Is a Species?
65
Speciation and Isolation
66
Holes in the Record
67
NeoLamarckism
68
Orthogenesis
69
Saltationism
71
THE CELL IN DEVELOPMENT AND HEREDITY
73
The Myth of the Cell Theory
75
Cells from Cells
77
More than Meets the Eye
78
Vitalism Materialism and Spontaneous Generation
80
The Body Politic
82
The Dawn of Protistology
85
A Cell Is Not a Cell
86
Whats in a Word
87
Organisms within Organisms
90
Weismannism
91
Evolving Embryology
95
Technical Virtuosity
96
The Organism as a Whole
98
Epigenesis and Preformation
100
The Egg
103
The Body Plan in the Egg
104
Maternal Inheritance
106
Cellular Differentiation
109
Cytoplasmic Evolution
112
GENETICS AND THE CLASSICAL SYNTHESIS
115
Mendel Palimpsest
117
Mendels Laws
118
Neglect and Rediscovery
119
Making a Discoverer
121
Why Multiple Meanings?
122
Geneticists versus Statisticians
124
Mendel Made Darwinian
126
Emerging Genetics
130
Random Drift and Nonadaptive Change
149
The Species Problem
151
Microevolution as Macroevolution
152
Lessons of Synthesis
154
Genes Germs and Enzymes
157
The Garrod Tale
158
Early GeneEnzyme Associations
160
OneEnzyme Hypothesis
161
Domesticating Microhes
163
The Chosen Few
164
The Rockefeller Foundation
168
Genetic Heresy and the Cold War
171
NonDarwinian Development
173
Plasmon to Plasmagenes
174
The Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics
176
University Politics
179
Morgans Smile
181
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND ORGANISMIC COMPLEXITY
185
Conceiving a Master Molecule
187
DNA or Protein?
188
Transformation and Transduction
189
Chromatography
191
XRay Crystallography
192
Digital DNA
194
Transcription and Translation
196
Turning Genes On and Off
197
Classical Doctrines of Molecular Biology
198
Beyond the Genome
201
Complexity and the Human Genome
203
A Genetic Plan?
205
Confronting Old Dogmas
206
Cell Architecture and Spatial Information
207
Field Heredity
211
Epinucleic Inheritance
214
Molecular Evolution and Microbial Phylogeny
217
Precambrian Explosion
218
Molecular Clocks
220
The Origin of the Code
221
A Code for Classification
224
A Trilogy of Life
225
Dissension and Disaffection
228
Lateral Gene Transfer
230
Symbiomics
234
Developmental Symbiosis
235
Symbiosis Silhouette
236
Why It Has Been Difficult to Imagine
240
Toward a Unified Theory
243
Symbiogenetic Renaissance
245
Macroevolutionary Change
247
The Evolution of Relationships
252
The Individual and the Group
253
Kin Selection
255
The Lessons of Sociobiology
257
About JustSo Stories
258
Symbiotic Ties
261
Epilogue
267
Notes
273
Index
347
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About the author (2003)

Jan Sapp is at McGill University.

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