Dear Mr. Darwin: letters on the evolution of life and human nature.

Dover, Gabriel.

ISBN 10: 0520227905 / ISBN 13: 9780520227903

Editore: Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000., 2000

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Octavo,268 pp.,text illustrations, dustwrapper. The imagined two-way correspondence between the author, Dover, and Darwin about the surprising findings of modern genetics and the evolution of biological novelties, from genes to organisms, is both erudite and entertaining. In the process, Dover presents a startingly original view of development and evolution that puts the individual organism on center stage. Codice articolo 24592

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Titolo: Dear Mr. Darwin: letters on the evolution of...

Casa editrice: Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.

Data di pubblicazione: 2000

Legatura: Rilegato

Condizione sovraccoperta: sovraccoperta

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto:

Anyone who has ever wondered what it would be like to talk to Charles Darwin about changes that have taken place in evolutionary biology since his death will be fascinated by this witty and literate blend of science, history, and biography. Stimulated by Darwin's relatively uninformed but obviously intelligent questions, Gabriel Dover takes the father of evolution on an exhilarating roller-coaster ride through the new genetics. The imagined two-way correspondence between Dover and Darwin about the surprising findings of modern genetics and the evolution of biological novelties, from genes to organisms, is both erudite and entertaining. In the process, Dover presents a startlingly original view of development and evolution that puts the individual organism on center stage.

Creating a cultural backdrop that ranges from the poetry of Ted Hughes to the music of Captain Beefheart to the current crisis in the Balkans, Dover debunks the naively deterministic view of selfish genes and their supposed lonely pursuits of self-replication and self-immortalization. He reveals a world of evolution far more intricate and subtle than can be expected from the notion of natural selection acting alone--a world in which genes are born to cooperate.

Informazioni sull?autore:

Gabriel Dover is an internationally recognized authority on the evolution of genes and genomes and is the originator of the molecular drive theory of evolution. He has written more than 150 research papers and edited several books on modern aspects of molecular and developmental evolution. He is currently Professor of Genetics at the University of Leicester.