Model Systems in Behavioral Ecology: Integrating Conceptual, Theoretical, and Empirical Approaches
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Model Systems in Behavioral Ecology: Integrating Conceptual, Theoretical, and Empirical Approaches. Edited by Lee Alan Dugatkin Model Systems in Behavioral Ecology: Integrating Conceptual, Theoretical, and Empirical Approaches by Lee Alan Dugatkin Review by: Reviewed by Lawrence M Dill The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 77, No. 3 (September 2002), pp. 361-362 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/345260 . Accessed: 10/12/2012 15:15 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Quarterly Review of Biology. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.225 on Mon, 10 Dec 2012 15:15:17 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Volume 77, No. 3 THE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF BIOLOGY September 2002 REVIEWS AND BRIEF NOTICES History, Philosophy & Ethics .....................307 Plant Sciences ......................................328 General Biology ....................................312 Animal Sciences ....................................331 For Tyros & Laics ..................................314 Aquatic Sciences ...................................346 Paleontology ........................................315 Environmental Sciences ..........................347 Molecular Biology .................................317 Neural Sciences ....................................355 Cellular Biology ....................................317 Behavior .............................................360 Genetics & Evolution ..............................318 Human Biology & Health ........................362 Reproduction & Development ..................326 Biomedical Sciences ...............................364 Microbiology ........................................327 HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY & ETHICS occurs before selection on the rest of the pheno- type is well laid out. Forsdyke concludes that, if his THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES Revisited: A Victorian interpretation is correct, Romanes and Bateson Who Anticipated Modern Developments in were light years ahead of their contemporaries. Darwin’s Theory. This assumes that we can equate the modern-day By Donald R Forsdyke. Montreal and Ithaca (New knowledge that aspects of species-specific base %Gםcomposition in viral DNA (in particular, C ם York): McGill-Queen’s University Press. $49.95. xi 275 p; ill.; index. ISBN: 0-7735-2259-X. 2001. differences) indicate some physiological basis for From the dust jacket, I expected this to be an his- selection and, specifically, for speciation of organ- torical treatment into antecedents to Darwin’s the- isms other than viruses, which is a real stretch. ory on the origin of species. It is part history—“[i]n Romanes and Bateson were seeking a physiologi- places I am drawn to ask questions of a historical cal mechanism. Whether we have found that in .G% differences in viruses remains to be seenםnature” (p 3)—but the history takes the form of C looking for hints in the 19th century for recent Other aspects of the phenotype of the gene (pat- physiological and molecular approaches to the ori- terns of methylation, imprinting) are not consid- gin of species. Forsdyke believes that he has found ered; whether any aspects of the heritable pheno- such hints in the works of Romanes, Gulick, and type of the gene relate to speciation (initiation or Bateson, the latter being well known for his redis- adaptation) remains to be proven. What Forsdyke covery of Mendel’s paper. Romanes was a staunch does is remind us that individuals other than Dar- supporter of Darwin. Gulick (for most of his life a win were seeking alternate mechanisms of speci- missionary) is known to some for his discovery of ation. speciation in isolated, but contiguous populations Brian K Hall, Biology, Dalhousie University, Hali- of Hawaiian snails. Less well known is that Gulick fax, Nova Scotia, Canada anticipated “organic selection” (the Baldwin effect) by 11 years. Forsdyke admits that his approach is unabashed Whig history, which histo- Dear Mr Darwin: Letters on the Evolution of rians are not supposed to do. But Forsdyke is not Life and Human Nature. an historian, he is a biochemist and molecular biol- By Gabriel Dover. Berkeley (California): University of .p; ill.; index 268 ם ogist. California Press. $27.50. xvi As his mechanism of speciation, Darwin opted ISBN: 0-520-22790-5. [First published in Great for natural selection over the production of vari- Britain in 1999 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.] 2000. ants—most evolutionary biologists would not In this imaginary correspondence with Charles define variation as “like does not produce like,” or Darwin the author asserts that many of the ideas inheritance as “like produces like,” as Forsdyke of William Hamilton, George Williams, Robert does (p 16). Bateson wanted to include reproduc- Trivers, and John Maynard Smith are based upon tive criteria in his definition of a species. Romanes’s the “illusion” that genes are the ultimate units of thesis that reproductive or physiological selection selection (p 70), that evolutionary factors addi- 307 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.225 on Mon, 10 Dec 2012 15:15:17 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 308 THE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF BIOLOGY Volume 77 tional to natural selection have been overlooked into her account, Ceccarelli adds an important (such as neutral drift, “exaptation,” “adoptation,” contribution to our understanding of how science and “molecular drive”), and that DNA, RNA, and develops. proteins have cooperated and coevolved since the The book is separated into four sections. The origin of life. The important writings of Richard first three are case studies of scientists attempting Dawkins on these subjects are repeatedly carica- to inspire interdisciplinarity through inspirational tured and scornfully dismissed, and Edward O Wil- monographs; the fourth section then offers con- son is called “the father of evolutionary psychol- clusions concerning the genre, including how it ogy” (p 233). Also, the author finds evidence from contributes to the rhetoric of science, the history his teary experiences in watching football (soccer) of science, and interdisciplinary studies. Each case matches (p 186) and in listening to music (p 242) study is further separated into two chapters. The that human behavior is not genetically determined first chapter places the volume within its historical and therefore that we have free will. How, he asks, context, outlining the social, conceptual, and theo- could the behavior of team athletes and their sup- retical debates on the eve of the book’s publication. porting fans be under the control of selfish genes The second chapter then offers a close reading of if they are unrelated and from such diverse back- the text itself combined with an examination of its grounds? reception within the scientific community. Through The author does not provide the background this admixture of the rhetoric of science and the information needed by his intended audience history of science, textual analysis, and reader (general readers) to evaluate this truly astonishing response, Ceccarelli is able to explain how the suc- mishmash of confused and ignorant assertions. cessful inspirational monograph was rhetorically Anyone wishing to gain a clear understanding of designed to unite the social and conceptual divi- the topics discussed in this book should go to one sions among disciplines to form new interdisciplin- of the recently published introductory textbooks ary fields of research. on sociobiology or evolutionary psychology, or to The three volumes Ceccarelli examines are The- the original writings of the authors mentioned odosius Dobzhansky’s Genetics and the Origin of Spe- above. The same course of action is recommended cies (1937. New York: Columbia University Press), for the author. Erwin Schro¨dinger’s What Is Life?: The Physical William F Zimmerman, Biology, Amherst College, Aspect of the Living Cell (1944. Cambridge: Cam- Amherst, Massachusetts bridge University Press), and Edward O Wilson’s Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998. New York: Knopf). Although the first two books helped usher Shaping Science with Rhetoric: The Cases of in the modern synthesis and molecular biology, Dobzhansky, Schro¨dinger, and Wilson. respectively, the third has arguably ended in fail- By Leah Ceccarelli. Chicago (Illinois): University of Chi- ure. The most exciting and useful conclusion cago Press. $55.00 (hardcover); $20.00 (paper). xi comes from a comparison of why, rhetorically, p; ill.; index. ISBN: 0-226-09906-7 (hc); 0- these volumes succeeded or failed. Ceccarelli 204 ם 226-09907-5 (pb). 2001. defines two specific rhetorical strategies used to Despite the book’s title, this is no disciplinary appeal to two different disciplines. The first, con- defense of how rhetoric is responsible for the crea- ceptual chiasmus, is a rhetorical strategy that tion of scientific knowledge. Rather, the author has encourages each discipline to view the