Against the Grain
Volume 26 | Issue 5 Article 39
2014 Collecting to the Core: Evolution for Everyone Anne Doherty CHOICE/ACRL, [email protected]
Louise F. Deis Princeton University, [email protected]
Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/atg Part of the Library and Information Science Commons
Recommended Citation Doherty, Anne and Deis, Louise F. (2014) "Collecting to the Core: Evolution for Everyone," Against the Grain: Vol. 26: Iss. 5, Article 39. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7771/2380-176X.6873
This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. Collecting to the Core — Evolution for Everyone by Louise F. Deis (Science and Technology Reference Librarian, Lewis Science Library, Princeton University; General Science Editor, Resources for College Libraries)
Column Editor’s Note: The “Collecting Story of Life.2 It definitely qualifies for the life over time with beautiful, colorful fossil to the Core” column highlights monographic coffee table, as it is filled with illustrations photos and illustrations, and Fortey has won works that are essential to the academic li- providing wonderful tableaus of prehistoric much recognition for his ability to explain brary within a particular discipline, inspired periods derived from “100 of the finest fossil science to the public.5 One would be com- by the Resources for College Libraries bib- sites from around the world.” Characteristic pletely edified and entertained by reading liography (online at http://www.rclweb.net). species are drawn, named, and placed in time any of the following books by evolutionary In each essay, subject specialists introduce and space, all in full color. Palmer includes biologist Sean B. Carroll: The Making of and explain the classic titles and topics that a gazetteer of sites, an index to species, a the Fittest, Endless Forms Most Beautiful, 6-8 continue to remain relevant to the undergrad- taxonomic listing of species, and a section or Remarkable Creatures. His ability to uate curriculum and library collection. Dis- depicting relationships (cladistics) among communicate abstruse concepts and clearly ciplinary trends may shift, but some classics animals based on fossil and biochemical sim- illustrate scientific stories makes him one of never go out of style. — AD ilarities. By contrast, paleontologist Michael the current preeminent authors writing scien- Benton has written The History of Life, which tific research with mass appeal. The chapters you can stick in your pocket, though it is also of Fittest begin with captivating stories from volution is fascinating subject matter available online as part of Oxford’s “Very great moments of scientific history, including for specialist researchers as well as the Short Introduction Series.”3 It is eminently the first use of DNA analysis, the discoveries Egeneral reader. Tracing a universe set readable, with 20 key photos, charts, and illus- of the icefish and the coelacanth, and the in motion by a “big bang” 13.8 billion years trations. His chapters include origins of life, tale of Trofim Lysenko’s pseudoscience. In ago, science scholarship has shown that evo- sex, skeletons, and life on land. He devotes Remarkable Creatures Carroll presents a lutionary change is never-ending. We have a chapter to “Forests and Flight,” when plants compilation of biographies learned that life emerged from stardust and and animals adapted to land-living, and he of famous naturalists and under “just so” conditions single living cells discusses the end-Permian mass extinc- scientists who have made arose. Throughout its 4.5-billion-year exis- tion and origins of modern ecosystems remarkable discoveries, of- tence, Earth has been shaped by cataclysmic and humans. ten under great hardships, as well as infinitesimal change, and the life in natural history, fossils, The lasting legacy of forms that began approximately 3.5 billion or species. He features the Charles Darwin rever- years ago have adapted to — or perished from groundbreaking work from berates through nearly — the many different conditions and circum- thinkers like Alexander all present-day work on stances. Recent decades have brought new von Humboldt, Charles evolution. Modern sci- discoveries from the field by paleontologists Darwin, Alfred Russel entists not only build on and biologists and in the laboratory by mo- Wallace, and Henry Walter Bates, then Darwin’s hypotheses and observations, they lecular biologists and geneticists. This essay moves into the modern molecular basis for use his lyrical language. One of the most discusses evolution books (largely specific to evolution with stories about Linus Pauling, recent to do so is author Carl Zimmer, an animals) aimed primarily at the general public Emile Zuckerkandl, Allan Wilson, Vincent award-winning and reliable source for elo- or nonscience student. Any single one of Sarich, Mark Stoneking, and Svante Pääbo. these titles offers an accessible background to quent popular science writing. His 2014 The evolutionary science; as a whole, they provide Tangled Bank: An Introduction to Evolution Any list discussing monographs on evolu- a small collection of contemporary general is a valuable textbook whose title alludes to tion should also include work by the influen- works for anyone interested in evolution and Darwin’s poetic imagery, from the concluding tial paleontologist and evolutionary biologist the history of life on Earth. pages of the Origin of Species, of an “entan- Stephen Jay Gould. Of his many works, Wonderful Life is included here because of its Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de gled bank” teeming with interdependent life forms.4 Zimmer briefly defines evolution discussion of the Burgess Shale Formation Buffon, natural historian of wide-ranging 9 as “descent with modification” and sets out found in the Canadian Rockies. These are interests, conceived of the ideas of geological fascinating fossils of many different soft-bod- history and paleontology in the mid-eigh- his agenda with the statement, “Understand- ing evolution is too important to be limited ied fauna that appear to have no descendants, teenth century, preceding those with much an example of “chance” evolution. In this more familiar names in the foundation of evo- only to evolutionary biologists.” He begins with “Walking Whales,” showing that some book Gould also echoes Darwin’s ideas lutionary theory: Charles Darwin, Alfred regarding the testability of evolution — its Russel Wallace, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. forms of life returned to the water; additional chapters cover geology and paleontology, the unpredictability and contingent nature — by Additional credit belongs to George Gaylord explaining theories via “embryology, bioge- Simpson, Alfred Romer, and Lynn Margulis biological tree of life, how change can occur, molecular evolution, adaptation, sex, origins, ography, the fossil record, vestigial organs, for testing and transforming evolutionary the- and taxonomic relationships.”10 Andrew ory into proven fact. John Maynard Smith and macroevolution. The final three chapters deal with the evolution of humans and behav- Knoll (Professor of Natural History and deserves recognition as having written one of Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences the twentieth century’s seminal works in the ior, as well as evolutionary medicine. Each chapter has a generous bibliography pointing at Harvard University) deserves inclusion field,The Theory of Evolution, first published also for his scholarly yet lucid book Life on a by Penguin in 1958 with a 1993 canto edition readers to further research and nearly every page features a color photo, illustration, chart, Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of from Cambridge University Press featuring Evolution on Earth.11 He writes picturesquely, 1 or graph. a foreword by Richard Dawkins. Whereas even though the book does not contain many Maynard Smith’s work is perhaps the most If pictures appeal, certainly Fossils: The pictures or illustrations, and the epilogue is dense cited here (though quite comprehensible History of Life by Richard Fortey, former particularly eloquent. This book includes a for the general reader), the most beautiful senior paleontologist at London’s Natural lengthy section for further reading. Paleon- book in this list is easily evolutionary bi- History Museum, deserves inclusion. Now tologist Neil Shubin is Professor of Anatomy ologist Douglas Palmer’s Evolution: The in its fourth edition, this volume illustrates continued on page 69
68 Against the Grain / November 2014
and evolutionary biology at the University religion. His later book, Genetics of Original Collecting to the Core of Chicago, wrote Why Evolution Is True.14 Sin: The Impact of Natural Selection on the from page 68 He defines evolution and explains how we Future of Humanity, is outstanding, but rather can tell the age of fossils by what is “Written despairing of humanity’s destructiveness.17 Si- at the University of Chicago and was part of in the Rocks.” Coyne discusses embryonic mon Conway Morris, a paleobiologist, takes a team to discover a missing link in the evo- development and dead ends, with chapters the position that evolution is more patterned lution of creatures from sea to land, Tiktaalik on sexual selection and human evolution. and directed than random. He has written at roseae. His Your Inner Fish: A Journey into Throughout, the writing is clear, insightful, least one monograph defending this stance, the 3.5 Billion Year History of the Human and well documented. The Fact of Evolution, Life’s Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Body traces aspects of human development by anthropologist Cameron Smith, plainly Universe, as well as chapters for compilations from the first vertebrates, following the explains biological replication, variation, on science and religion.18 An excellent book phylogeny (development over generations selection, speciation, and evolution.15 He re- on evolution and the origin of life is How of related species) of teleost fishes to human counts evidences of evolution in action with Life Began: Evolution’s Three Geneses, by anatomy: arms and hands, teeth, breathing examples from insects, crustaceans, birds, French marine biologist Alexandre Meinesz apparatus, olfaction, hearing, and vision.12 fish, mammals, viruses, and other microbes. (translated by Daniel Simberloff).19 It con- This monograph is a best seller which has also There are figures and tables, extensive notes centrates on three “geneses” of life — bacteria, been adapted into a PBS television series, and and indexes, and a healthy bibliography and nucleated cells, and multicellular organisms represents well how approachable scientific webliography. — showcasing how evolutionary events like research can be for the general population. Scientific discourse naturally contains natural selection, recombination, mutation, and Titles explaining evolution also often a long history of contrasting and culturally geologic cataclysm create biodiversity and a directly confront the sector of skeptics who charged viewpoints (see eighteenth-century “grandeur of life.” doubt evolutionary science. Two publications French paleontologist George Cuvier and In a topic as historic, wondrous, universal, released in 2009 (also the 150th anniversary his then-radical ideas on extinction); other and ever-changing as evolution, it can be chal- of the original publication of Darwin’s The authors attempt to integrate the possibility that lenging to limit titles to a brief bibliography Origin of the Species) attempt to cement religious belief is compatible with evolutionary such as this. Many of the selections herein evolution as a scientific certainty. Richard truth. Nobel Prize winner and biochemist exist at a fine intersection to be profitably, Dawkins is a well-known scientist (and Christian de Duve has written a few books and enjoyably, read by both the amateur and secularist) who makes a very solid case for that approach evolutionary science with an professional. These monographs not only com- the “inescapable fact” of evolution in The element of spiritual grace. Life Evolving: plement the undergraduate library collection Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Molecules, Mind, and Meaning explores the in the sciences; they offer entry for everyone Evolution.13 The evidence presented is not chemical molecules that make up life, the into the never-ending story of evolutionary life only observational and empirical, but has origin of cells, multicellularity, and beyond.16 on Earth. been experimentally recreated in the lab as Raised Catholic, de Duve writes eloquently well. Jerry Coyne, a professor in ecology about the differences between science and endnotes on page 70
Against the Grain / November 2014