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Freaks of Nature: What Anomalies Tell Us About Development and Evolution

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As in his previous book, Basic Instinct (also highly recommended), Blumberg does a remarkable job of translating a number of complex ideas into readily understandable prose. The relationship between development and evolution was a subject largely neglected in mainstream biology for much of the 20th century. The tide has begun to turn significantly only over the course of the last two decades--not enough time for the burgeoning science of epigenetics (molecular and molar) to have filtered into the general scientific and popular consciousness. Books like Blumberg's are thus badly needed.

In Freaks of Nature Blumberg presents a novel way of understanding the development and significance of "freaks"--those organisms who differ from the species-typical (or order-, family-, or genus-typical) norm in significant if not radical ways. Whether the freak be a cyclopean human fetus, a bipedal goat or rodent, an experimentally produced "unicorn," or a female hyena with freakishly enlarged sexual anatomy, Blumberg shows that there is a developmental logic to such anomalies. As numerous findings from modern epigenetics and developmental biology show, subtle differences in the timing of events during development (e.g., the separation of the tissues that eventually become the two fully formed eyes) can result in a cascade of downstream effects, producing sometimes radically novel forms.

Many such novelties are simply not viable and thus never make it to the stage (birth) where scientists can study and others wonder at them. Others, like Johnny Eck, a man who was born with no legs and yet managed to locomote with a high degree of fluidity and even gracefulness--using his hands--are not only viable but capable of thriving due to the high degree of plasticity inherent in the brain and nervous system. We are neither born with a knowledge of what our bodies will be like (for one, our bodies change throughout the lifespan, so we would have to be born with knowledge of infinitely many bodies) nor a knowledge of how to effectively and efficiently control them. This is the beauty of development and is why developmental processes have enormous implications for understanding not only ourselves as humans (we are, in important ways, freaks among the primates), but ourselves as individuals and moreover evolution as a whole.

Blumberg concludes his excellent book by introducing the possibility of two new fields of scientific investigation: terethology, or the study of the behavior of developmental anomalies (or "monsters"), and developmental neuroethology, a field that would seek to study comprehensively the behavior and neural development of "brains packaged in novel forms." In many ways such a field already exists or at least has seeds in modern developmental neurobiology and developmental neuroscience. It also resembles the vision for the behavioral sciences advocated by the psychologist and embryologist Zing-Yang Kuo: an integrative, interdisciplinary science that takes the experimental production and study of novel phenotypes (or neophenotypes) as central to an understanding of both developmental and evolutionary processes.

What a delight! Finally, a beautifully written science book exploring a subject area often ignored or deliberately shunned. Mark Blumberg sensitively explores the world of exceptions, those individuals among us who are limbless, ambiguously gendered, conjoined--those creatures that we see as abnormal. He helps us understand
the wondrous diversity of our world, and calls us to embrace the exceptions, for we are all "monsters."

A two-legged goat. A man who walked on his hands. A kitten with two faces. A naked mole rat. A star-nosed mole. A fun read.

Freaks is a provocative look at anomalies in nature and the developmental processes that produce them. Blumberg details the self-organizing mechanisms that create an integrated phenotype in all creatures, not just the archetypes, and persuasively argues how these systems should influence the way we think and talk about evolution.

Poignantly blending fields such as embryology, ethology, psychology and neuroscience, along with a bit of history and anecdote, Blumberg delivers a treat for readers of all interests that should change how we look at what it means to be "normal".

This book is truly one of a kind. Not only does Dr. Mark Blumberg help to elucidate the issues and confusion that people often have with development and evolution, but he does so in a way that helps us to understand that development isn't a prescribed process. He shows us, through many examples, how one small change during the developmental process can result in big effects: both development and evolution are continuing processes that are guided by cascading effects in the system: genes and environment alike.

Never has a book been so "raw" in presenting the details and differences that exist among species...and quite frankly, that exist amongst ourselves. Each of us is a "freak of nature" expressed in different ways. It is just more evident in some humans and some non-human animals that may represent the more extreme, or unique, cases. Why don't we ask each other how we walk, talk and function every single day? We have all been faced with developmental demands and environmental challenges along the way, just like the goat without forelimbs that learned to walk upright. We are always adapting.

After reading this book, the reader will undoubtedly walk away with a better understanding of the science behind development and evolution, as well as a strong appreciation for these "freaks." The examples throughout the book are very beautiful demonstrations of how powerful science can be, and how adaptable organisms really are. Even after being faced with these challenges, we all find a way to evolve and survive.

This book should be a companion book for all those books people interested in evolution and neuroscience have read, or have yet to read! Mark Blumberg answered questions I never knew I had; explained science I never knew I needed explained. He drove home to me the still evolving science of evolution, and the wonder and power of nature! My only wish is Great Courses (The Teaching Company) would develope a lecture series with him. Thank you Amazon for putting this book on my recommendations list!

This is an entertaining and much-needed tale about how the adult form is the product of (genes AND) environment. However, he goes a bit far and sometimes ignores genes altogether. He needs genes to make his case about variability in the cellular environment, but bends over backward to keep this from the reader by avoiding the use of the phrase "gene expression" when he is talking about gene expression. Many biologists will find this particularly silly (in a discussion of Shh, of all things!) as he tells us that dolphins don't have limbs because the cells of the embryonic limb buds lack specific "signaling molecules" during development (p163). It's "transcription and translation" and it is influenced by the presence or absence of other genes. I don't think that saying this would have compromised his overall argument unless there's a bigger agenda. I'm suspicious about a poorly placed dig at evolutionary psychology (p. 137) which appears in the middle of an otherwise brilliant discussion about locomotion but his point, that you don't need a mutation to make a mutant, is well taken.

I've read Freaks several times. The first time, I was curious about what Mark Blumberg, the author of Body Heat and Basic Instinct, had to say about the relations between abnormal and normal development. Here's the take-home message: Freaks focus our attention on developmental processes rather than on prescribed outcomes. As such, we learn how development plays out, moment by moment in real time. I've returned to the book many times over the last several months to refresh my memory about particular points and to use the text for teaching graduate students and advanced undergraduates. Blumberg's writing style is engaging and clear, the examples are powerful and illustrative, and each chapter makes the argument that individuals solve the problems of development by adapting to and exploiting the constraints and propensities of their own bodies and environments--my favorite is "Do The Locomotion" featuring Johnny Eck, a legless man who learned to walk and climb on his hands, and Faith, the two-legged dog who learned to walk and hop without functional forelimbs. Freaks works beautifully as a teaching tool and it's an interesting and deeply thoughtful read for anyone interested in development or evolution. The book is important and thought provoking and guaranteed to instigate spirited discussion.

Want to change, enhance or cement your view on evolution? Get this book. You will never think about or discuss this topic in the same fashion again. It is a true perspectives piece.

This is a very entertaining book. Except for the chapter on sexuality, it seemed almost to read itself. Full of examples and illustrations of anomalies, it takes us through a veritable cabinet of curiosities. Contrary to the usual perspective, Mark S. Blumberg treats these "freaks of nature" not as malformations and deviations; well, they are - but so are we. According to Blumberg we are all monsters. Nature tries something out and if it works it's "normal" and if it doesn't it's deemed "unnatural". But why should the fact that we humans have five fingers and not nine be seen as the normal state of affairs?
Now, I cannot judge if Blumberg has got his epigenetics right, but he seems quite adamant and polemic about it. Without mentioning Richard Dawkins, Matt Ridley or E.O. Wilson, he strongly condemns what he sees as "genetic determinism". It's old-fashioned as well as incorrect, he says, to apply a gene-centered view on evolution. It also works the other way around: the environment induces evolutionary change. "Character can be inherited by the next generation without a genetic mechanism", he states and claims that this insight is now becoming commonplace (183). Here he refers notably to Jablonka and Lamb (Evolution in four dimensions, 2005) and West-Eberhard (Development plasticity and the origins of species, 2005). When he mentions supporters of Evo Devo, such as Sean Carroll, he still deplores their one-sidedness in conferring to genes the main role in evolutionary development. On the other side of the coin, there is no mentioning of Lamarck, making it a bit unclear to a lay-person like me what exactly it is that Blumberg so vehemently defends. In his "Nature via Nurture" from 2003, Matt Ridley states: "Learning could not be expressed without experience. Innateness could not be expressed without experience. The truth of each idea is not proof of the falsehood of another." His conclusion is that the dichotomy "Nature versus Nurture is dead "(279-280). He illustrates this with a couple of quotations by proponents of different perspectives on evolution, such as Gould, Dawkins, Pinker and Rose. Some of these would be considered by the others to be extreme genetic determinists. Yet, according to Ridley, they believe roughly the same thing, namely that human nature comes from an interaction of nature with nurture. This point is also made in another book, "Not by genes alone" by Richerson and Boyd (2005), putting the emphasis on culture but without using the term epigenetic.
Be that as it may, except for a few technical discussions - he somewhere jokingly apologizes for what looks like a list of acronyms - Blumberg has written a highly readable and thought-provoking book about what evolution and its false starts can tell us about ourselves. Quite hilarious is the passing fancy that God created Eve, not from the rib of Adam but out of his baculum, i.e. man's lost penis bone. In support of this Blumberg offers the fact that males and females share the same number of ribs.

The book is highly entertaining and informative, but suffers from the author's constant need to generate controversy and to create a false split between a gene-centric view and an evo-devo view. There are frequent instances where he contrasts what the development of some particular trait can tell us about evolution with what those who would say it is all about the gene would say, but the view he presents is largely imaginary and does not reflect the modern consensus about the role changes at a developmental level play in evolution.