Patterns in Evolution: The New Molecular View ('scientific American' Library) [Paperback]

Roger Lewin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0716760363 | ISBN-13: 978-0716760368 | Publication Date: October 1999

Science journalist and author Roger Lewin shows readers how the tools of biology are transforming the way in which evolution is viewed. The advent of genetic analysis, sometimes of DNA extracted from the remains of creatures that lived thousands of years ago, has enabled scientists to remap the history of life, and has led to findings about evolutionary lineages and aspects of modern animal behaviour.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Patterns Of Evolution reveals how amazing new tools of molecular biology are reshaping modern natural history. Powerful methods of analyzing DNA extracted from organisms (whether living or dead for thousands, even millions of years) are giving biologists access to the most fundamental information of life: genes and how they change through time. The scope of the information DNA analysis is able to provide is enormous, spanning everything from questions of present-day behavior to the ancient problems of the origin of life and its earliest forms. Evolutionary biologists put these new genetic tools to creative use in their studies of ecology and animal behavior, infection disease, mating patterns, and so much more! Roger Lewin is a gifted science writer with a storyteller's flair, bringing to vivid life the investigations that are revealing as both the history of life and the mechanisms by which that life has evolved. -- Midwest Book Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 246 pages
• Publisher: W.H. Freeman & Company (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0716760363
• ISBN-13: 978-0716760368
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,332,263 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great book for all, March 24, 2000

By 

Brandon Bravo (Santa Barbara, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Patterns in Evolution: The New Molecular View ('scientific American' Library) (Paperback)

I am a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara majoring in molecular biology and interested in evolution from a molecular point of view. Roger Lewin's book is an excellent introduction to how the techniques of molecular biology are being applied to ecology to expand our understanding of evolution. The book addresses several interesting topics and gives a history how some very important procedures for analyzing proteins and DNA (such as amino acid and DNA sequencing, hybridization, RFLPs, restriction enzyme mapping, etc.) are helping to answer many important questions. The book begins with an introduction into why a molecular approach to solving ecological problems was necessary, centering on some of the dead end arguments of strictly using morphology to construct "evolutionary trees". Lewin details how molecular techniques can be powerful and provide great insights into the debate over homology and analogy in ways that were not possible more than perhaps twenty years ago, but he also discusses the limitations of these techniques. The molecular "evolutionary clock" has a whole chapter devoted to the history of its development, and to the ways it's is being used today to shed light on old mysteries where it seemed as though morphology had offered all that it could. Sometimes the results of the molecular tests Lewin describes contrast sharply with what biologists have believed in the past about when species diverged (including man from what are now the great apes) to the taxonomic organization of whole groups of organisms. Over all I think this book is fascinating, informative and a great book for those who want to learn more about the information molecular analysis is providing to aid in our understanding of life on earth. I highly recommend it. I believe this book is appropriate for high school and college as perhaps a very interesting supplement to a textbook.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Molecular evolution -- about time!, November 26, 2000

By 

Howard Schneider (Thornhill, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Patterns in Evolution: The New Molecular View ('scientific American' Library) (Hardcover)

Clearly written introduction to modern topics in biological evolution. Phenetics and cladistics are explained and contrasted. The advantages of classification based on molecular methods versus morphological methods are similarly considered. The neutral mutation random drift hypothesis and molecular evolutionary clocks are explained fairly comprehensively, yet at a level suitable for the general reader. The reader is introduced to the basis of molecular techniques, eg, RFLP, PCR, etc. Molecular anthropology, ie, the application of molecular methods to resolve issues of when and where modern humans arose is considered in detail. As well, the new field of obtaining DNA samples from long-dead animal remains is presented.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Molecular research from origins to restorations, August 30, 2000

By 

Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Patterns in Evolution: The New Molecular View ('scientific American' Library) (Hardcover)

As the dust raised by the Sociobiology debate is settling, you may wish to catch up on why this issue became so contentious. And why Sociobiology will arise as one of the most original ideas in modern biology. This book is a fine introduction to how the mechanisms of the genes work Lewin's outstanding reputation can only be enhanced by this description of gene analysis and function. He explains many facets of gene research with superb illustrations and sidebar text describing the various analytical techniques molecular biologists use to explain life's diversity and history.

Why are there so many forms of life? Textbooks abound with evolutionary 'trees' purporting to explain how life evolved from simple cells, lacking even a primitive nucleus through the complex creatures around us today. Most of these diagrams are fallacious, burdening our understanding with the idea that evolution is 'progressive'. Lewin's account, laced with more realistic graphics, show that all forms of life that once existed, still do in parallel with our own companions on this planet. This book does a superior job relating how molecular biology has enabled researchers to update the picture of humanity's place in the structure of nature. Lewin builds his picture of the human role slowly and carefully, but at the conclusion, you will find he's performed the task to near perfection. His description of the Mitochondrial Eve hypothesis, for example, leaves you better informed on this idea than any other popular account.

His writing in this account achieves a level rather more elevated than his other books. BONES OF CONTENTION, or his books co-authored with Richard Leakey are definitely easier reading. The level of information here, however, is also far greater than offered in his other books. This book clearly displays his move from New Scientist to Science in its prose. That's not a criticism, but some readers may find this book more daunting than his others. Nevertheless, the information offered here is worthy of any reader's scrutiny. If you want to know what your DNA is up to and how science has figured out how to describe it, this is the book to have.