Darwin′s Spectre – Evolutionary Biology in the Modern World - Hardcover

Rose, Michael R

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691012172 ISBN 13: 9780691012179

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1998

Synopsis

Extending the human life-span past 120 years. The "green" revolution. Evolution and human psychology. These subjects make newspaper headlines. Yet much of the science underlying these topics stems from a book published nearly 140 years ago - Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species". In this text, Michael Rose provides the general reader with an introduction to the theory of evolution - its beginning with Darwin, its key concepts, and how it may affect us in the future. First comes a brief biographical sketch of Darwin. Next, Rose gives a primer on the three most important concepts in evolutionary theory - variation, selection and adaptation. Discussing agriculture, Rose shows how, even before Darwin, farmers and ranchers unknowingly experimented with evolution. medical research, however, has ignored Darwin's lessons until recently, with potentially grave consequences. Finally, evolution supplies important new vantage points on human nature. If humans weren't created by deities, then our nature may be determined more by evolution than we have understood. Or it may not be. In this question, as in many others, the Darwinian perspective is one of the most important for understanding human affairs in the modern world. This text explains how evolutionary biology has been used to support both valuable applied research, particularly in agriculture, and truly frightening objectives, such as Nazi eugenics.

About this title

About the Author

Michael R. Rose is Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine. A researcher in the biology of aging, he is known for selection experiments that made fruit flies live twice as long as normal. He is also the author of The Evolutionary Biology of Aging and a coeditor of Adaptation.

From the Back Cover

"Darwin's Spectre will be a lightning rod among books on the great naturalist. Rose's emphatic opinions will ensure that the book will not be ignored. Other trade books have also explored Darwinism and its modern meaning, but Rose's is unique in its combination of a frankly historical placing of Darwin's ideas, its consideration of their many ramifications for modern life, and its grand conjectures about the future."--Steven M. Austad, University of Idaho; author ofWhy We Age

From the Inside Flap

"Darwin's Spectre will be a lightning rod among books on the great naturalist. Rose's emphatic opinions will ensure that the book will not be ignored. Other trade books have also explored Darwinism and its modern meaning, but Rose's is unique in its combination of a frankly historical placing of Darwin's ideas, its consideration of their many ramifications for modern life, and its grand conjectures about the future."--Steven M. Austad, University of Idaho; author of Why We Age

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691012172
• ISBN 13: 9780691012179
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 244