Mendel's Demon: Gene Justice and the Complexity of Life - Softcover

Ridley, Mark

3.92

93 ratings by Goodreads

9780753814109: Mendel's Demon: Gene Justice and the Complexity of Life

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0753814102 ISBN 13: 9780753814109

Publisher: Phoenix, 2001

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The existence of complex life is one of the great mysteries of evolution, for complexity is neither inevitable nor necessary. Indeed, as Mark Ridley shows in this important and thought-provoking book, two major biological hurdles had to be overcome to allow living complexity to evolve. Complex life is constructed from more genes than simple life. But as gene numbers increase, so too do the number of copying errors � it is easier to make a mistake copying the Bible than copying an advertising slogan. Similarly, natural selection encourages gene selfishness, and genes could easily evolve to subvert complex life forms. In retracing the history of life on our planet � from the initial wobbly replicating molecules, through microbes, worms and flies and ultimately to humans � Ridley reveals how life has evolved as a series of steps to deal with error and coerce genes to co-operate within each body. Mendel�s Demon offers startling novel perspectives on matters as disparate as the origins of sex and gender, potential cures for AIDS, corporate mergers and acquisitions, and the long-term perils of human cloning.

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Review:

In contradistinction to the more populist of science authors, Oxford zoologist Mark Ridley (not to be confused with Matt Genome Ridley) is unafraid to pitch his acclaimed books (like Evolution, and Animal Behaviour) at a discerning and cerebral audience. In other words don't go reading this analysis of genetic and sexual complexity expecting laugh-a-minute anecdotes about transvestite sparrows.

That said, those who are willing to persevere through the dense and unashamedly highbrow text will find an interesting debate cogently and wittily argued. Ridley's self-posed question is why such complex beings as swans, gibbons and journalists should have arisen, given an evolutionary process far more favourable to the replication of simple organisms. After all, each time we have sex, reproduce and thus copy our DNA, we are attempting the equivalent of xeroxing James Joyce's Ulysses. Mistakes can and will creep in. So why bother?

Ridley's search for an explanation of this puzzle leads him up some fairly precipitous intellectual mountains. Nor is he unafraid of tackling the wilder kinds of speculation: at one point he considers the sex lives of angels--or any putative beings superior to homo sapiens. Readers willing to accompany the author on this demanding expedition, and stretch their brains as a result, will find the exercise as stimulating as it is edifying. --Sean Thomas

Book Description:

An eye-opening solution to one of the biggest paradoxes in biology: why life is complex rather than simple.

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