This blog is a site for members of our Evolution course to discuss readings from the books you select, and to consider how those readings connect to other content from our course.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Renamed: Hayley's first post - Life Ascending
Testing....1...2...3... It's time to start blogging!
My Thoughts on Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution
Thinking of evolution as its own entity with inventions immediately sparked my interest. I like Lane's approach in summarizing the long and complex story of evolution with 10 remarkable creations. The book is organized in this fashion with each chapter being one invention: 1. The Origin of Life 2. DNA 3. Photosynthesis 4. The Complex Cell 5. Sex 6. Movement 7. Sight 8. Hot Blood 9. Consciousness 10. Death
The ordering of the chapters alone is a replica of life; starting with the Origin and ending with death. The introduction opens with a zoomed-out view of the the earth. He then goes on to remind us of how insignificant our Petty human squabbles" are in comparison to the knowledge that earth is home to all life, as well as the knowledge we have have yet to discover beyond our planet. The intro continues with highlighted techniques and advancements that have helped make amazing leaps in evolutionary biology. Lane beautifully intertwines the scientific and the artistic with figurative language supported by the facts. His enthusiasm alone has set an exciting tone that keeps the reader interested.
Numerous critiques from well-known journals such as Science, Nature and The Guardian have all gave nothing but positive reviews about the book. So far, I would agree.
However, I have a few questions: 1. Do you think the 10 chosen topics accurately summarize the story of evolution? Is Lane missing anything? Or should he have categorized inventions differently?
2.Does the title "Life Ascending" suggest that these inventions are goal directed? It seems as if Lane could be missing some important ideas we have recently talked about in class such as the neutral theory. I am interested to see if he only discusses these inventions under the forces of natural selection.
It looks like you chose the book for a very similar reason to mine. Im also astonished at how Lane was able to talk about the history of evolution through ten simple evolution. However, I never noticed your point about how the chapters are a replica of life, but i completely agree. Once you pointed this out it completely made sense.
I also agree with your critiques. To answer you first question I would say that I think he will be able to accurately summarize the story of evolution just because he chose simple topics with which he can integrate other topics that could have relevance to the bigger picture. As to the second question, I do think the title does suggest that evolution is goal directed - this goal being become the best adapted to the ever changing world that we could be. And as we learnt, evolution doesn't have a set speed so some things could be coming about faster than others.
Hey Hayley! I found your questions about how this book to be very interesting. I can understand your concern when you say that this book may suggest that evolution is goal oriented. However, I think Lane is planning to use these inventions as an outlet to explore and explain how evolution is extremely flexible over various aspects of life...not necessarily to imply that evolution is goal oriented. On the other hand, if the reader is one that has not yet learned about evolution before is is plausible that they could get the idea that evolution is goal oriented.
Also, in response to your first question I do not think that only ten inventions can full describe the history of evolution at all. However, they are all strong representations that have had a dramatic impact on evolution. I think that if Lane purposely selected these ten topics then he must have felt they accurately describe very important aspects of the history of evolution rather then all aspects.
My Thoughts on Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution
ReplyDeleteThinking of evolution as its own entity with inventions immediately sparked my interest. I like Lane's approach in summarizing the long and complex story of evolution with 10 remarkable creations. The book is organized in this fashion with each chapter being one invention:
1. The Origin of Life
2. DNA
3. Photosynthesis
4. The Complex Cell
5. Sex
6. Movement
7. Sight
8. Hot Blood
9. Consciousness
10. Death
The ordering of the chapters alone is a replica of life; starting with the Origin and ending with death.
The introduction opens with a zoomed-out view of the the earth. He then goes on to remind us of how insignificant our Petty human squabbles" are in comparison to the knowledge that earth is home to all life, as well as the knowledge we have have yet to discover beyond our planet. The intro continues with highlighted techniques and advancements that have helped make amazing leaps in evolutionary biology. Lane beautifully intertwines the scientific and the artistic with figurative language supported by the facts. His enthusiasm alone has set an exciting tone that keeps the reader interested.
Numerous critiques from well-known journals such as Science, Nature and The Guardian have all gave nothing but positive reviews about the book. So far, I would agree.
However, I have a few questions:
1. Do you think the 10 chosen topics accurately summarize the story of evolution? Is Lane missing anything? Or should he have categorized inventions differently?
2.Does the title "Life Ascending" suggest that these inventions are goal directed? It seems as if Lane could be missing some important ideas we have recently talked about in class such as the neutral theory. I am interested to see if he only discusses these inventions under the forces of natural selection.
Hayley, excellent comment.
ReplyDeleteTo comment of Hayley's post:
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you chose the book for a very similar reason to mine. Im also astonished at how Lane was able to talk about the history of evolution through ten simple evolution. However, I never noticed your point about how the chapters are a replica of life, but i completely agree. Once you pointed this out it completely made sense.
I also agree with your critiques. To answer you first question I would say that I think he will be able to accurately summarize the story of evolution just because he chose simple topics with which he can integrate other topics that could have relevance to the bigger picture.
As to the second question, I do think the title does suggest that evolution is goal directed - this goal being become the best adapted to the ever changing world that we could be. And as we learnt, evolution doesn't have a set speed so some things could be coming about faster than others.
Great post, I enjoyed reading it!!
Hey Hayley! I found your questions about how this book to be very interesting. I can understand your concern when you say that this book may suggest that evolution is goal oriented. However, I think Lane is planning to use these inventions as an outlet to explore and explain how evolution is extremely flexible over various aspects of life...not necessarily to imply that evolution is goal oriented. On the other hand, if the reader is one that has not yet learned about evolution before is is plausible that they could get the idea that evolution is goal oriented.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in response to your first question I do not think that only ten inventions can full describe the history of evolution at all. However, they are all strong representations that have had a dramatic impact on evolution. I think that if Lane purposely selected these ten topics then he must have felt they accurately describe very important aspects of the history of evolution rather then all aspects.