%0 Book %1 kirschner05 %A Kirschner, Marc W. %A Gerhart, John C. %C New Haven, CN %D 2005 %I Yale University Press %K evolution %P 336 %T The Plausibility of Life: Resolving Darwin's Dilemma %U http://www.amazon.com/Plausibility-Life-Resolving-Darwins-Dilemma/dp/0300108656 %X Since its publication a century and a half ago, Darwin's revolutionary theory of evolution has explained very well how natural selection winnows out the mutations most helpful in fitting a species to survive. Now two neo-Darwinian biologists have boldly extended the original paradigm by showing how the deep molecular biology of the cell actually fosters biological novelties when plants and animals need them most, not merely when random chance generates them. Surveying the latest genetic research, Kirschner and Gerhart adduce evidence that nature has preserved and compartmentalized those core innovations that maximize the adaptive flexibility of species from yeasts to humans. The dynamics of protein chemistry and the plasticity of embryonic cells combine to make creatures capable of assuming many different forms in a wide range of environments. The deepest and most stable processes in biology, thus, are those that prime species for further evolution. It is this biological priming for evolutionary change that Darwin's great rival Larmark was groping toward when he stumbled into error. And it is a theoretical realignment that acknowledges this "facilitated variation" that Darwin's disciples now need in order to fend off skeptics who have latched onto the implausibility of the old scientific orthodoxy premised on entirely random and gradual change in species.

@book{kirschner05, abstract = {Since its publication a century and a half ago, Darwin's revolutionary theory of evolution has explained very well how natural selection winnows out the mutations most helpful in fitting a species to survive. Now two neo-Darwinian biologists have boldly extended the original paradigm by showing how the deep molecular biology of the cell actually fosters biological novelties when plants and animals need them most, not merely when random chance generates them. Surveying the latest genetic research, Kirschner and Gerhart adduce evidence that nature has preserved and compartmentalized those core innovations that maximize the adaptive flexibility of species from yeasts to humans. The dynamics of protein chemistry and the plasticity of embryonic cells combine to make creatures capable of assuming many different forms in a wide range of environments. The deepest and most stable processes in biology, thus, are those that prime species for further evolution. It is this biological priming for evolutionary change that Darwin's great rival Larmark was groping toward when he stumbled into error. And it is a theoretical realignment that acknowledges this "facilitated variation" that Darwin's disciples now need in order to fend off skeptics who have latched onto the implausibility of the old scientific orthodoxy premised on entirely random and gradual change in species.}, added-at = {2006-11-15T02:47:27.000+0100}, address = {New Haven, CN}, author = {Kirschner, Marc W. and Gerhart, John C.}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/25435b620d622dbae676a543a53a079e1/neilernst}, description = {Also a podcast at WGBH Forum series.}, interhash = {79019b8bc3a4e3e9283d6c4bce12eb46}, intrahash = {5435b620d622dbae676a543a53a079e1}, keywords = {evolution}, pages = 336, publisher = {Yale University Press }, timestamp = {2006-11-15T02:47:27.000+0100}, title = {The Plausibility of Life: Resolving Darwin's Dilemma }, url = {http://www.amazon.com/Plausibility-Life-Resolving-Darwins-Dilemma/dp/0300108656}, year = 2005 }