Lamarck's revenge : how epigenetics is revolutionizing our understanding of evolution's past and present / Peter Ward.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ward, Peter D. (Peter Douglas), 1949- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Epigenetics--History--Popular works.

Epigenetics.

Epigenomics--history.

History.

Medical Subjects:

Epigenomics--history.

Local Subjects:

Epigenetics--History--Popular works.

Genre:

Popular works.

History.

Physical Description:

xiv, 273 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Bloomsbury Publishing, Inc., 2018.

Summary:

"In the 1700s, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck first described epigenetics to explain the inheritance of acquired characteristics; however, his theory was supplanted in the 1800s by Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection through heritable genetic mutations. But natural selection could not adequately explain how rapidly species re-diversified and repopulated after mass extinctions. Now advances in the study of DNA and RNA have resurrected epigenetics, which can create radical physical and physiological changes in subsequent generations by the simple addition of a single small molecule, thus passing along a propensity for molecules to attach in the same places in the next generation. Epigenetics is a complex process, but paleontologist and astrobiologist Peter Ward breaks it down for general readers, using the epigenetic paradigm to reexamine how the history of our species--from deep time to the outbreak of the Black Plague and into the present--has left its mark on our physiology, behavior, and intelligence. Most alarming are chapters about epigenetic changes we are undergoing now triggered by toxins, environmental pollutants, famine, poor nutrition, and overexposure to violence. Lamarck's Revenge is an eye-opening and provocative exploration of how traits are inherited, and how outside influences drive what we pass along to our progeny."--Page [2] of cover.

Contents:

Preface: The Jurassic Park of Nevada

Introduction: Looking back

From God to science

Lamarck to Darwin

From Darwin to the new (modern) synthesis

Epigenetics and the newer synthesis

The best of times, the worst of times - in deep time

Epigenetics and the origin and diversification of life

Epigenetics and the Cambrian explosion

Epigenetic processes before and after mass extinctions

The best and worst of times in human history

Epigenetics and violence

Can famine and food change our DNA?

The heritable legacy of pandemic diseases

The chemical present

Future biotic evolution in the CRISPR-Cas9 world

Epilogue: Looking forward.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-260) and index.

ISBN:

9781632866158

1632866153

OCLC:

1001860233