Memorial Hall Library

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

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-260) and index

portraitsillustrations

index present

non fiction

Lamarck's revenge

bibliography

1001860233

Peter Ward

how epigenetics is revolutionizing our understanding of evolution's past and present

"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

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