Lamarck's Signature
How Retrogenes are Changing Darwin's Natural Selection Paradigm
Perseus Books (Publisher)
Published on 29. October 1998
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-0-7382-0014-9 (ISBN)
Description
What if Lamarck, whose theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics was blown apart by Charles Darwin over a century ago, was partly right after all? In this daring book, Steele and company reveal their ground-breaking research that has uncovered strong molecular genetic evidence that aspects of acquired immunities developed by parents in their own lifetime can be passed on to their offspring. The book gives new life and scientific credibility to the Lamarckian heresythe notion of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. }This controversial book challenges the accepted theories on the genetic mechanism of evolution. The story these three biologists have to tell may very well upset the whole field of biology.The traditional view of evolutionwhich grew out of the work of Gregor Mendel and Charles Darwin and is strongly supported by present-day scientists like Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gouldassumes we are at the mercy of our genes, which we inherit largely unchanged from our parents, except for rare random mutations which accumulated and lead to change over evolutionary time.
Those genes are coded in the chromosomes of the sperm and egg cells of the parents, and so only changes to those two types of cell have any chance of being passed down to the parents' offspring. Any changes, accidents, or surgery to the rest of the parents bodies are not transmitted to the newborn.The theory of inheritance of acquired characteristicsif you build up your muscles your kids will be born with a propensity toward great strengthon the other hand, favored by Jean Lamarck in the nineteenth-century, was brought down by nineteenth-century science. But now, as this challenging and thrilling book shows, it looks as though, at least for certain structures in the bodys immune system, Lamarck may have been right after all.Based on their own ground-breaking work over the past two decades, as well as that of other molecular biologists, Steele, Lindley, and Blanden argue that for one adaptive body system there is strong molecular genetic evidence that aspects of acquired immunities developed by parents in their own lifetime can be passed on to their offspring.
Certain to stimulate lively debate, Lamarcks Signature gives new life and scientific credibility to the Lamarckian heresythe notion of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. }
Those genes are coded in the chromosomes of the sperm and egg cells of the parents, and so only changes to those two types of cell have any chance of being passed down to the parents' offspring. Any changes, accidents, or surgery to the rest of the parents bodies are not transmitted to the newborn.The theory of inheritance of acquired characteristicsif you build up your muscles your kids will be born with a propensity toward great strengthon the other hand, favored by Jean Lamarck in the nineteenth-century, was brought down by nineteenth-century science. But now, as this challenging and thrilling book shows, it looks as though, at least for certain structures in the bodys immune system, Lamarck may have been right after all.Based on their own ground-breaking work over the past two decades, as well as that of other molecular biologists, Steele, Lindley, and Blanden argue that for one adaptive body system there is strong molecular genetic evidence that aspects of acquired immunities developed by parents in their own lifetime can be passed on to their offspring.
Certain to stimulate lively debate, Lamarcks Signature gives new life and scientific credibility to the Lamarckian heresythe notion of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. }
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Boulder
United States
Publishing group
INGRAM PUBLISHER SERVICES US
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 137 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-7382-0014-9 (9780738200149)
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Schweitzer Classification
Content
The Twin legacies of Lamarck and Darwin; In the beginning there was RNA; Why the immune system is so interesting; The idea of clonal selection; Somatic mutation; Soma-to-germline feedback; Beyond the immune system?; Epilogue.