Explaining life through evolution

Review by Choice Review

Scientists frequently struggle to communicate the procedures, findings, conclusions, and nature of scientific inquiry. One of the most difficult subjects to convey to lay audiences is biological evolution. This book does not attempt to explain the meaning of life through evolution, although the title may lead some individuals to think so. It provides a description of the fact of evolution and the evidence supporting that assertion and also identifies misconceptions about evolution in scientific settings. It attempts to enable nonscientific audiences to understand the relevance of all scientific inquiry to societal issues, the means of acquiring and evaluating information from scientific sources, the limitations of science as a discipline, and the position of science as a subculture in today's political climate. Readers do not have to contend with reams of data, tables, and illustrations because the uncomplicated narrative carries the burden of presenting the author's arguments. Curiously, to engage lay readers, the author includes two nontraditional formats: a storyboard about Darwin and an imagined discussion with a creationist. He also offers a few citations for intrigued readers to further explore topics of interest. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers and lower-division undergraduates. --Stephen Robert Fegley, emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

This eclectic primer by Chakrabarty (A Guide to Academia), a biology professor at Louisiana State University, explores the science of evolution. The author expounds on three proposed explanations for genetic variation: natural selection (survival of the fittest), sexual selection (survival of the most attractive), and Japanese biologist Motoo Kimura's "neutral theory of molecular evolution," which posits that much genetic difference between species is effectively random and has little bearing on individuals' ability to survive and reproduce. However, the presentation of the science is somewhat scattered, with tidbits about Aristotle's hierarchy of living creatures, the nature of truth, and what humans share with their distant marine ancestors (the larynx evolved from gills) jumbled together. Nonetheless, the freewheeling spirit sometimes works to the book's benefit (one amusing chapter offers a comic of Charles Darwin's life) and the author's humorous tone keeps the proceedings light ("Nipples on males--what's up with that?"). The strongest sections propose how science can inform political debates, as when Chakrabarty notes that the existence of same-sex mating across the animal kingdom casts doubt on the assumptions of those who consider homosexuality "unnatural." Pop science fans willing to look past some disorganization will be rewarded. (Aug.)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A fine short overview of evolution. Chakrabarty, a professor of evolutionary biology and curator of fishes at LSU, urges readers to approach his argument in favor of evolution with an open mind and, if they disagree, to seek good evidence from a trustworthy source. Like many popular science writers, he seems unaware that that is not how most humans reason. Confronted with facts, people with a deeply held false belief rarely change their minds, so few evolution disbelievers are likely to take him up on it. After the traditional earnest introduction, Chakrabarty gives a well-informed account that should refresh the knowledge of curious readers and convince those with open minds. The beginning emphasizes that Darwin was not the first to propose that life evolved, and his explanation of its mechanism was full of gaps that were not filled in for another century. What his earthshaking book On the Origin of Species contained was overwhelming evidence that evolution was actually happening. Chakrabarty moves on to fill in the gaps with discussions of Mendel's basic genetics, the discovery of mutation and recombination after 1900, how species form, and the discovery and operation of DNA by midcentury. The author also investigates the so-called scientific evidence supporting racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination. These "misguided" ideas, he writes, have "led some people to argue that white men are at the top of the evolutionary ladder, a convenient argument to enslave people of 'lesser' races or to keep the womenfolk at home barefoot and pregnant." The author concludes with a fictional dialogue with a creationist. Despite repeated defeats in the courts and legendary humiliation in the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, American anti-evolutionists are thriving. Local school boards feel their pressure, so this book is a superb gift for a teenager fascinated by science but frustrated at the careful, abbreviated approach to evolution they are likely to encounter in high school biology class. Good music unlikely to be appreciated beyond the choir. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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Our Genealogy and Ancestry Why should you care about where you belong on the Tree of Life? Because not only does it tell you where you came from, but also who you are. As humans, we tend to focus on the differences between us, no matter how small those differences might be, but we are all more similar to one another than many of us are willing to believe. As more and more people take ancestry tests, sending their money and saliva to 23andMe and other genealogy testing centers, we need to be educated on what the results of those tests actually mean scientifically, and we all have to decide, together, what they mean socially. Many of us are coming to learn that science describes gender, race, sex, and sexuality as attributes on a spectrum, but for much of our modern lives we've forced these attributes into a few arbitrary, usually binary, categories--and nature loathes a binary. Why look at the rainbow that is humanity in just black and white? If instead you look at that rainbow carefully you would celebrate the fact that all of that colorful diversity comes from the same little drops of water, each with just a little different shine. We humans focus on our differences because we share so many similarities. To the cosmos, we are all still just "star stuff," to quote Carl Sagan; all of us life forms are made up of the same chemical elements--hydrogen formed during the Big Bang and elements like oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen forged in the hearts of stars.[i] It's what we do with our star stuff that makes us special. The more you learn about evolution and about "where you are from," the more you can see our similarities. An alien might be surprised how we focus on the small stuff instead of the star stuff. Twins can check off different boxes for race based on how they look and perhaps based on how other people see them. There are just a few genes that determine eye color and skin pigment--is that what determines your "race'? What does it mean when one sibling has dark skin and is treated as "Black" and the other fair skin and is treated as "white," as sometimes happens with mixed-race children?[ii] I love the poem "Genetics" in Jacqueline Woodson's book Brown Girl Dreaming ,[iii] which talks about how strangers didn't believe her "pale as dust" brother was actually related to her darker-skinned family until they all smiled, revealing the same gap between their two front teeth. Do DNA test results show your "race" or family history as easily as those shared gap-tooth smiles? Not always. You can have a Native American ancestor who doesn't show up at all in your DNA test results but does in your sister's results. You might be African American but have some significant proportion of Neanderthal DNA that is usually seen at that level only in people of European descent. There are hard truths in your DNA, but there are also mysteries--and even miracles. Your genome is Pandora's Box, Aladdin's Lamp, and Alice's Looking Glass; understanding what your genome, can and can't tell you is part of understanding your origins. Our Genealogy and Ancestry [i] K. Mack, The End of Everything: Astrophysics and the Ultimate Fate of the Cosmos (New York: Scribner, 2020); C. Prescod-Weinstein, The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred (London: Hachette UK, 2021). [ii] P. Edmonds, "These Twins Will Make You Rethink Race," National Geographic, April 2018 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/04/race-twins-black-white-biggs/. [iii] J. Woodson, Brown Girl Dreaming (New York: Penguin Random House, 2016). Excerpted from Explaining Life Through Evolution by Prosanta Chakrabarty All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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