Life: The Leading Edge of Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Anthropology, and Environmental Science

by John Brockman

Scientists' understanding of life is progressing more rapidly than at any point in human history, from the extraordinary decoding of DNA to the controversial emergence of biotechnology. Featuring pioneering biologists, geneticists, physicists, and science writers, Life explains just how far we've come--and takes a brilliantly educated guess at where we're heading. Richard Dawkins and J. Craig Venter compare genes to digital information, and sketch the frontiers of genomic research. Edward O. Wilson reveals what ants can teach us about building a superorganism--and, in turn, about how cells build an organism. Elsewhere, David Haig reports new findings on how mothers and fathers individually influence the human genome, while Kary Mullis covers cutting-edge treatments for dangerous viruses. And there's much more in this fascinating volume. We may never have all the answers. But the thinkers collected in Life are asking questions that will keep us dreaming for generations.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Biology, Evolution, Nature, Anthropology, Audiobook

384 pages, Paperback

Published February 23, 2016

About the author

John Brockman is an American literary agent and author specializing in scientific literature. He established the Edge Foundation, an organization that brings together leading edge thinkers across a broad range of scientific and technical fields.

He is author and editor of several books, including: The Third Culture (1995); The Greatest Inventions of the Past 2000 Years (2000); The Next Fifty Years (2002) and The New Humanists (2003).

He has the distinction of being the only person to have been profiled on Page One of the "Science Times" (1997) and the "Arts & Leisure" (1966), both supplements of The New York Times.

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Reality Club

For fifteen years (1981 - 1996) a select group of intellectuals, most from New York City, met regularly and informally to discuss a wide variety of philosophical and scientific topics…

"…to arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves.” -James Lee Byars

In 1997 The Reality Club marshaled its assets and became The Edge Foundation, a brain pool of heavy hitters now publicly accessible at edge.org

Life is the fifth book in the “Best of Edge” series (the others being Mind, Culture, Thinking, and The Universe). This is a collection of essays, interviews, lectures, and transcribed discussions from individuals who are trailblazers in their respective fields.

Richard Dawkins (evolutionary biologist, Oxford), David Haig (evolutionary biologist and geneticist, Harvard), Robert Trivers (evolutionary biologist and sociobiologist, Rutgers), Ernst Mayr (evolutionary biologist and taxonomist, Humboldt University), Steve Jones (geneticist, University College London), E.O. Wilson (biologist, naturalist, ecologist, entomologist, and founder of sociobiology, Harvard), Freeman Dyson (theoretical physicist, Princeton), and Drew Endy (bioengineer, Stanford) are but a few of the names on the long list of prestigious contributors.

Topics, eighteen in all, include Evolvability, Genomic Imprinting, Bio-Computation, Aesthetic Evolution, and Neanderthal Genomics—plus some really weird sh*t that I’ll let you discover on your own.

As much as I enjoyed this, I find it a wee bit arduous to critique collections of this nature. There’s just a LOT of interesting pieces here that I want to comment on (the juxtaposition of Richard Dawkins’ genotype with Robert Trivers’ phenotype alone would fill a small notebook!).

The only peccadillo I have is that I’m not a huge fan of transcribed round table discussions (see Life: What a Concept! with Freeman Dyson, J. Craig Venter, George M. Church, Seth Lloyd, Robert Shapiro, et al). Unless I’m intimately familiar with the personalities on hand (see The Four Horsemen) I get a little disoriented.

Four stars.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of this was over my head unsurprisingly. These are the top people in their fields arguing the leading edges of their fields, after all. Still, I found a lot of interest & wound up getting the ebook so I could look at some points more closely. I found something of interest in almost every chapter. One thing I kept waiting for was a definition of life. When it finally came at the end of the book, it was from only one POV & I didn't find it very satisfying. Interesting, though.

Of particular interest was the debate over Dawkins' gene & the Darwinian species theories of evolution which seemed to be split evenly through the book. I think they're arguing about it incorrectly & not listening to each other. Within a species, Dawkins is certainly correct. His contention that the fox doesn't compete directly with the rabbit directly is misleading since both the fox & coyote are competing for the rabbit. The rabbit competes with both & vice versa. It's a matter of context.

Sapolsky's discussion toxoplasmosis was great. I've been fascinated with it for years & finding out the mechanics of how this parasite can hijack the brain so precisely was great. It made me wonder if anyone has ever studied the mechanism(s) in goldfish that keeps them from growing too large & numerous in an enclosed environment? I gave up on my fish pond where several small, but fully adult goldfish had gone from 2" long to a population of 8 that averaged about 7" long. Each time, they hit a ceiling for number & size in a year or two. It's fascinating.

Here's the Table of Contents:
1. Evolvability - Richard Dawkins
 2. Genomic Imprinting - David Haig
 3. A Full-Force Storm with Gale Winds Blowing - Robert Trivers
 4. What Evolution Is - Ernst Mayr (with an introduction by Jared Diamond)
 5. Genetics Plus Time - Steve Jones (in conversation with Edge)
 6. A United Biology - E. O. Wilson (with an introduction by Steven Pinker)
 7. Is Life Analog or Digital? - Freeman Dyson
 8. Life: What a Concept! - Freeman Dyson
J. Craig Venter, George Church, Dimitar Sasselov, Seth Lloyd, Robert Shapiro (in conversation with Edge)
 9. The Gene-Centric View: A Conversation - Richard Dawkins
J. Craig Venter (with an introduction by John Brockman)
10. The Nature of Normal Human Variety - Armand Marie Leroi
11. Brains Plus Brawn - Daniel Lieberman
12. Mapping the Neanderthal Genome - Svante Pääbo
13. On Biocomputation - J. Craig Venter, Ray Kurzweil, Rodney Brooks
14. Engineering Biology - Drew Endy
15. Eat Me Before I Eat You: A New Foe for Bad Bugs - Kary Mullis
16. Duck Sex and Aesthetic Evolution - Richard Prum
17. Toxo - Robert Sapolsky
18. The Adjacent Possible - Stuart Kauffman

[Guillermo Paz-y-Miño-C · Rating 3 out of 5]

It Takes A Village To Boycott A Pop Science Book

If scientists wish to boycott a book, religious scriptures could be their priority. The holy books are the foundation of the anti-evolution movement worldwide; the anti climate change rhetoric over the belief that a Protector will shield his disciples from human-induced global pollution; the source of pray healing and its conjoined meme that vaccines are heinous; the primeval justification to bigotry, homophobia and misogyny; the validation of both intolerance to any action that is perceived as offensive --above all, freedom of speech-- and the crusade to secure society's protection of the intolerant him/herself.

In such broad anti science and anti intellectualism contexts, John Brockman has edited yet another volume about science and technology for popular consumption, Life: The Leading Edge of Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Anthropology, and Environmental Science (2016). I have read this multi-author compilation with special attention, since, upon its release, biologists active in the social media became disappointed with Brockman (and, by default, with the co-writers) for not featuring women authors. And this was legitimate criticism. If Brockman and associates wanted to educate the public about current trends in the biological sciences, they must stop ignoring the diversities of peoples contributing to this global enterprise.

But, of course, I did not agree with the subsequent call to boycott Life, without even reading it, and the deploy of bee-workers and drones to sabotage the purchasing of the work. Boycotting books can be dangerous. It always reminds me of the "burnings of knowledge" by the Nazis, prior to and during World War II, and comparable atrocities led by the Latin American dictators in Argentina and Chile, in the 1970s-80s. I learned of the former by precisely reading about it in my father's book collection on international affairs (which included Churchill's The Second World War, and even Hitler's sickening My Struggle), and of the latter while in high school by following the news of La Guerra Sucia (The Dirty War, term coined a posteriori in the United States) that targeted the creativity of university professors, novelists, musicians and poets. Their books and records flamed, their voices and bodies vanished.

Researchers ought to be aware of the popular science-, pseudo-science-, and anti-science books that distress or seem insulting to the public. And, for modern biologists, the list includes the deceptive writings of the intelligent design (ID) movement and its Undeniable: How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life Is Designed (2016), Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis (2016), Debating Darwin’s Doubt: A Scientific Controversy That Can No Longer Be Denied (2015), Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design (2013), Science and Human Origins (2012), The Nature of Nature: Examining the Role of Naturalism in Science (2011), God and Evolution (2010), Intelligent Design Uncensored: An Easy-to-Understand Guide to the Controversy (2010), Signature in the Cell (2009), Intelligent Design 101 (2008), Dissent Over Descent: Intelligent Design Challenge to Darwinism (2008), Understanding Intelligent Design (2008), The Cell's Design (2008), The Design of Life (2008), Explore Evolution: The Arguments for and Against Neo-Darwinism (2007), The Edge of Evolution (2007), Intelligent Design: The Bridge between Science and Theology (1999), Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution (1996), and the villainous Of Pandas And People (1989), the foremost impostor exposed --and debunked-- at the Kitzmiller versus Dover Area School District trial of 2005.

Yes, I have these narratives of pseudo truths and quasi creeds, acquired over the years via used-books sellers --precisely to minimize supporting publishers of noxious fables (a micro sabotage of my own, one that does not discourage anyone to learn about ID). But I also possess the Holy Bible, the Qur'an, the Tanakh and The History of Western Philosophy of Religion (an academic series by Oxford UP, 2009), which I consider my duty to read as a secular scientist, and become aware of the idealistic beauty, historicity, obvious rooting in unreality, and evil, injurious teachings of religion.

Next to the ID bestsellers stand the pro-religion-in-science counterparts. Also sponsored by writers with doctoral degrees and in positions of power, committed to force-marriage evolution with the belief in supernatural causation, to see the fingerprints of God in DNA and molecular processes, to satisfy the populous' hope to find the Maker, Designer, or Creator in the gaps of knowledge. Francis Collins' The Language of God (2006), Belief: Readings on the Reason for Faith (2010), and The Language of Science and Faith (2011, coauthored with fellow evangelical Christian Karl Giberson) are iconic examples. Yet, none of these books deserves boycott despite their collective effect on disrupting, distorting, delaying or stopping the proper understanding and acceptance of evidence. But they do justify vigorous disapproval by scholars, who should uncover the capricious science emptiness of "evolutionary creation."

John Brockman's edition of Life, despite its disgraceful exclusion of gender and cultural varieties among co-writers, is scientifically above --and by far-- the ID's pamphlets or the "language-sequels" by theistic evolutionists. Life could be listed among the 100 required reads for graduate students in biology, and perhaps recommended to science majors in college, of course, with the warning that the contributors --busy reflecting about themselves-- discounted Homo diversity as a crucial input in "the leading edge of evolutionary biology, genetics, anthropology, and environmental science."

Life is "...the fifth volume in The Best of Edge series [edge.org], following Mind, Culture, Thinking, and The Universe..." As a collection of essays, interviews, transcripts of panel discussions, and biographical sketches of scientists and pop-science celebrities, the book is exciting, rich in brainy remarks and first-hand information. Eighteen pieces (from 2000 to 2015) summarize the major trends in science debates, applied DNA technologies, and bioengineering of the twentieth and twenty first centuries --the latter, superficially.

Richard Dawkins opens with Evolvability (2015), in part a recount of gene-centric evolution in the scenario in which The Selfish Gene (1976) was crafted, and the resulting discussions over replicators (genes), as units of selection, versus "vehicles" (the carriers of genes, our bodies). His classical analysis expands to "universal Darwinism" and the high probability that Darwinian selection of replicator-like molecules shall be a ubiquitous cosmic phenomenon if life exists beyond Earth.

The Dawkinsian argument, in elegant text, is followed by David Haig's Genomic Imprinting (2002), Robert Trivers' A Full-Force Storm with Gale Winds Blowing (2004), Ernst Mayr's What Evolution Is (2001), Steve Jones' Genetics Plus Time (2000), Edward O. Wilson's A United Biology (2003), and Freeman Dyson's Is Life Analog or Digital? (2001). Thus, Life relies on attractive topics, as well as familiar names in the pop-science arena, to lure readers.

Pages and reading hours elapse quickly and Brockman succeeds at grabbing one's attention. Soon, I find myself immersed in the book, joyful at times for learning material that I have missed over the years; disturbed occasionally when sensing plain egomania in the XY-only writers, who turn their texts into self-grooming bouts and testosterone excretion (an exception, not the only one, is Trivers' auto-deprecating recollections, which are humorous and brilliant); furious by the redundant broadcasting of long-ago-dismissed science concepts; but overall satisfied to have liked a book which I approached with so much skepticism.

Chapter 8 (Life: What a Concept!) is the longest, with one hundred pages, and most captivating. It transcribes a panel discussion (2007) among Dyson, J. Craig Venter, George Church, Dimitar Sasselov, Seth Lloyd, Robert Shapiro, Ting Wu (not included in the list of authors), and moderator Brockman.

As introduction to the dialogue, Dyson, a theoretical physicist, discusses the garbage-bag-model of life. The origin of life, he explains, probably started with metabolism only. "...We know modern life has both metabolism and replication, but they're carried out by separate groups of molecules. Metabolism... by proteins and all kinds of small molecules, and replication... by DNA and RNA. That may be a clue to the fact that [these processes] started out separate, rather than together... The early cells were just little bags of some kind of cell membrane, which might have been oily or... a metal oxide. And, inside, you had a more-or-less random collection of organic molecules, with the characteristic that small molecules could diffuse in through the membrane, but big molecules could not diffuse out. By converting small molecules into big molecules, you could concentrate the organic contents on the inside, thus the cells would become more concentrated and the chemistry would gradually become more efficient. So, these things could evolve without any kind of replication. It's a simple statistical inheritance. When a cell became so big that it got cut in half, or shaken in half by some rainstorm or environmental disturbance, it would then produce two cells, which would be its daughters and would inherit, more or less, but only statistically, the chemical machinery inside. Evolution could work under those conditions."

If these statements provoke in you, as bookworm, any of the emotions described earlier (i.e. joy, disturbed, furious, satisfied), your reactions are comparable to those of the panel. Dyson's garbage-bag hypothesis may be garbageous (i.e. the divide metabolism versus replication is artificial, and relying on heavy statistical randomness diminishes how natural selection operates, or did in the past, in primordial soups), but despite its teleological nature it is intellectually intriguing. Irrespective of the transcript's dryness, it happens that the sharp cuts, irony, disagreements and rescuing of the discussion by the panelists themselves grow evident while reading the fascinating exchange. And Brockman moderates it with minimal input, except for the sporadic injection of extra fuel to ignite healthy controversy.

The second half of the book proceeds with a one-on-one chat between Dawkins and Venter, refereed by Brockman, in The Gene-Centric View: A Conversation (2008), followed by Armand Marie Leroi's The Nature of Normal Human Variety (2005), Daniel Lieberman's Brains Plus Brawn (2012), Svante Pääbo's Mapping the Neanderthal Genome (2009), and a transcript of On Biocomputation (2005), a TED event (Technology, Entertainment, Design) featuring Venter, Ray Kurzweil and Rodney Brooks.

Life closes with pieces by Drew Endy, on Engineering Biology (2008), Kary Mullis' Eat Me Before I Eat You: A New Foe for Bad Bugs (2010), Richard Prum's Duck Sex and Aesthetic Evolution (2014), Robert Sapolsky's Toxo (2009), and Stuart Kauffman's The Adjacent Possible (2003). All mix personal experiences with the authors' making and living the developments of their own fields.

Titles like Life sell fine. The scientist reader can locate in the book historical relevance and depth if he/she looks for and wants to see them. The lay reader might simply take pleasure in the journalistic ride and claim proficiency in pop-science culture at the end of the journey. The spot-the-error copy editor will never forget, nor forgive, that the cover of Life lists "Matt Ridley" as contributor, a science personality nowhere else to be found (at least in the copy I have), a regrettable carelessness in book production. Plus, there is no leading edge in the compilation of articles, the average publication date (2006) is ten years too old.

It may take a village to boycott a pop science book, but Life is not the right target, or perhaps is just an easy one. It demands much more courage, and by the entire scientific community, to individually and collectively go after the unquestionable adversaries of reason. Those who see facts and fiction indistinguishable, the ideologues and financiers of both the religion-in-science and the anti science movements.

[Elentarri · Rating 2 out of 5]

John Brockman has collected 18 interviews, commissioned essays, and transcribed talks from the online science salon Edge.org that deal with biology, genetics, anthropology and environmental science. The majority of the articles were well written, self-contained, covered interesting topics and will provide food for thought and extra research. Some of the articles were a bit vague, but the rest were interesting enough to make up for this defect.

The book includes articles/interviews/discussions by:
01~ Richard Dawkins - discusses evolution and the selfish gene hypothesis (2015);
02~ David Haig - discusses genomic imprinting and selective gene expression (2002);
03~ Robert Trivers - discusses deceit, self-deception and genomics (2004);
04~ Ernst Mayr - discusses what evolution is (2001);
05~ Steve Jones - general discussion/ interview on genetics over time (2000);
06~ Edward O. Wilson - discusses ants, cells and the building of super-organisms (2003);
07~ Freeman Dyson - discusses the analog or digital format of biological processes (2001);
08~ Freeman Dyson, J. Craig Venter, George Church, Dimitar Sasselov, Seth Lloyd, Robert Shapiro, and John Brockmann - discuss the concept of life in an Edge Special event (2007);
09~ Richard Dawkins and Craig Venter - sketch the frontiers of genomic research, discuss genes and digital information (2008);
10~ Armand Marie Leroi - discusses mutants, defects, gene expression, and genetic differences (2005);
11~ Daniel Lieberman - discusses running and human evolution (2012);
12~ Svante Paabo - discusses mapping the neanderthal genome (2009);
13~ J. Craig Venter, Ray Kurzweil and Rodney Brooks - conversation on biocomputation, cancer, drug functioning, and new biotechnology (2005);
14~ Drew Endy - discusses engineering living organisms and the ethics of this (2008);
15~ Kary Mullis - discusses new immune treatments for various viruses (2010);
16~ Richard Plum - describes bird mating rituals and discusses the evolution of aesthetic beauty (2014);
17~ Robert Sapolsky - discusses behaviour manipulating parasites such as Toxoplasma (2009); and
18~ Stuart Kauffman - discusses autonomous agents and thermodynamics (2003).

I found this book to be an enjoyable and interesting reading experience, and not too complicated for my 90 year old grandmother who will be borrowing this book.


Note: Minus one star for misleading subtitle. The majority of these articles are not recent and thus no longer the "leading edge". It would have been useful for the editor (or authors) to insert a few paragraphs at the end of each older article to explain how things have changed (or not) since the articles were written. This is especially relevant for the chapter on the Neanderthal genome mapping

[Marc Faoite · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Brockmann is a colourful character, known to share photos of himself rubbing shoulders with the likes of Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, or John Cage. That popular culture should include intelligent conversations about science is a given for him.

Edge.org, sometimes dubbed ‘the world's smartest website,’ was born out of an idea from Brockmann’s late friend, performance artist James Lee Byars, who suggested that rather than trying to assimilate the information contained in the six million books housed in the Harvard library it might be more productive and instructive to assemble the hundred most brilliant minds and have them ask each other questions in order to achieve what Brockmann has referred to as “a synthesis of all thought.”

Life is the fifth volume in The Best of Edge series, and as with previous books most of the featured content has already appeared on the Edge.org website. There are eighteen essays in the book. It is perhaps worth noting that not a single one of them is written by a woman, underlining the demographic generally represented (and unrepresented) on Edge.org. Some leeway may be given to the fact that science is still a male dominated field, and obviously a scientist’s gender is separate from the science, but whether Edge.org’s male-centric editorial policy is just a symptom, or part of the problem is something that bears examination.

The book starts off with an essay by Richard Dawkins, a man more coherent when expounding on his specialized subject of genetics than in his frequent rants and diatribes about his personal bug bear - religion. He revisits the basic theme of his 1990’s bestseller The Selfish Gene (again) - i.e. that genes try to maximize themselves by any means available, stopping short, or more accurately being stopped short, of undermining the viability of the organism it inhabits.

Genes seek maximum replication, whereas the organism seeks survival for at least long enough to release copies of the genes into the world. There is a large overlap in the agendas of the gene and the organism, but occasionally they conflict. This idea is taken up by Harvard professor of organismic (yes, that’s a word – I know, because I had to look it up)and evolutionary biology David Haig. He discusses the conflict between the genes of both parents as they seek expression in an embryo, but also the battle fought between the embryo and the mother. It’s a tricky game of give and take where the mother’s interests are not necessarily those of the foetus. For example the foetus secretes massive amounts of hormones that raise the mother’s blood pressure, thereby increasing the flow of nutrients to the foetus, but also placing additional stress on the mother’s body. Rober Trivers runs with this theme and explores how the mother’s genes have in turn evolved to minimize the impact of these occasionally inappropriate hormonal messages. Compromises are made by both foetus and mother so that neither’s viability is compromised.

The speed at which knowledge is expanding, and the access to that knowledge, is dizzying in pace. In the fields of genetics, neuroscience, and neurobiology new discoveries are being made almost every day. Just a few weeks ago it was announced that the brain has its own nervous system. This rewrites the books on what to date has been the received understanding, and is just one example of the many, many new additions to how we understand life in all its fantastic forms and myriad manifestations. With this is mind it is surprising that some of the content in this book is close to twenty years old. Of course time doesn’t necessarily invalidate science. The work of ancients such as Pythagoras, or Copernicus, or Newton’s observations on gravity still hold valid after centuries. But since much of this book’s focus is on genetics, at times the content could have benefitted by being more up to date.

The book also occasionally suffers from an overly casual tone, this due to the content being mainly transcriptions of talks. As a result some of the arguments, theories, and discussions are a little less coherently structured than a reader might expect in book dealing with science, no matter how vulgarized. A little light editing might also have eliminated unnecessary repetition and fluffiness.
But despite these few shortcomings there is an advantage to reading the essays featured in Life, as opposed to gleaning information from random articles on the internet. On the net knowledge is dispersed, whereas this book has a structured sense of narrative, showing how research from different disciplines, and their disciples, can bolster and inform each other. Ultimately the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, perhaps an apt and fitting off-the-cuff metaphor for the subject matter - life.

[Peter Gelfan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like many of the books Brockman edits, this one is a collection of interviews, essays, and discussions from Edge.org, which, in its own words, assembles the thinkers—scientists, artists, philosophers, technologists, and entrepreneurs—at the center of today’s intellectual, scientific, and technological landscape. The ideas discussed in these books are emerging concepts at the forefront of their fields. They may not pan out, and if they do, like anything that evolves, perhaps in not in the same form. Why waste time reading half-baked theories and research? Because they stretch your brain. Hey, why didn’t I think of that? Good question, why didn’t you?

Life is an accurate title. Discussions in this book relate to life—how to define it, how evolution really works, what is “normal,” brain vs. brawn, non-organic life, how parasites affect decision making (even in humans), a new approach to antibiotics, the arms race in duck sex, and the wonderfully evocative idea of the adjacent possible. As far as I know, you can’t get this stuff anywhere else unless you comb through research papers and academic journals.

The book is very readable for anyone who paid a little attention in high school science courses. It’s written (sometimes transcribed from discussions) in lively, conversational language. Its stand-alone pieces make it easy to dip in and out. It’s exciting and may change the way you look at the world.

[Eve]

Not only are all 23 writers males, they're all white males. It's hard for me to believe there hasn't been a single person of color or woman who wrote a meaningful article about evolutionary biology.

Probably the editor wasn't even aware that he had a bias, but just picked those authors that came most readily to mind as prominent writers in the field. But I think that prominence is probably because these white male authors inadvertently benefited from cultural bias in the first place. A better editor would have noticed this and balanced the book.

What's worse is that since this book is comprised of articles from edge.org, this is a pretty damning indictment of the inclusiveness of edge.org as an online science salon.

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was overall very interesting and I'm glad that I finally took the time to read it. However, I find it hard to believe that John Brockman was unable to find any women doing worthwhile research in any of the fields that were covered in this book...

[Atila Iamarino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uma coletânea de textos sobre biologia, evolução e informação, do site Edge. O livro é de 2016, mas muitos dos textos são mais antigos e estão bem datados por isso. Várias discussões ficam ao redor de tecnologias de ponta e descobertas novas, que já mudaram ou estão um pouco ultrapassadas.

Gostei de alguns textos com o Craig Venter, dando uma perspectiva de como acontece a pesquisa dentro de um instituto privado. E da discussão da evolução da beleza, do Richard Prum, mas o livro dele The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World - And Us já está na minha lista de para ler.

[Carlos Leos · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is more a compilation of talks, speeches, debates, and other pieces of scholarly discussion around the topics in the title: biology, genetics, environmental science, etc. While each topic may be individually fascinating, and while there were definitely intriguing concepts I was exposed to, the way in which I consumed this book (via audiobook) didn't really work well with the format of the book itself. It seemed too disjointed, and as some of the chapters were literally transcribed discussions or debates, it was a bit hard to follow in the sense that there wasn't really a unifying thesis throughout the book other than talking about biology concepts. As such, after getting about halfway through, I lost interest and decided that there were probably better, more readable books that addressed these concepts. Like the one I'm reading currently, "The Tangled Tree" by David Quamman, which also deals with genetics, evolution and biology, but presents the topic in a more structured, guided way, rather than a hodgepodge of a bunch of scientists and academics throwing out ideas. Would only recommend this book if that is what you are looking for: lots of different academics and scientists literally just discussing these ideas and topics without a guiding structure or narrative.

[Zi Ying · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall it's a great book that compiles what and how biologists knew about living organisms on this planet, I feel excited thinking that more people could gain pleasure in contemplating life by exploring scientific data and definitive arguments. However, I feel a bit disappointed as most of the chapters are written at least 5 years back. Technology in molecular, genome, synthetic biology field has advanced way too fast that this book may not be that updated in the year of publication. Still, it's a great read to discuss, debate and challenge the future of biology, from the human perspective.

[György · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an EDGE book and Mr. Brockman brought some old and some new as well. Repeating old and already obvious matter is not that bad. There are always some new aspects we can discover.
But let alone those old things! What I appreciate in "Life" is the story about TOXO! My first ecounter with this very dangerous parazite was in "Evoulutionary psychology-political background...". Believe me, you want to know about it!
We can slam the author for any of reasons I saw in reviews, but EDGE books always carry that serendipitous value I like in them. Enjoy it!

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

A large collection of thoughts and essays from scientists and engineers on the nature of life, it's origins, evolution and genetic basis. Much of the material is from Richard Dawkins and Craig Venter which is the best of the collection. Some of the other is not very good, however, and I had to skim it.
Recommended for those very interested in the science of life and how we got here.

[Sony · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was published in 2015, I expect that with the exponential rate science and technology has been going we can expect some other breakthroughs to have happened by now.
found this book to be enjoyable and very interesting. They have been written well and are accessible for the general public. Even though I got lost in a few sections but not have too much to make it not understandable.
The only detail I found I have issues with was that every contributor was male, its kind of interesting how a site that is trying to be innovative and promote knowledge does not branch out to reach out to women in science. Sad that it still needs to be mentioned that women in science should not be ignored. Hope that the editors realize their bias and stop contributing to the stereotypical belief that only men have worthwhile research and discoveries to report.

The full review can be found https://bunkerofbooks05.wixsite.com/b...

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book of essays on an array of topics in evolutionary biology. Hard to rate this book... some were 2-star, some were 5-star, it varied a lot (as many books of essays d0).

The best ones were mildly mind-blowing descriptions of where we are in biotech in various fields, in which the progress advances in leaps and bounds. The less scientific of us are not paying attention in general our daily lives, and so there were some pretty fascinating revelations in some of these essays. Topics about advanced DNA sequencing, genetic theories, and human evolutionary history (i.e. how related are we to Neanderthals) were particularly interesting to me.

It's nice to get some in-depth writing from real scientists, and it's quite a contrast to headlines/high-level info you get in newspapers aimed at a general audience. We are missing so much. A lot went over my head, but it was a great exposure to what's going on in recent advances in biology for someone who hasn't taken it since high school.

[Serena · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to indulge in a collection exploring “The Leading Edge of Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Anthropology, and Environmental Science.” While this compilation did overview the future prospects each has to offer, I was disappointed. Many chapters were transcripts, which detracted from the intimacy and context. I did learn a fair number of interesting tidbits, and especially enjoyed “Brains Plus Brawn”, “Mapping the Neanderthal Genome”, “Engineering Biology” and “Toxo”.

Overall, many offerings were redundant and though the eponymous midsection failed to capture the essence of this anthology, “On Biocomputation” surely delivers:
“If you take out the redundancy, estimates of compression are that you can achieve at least 90% compression, and then you still get something that’s inefficiently coded and has a low algorithmic content.”

[Sushil · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I most liked about this book is its format. Instead of writing eighteen books on eighteen different facets of the science of life (and requiring the readers to find time to plod through them all), put together one single book with a chapter devoted to each facet written by an expert in that area. But the execution of the format is less than perfect, with too much space given to scientists to talk about their favorite though unproven and undigested theories. In any case, some of the chapters are individually worth buying the book for - a chapter on role of aesthetics in evolution being my favorite.

[Anton Hammarstedt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Importance (how important is the subject matter? How important is the thesis? How grave are the consequences if the thesis is wrong?): 2
Interestingness (How interesting is the subject matter? Does the book make an uninteresting subject interesting? Does the book provide a fresh perspective?): 3
Credibility (How well does the book defend its thesis? How well-researched are evidence and anecdotes?): 4
Clarity (How good is the disposition? Is information presented in a way that makes it easy to absorb and facilitates remembering it?): 3
Prose: 4
Page turner factor: 4
Mind blown factor: 3

Final (weighted) score: 3.5

[Steven · Rating 1 out of 5]

>"Race isn't real", "genetics shows we're all identical, and pigmentation differs because genes, but we're all the same but we're not but we are", additionally: "what is it about pigmentation that brains?"

Lots of goofy politically correct nonsense. A number of terrible people are endorsed as well. Lewontin, Gould, Jared Diamond etc. Usual suspects. Fortunately, they kinda make up for it by trashing "evolutionary" psychology.

Never mind. I actually finished it, now. A contributor near the end lied about eugenics endlessly. Pure leftist nonsense.

[Bekah Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. Reading about the different viewpoints in genetics and evolution by leading scientists from multiple backgrounds was extremely fascinating. Even if some of it is outdated now, I still learned a lot and got a better understanding of evolution and where genetics is heading. I would recommend this book for anyone that knows the basics of genetics and evolution, as these are experts speaking about their field so there is a bit of technical terminology.

[K · Rating 1 out of 5]

The mental gymnastics that would have been required to exclude all BIPOC and all women from a list of approx. 20 eminent thinkers in (primarily) evolutionary biology are extraordinary indeed. Two stars of derision for Brockman, for his propping up of the demelanated patriarchy, and one star of derision for each of the participants who agreed to participate despite the exclusionary nature of the enterprise.

[Marisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really boring. I gave up in the 4th chapter. I was hoping to have a better insight in evolution but the first 4 chapters were a brief skim on the idea of evolution. The content were mainly transcripts edited from talks, I believe. Most of the content does not seem appealing in written form, unfortunately.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first few essays helped clarify areas of confusion in the area of evolution, but the latter essays often seemed like an intellectual pissing show rather than actual elucidation of this critical topic.

[Ant · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the lectures and discussions included in this volume (some more than others).
The variety of views (often differing) expressed made the book feel like it gave a very balanced of the state of biology a few years ago.

[Mark Fallon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Edge series makes me wish that I paid better attention in physics and biology (and that I took at least one chemistry course)

[Camille · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting articles/essays. It makes you think. A worthy read.

[Gianfranco Ruffini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Autori importanti, biologia, evoluzione, priorità.

[Dan Carey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of interesting science in the articles. But that also means some of them are a bit opaque. (And from my own personal biases, there wasn't enough botany.)

[YHC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Among all the Brickman's book of collecting the brains into his books with specific topics, this one is by far the best, and more information for me.

[Rasika Mahabal · Rating 5 out of 5]

(5/5)Another ultra amazing book by John Brockman. Each chapter is an article by different scientists on genetics, biology and evolutionary biology. Some chapters just blew my mind.