Thermodynamic Properties Of Ethylene (National Standard Reference Data Service of the USSR : a Series of Property Tables)

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no selfish gene?

Important new perspective on evolutionary biology

A look at Symbiosis and "Darwin's Blind Spot"

Editorial correction

Evolution beyond natural selection

Darwin's Blind Spot: Evolution Beyond Natural Selection
Frank Ryan
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0618118128

Book Description

While Charles Darwin's vision of evolution was brilliant, natural selection ignores a crucial force that helps to explain the diversity and wonder of life: symbiosis. In Darwin's Blind Spot, Frank Ryan shows how the blending of life forms through symbiosis has resulted in gigantic leaps in evolution. The dependence of many flowering plants on insects and birds for pollination is an important instance of symbiosis. More surprising may be the fact that our cells have incorporated bacteria that allow us to breathe oxygen. And the equivalent of symbiosis within a species -- cooperation -- has been a vital, although largely ignored, force in human evolution. In Ryan's view, cooperation, not competition, lies at the heart of human society. Ryan mixes stories of the many strange and beautiful results of symbiosis with accounts of the dramatic historic rivalries over the expansion of Darwin's theory. He also examines controversial research being done today, including studies suggesting that symbiosis among viruses led to the evolution of mammals and thus of humans. Too often Darwin's interpreters have put excessive emphasis on competition and struggle as the only forces in evolution. But the idea of "survival of the fittest" does not always reign. Symbiosis is critically important to the richness of Earth's life forms.

Customer Reviews:

no selfish gene?.......2007-04-06

Anyone get the feeling this author hasn't actually read Dawkins' Selfish Gene? The end of this book begins talking about levels of selection and seems to ignore Dawkins' most articulated points from Selfish Gene theory. For example, Ryan states outright that "From a selfish gene perspective, it is difficult to explain why individuals act in unselfish ways." He goes on to cite supposed instances of 'group selection' and then a bizarre example about the problems of selfish behavior using "selfish cells"(selection at the level of the cell?) as an example. Had he been familiar with Dawkins' theory however, he would realize that genes natually 'seek' to propagate themselves, including their respective copies in relatives. Considering our ancestral evolution in close-knit groups of relatives whom we share our genes with, it is no wonder we modern day humans are imbued with altruistic tendencies for others (with family and friends, i.e. fellow gene carriers, getting obvious priority). We help those around us, those who in the past would have been carrying many of the same genes, and we are simply helping our own genes. Not to mention investing in indirect reciprocity (which Ryan disregards as a process in which one has to 'stop and think' before hand). Of course, running into a fire to save someone you don't know is not something anyone would do; it just goes to lend creedence to Indirect Reciprocity theory in the cultures that would reward such a hero.
Ryan further shows his ignorance of Selfish Gene theory by stating "George Williams and Richard Dawkins..argue that we could explain everything more simply on the basis of individual selection and there was no need to involve complicated entities such as groups." These reductionists don't reduce to the individual; they reduce all the way to individual genes. And groups are explicitly explained by Dawkins as showing altruistic selection, albeit because those individuals share genes, not because they are "looking out for the group" (or species). Citing a study in which someone ridiculously proposes songbirds censure choruses in their peers to avoid overpopulation or extinction doesn't help matters. He continues to give examples of "group selection" that aren't group selection but actually gene selection, such as social insects.
My last gripe with this book is its short tirade against evolutionary psychology, which, as with all the rest of the evo-psych critiques, misrepresents it as "social darwinism". He employs the naturalistic fallacy, citing all the people who are afraid that the ideas of evolutionary psychology will justify rape, murder, infanticide, etc. Of course, real scientists working from the evolutionary psychology perspective have to use half their books to refute this stance, and have to waste time explaining that they are out for data and progressive action, just like the rest of the scientists; unlike religious people (figured I'd take a swipe since I'm here).
Anyway a very insightful book before the last couple chapters, especially the chapters on viruses and their merging with human DNA. Oh, and be wary of a fanciful and almost spiritual theory like 'Gaia'; we don't have to make a religion out of this.

Important new perspective on evolutionary biology.......2005-07-08

Punctuated equilibrium, genetic symbiosis, DNA recombination via virus vectors. If you are unfamiliar with any of the above terminology, I would recommend adding this book to your reading list. The primary argument of this book is that the current theories of evolution by natural selection, a/sexual genetic recombination, and radiation induced mutations are not enough account for the present knowledge of our gentic make up and speed of change in historical fossil records.

The author argues that parasites, symbiants, and viruses likely add pieces of loose DNA/RNA to some host organisms' genetic structure. This results in rapid changes in species evolution, which traditional theories cannot fully account for. If proven correct, thousands of biologists will see their works invalidated and our current understanding of evolution will be turned on its head.

The tone of the book borders on passionate ranting, but one may have said the same of Galileo and Darwin. The substance of the author's arguments is well supported by citations of scientific literature. When you are battling for a unpopular theory, I suppose it may be necessary to scream louder than the rest. I recommend skipping chapters of groundwork for the advanced reader.

This book will not give comfort to Creationists and the like. However, it is a crucial alternative perspective to the orthodox theories in Biology 101. It will open your imagination to a brand new world of possibilities.

A look at Symbiosis and "Darwin's Blind Spot".......2003-12-20

After the emergence of the first examples of prokaryote life, it had been thought that bacteria competed among themselves. That is, if we could intervene into the life of a bacterium and ask the little fellow: What is it that you are doing? What is this imperative that you hold? We would expect the answer that the bacterium holds challenge and necessity. And based on all outward signs it looks as if the bacterium must compete for its survival because of some egocentric imperative. Otherwise, the bacterium can just go on strike and there would be no surviving bacteria to direct such questions to, and we would not be here to ask such questions because our own survival depends upon the success of bacteria.

The bacterium is not an isolated unit onto itself. There is also everything else that makes up the biosphere and beyond. Is this imperative that the bacterium holds based on challenge and necessity of the individual cell? Or is it the empathetic wish of the biosphere to nurture the communities of prokaryote life and more? Is it the many, or the one? If it is our attention to avoid homomorphism, it must be that we cannot answer these questions. Therefore, the imperatives that life holds comes with two sides that are formally indistinguishable. Incidently, judging imperatives relates to the same confusion that Huw Price (see Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point) described regarding the perceived passage on time - a very important observation. Does time unfold by the thermodynamic arrow as energies degrade into states of maximum entropy? Or is this just an issue of perspective as it is just as plausible for low energy states to unit into more ordered states?

Given that we hold these alternative views, it is not surprising that competing bacteria can fine tune their weapons to such an extent that they may win over their victims. They could be invited into their conquered host cells and become organelles like mitochondria and the cell nucleus. But the illusion of conquest is short lived. As the competing prokaryote cells find themselves to be one eukaryote cell, they discover a deeper symmetry and their felt imperatives flip as the competing bacterium find deep agreements in their mutual cooperation. Lynn Margulis will tell us this much, and Frank Ryan's book "Darwin's Blind Spot" presents a wonderful account of such symbiosis as discovered in biological evolution.

In writing on Albert Bernhard Frank's work on trees and fungi, Frank Ryan (on page 24 of "Darwin's Blind Spot") concludes:

"... The intimate cooperation between wholly different life forms - plants and fungi - is not only an amazing biological phenomenon but also a vitally important factor in the diversity of plant life on earth. It should have been of enormous interest to evolutionary theorists, but few scientists were paying attention. In those formative years at the end of the nineteenth century, as the fundamental principles of biology were being hammered into place in laboratories around the world, Darwinian evolution took center stage. And as Darwinism, with its emphasis on competitive struggle, thrived, symbiosis, its cooperative alter ego, languished in the shadows, derided or dismissed as a novelty."

How we perceive our self and our world will direct our imperatives. We may greet the broken symmetry with angry confusion and find ourselves competing (Publishers Weekly comes to mind). Or we may see the deeper symmetry and find ourselves cooperating. The imperatives are made of mind stuff as I note in my book, "Trinity". It is for this reason that I give Frank Ryan's book the highest recommendation.

Trinity: The Scientific Basis of Vitalism and Transcendentalism

Editorial correction.......2003-11-22

Dear Sir/Madam,

I'm the author of DARWIN'S BLIND SPOT, ISBN: 1587991152. There's been an editorial glitch that has caused one of the readers' reviews to be duplicated ((A NEW VIEW OF ONENESS, by sean lawless), meanwhile another (AN UPDATE ON NEW THOUGHT IN EVOLUTIONARY THEORY by Kathlessn R Eickwort) has been inadvertently removed. I wondered if this could be corrected.

Sincerely,

Frank Ryan

Evolution beyond natural selection.......2003-10-24

The tenacity of Darwinian fundamentalism is such that even well-documented phenomena that don't tune with the paradigm tend to be factored out of the public literature. This book braves the uphill battle here on the theme of symbiogenesis, and is a good companion to the recent Acquiring Genomes from Sagan & Margoulis. Judging from some of the reviews of this book, the Darwin estab remains in standard form and really dislikes someone pointing out that symbiosis is a factor in evolution. That means such authors need to be taught a lesson, and most 'authors' will learn fast to reach the Darwin market.
My problem with this approach is that it doesn't go far enough, and seems to be merely testing the waters with a relatively safe vein of counterevidence to standard Darwinism. But this much is still a good indirect critique of the obsessive focus on the competition factor in theories of natural selection. Bit by bit, it will sink in.

Beyond Natural Selection (Bradford Books)

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Yes -- but not Intelligent Design
Why has the Darwinist establishment ignored this book?
A must read for anyone interested in the origins of life
The falsifiability of natural selection
The best collection of arguments against Darwinism.

Beyond Natural Selection (Bradford Books)
Robert Wesson
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0262731029

Book Description

in this broad and highly readable inquiry, Robert Wesson proposes an approach to evolution that is more in harmony with modern science than Darwinism or neoDarwinism. He emphasizes the importance for evolution of inner direction and the self-organizing capacities of life, a view that is better able to account for the chaotic nature of the evolutionary process and the inherent propensity of complex dynamic systems to grow more complex with time. Many examples of plants and animals support this idea, and Wesson includes both carefully documented scientific facts and intriguing anecdotes about the odd aberrations in natural selection.

Books by Robert Wesson include Cosmos and Metacosmos.

Customer Reviews:

Yes -- but not Intelligent Design .......2007-04-23

This is a valuable look at self-organization in evolution. Citing many cases where a reductionistic explanation of genetic variation and natural selection is inadequate, Wesson argues that complex biological structures owe their emergence to a fusion of physical processes at the edge of "Chaos." You will find similar themes in the work of Ilya Prigogine, Brian Goodwin, Niles Eldredge, and others.
Advocates of so-called Intelligent Design often cite this book, while "ultra-Darwinians" dislike it. Actually, however, Wesson's presentation offers a third way, neither reductionist nor theistic. (I do not know what Wesson's personal views are, but it is his work here that is in question.)

Why has the Darwinist establishment ignored this book?.......2006-01-04

I highly recommend this book, which is a powerful critique of conventional Darwinist wisdom. Yet it is by no means an attack on evolution. To the contrary, it appears that Wesson is attempting to rescue evolutionism by challenging his fellow evolutionists to admit that Natural Selection is simply insufficent as a mechanism to explain the evolution of biological realities we see before our eyes.

Wesson present his case thoroughly in an extremely well researched and interesting book. What's frustrating is that the evolutionary establishment has failed to take him up on the challenge, as far as one can tell. My suspicion is that they don't want outsiders to know just how weak their case is until they can come up with a replacement mechanism.

A must read for anyone interested in the origins of life.......2001-05-07

Unlike most of the books which deal with theories of evolution, this one takes an objective non-partisan approach. The author sticks to the facts and depicts an incredible array of behaviors and facts regarding just about any life form found on earth. This can be sometimes a bit tedious, most of the time very interesting though. I do not think the style is appalling, it is scientific and precise. Chapter 12 (evolution and humanity) could justify the book by itself. I command the author for his amazing and thorough scientific approach, as well as his philosophical insights. In my search for truth and virtue about the humane, i stumbled upon too many one-sided books, and the more thorough i became the more confusing everything grew. I could have just bought this book. For it is also a book about faith, and what it means to be human. Mr Wesson, thank you.

The falsifiability of natural selection.......2000-03-15

This is one of the most helpful critiques of the dogma of natural selection, along with Soren Lovtrup's Darwinism: Refutation of a Myth, and Robert Reid's Evolutionary Theory: The Unfinished Synthesis. Filled with the hard evidence you won't find in textbooks and that explodes Darwin's claims,without rejecting the broad context of evolution, the book cogently attempts to reach a broader systems view that looks at the transformations of the genome as a whole. Although the intimations of chaos theory here are a bit simplistic, no substitute theory is required to demonstrate the fact that natural selection simply cannot account for the rising number of factual discrepancies. This type of exploration of new ground is both vital and timely. The author's wry suggestion that the six-leggedness of insects falsifies natural selection is but one of the many insights. His disposal of sexual selection is another. Any Darwin dogmatist should be afraid of this book. If you read it, you will snap out of it and end up a Darwin doubter. Bravo. John Landon nemonemini@eonix.8m.com

The best collection of arguments against Darwinism........1999-10-02

This is a spectacular collection of the best and most pertinent biological anomalies that one has to come to grips with in explaining neo-Darwinian natural selection. At the same time, it is abysmally written. The author knows nothing about sentence structure, paragraph structure, or connectives. If the book were well-written (perhaps in its second edition), it might become a world-class best seller. It's worth five stars only because of the superbly selected information it contains. == Anthony D'Amato Leighton Professor of Law Northwestern University

Beyond Natural Selection.: An article from: The Review of Metaphysics

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Beyond Natural Selection.: An article from: The Review of Metaphysics
John Wettersten
Manufacturer: Philosophy Education Society, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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This digital document is an article from The Review of Metaphysics, published by Philosophy Education Society, Inc. on March 1, 1994. The length of the article is 756 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Beyond Natural Selection.
Author: John Wettersten
Publication: The Review of Metaphysics (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 1994
Publisher: Philosophy Education Society, Inc.
Volume: v47 Issue: n3 Page: p645(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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BEYOND NATURAL SELECTION
R. Wesson
Manufacturer: Bradford Book
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQ9FPQ

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Beyond Natural Selection
Robert Wesson
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQYUS8

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Beyond Natural Selection.
Robert Wesson
Manufacturer: 0
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MU6L2Y

DARWIN'S BLIND SPOT: EVOLUTION BEYOND NATURAL SELECTION

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DARWIN'S BLIND SPOT: EVOLUTION BEYOND NATURAL SELECTION
Frank Ryan
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NXI6P0

Book Description

BEULA KETTLEHOLE is a hollow left behind by patriarchy’s retreating glacier, her plight that of all women who adhere blindly to male methodology, who accept that survival depends on deference to universal left-brain standards. Her identity is based on what men think of her. An unlikely protagonist, she can be construed only against the cast of male characters.

Blonde, on the flashy side and overdone, our heroine has taken to heart her father’s conviction of her ineptitude, and concluded that showing her colors will not lead to matrimony or any other form of male support or even approval.

Beula’s fantastic, if fragile, success in Bogota, Colombia, is quenched by the harsh realities of New York City, where occurs the crisis that transforms Beula, redefining her identity and her world..

Customer Reviews:

Gordon Cotler reviews Beula Kettlehole.......2001-06-14

Beula is most appealing and the authorial voice has elements of the early Evelyn Waugh. Beula is a richly realized complex heroine who commands our rooting interest. Several of the other characters leap off the page. (Jooning, for one, is one of the most detestable creatures in recent fiction.) The Colombia milieu is well delineated in a commendably low-key way and the New York finish suddenly (and properly) takes us up to a new tempo that calls for white-hot rage from the reader. Congratulations on a substantial work of fiction. (Gordon Cotler, novelist and short-story writer), is recipient of Edgar Allen Poe award for mystery writing.)

A Woman of a "Certain Age".......2001-05-01

A woman of a "certain age" searches for herself through her relationship with men, until she comes to a screaming halt and realizes that she should define herself herself. In a humourous and touching journey that takes us from Bogata Columbia to New York City, an attractive and most importantly single British woman working amongst ex-patriots in a country known for its patriarchial hierarchy searches for her true self. Before she finds herself, she becomes the person others want her to be. Glamourous, giddy, silly, and sexy are just a few of her many personas. Rich Columbians, a young and sexy Columbian, and married British Bank executives are just a few of the men salaciously lusting after Beula. When she finally thinks she has found true love, she follows him to New York City, with no visible means of support and learns the hard way that she has been duped and dumped! After a dramatic realization, she finds solice in apartment painting and a forthright female friend, and the reader knows that Beula will be a better person for all she has been through. An insightful and touchingly fun read.

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