How might premodern exegesis of Genesis inform Christian debates about creation today? Imagine a table with three people in dialogue: a young-earth creationist, an old-earth creationist, and an evolutionary creationist. Into the room walks Augustine of Hippo, one of the most significant theologians in the history of the church. In what ways will his reading of Scripture and his doctrine of creation inform, deepen, and shape the conversation? Pastor and theologian Gavin Ortlund explores just such a scenario by retrieving Augustine's reading of Genesis 1-3 and considering how his premodern understanding of creation can help Christians today. Ortlund contends that while Augustine's hermeneutical approach and theological questions might differ from those of today, this church father's humility before Scripture and his theological conclusions can shed light on matters such as evolution, animal death, and the historical Adam and Eve. Have a seat. Join the conversation.

Why do humans differ from other primates? What do those differences tell us about human evolution? Elaine Morgan gives a revolutionary hypothesis that explains our anatomic anomalies: why we walk on two legs, why we are covered in fat, why we can control our rate of breathing? The answers point to one conclusion: millions of years ago our ancestors were trapped in a semi-aquatic environment. In presenting her case Elaine Morgan forces scientists to question accepted theories of human evolution.

Why life?' Questions of this type were for a long time the prerogative of philosophers who left the how' question to scientists. Nowadays, Darwin's successors no longer have any qualms about addressing the why' as well as the how'. Over a century ago, Darwin modestly admitted having 'thrown some light on the origin of species - this mystery of mysteries'. Two major advances in the following decades helped biologists answer many of the questions he left unsolved. The first was the discovery of the laws of heredity, the second that of DNA. Both provided Darwinian theory with the foundations that were lacking and led to the all-embracing neo-Darwinian synthesis. Since then, Theodosius Dobzhansky's aphorism nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution' has proven true more than once. This does not suit everyone, as evolutionist ideas have not lost their power to cause a scandal.

Darwin toppled man from his pedestal. Evolutionary genetics - the subject of this book - sends the individual crashing. Considered until recently to be the target of selection and the focus of evolution, the individual has been usurped by the gene. The individual is nothing but the gene's avatar.

In Close Encounters with Humankind, paleoanthropologist Sang-Hee Lee explores some of our biggest evolutionary questions from unexpected new angles. Amongst other questions, she looks at what fossilised teeth tell us about our ancient life expectancy, what big data on fossils reveals about farming's problematic role in human evolution and how simple geometric comparisons of skull and pelvic fossils can suggest the origin of our social nature. Through a series of entertaining, bite-sized chapters, we gain new perspectives into our first hominin ancestors, our first steps on two feet, our first forays into toolmaking and hunting, and our continuing evolution. Lee's curious nature and surprising conclusions make Close Encounters with Humankind a delight to read.

You can hardly open a paper or read an academic journal without some attempt to explain an aspect of human behaviour or experience by reference to neuroscience, biological or evolutionary processes. This 'biologising' has had rather a free ride until now, being generally accepted by the public at large. However, there is a growing number of scholars who are challenging the assumption that we are little more than our bodies and animal origins. This volume brings together a review of these emerging critiques expressed by an international range of senior academics from across the social sciences. Their arguments are firmly based in the empirical, scientific tradition. They show the lack of logic or evidence for many 'biologising' claims, as well as the damaging effects these biological assumptions can have on issues such as dealing with dyslexia or treating alcoholism. This important book, originally published as a special issue of Contemporary Social Science, contributes to a crucial debate on what it means to be human. "This collection of articles by David Canter and his colleagues, rigorously argued and richly informative [...] are of immense importance. It is astonishing that, as Canter puts it in his brilliant overview of biologising trends [...] there are those in the humanities who need to be reminded "that human beings can talk and interact with each other, generating cultures and societies that have an existence that cannot be reduced to their mere mechanical parts". Professor Raymond Tallis FRCP FMedSci DLitt LittD in the Preface.

James T. Costa takes readers on a journey from Charles Darwin's youth and travels on the HMS Beagle to Down House, his bustling home of forty years. To test his insights into evolution, Darwin devised experiments using his garden and greenhouse, the surrounding land and his home-turned-field-station. His experiments yielded universal truths about nature and evidence for his revolutionary arguments in On the Origin of Species and other watershed works. We accompany Darwin in his myriad pursuits against the backdrop of his enduring marriage, chronic illness, grief at the loss of three children and joy in scientific revelation. At each chapter's end, Costa shows how we can investigate the wonders of nature, with directions on how to re-create Darwin's experiments.

This book comprising 13 chapters, is the second of the four books planned for a series on Progress in Mycological Research. The chapters provide an overview of the progress and shifts that have taken place towards the understanding of the Systematics and Evolution of Fungi with the availability of modern tools and techniques. Most major groups of fungi such as the Chytridiomycota, Zygomycota, Ascomycota, and Basidiomycota have been attempted to be covered. Advances in morphological and molecular taxonomy of highly toxigenic Fusarium species and understanding the phylogeny of the alternarioid hyphomycetes have also been dealt with in their respective chapters. Methods used in fungal evolutionary biology, their theory, examples and potential applications, and proteomics research for rapid diagnosis to invasive candidiasis have been reviewed in two different chapters. The ways in which molecular biologists and morphosystematists can develop synergy between them has been elaborated in the introductory chapter.

By focusing on the cellular mechanisms that underlie ontogeny, phylogeny and regeneration of complex physiologic traits, Evolution, the Logic of Biology demonstrates the use of homeostasis, the fundamental principle of physiology and medicine, as the unifying mechanism for evolution as all of biology. The homeostasis principle can be used to understand how environmental stressors have affected physiologic mechanisms to generate condition-specific novelty through cellular mechanisms. Evolution, the Logic of Biology allows the reader to understand the vertebrate life-cycle as an intergenerational continuum in support of effective, on-going environmental adaptation. By understanding the principles of physiology from their fundamental unicellular origins, culminating in modern-day metazoans, the reader as student, researcher or practitioner will be encouraged to think in terms of the prevention of disease, rather than in the treatment of disease as the eradication of symptoms. By tracing the ontogeny and phylogeny of this and other phenotypic homologies, one can perceive and understand how complex physiologic traits have mechanistically evolved from their simpler ancestral and developmental origins as cellular structures and functions, providing a logic of biology for the first time. Evolution, the Logic of Biology will be an invaluable resource for graduate students and researchers studying evolutionary development, medicine and biology, anthropology, comparative and developmental biology, genetics and genomics, and physiology.

The topics of style and function within evolutionary archaeology have been the subject of great debate in the field of archaeology in general over the past two decades. Evolutionary archaeologists have a unique perspective on these concepts-one that has sometimes been misunderstood by archaeologists working within other theoretical perspectives.

The dichotomy between style and function was first formulated in the late 1970s by Robert Dunnell and remains axiomatic within the theoretical perspective of evolutionary archaeology. The original definitions of style and function were grounded in biological evolutionary concepts regarding neutral variation versus variation that is subject to natural selection. Several chapters expand upon these concepts, and explore how Darwinian evolutionary theory may be used to understand the archaeological record. Other chapters demonstrate this application through empirical case studies. Dunnell provides a foreword introducing and re-examining his original thesis.

This volume is the only text devoted to the topic of style and function within the literature of evolutionary archaeology. It provides not only theoretical discussions and augmentation, but also significant historical background regarding the development of the style/function distinction within archaeology. Moreover, it presents several case studies that provide examples of how evolutionary style and function may be applied to the prehistoric record.

The claim that evolution undermines Christianity is standard fare in our culture. Indeed, many today have the impression that the two are mutually exclusive and that a choice must be made between faith and reason-rejecting Christianity on the one hand or evolutionary theory on the other. Is there a way to square advances in this field of study with the Bible and Church teaching? In this book-his fourth dedicated to applying Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI's wisdom to pressing theological difficulties-Matthew Ramage answers this question decidedly in the affirmative. Distinguishing between evolutionary theory properly speaking and the materialist attitude that is often conflated with it, Ramage's work meets the challenge of evolutionary science to Catholic teaching on human origins, guided by Ratzinger's conviction that faith and evolutionary theory mutually enrich one another. Pope Benedict gifted the Church with many pivotal yet often-overlooked resources for engaging evolution in the light of faith, especially in those instances where he addressed the topic in connection with the Book of Genesis. Ramage highlights these contributions and also makes his own by applying Ratzinger's principles to such issues as the meaning of man's special creation, the relationship between sin and death, and the implications of evolution for eschatology. Notably, Ramage shows that many apparent conflicts between Christianity and evolutionary theory lose their force when we interpret creation in light of the Paschal Mystery and fix our gaze on Jesus, the New Adam who reveals man to himself. Readers of this text will find that it does more than merely help to resolve apparent contradictions between faith and modern science. Ramage's work shows that discoveries in evolutionary biology are not merely difficulties to be overcome but indeed gifts that yield precious insight into the mystery of God's saving plan in Christ.

This book sheds new light on the problem of how the human mind evolved. Harry Smit argues that current studies of this problem misguidedly try to solve it by using variants of the Cartesian conception of the mind, and shows that combining the Aristotelian conception with Darwin's theory provides us with far more interesting answers. He discusses the core problem of how we can understand language evolution in terms of inclusive fitness theory, and investigates how scientific and conceptual insights can be integrated into one explanatory framework, which he contrasts with the alternative Cartesian-derived framework. He then explores the differences between these explanatory frameworks with reference to co-operation and conflict at different levels of biological organization, the evolution of communicative behaviour, the human mind, language, and moral behaviour. His book will interest advanced students and scholars in a range of subjects including philosophy, biology and psychology.

This new edition of a foundational text presents a contemporary review of cladistics, as applied to biological classification. It provides a comprehensive account of the past fifty years of discussion on the relationship between classification, phylogeny and evolution. It covers cladistics in the era of molecular data, detailing new advances and ideas that have emerged over the last twenty-five years. Written in an accessible style by internationally renowned authors in the field, readers are straightforwardly guided through fundamental principles and terminology. Simple worked examples and easy-to-understand diagrams also help readers navigate complex problems that have perplexed scientists for centuries. This practical guide is an essential addition for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers in taxonomy, systematics, comparative biology, evolutionary biology and molecular biology.

The first comprehensive look at menopause from prehistory to today Are the ways we look at menopause all wrong? Historian Susan Mattern says yes, and The Slow Moon Climbs reveals just how wrong we have been. Taking readers from the rainforests of Paraguay to the streets of Tokyo, Mattern draws on historical, scientific, and cultural research to reveal how our perceptions of menopause developed from prehistory to today. For most of human history, people had no word for menopause and did not view it as a medical condition. Rather, in traditional foraging and agrarian societies, it was a transition to another important life stage. This book, then, introduces new ways of understanding life beyond fertility. Mattern examines the fascinating "Grandmother Hypothesis"-which argues for the importance of elders in the rearing of future generations-as well as other evolutionary theories that have generated surprising insights about menopause and the place of older people in society. She looks at agricultural communities where households relied on postreproductive women for the family's survival. And she explores the emergence of menopause as a medical condition in the Western world. It was only around 1700 that people began to see menopause as a dangerous pathological disorder linked to upsetting symptoms that rendered women weak and vulnerable. Mattern argues that menopause was another syndrome, like hysterical suffocation or melancholia, that emerged or reemerged in early modern Europe in tandem with the rise of a professional medical class. The Slow Moon Climbs casts menopause, at last, in the positive light it deserves-not only as an essential life stage, but also as a key factor in the history of human flourishing.

Coordination in Human and Primate Groups presents one of the first collections of the different methods and approaches used to assess coordination processes in groups. Written by psychologists and primatologists, the book represents a broad range of coordination research fields such as social psychology, work and organizational psychology, medicine, primatology, and behavioral ecology. It is designed for researchers and practitioners interested in understanding the behavioral aspects of group coordination.

From the age of Darwin to the present day, biologists have been grappling with the origins of our moral sense. Why, if the human instinct to survive and reproduce is "selfish," do people engage in self-sacrifice, and even develop ideas like virtue and shame to justify that altruism? Many theories have been put forth, some emphasizing the role of nepotism, others emphasizing the advantages of reciprocation or group selection effects. But evolutionary anthropologist Christopher Boehm finds existing explanations lacking, and in "Moral Origins, "he offers an elegant new theory.Tracing the development of altruism and group social control over 6 million years, Boehm argues that our moral sense is a sophisticated defense mechanism that enables individuals to survive and thrive in groups. One of the biggest risks of group living is the possibility of being punished for our misdeeds by those around us. Bullies, thieves, free-riders, and especially psychopaths--those who make it difficult for others to go about their lives--are the most likely to suffer this fate. Getting by requires getting along, and this social type of selection, Boehm shows, singles out altruists for survival. This selection pressure has been unique in shaping human nature, and it bred the first stirrings of conscience in the human species. Ultimately, it led to the fully developed sense of virtue and shame that we know today.

A groundbreaking exploration of the evolution of human generosity and cooperation, "Moral Origins" offers profound insight into humanity's moral past--and how it might shape our moral future.

You can hardly open a paper or read an academic journal without some attempt to explain an aspect of human behaviour or experience by reference to neuroscience, biological or evolutionary processes. This 'biologising' has had rather a free ride until now, being generally accepted by the public at large. However, there is a growing number of scholars who are challenging the assumption that we are little more than our bodies and animal origins. This volume brings together a review of these emerging critiques expressed by an international range of senior academics from across the social sciences. Their arguments are firmly based in the empirical, scientific tradition. They show the lack of logic or evidence for many 'biologising' claims, as well as the damaging effects these biological assumptions can have on issues such as dealing with dyslexia or treating alcoholism. This important book, originally published as a special issue of Contemporary Social Science, contributes to a crucial debate on what it means to be human. "This collection of articles by David Canter and his colleagues, rigorously argued and richly informative [...] are of immense importance. It is astonishing that, as Canter puts it in his brilliant overview of biologising trends [...] there are those in the humanities who need to be reminded "that human beings can talk and interact with each other, generating cultures and societies that have an existence that cannot be reduced to their mere mechanical parts". Professor Raymond Tallis FRCP FMedSci DLitt LittD in the Preface.

This completely revised edition provides a synthesis of the forces that shaped the evolution of the human growth pattern, the biocultural factors that direct its expression, the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that regulate individual development, and the biomathematical approaches needed to analyze and interpret human growth. After covering the history, philosophy and biological principles of human development, the book turns to the evolution of the human life cycle. Later chapters explore the physiological, environmental and cultural reasons for population variation in growth, and the genetic and endocrine factors that regulate individual development. Using numerous historical and cultural examples, social-economic-political-economic forces are also discussed. A new chapter introduces controversial concepts of community effects and strategic growth adjustments, and the author then integrates all this information into a truly interactive biocultural model of human development. This remains the primary text for students of human growth in anthropology, psychology, public health and education.

The Sixth Trieste Conference on Chemical Evolution for the first time has also been a Euroconference. This year we focused on "First Steps in the Origin of Life in the Universe." (Both this Centre and the ICGEB have been sponsors since we first started planning the series with Professors Abdus Salam and Cyril Ponnamperuma. ) The conference had the following 11 sponsors: The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, The European Commission, The SETI Institute, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome, Italy, The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Trieste, The European Space Agency (ESA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Universite Paris 12, The ICTP Public Information Office, La Fondazione Internazionale Trieste per il Progresso e la Liberta della Scienza, and II Laboratorio dell'Immaginario Scientifico. of our Over 90 participants allowed us to make a truly comprehensive review subject. In 82 presentations we had contributions from experts in questions related to the origin, evolution, distribution and destiny of life in the universe, topics that are known together as the science ofastrobiology. The publication ofthese proceedings was largely due to a generous grant form the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome, Italy. The general topic of the conference concerned the origin, evolution, distribution and destiny of life in the Universe, a subject referred to as astrobiology and also as exobiology. In this report we prefer the synonym Astrobiology.

'Species' are central to understanding the origin and dynamics of biological diversity; explaining why lineages split into multiple distinct species is one of the main goals of evolutionary biology. However the existence of species is often taken for granted, and precisely what is meant by species and whether they really exist as a pattern of nature has rarely been modelled or critically tested. This novel book presents a synthetic overview of the evolutionary biology of species, describing what species are, how they form, the consequences of species boundaries and diversity for evolution, and patterns of species accumulation over time. The central thesis is that species represent more than just a unit of taxonomy; they are a model of how diversity is structured as well as how groups of related organisms evolve. The author adopts an intentionally broad approach, stepping back from the details to consider what species constitute, both theoretically and empirically, and how we detect them, drawing on a wealth of examples from microbes to multicellular organisms.

Bone is ubiquitous and versatile, and uniquely repairs itself without scarring. However, we rarely see bone in its living state-and even then, mostly in two-tone images that only hint at its marvels. After it serves and protects vertebrate lives, bone reveals itself in surprising ways, sometimes hundreds of millions of years later. In Bones, orthopaedic surgeon Roy Meals explores and extols this amazing material that both supports and records vertebrate life. He demystifies the biological makeup of bones; how they grow, break and heal; and how medical innovations-from the first X-rays to advanced surgical techniques-enhance our lives. With enthusiasm and humour, Meals also reveals the enduring presence of bone outside the body-as fossils, ossuaries, tools, musical instruments-and celebrates allusions to bone in history, religion and idiom. Approachable and entertaining, Bones richly illuminates our bodies' essential framework.

Publishers Weekly Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2019
A New York Times Editor’s Pick
People Best Books Fall 2019
Chicago Tribune 28 Books You Need to Read Now
Booklist’s Top Ten Sci-Tech Books of 2019

“It blew my mind to discover that teenage animals and teenage humans are so similar. Both are naive risk-takers. I loved this book!” —Temple Grandin, author of Animals Make Us Human and Animals in Translation

A revelatory investigation of human and animal adolescence and young adulthood from the New York Times bestselling authors of Zoobiquity.

With Wildhood, Harvard evolutionary biologist Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and award-winning science writer Kathryn Bowers have created an entirely new way of thinking about the crucial, vulnerable, and exhilarating phase of life between childhood and adulthood across the animal kingdom.

In their critically acclaimed bestseller, Zoobiquity, the authors revealed the essential connection between human and animal health. In Wildhood, they turn the same eye-opening, species-spanning lens to adolescent young adult life. Traveling around the world and drawing from their latest research, they find that the same four universal challenges are faced by every adolescent human and animal on earth: how to be safe, how to navigate hierarchy; how to court potential mates; and how to feed oneself. Safety. Status. Sex. Self-reliance. How human and animal adolescents and young adults confront the challenges of wildhood shapes their adult destinies.

Natterson-Horowitz and Bowers illuminate these core challenges through the lives of four animals in the wild: Ursula, a young king penguin; Shrink, a charismatic hyena; Salt, a matriarchal humpback whale; and Slavc, a roaming European wolf. Through their riveting stories—and those of countless others, from adventurous eagles and rambunctious high schooler to inexperienced orcas and naive young soldiers—readers get a vivid and game-changing portrait of adolescent young adults as a horizontal tribe, sharing behaviors and challenges, setbacks and triumphs.

Upending our understanding of everything from risk-taking and anxiety to the origins of privilege and the nature of sexual coercion and consent, Wildhood is a profound and necessary guide to the perilous, thrilling, and universal journey to adulthood on planet earth.

Darwin's theory has become so much part of science that for many it has the standing of biological law. This book challenges the basis of the Darwinian theory of evolution and brings together many discoveries from a variety of fields which cast serious doubts on Darwinian theory. The book has been written to enable non-scientists to assess the validity of the findings for themselves.

Jean Octave Edmond Perrier was a French zoologist who lived through the tumult of British Darwinism and Lyellism, and reminds us in this revealing account that French scientists had much to contribute to such perennial topics as evolution, catastrophism and creationism. While very much a product of the Third Republic, Perrier's account also aimed to outline timeless issues and permanent advances in taxonomic and developmental biology since classical Greece and Rome. In this aim he succeeds with surprisingly modern perspectives for a book first published in 1884. Perrier was born May 9, 1844 at Tulle, the son of the principal of a school which now bears his name, Lycee Edmond Perrier. In 1864 he was accepted to the Ecole Normale Superieure, where he was strongly influenced by Louis Pasteur and Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers. After working for three years at a high school in Agen, he obtained a post of naturalist-aid at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle (1868), advancing in that institution to Chair of Natural History of Molluscs, Worms and Corals (1876-1903) and then Director of the museum (1900-1919) and Chair of Comparative Anatomy (1903-1921). Previous directors of the museum included many of the scientists he discusses in this book: George Cuvier (1822-1823, 1826-1827, 1830-1831), Isidore Geoffrey St Hilaire (1860- 1861), and Alphonse Milne-Edwards (1891-1900). Perrier's own research on echinoderms and earthworms took him on several expeditions in 1880-1885, mostly to Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts, but also to the Caribbean."

Other animals are driven to spend essentially their whole lives just trying to get fed, stay alive, and get laid. That's about it. The same was true for our proto-human ancestors. And modern humans of course also require a Survival Drive and a Sex Drive in order to leave descendants. But today we spend most of our lives mainly just trying to convince ourselves that our existence is not absurd. In What We Are, Queen's University biologist, Lonnie Aarssen, traces how our biocultural evolution has shaped Homo sapiens into the only creature that refuses to be what it is - the only creature preoccupied with a deeply ingrained, and absurd sentiment: I have a distinct 'mental life'-an 'inner self'-that exists separately and apart from 'material life', and so, unlike the latter, need not come to an end. This delusion conceivably gave our distant ancestors some wishful thinking for finding some measure of relief from the terrifying, uniquely human knowledge of the eventual loss of corporeal survival. But this came with an impulsive, nagging doubt - an obsessive underlying uncertainty: 'self-impermanence anxiety'. Biocultural evolution, however, was not finished. It also gave us two additional, uniquely human, primal drives, both serving to help quell the burden of this anxiety. Legacy Drive generates delusional cultural domains for 'extension' of self; and Leisure Drive generates pleasurable cultural domains for distraction - 'escape' - from self. Legacy Drive and Leisure Drive, Aarssen argues, represent two of the most profound consequences of human cognitive and cultural evolution. What We Are advances propositions regarding how a visceral susceptibility to self-impermanence anxiety has - paradoxically - played a pivotal role in rewarding the reproductive success of our ancestors, and has thus been a driving force in shaping fundamental motivations and cultural norms of modern humans. More than any other milestone in the evolution of human minds, self-impermanence anxiety, and its mitigating Drives for Legacy and Leisure, account for not just the advance of civilization over the past many thousands of years, but also now, its impending collapse. Effective management of this crisis, Aarssen insists, will require a deeper and more broadly public understanding of its Darwinian evolutionary roots - as laid out in What We Are.