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Summary: Acquiring Genomes: A Theory of the Origins of Species
Review: Acquiring Genomes: A Theory of the Origins of Species written by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan will definitly open your eyes and is on the cutting edge of how species are formed. This is one of those groundbreaking books that trys to answer one of Charles Darwin's long standing mysteries... how do species originate. Darwin could never quit put his finger on the answer, he was close and I'm sure with time and the right equipment, like what is available today, he might have even solved this nagging question. Margulis has been working on this same question for the last thirty years and she makes a very convincing argument, symbiotic merger is the main thrust of her thesis in this book. This book has some real mind-spinning ideas and you'll have to know some biochemistry, biology, chemistry, cell-biology to prepare yourself for a provocative wild ride through this book as some of the material directly challenges the assumptions that we hold about diversity in the living world. Margulis has for many years been the leader in the interpretation of evolutionary entities as the products of symbiogenesis. Symbiogenesis is the major theme of this book. The authors show convinvingly that an unexpectedly large proportion of the evolutionary lineages had their origins in symbiogenesis. Ok, I know some of you are saying what is symbiogenesis, well it's the combination of two totally different genomes form a symbiotic consortium which becomes the target of selection as a single entity. This is achieved by the mutual stability of the relationship, symbiosis differs from other cases of interaction such as carnivory, herbivory, and parasitism. Now, that I've said all of that, you realize that this book can get pretty deep at times, but the author has a pleasent styled narrative, always keeping the reader involved. Prehaps the greatest merit of this book is that it introduces the reader to the fascinating world of microbes, delving into providing an enthralling description of protists and bacteria. I found this book to be most enlightening about the enigma of evolutionary biology and how species are formed, comprehensive in scope and supported by scientific theory. This book will make you think. If you want to know about the cutting edge of evolutionary thinking then this is the book for you. To realize that everything on earth is inter-related and that life will carry on when faced with tragedy.
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Summary: A challenge to Darwinism
Review: Acquiring Gnomes is an attempt to support the theory of symbiogenesis, the idea that organisms evolve by exchanging genes and as a result of symbiosis relationships, such as lichen. The authors are the leading experts in the field of symbiosis, and this shows in this well done work. The major strong point of the work is it explains in detail what biologists have known for years but often do not admit publicly, namely that evolution by the accumulation of small mutations has not been supported by either laboratory or field research. The authors also show that Darwin has been almost a god for over a century, yet his work was neither original (and he failed to credit those he plagiarized his ideas from - see p. 27) and his classic 1859 book The Origin of Species is "laced with hesitancies, contradictions, and possible prevarication" (p. 26). Having shown neo-Darwinism is now effectively dead, the authors make an excellent case for their own theory of the origin of species. The only problem is they demonstrate that many lower level organisms have probably exchanged genetic material throughout history, yet this does not explain its origin, only its spread. We are still left with the question "where did the genome information come from in the first place?" It may be best to admit that we do not know (and present theories do not explain this problem) so that future scientists are encouraged to look for the source instead of discouraging research by teaching students that we know the source when we do not. As a college teacher for over 35 years now, in my classes I stress what we do not know in my field (molecular biology) with the hope that my students may be inspired to find some of the answers. This book is a good place to begin. The authors also show that anyone who questions Darwin "are often dismissed as if they were Christian fundamentalist zealots or racial bigots" (p. 19). This is tragic.
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Summary: A crumbling synthesis
Review: Darwinists often seem to defend their theory on the grounds that they have nothing better, 'leave us alone,our minds are frozen, it's the paradigm, stupid'). Since there is nothing better apparently, the current theory is operational and 'beyond reproach' although everyone apparently knows it to be wrong, but alright since it's the paradigm. It can help therefore to at least think you have something better: it makes the flaws in the original theory stand out. The main flaw is that, despite the title of Darwin's book, biologists have never managed to explain the Origin of the Species. This work by Margoulis 1 and 2 produces an important implicit critique of Neo-Darwinism (distinguished in the book from Darwinism per se)and delivers a solid body blow to the claims for mutation/variation current. The authors convincingly demonstrate the place of symbiogenesis in the evolutionary record, although it is not convincing in the end that this itself a full explanation for speciation. But, whatever the case, this is a critical 'lost perspective' of working biologists and the account is essential reading for anyone trying to get past the press release/text book mode of the great Dilapidation known as the 'Synthesis'. It need hardly be pointed out that Darwinists were frustrated propagandists for the economic order and allergic to the horrifying implications of cooperative evoluton in the idea of symbiogenesis.
Very lively, seminal, and important reading. The preface by Mayr left me head scratching, as it both endorses and challenges the book's claims. Are we getting a secret message from one of the elves of Darwinian theory, a green light for paradigm passage?
In any case, at worst, thinking one has a new theory works nicely, now we know we have no theory yet at all. Good work.
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Summary: They almost had me fooled ...
Review: I was almost ready to seriously consider Margulis' and Sagan's revolutionary theory until I read Sagan's update, in which he writes "Because chromosome arrangements differ slightly in closely related mammal species (e.g., dogs and wolves) that no longer breed with each other ..."
Everybody knows that wolves and domestic dogs CAN breed. You can buy wolf/dog hybrids from breeders such as http://www.dogpage.us/wolfdogs.htm.
If one of the authors is this removed from common sense, I wonder about the rest of the theory. And I wonder if his mother knows what he's up to.
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Summary: Out of the frying pan, into the fire
Review: I'm usually pretty forgiving when it comes to evolutionary ideas but I simply found this book unpleasant and unconvincing. The authors derided many scientists who don't seem to agree with them. That's pretty arrogant since the idea of evolutionary symbiosis seems overstated and many related arguments weak. For example, the authors assert that many terms such as "group selection" are pseudoscientific. That's code for "I don't agree with it" which only means the authors don't really understand it. Another sentence, for example, refers to a "student-infested house". Why pounce on students? Do the authors think that's cute or funny? To assert their own ideas, they also denigrate Darwin and present him as some muddy thinker. Oh please! Even though Acquiring Genomes has a 150 year head-start on Darwin's Origin of the Species, the latter is still a much more convincing read.
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Summary: Skip the first 8 chapters!
Review: In an earlier work Margulis, who is a distinguished scientist, recounted her struggles in getting a theory accepted which is now part of the orthodoxy: that the mitochondria and chloroplast organelles originated as separate organisms. Chapters 9-13 of Acquiring Genomes discuss more recent findings by her and others which point to the importance of saltatory (sudden) changes as contrasted to gradual evolution. In particular, there is evidence that radically different marine species, from different phyla, can very occasionally successfully mate, and that this may be the basis for the larval stages in so many animals. There is even more evidence that in one event, all the chromosomes in an animal can break in half without destroying the viability of the animal or its ability to mate with "normal" members of the species - although it is not discussed how exactly this leads to change. There is additional insight into how the nucleated cell was first formed. Unfortunately, Margulis did not have a collaborator who had the patience to expand on these chapters, providing more background, and making them more accessible to the layman. Chapters 1-8 of Acquiring Genomes should be SKIPPED, which means that if the reader does not have some comfort with Margulis' original ideas, the whole book should be skipped. These first chapters are bombastic, argumentative, repetitive, inaccurate, and have relatively little information of value. One idea I did get from these chapters (which I skimmed, not being a masochist) is that, in a sense, all bacteria are members of one species, since they all can interchange genes. Also, some bacterial symbionts are actually inherited, in that they are present in the egg or sperm, while not yet in the nucleus.
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Summary: The Latest Details from the Edge of Evolutionary Theory
Review: Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan continue their series of books on highlighting Margulis's evolving and elaborative theory on evolution. Margulis, with her symbiosis concept, is science's only significant spearhead on the creation of Darwinian evolutionary theory not strictly within the vague limits of Darwinian framework. This book gives us hints on her progress to moving closer to understanding the origin and evolution of eucaryotic mitosis and meiosis mechanisms. In the book, Sagan and Margulis outline their major objections with neo-darwinian orthodoxy: the notion of mutation and its inherent implications, and argue that its current role in theory is misguided and overemphasized. They argue, rightfully so, the concepts of symbiogenesis and Gaia give much better traction to explaining change from a procaryotic world to the current world of the living than the doctrines of neo-darwinian selection via mutation. Margulis and Sagan give a interesting account, and more importantly, several detailed examples of symbiosis, where the genome has clearly changed. Whether or not one is familar with Margulis's work, the accounts are enlightening, although I wouldn't recommend this book as an introduction to Margulis's symbiosis and Gaia metaphors, it gives enough to wet the appetite for more. I would recommend Microcosmos as better introductory book to get a better glimpse of the scope and revolutionary nature of Margulis's ideas. If one is interested in other details, her other books, such as the Symbiotic Planet are worth reading. Clearly the most important part of the book, besides a few more of her and Dorion's insights into Gaia, is the report on her latest publishable material on evidence of the steps from procaryotic to eucaryotic organisms. She concentrates more on her evidence for the first major symbiotic pairing (amitochondriates) which eventually leads to the mitosis and meiosis mechanisms. Her detailing of karyomastigont and akaryomastigont mechanisms and their relations, gives one a better understanding of some of the major steps that most likely occurred from the transition from gross bacterial genetic mechanisms (e.g., plasmids, bacteriophages, and conjugation) to the full blown eucaryotic mitosis and meiosis mechanisms. Obviously, despite their compelling evidence, there looks to be a great deal of work to done to fill in gaps between the connected dots. But Margulis and Sagan provide an entertaining and informative overview on some of the issues entailed in determining the details. The book is a tantalizing look at the edge of science, for if one is informed, one can see some interesting signposts ahead. The only problem I have with the book is once you start looking beyond the edge, you realize indeed Margulis has only a few explorers with her, and they haven't gotten very far. But that's the nature of science, isn't it.
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Summary: A Radical New View of Evolution
Review: Lynn Margulis has been a maverick all her life. Early in her career she shocked her biological colleagues by arguing that the mitochondria that power our cells and the chloroplasts that let plants transform solar into chemical energy once were free-living bacteria. As soon as scientists could isolate and decode the scraps of DNA in those vital organelles, they found that she was right. Margulis went on to develop her Serial Endosymbiosis Theory, which attempted to trace the development of all creatures with nucleated cells, from yeasts to humans, to a series of genetic mergers between different kinds of organisms. According to Margulis, all the familiar family trees of life, which show only diverging branches, are wrong. Ancient roots and current branches cross and merge to produce new species. To Margulis, nature is far more promiscuous and much more creative than most biologists dream. Her new book, Acquiring Genomes: A Theory of the Origins of Species, extends and deepens that argument. Margulis sets out to prove that new species rarely if ever appear as the result of mutation, isolation, genetic drift, or population bottlenecks--the meat and potatoes of neo-Darwinism. Instead she maintains that the major engine of evolutionary change, the source of most of the new forms that natural selection edits, is symbiogenesis--the acquisition of whole genomes as the result of symbiotic associations between different kinds of organisms. (Knowing that some people will seize on her thesis as an attack on the theory of evolution as a whole, Margulis makes it clear that she fully supports Darwin's great discovery of the mechanism of natural selection. She simply thinks that neo-Darwinists have failed to recognize the enormous creative power of genomic mergers.) Readers who are familiar with Margulis' earlier works will recognize her vivid, personal and sometimes impressionistic writing style. I found this book, co-authored by her son, Dorion Sagan, to be clear and accessible. Starting with Chapter 9, where Margulis presents her latest ideas on the symbiotic origin of the nucleus itself, things get a bit more technical. Margulis makes every effort to help readers through the thicket of important, but at times tongue-twisting terms, and supplements explanations in the text with an excellent glossary. Margulis also presents the findings of several other researchers whose work supports or relates closely to her own. Readers may or may not close the book convinced that Margulis is right and the neo-Darwinists are wrong. But they will come away with a vastly deeper understanding of the pervasive nature and power of the microbial world, and of symbiosis. Margulis reveals a hidden side of nature, in which microbes have generated most if not all of life's metabolic machinery, in which vastly different life-forms consort in a myriad of ways, and in which the acquisition of entire genomes provides the raw material for great evolutionary leaps. Anyone with a deep interest in biology will gain important insights from "Acquiring Genomes." Robert Adler, author of Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation (Wiley & Sons, 2002).
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Summary: Fascinating Topic, Difficlut Read
Review: Margulis and Sagan's theory of how organisms share genetic material to create new species is worth considering. Sadly, instead of giving us the theory, the evidence and the implications in a coherent flow, the book is staggers from one topic to another, oftentimes leaving you to wonder what any paragraph has to do with the one before it or, for that matter, the subject of the book. These many discontinuites make this a difficult read. In addition, the authors use many terms which the lay reader may not know, and which do not appear in their limited glossary. In the first ten pages of the book I ran across polyploid, archaebacterium, eubactierium, and karyotic fissioning (which the authors promise to explain in chapter 12!). The diagrams are also disappointing, including one which gives a color code for a black and white diagram.
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Summary: REHASH OF PREVIOUS POP-SCIENCE BOOKS ON EVOLUTION
Review: THIS IS A SHORT REVIEW FOR A SHORT BOOK. THE MATERIAL PRESENTED IS NOT ONLY A BRIEF AND SOMEWHAT UNINSPIRED REHASH OF POP-EVOLUTION BOOKS AVAILABLE ELSEWHERE, BUT WOULD APPEAR TO BE A REHASH OF SOME OF HER PREVIOUS BOOKS. SAME THEORIES, BUT WITH A FEW NEW EXAMPLES. DEFINITELY NOT INSIGHTFUL. IF YOU'VE READ SOME OF HER PREVIOUS BOOKS ON EVOLUTIONARY THEORY, OR OTHER GOOD POP-SCIENCE BOOKS ON THE SUBJECT (LIKE GOULD,DAWKINS, ETC), THEN YOU PROBABLY DON'T NEED TO READ THIS ONE. I'M NOT EVEN SURE WHY THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN. THIS NON-FICTION NICHE IS ALREADY OVERWHELMED WITH SIMILAR MATERIAL.
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