The Darwin seminars at the LSE have become a crucial intellectual forum in recent years, attended by leading scientists, social scientists, journalists, film-makers, TV producers and writers as diverse as AS Byatt and Douglas Adams. The series, "Darwinism Today", consists of a series of short books, each drawing on the content of one of the seminars and written by many of the leadingfigures in the Darwinian revolution. In "The Embryo and Evolution" John Maynard Smith writes on the development of the human embryo and its evolutionary context
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This slim volume is part of "Darwinism Today", a series of provocative short books by an international group of leading thinkers in the field of evolutionary theory and its impact on our society. The book series developed out of a programme of Darwin Seminars at the London School of Economics. Each essay stands alone as a topic and is about 14,000 words long. Topics include farming, labour, and genetics. The series is edited by Helena Cronin and Oliver Curry and aims to reach a wide readership.
The remarkable process by which a simple undifferentiated egg turns into a complex adult organism has been, as John Maynard Smith says "until recently, mysterious". Just how it happens was identified 12 years ago by Maynard Smith as one of the outstanding problems in biology (along with how the brain works). Since 1986, there has been a revolution in our understanding of developmental biology, with the application of ideas and techniques of genetics. Maynard Smith is a well known author of important books on biology, an eminent evolutionary biologist and Emeritus Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex. In this essay he gives an account of this revolution and argues that developmental biologists should "pay attention to dynamical processes as well as to genetic control". For, complex patterns can emerge in dynamical systems "without the need for specific instructions regulating the development of particular parts". He traces the roots of the notion of "self-organisation" back to Goethe's "Naturphilosophie".
To achieve these aims he has to introduce the reader to some complex concepts such as the so-called Hox genes and their role in "switching" and activating the development of particular structures during early embryological development. Fortunately Maynard Smith is an expert communicator of scientific ideas so that his text is readily accessible. Likewise, he has to broach the concept of self-organisation. How are proteins patterned to produce biological structures? For, as Maynard Smith points out, "it is not enough to say that different genes are switched on in different places". To find the answer he predicts that dialogue will be needed between those who espouse "a global, holistic and dynamic" approach to developmental biology and those who take the more local reductionist approach, "dependent on the notions of information, regulation and control". --Douglas Palmer
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
By Luc REYNAERT
Format:Paperback
In this lecture, J. M. Smith explains clearly the differences and the links between evolution, development, self-organization and reproduction.
Although there is a parallelism between the development changes that convert an egg into an adult and the evolutionary changes that converted single-celled ancestors into the existing array of multi-cellar animals and plants, these mechanism are entirely different: the development changes are not driven by natural selection. Development depends on genetic information accumulated during millions of years of evolution. The evolution of adult forms, however, depends on development changes in successive generations.
Changes in genes cause changes in morphology, but during the evolution, it is not the form (morphology), but the information that is conserved (the regulatory genes that act as signals inducing structures to develop at particular places).
Nonetheless, there is a necessary link between development and evolution. Development is modular and evolution proceeds by modifying the later development stages of a module. E.g., the embryo is successively divided into smaller and smaller regions, whose growth is to a degree autonomous. So, changes in one module become possible without the necessity to alter every part.
The basis of heredity is template (stamp) reproduction, not self-organizing structures, because the latter cannot ensure their own survival and reproduction.
This small book is a must read for all those interested in basic biology and evolution.
Although there is a parallelism between the development changes that convert an egg into an adult and the evolutionary changes that converted single-celled ancestors into the existing array of multi-cellar animals and plants, these mechanism are entirely different: the development changes are not driven by natural selection. Development depends on genetic information accumulated during millions of years of evolution. The evolution of adult forms, however, depends on development changes in successive generations.
Changes in genes cause changes in morphology, but during the evolution, it is not the form (morphology), but the information that is conserved (the regulatory genes that act as signals inducing structures to develop at particular places).
Nonetheless, there is a necessary link between development and evolution. Development is modular and evolution proceeds by modifying the later development stages of a module. E.g., the embryo is successively divided into smaller and smaller regions, whose growth is to a degree autonomous. So, changes in one module become possible without the necessity to alter every part.
The basis of heredity is template (stamp) reproduction, not self-organizing structures, because the latter cannot ensure their own survival and reproduction.
This small book is a must read for all those interested in basic biology and evolution.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.3 out of 5 stars
3 reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Quickstart to the central issues in developmental biology
17 Dec 2000
By J. BLUMBERG
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I was prompted to write this after reading the review below from the New Mexico reader. He misses the point, not Maynard-Smith. This little book (45 pages)is based on a lecture given by Smith at the London School of Economics. The central theme of his lecture was to make the point that the two views in developmental biology i.e. dynamic-holistic view and the local-reductionist view are both important. But, he extends this thinking by suggesting that this dichotomy in biology is a pattern that exists in all aspects/spheres/disciplines in life. This is what I found so revealing. Gore Vs Bush could not be a better (current) example that comes to mind when reading the final chapter 5 - Reductionists to the right, Holists to the left.
47 of 70 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Total misunderstanding
22 Nov 1999
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Although I certainly enjoy most books and articles by Maynard Smith, this book was a tremendous disappointment. He argues against self-organization in biology in a very bad way. Instead of a good argument, one finds a subjective, totally biased and unscientific argument (what a splash pattern has to do with morphogenesis? no idea, really ... that's a funny picture but nothing to do with development). Still worse, Maynard Smith tries to "put down" previous and current work on development from the point of view of complexity by claiming that it has to do with some obscure disappointment with Marxism and with some feminist-like reasoning (? ). I find this strategy really unfair and not appropiate for a great scientist and writer such as Maynard Smith. I think that it is clear that selforganization is, **together with information and adaptation** a fundamental part of the understanding of life. In trying to ridiculize complexity and selforganization, the author is (perhaps uncounsciously) acting in a way not far from "scientific creationists".
5.0 out of 5 stars
Biologists ignore Darwin at their peril
18 Feb 2008
By Luc REYNAERT
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
In this lecture, J. M. Smith explains clearly the differences and the links between evolution, development, self-organization and reproduction.
Although there is a parallelism between the development changes that convert an egg into an adult and the evolutionary changes that converted single-celled ancestors into the existing array of multi-cellar animals and plants, these mechanism are entirely different: the development changes are not driven by natural selection. Development depends on genetic information accumulated during millions of years of evolution. The evolution of adult forms, however, depends on development changes in successive generations.
Changes in genes cause changes in morphology, but during the evolution, it is not the form (morphology), but the information that is conserved (the regulatory genes that act as signals inducing structures to develop at particular places).
Nonetheless, there is a necessary link between development and evolution. Development is modular and evolution proceeds by modifying the later development stages of a module. E.g., the embryo is successively divided into smaller and smaller regions, whose growth is to a degree autonomous. So, changes in one module become possible without the necessity to alter every part.
The basis of heredity is template (stamp) reproduction, not self-organizing structures, because the latter cannot ensure their own survival and reproduction.
This small book is a must read for all those interested in basic biology and evolution.
Although there is a parallelism between the development changes that convert an egg into an adult and the evolutionary changes that converted single-celled ancestors into the existing array of multi-cellar animals and plants, these mechanism are entirely different: the development changes are not driven by natural selection. Development depends on genetic information accumulated during millions of years of evolution. The evolution of adult forms, however, depends on development changes in successive generations.
Changes in genes cause changes in morphology, but during the evolution, it is not the form (morphology), but the information that is conserved (the regulatory genes that act as signals inducing structures to develop at particular places).
Nonetheless, there is a necessary link between development and evolution. Development is modular and evolution proceeds by modifying the later development stages of a module. E.g., the embryo is successively divided into smaller and smaller regions, whose growth is to a degree autonomous. So, changes in one module become possible without the necessity to alter every part.
The basis of heredity is template (stamp) reproduction, not self-organizing structures, because the latter cannot ensure their own survival and reproduction.
This small book is a must read for all those interested in basic biology and evolution.
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3.3 out of 5 stars
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