The Evolving World: Evolution in Everyday Life

by David P. Mindell

Overview

In the 150 years since Darwin, evolutionary biology has proven as essential as it is controversial, a critical concept for answering questions about everything from the genetic code and the structure of cells to the reproduction, development, and migration of animal and plant life. But today, as David P. Mindell makes undeniably clear in The Evolving World, evolutionary biology is much more than an explanatory concept. It is indispensable to the world we live in. This book provides the first truly accessible and balanced account of how evolution has become a tool with applications that are thoroughly integrated, and deeply useful, in our everyday lives and our societies, often in ways that we do not realize.

When we domesticate wild species for agriculture or companionship; when we manage our exposure to pathogens and prevent or control epidemics; when we foster the diversity of species and safeguard the functioning of ecosystems: in each of these cases, Mindell shows us, evolutionary biology applies. It is at work when we recognize that humans represent a single evolutionary family with variant cultures but shared biological capabilities and motivations. And last but not least, we see here how evolutionary biology comes into play when we use knowledge of evolution to pursue justice within the legal system and to promote further scientific discovery through education and academic research.

More than revealing evolution's everyday uses and value, The Evolving World demonstrates the excitement inherent in its applications—and convinces us as never before that evolutionary biology has become absolutely necessary for human existence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674025585
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	10/31/2007
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

David P. Mindell is Program Director for the Division of Environmental Biology at the National Science Foundation.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. A Brief History of Three Unpopular Discoveries

2. Domestication: Evolution in Human Hands

3. Evolution in Public Health and Medicine

4. Evolution and Conservation

5. Evolutionary Metaphor in Human Culture

6. The Role of Evolution in Court and Classroom

Conclusions

Notes

Illustration Credits

Index

What People are Saying About This

This wonderful book should be put in the hands of every student, every teacher, every person in America today. David Mindell is passionate about the science of evolution and about the ways in which it impinges on our daily lives. It is the perfect antidote to all of those sterile alternatives forwarded by the Christian Right and their fellow travelers. The Evolving World: Evolution in Everyday Life does more than show that science is important. It shows that it can be tremendous fun.

Michael Ruse

This wonderful book should be put in the hands of every student, every teacher, every person in America today. David Mindell is passionate about the science of evolution and about the ways in which it impinges on our daily lives. It is the perfect antidote to all of those sterile alternatives forwarded by the Christian Right and their fellow travelers. The Evolving World: Evolution in Everyday Life does more than show that science is important. It shows that it can be tremendous fun.
— Michael Ruse, author of The Evolution-Creation Struggle

Editorial Reviews

[The Evolving World succeeds admirably in defining the numerous ways that "applied evolution" affects our everyday lives.

Evolution - Greg Gibson

This wonderful book should be put in the hands of every student, every teacher, every person in America today. David Mindell is passionate about the science of evolution and about the ways in which it impinges on our daily lives. It is the perfect antidote to all of those sterile alternatives forwarded by the Christian Right and their fellow travelers. The Evolving World: Evolution in Everyday Life does more than show that science is important. It shows that it can be tremendous fun.

Michael Ruse

[The Evolving World succeeds admirably in defining the numerous ways that "applied evolution" affects our everyday lives.
— Greg Gibson

Evolution

In the heated landscape of public discourse about evolution, books are weapons, lobbed by each side at the other. While creationists tend to directly attack the credibility of evolution, scientists have generally been loath to engage in direct comparison of evolutionary and creationist theories, preferring instead to simply focus on laying out the facts of evolution. Evolutionary biologist Mindell's contribution to the fray breaks little new ground. Couched as a general and accessible overview of how evolutionary reasoning pervades our lives, from the selective breeding of animals to understanding disease-causing pathogens, this book does have a few daggers tucked into its belt; the book opens with an examination of three "unpopular discoveries" (heliocentrism, the germ theory of disease and evolution) and ends with a coda that cursorily nods toward tolerance of religious and moral qualms but has little patience for them. What lies between is a perfectly reasonable survey of the ways that evolution explains biology, medicine, culture and religion. Written for a general audience, the book is solid but unremarkable, another salvo in the roar of the larger cultural war. B&w illus. (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Mindell (ecology & evolutionary biology, Univ. of Michigan) has written a welcome but somewhat encyclopedic account of the ways in which concepts of evolutionary biology are used in ways that influence our daily lives, e.g., domestication, conservation, public health, and education. Mindell includes a chapter on evolution as a metaphor for understanding cultural changes, provocatively using the Bible and the Abrahamic religions as examples. He spends little time addressing evolutionary biology's contemporary cultural and religious criticism, letting its value as an explanatory tool speak for itself. Yet in a too-long survey at the beginning, he does compare it with two other scientific discoveries that initially resisted acceptance-the heliocentric theory of Copernicus and the germ theory of disease. The strongest section details the role of evolution in the courtroom, where Mindell has experience giving expert testimony on DNA analyses. The chapter on using evolution as a metaphor for human cultural change suffers from the limitations of metaphor. For public libraries. (Line illustrations not seen.)-Walter L. Cressler, West Chester Univ. Lib., PA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal