| Edition |
First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition. |
| Description |
xvi, 461 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm |
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text txt rdacontent |
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unmediated n rdamedia |
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volume nc rdacarrier |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 391-439) and index. |
| Contents |
Three surprises : an introduction -- Darwin's little sketch -- A separate form of life -- Mergers and acquisitions -- Big tree -- Infective heredity -- Topiary -- E pluribus human. |
| Summary |
"In the mid-1970s, scientists began using DNA sequences to reexamine the history of all life. Perhaps the most startling discovery to come out of this new field--the study of life's diversity and relatedness at the molecular level--is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or the movement of genes across species lines. It turns out that HGT has been widespread and important. For instance, we now know that roughly eight percent of the human genome arrived not through traditional inheritance from directly ancestral forms, but sideways by viral infection--a type of HGT. In The Tangled Tree David Quammen, "one of that rare breed of science journalists who blends exploration with a talent for synthesis and storytelling" (Nature), chronicles these discoveries through the lives of the researchers who made them--such as Carl Woese, the most important little-known biologist of the twentieth century; Lynn Margulis, the notorious maverick whose wild ideas about "mosaic" creatures proved to be true; and Tsutomu Wantanabe, who discovered that the scourge of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a direct result of horizontal gene transfer, bringing the deep study of genome histories to bear on a global crisis in public health. Now, in The Tangled Tree, Quammer explains how molecular studies of evolution have brought startling recognitions about the tangled tree of life--including where we humans fit upon it. Thanks to new technologies such as CRISPR, we now have the ability to alter even our genetic composition--through sideways insertions, as nature has long been doing." -- Publisher annotation. |
| Subject |
Phylogeny -- Molecular aspects.
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Evolution (Biology) -- History.
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| ISBN |
9781476776620 hardcover $30.00 |
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1476776628 hardcover $30.00 |
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9781476776637 paperback |
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9781476776644 electronic book |
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