The Plausibility Of Life

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The Plausibility of Life

Author : Marc W. Kirschner
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300128673
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis The Plausibility of Life by : Marc W. Kirschner

Download or read book The Plausibility of Life written by Marc W. Kirschner and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2005-10-19 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two biologists tackle the unresolved question in the field of evolution: how have living organisms on Earth developed with such variety and complexity? In the 150 years since Darwin, the field of evolutionary biology has left a glaring gap in understanding how animals developed their astounding variety and complexity. The standard answer has been that small genetic mutations accumulate over time to produce wondrous innovations such as eyes and wings. Drawing on cutting-edge research across the spectrum of modern biology, Marc Kirschner and John Gerhart demonstrate how this stock answer is woefully inadequate. Rather they offer an original solution to the longstanding puzzle of how small random genetic change can be converted into complex, useful innovations. In a new theory they call “facilitated variation,” Kirschner and Gerhart elevate the individual organism from a passive target of natural selection to a central player in the 3-billion-year history of evolution. In clear, accessible language, the authors invite every reader to contemplate daring new ideas about evolution. By closing the major gap in Darwin’s theory Kirschner and Gerhart also provide a timely scientific rebuttal to modern critics of evolution who champion “intelligent design.” “Makes for informative and enjoyable reading, and the issues the authors raise are worthy of attention.”—American Scientist “Thought-provoking and lucidly written…The Plausibility of Life will help readers understand not just the plausibility of evolution, but its remarkable, inventive powers.”—Sean Carroll, author of Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo

Same-Sex Attraction and the Church

Author : Ed Shaw
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
ISBN 13 : 0830899790
Total Pages : 177 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (38 download)

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Book Synopsis Same-Sex Attraction and the Church by : Ed Shaw

Download or read book Same-Sex Attraction and the Church written by Ed Shaw and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2015-11-09 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Gospel Coalition Top Books of 2015 in Christian Living Tim Challies' Top Books of 2015 ProdigalThought.net's Top Reads of 2015 Leadership Journal's Best Ministry Books of the Year When Christians have same-sex attraction, how should the church respond? Pastor Ed Shaw experiences same-sex attraction, and yet he is committed to Scripture and the church's traditional position of fidelity in heterosexual marriage and celibacy in singleness. In this honest book, he shares his pain in dealing with these issues, but at the same time shows us that obedience to Jesus is ultimately the only way to experience life to the full. He shows that the Bible's teaching seems unreasonable not because of its difficulties, but because of missteps that the church has often taken in its understanding of the Christian life. We have been shaped by the world around us and urgently need to re-examine the values that drive our discipleship. Only by doing this in the light of the Bible can we make sense of its call on the lives of those who are attracted to their own sex.

Evolution in Four Dimensions, revised edition

Author : Eva Jablonka
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262525844
Total Pages : 577 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis Evolution in Four Dimensions, revised edition by : Eva Jablonka

Download or read book Evolution in Four Dimensions, revised edition written by Eva Jablonka and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2014-03-21 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A pioneering proposal for a pluralistic extension of evolutionary theory, now updated to reflect the most recent research. This new edition of the widely read Evolution in Four Dimensions has been revised to reflect the spate of new discoveries in biology since the book was first published in 2005, offering corrections, an updated bibliography, and a substantial new chapter. Eva Jablonka and Marion Lamb's pioneering argument proposes that there is more to heredity than genes. They describe four “dimensions” in heredity—four inheritance systems that play a role in evolution: genetic, epigenetic (or non-DNA cellular transmission of traits), behavioral, and symbolic (transmission through language and other forms of symbolic communication). These systems, they argue, can all provide variations on which natural selection can act. Jablonka and Lamb present a richer, more complex view of evolution than that offered by the gene-based Modern Synthesis, arguing that induced and acquired changes also play a role. Their lucid and accessible text is accompanied by artist-physician Anna Zeligowski's lively drawings, which humorously and effectively illustrate the authors' points. Each chapter ends with a dialogue in which the authors refine their arguments against the vigorous skepticism of the fictional “I.M.” (for Ipcha Mistabra—Aramaic for “the opposite conjecture”). The extensive new chapter, presented engagingly as a dialogue with I.M., updates the information on each of the four dimensions—with special attention to the epigenetic, where there has been an explosion of new research. Praise for the first edition “With courage and verve, and in a style accessible to general readers, Jablonka and Lamb lay out some of the exciting new pathways of Darwinian evolution that have been uncovered by contemporary research.” —Evelyn Fox Keller, MIT, author of Making Sense of Life: Explaining Biological Development with Models, Metaphors, and Machines “In their beautifully written and impressively argued new book, Jablonka and Lamb show that the evidence from more than fifty years of molecular, behavioral and linguistic studies forces us to reevaluate our inherited understanding of evolution.” —Oren Harman, The New Republic “It is not only an enjoyable read, replete with ideas and facts of interest but it does the most valuable thing a book can do—it makes you think and reexamine your premises and long-held conclusions.” —Adam Wilkins, BioEssays

Evolution

Author : James Alan Shapiro
Publisher : Pearson Education
ISBN 13 : 0132780933
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (327 download)

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Book Synopsis Evolution by : James Alan Shapiro

Download or read book Evolution written by James Alan Shapiro and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2011 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book proposes an important new paradigm for understanding biological evolution. Shapiro demonstrates why traditional views of evolution are inadequate to explain the latest evidence, and presents an alternative. His information- and systems-based approach integrates advances in symbiogenesis, epigenetics, and saltationism, and points toward an emerging synthesis of physical, information, and biological sciences.

Life from an RNA World

Author : Michael Yarus
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780674050754
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (57 download)

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Book Synopsis Life from an RNA World by : Michael Yarus

Download or read book Life from an RNA World written by Michael Yarus and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A majority of evolutionary biologists believe that we now can envision our biological predecessors--not the first, but nearly the first, living beings on Earth. This book is about these vanished forebears. The era between the first rudimentary life on Earth and the appearance of more complex beings is called the RNA world. It is RNA (ribonucleic acid) long believed to be a mere biologic copier and messenger, that offers a glimpse into our ancient predecessors. To describe early RNA creatures, here called "ribocytes" or RNA cells, the author uses basics of molecular biology. He reviews our current understanding of the tree of life, examines the structure of RNA itself, explains the operation of the genetic code, and more. Courting controversy among those who question the role of ribocytes -- citing the chemical fragility of RNA and the uncertainty about the origin of an RNA synthetic apparatus -- he offers a vision of early life on Earth.

Pleasure and the Good Life

Author : Fred Feldman
Publisher : Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN 13 : 019926516X
Total Pages : 234 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (992 download)

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Book Synopsis Pleasure and the Good Life by : Fred Feldman

Download or read book Pleasure and the Good Life written by Fred Feldman and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 2004-03-25 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since ancient times, hedonism has been one of the most attractive and controversial theories. In this text, the author presents a careful, modern formulation of hedonism, defending the theory against some of the most important objections.

Cosmic Biology

Author : Louis Neal Irwin
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1441916474
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (419 download)

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Book Synopsis Cosmic Biology by : Louis Neal Irwin

Download or read book Cosmic Biology written by Louis Neal Irwin and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-12-08 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Cosmic Biology, Louis Irwin and Dirk Schulze-Makuch guide readers through the range of planetary habitats found in our Solar System and those likely to be found throughout the universe. Based on our current knowledge of chemistry, energy, and evolutionary tendencies, the authors envision a variety of possible life forms. These range from the familiar species found on Earth to increasingly exotic examples possible under the different conditions of other planets and their satellites. Discussions of the great variety of life forms that could evolve in these diverse environments have become particularly relevant in recent years with the discovery of around 300 exoplanets in orbit around other stars and the possibilities for the existence of life in these planetary systems. The book also posits a taxonomic classification of the various forms of life that might be found, including speculation on the relative abundance of different forms and the generic fate of living systems. The fate and future of life on Earth will also be considered. The closing passages address the Fermi Paradox, and conclude with philosophical reflections on the possible place of Homo sapiens in the potentially vast stream of life across the galaxies.

The Music of Life

Author : Denis Noble
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191578800
Total Pages : 169 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (915 download)

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Book Synopsis The Music of Life by : Denis Noble

Download or read book The Music of Life written by Denis Noble and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2008-02-14 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is Life? Decades of research have resulted in the full mapping of the human genome - three billion pairs of code whose functions are only now being understood. The gene's eye view of life, advocated by evolutionary biology, sees living bodies as mere vehicles for the replication of the genetic codes. But for a physiologist, working with the living organism, the view is a very different one. Denis Noble is a world renowned physiologist, and sets out an alternative view to the question - one that becomes deeply significant in terms of the living, breathing organism. The genome is not life itself. Noble argues that far from genes building organisms, they should be seen as prisoners of the organism. The view of life presented in this little, modern, post-genome project reflection on the nature of life, is that of the systems biologist: to understand what life is, we must view it at a variety of different levels, all interacting with each other in a complex web. It is that emergent web, full of feedback between levels, from the gene to the wider environment, that is life. It is a kind of music. Including stories from Noble's own research experience, his work on the heartbeat, musical metaphors, and elements of linguistics and Chinese culture, this very personal and at times deeply lyrical book sets out the systems biology view of life.

The Evidence for Evolution

Author : Alan R. Rogers
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226723852
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (267 download)

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Book Synopsis The Evidence for Evolution by : Alan R. Rogers

Download or read book The Evidence for Evolution written by Alan R. Rogers and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to polling data, most Americans doubt that evolution is a real phenomenon. And it’s no wonder that so many are skeptical: many of today’s biology courses and textbooks dwell on the mechanisms of evolution—natural selection, genetic drift, and gene flow—but say little about the evidence that evolution happens at all. How do we know that species change? Has there really been enough time for evolution to operate? With The Evidence for Evolution, Alan R. Rogers provides an elegant, straightforward text that details the evidence for evolution. Rogers covers different levels of evolution, from within-species changes, which are much less challenging to see and believe, to much larger ones, say, from fish to amphibian, or from land mammal to whale. For each case, he supplies numerous lines of evidence to illustrate the changes, including fossils, DNA, and radioactive isotopes. His comprehensive treatment stresses recent advances in knowledge but also recounts the give and take between skeptical scientists who first asked “how can we be sure” and then marshaled scientific evidence to attain certainty. The Evidence for Evolution is a valuable addition to the literature on evolution and will be essential to introductory courses in the life sciences.

Why Evolution is True

Author : Jerry A. Coyne
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 019164384X
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (916 download)

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Book Synopsis Why Evolution is True by : Jerry A. Coyne

Download or read book Why Evolution is True written by Jerry A. Coyne and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2010-01-14 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For all the discussion in the media about creationism and 'Intelligent Design', virtually nothing has been said about the evidence in question - the evidence for evolution by natural selection. Yet, as this succinct and important book shows, that evidence is vast, varied, and magnificent, and drawn from many disparate fields of science. The very latest research is uncovering a stream of evidence revealing evolution in action - from the actual observation of a species splitting into two, to new fossil discoveries, to the deciphering of the evidence stored in our genome. Why Evolution is True weaves together the many threads of modern work in genetics, palaeontology, geology, molecular biology, anatomy, and development to demonstrate the 'indelible stamp' of the processes first proposed by Darwin. It is a crisp, lucid, and accessible statement that will leave no one with an open mind in any doubt about the truth of evolution.

Purposeful Sexuality

Author : Ed Shaw
Publisher : Inter-Varsity Press
ISBN 13 : 1789743117
Total Pages : 53 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (897 download)

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Book Synopsis Purposeful Sexuality by : Ed Shaw

Download or read book Purposeful Sexuality written by Ed Shaw and published by Inter-Varsity Press. This book was released on 2021-01-21 with total page 53 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If God means for us to save sex for marriage, why doesn't he just zap us with sexuality on our wedding night? Why do most of us experience sexual feelings throughout our adult lives, not just in the safe confines of marriage? Is limiting marriage to the union of a man and a woman anything but outdated prejudice? What is our sexuality actually for? Today's culture overwhelmingly tells us that sex is essential for human flourishing. Far too often the church perpetuates the same message - as long as you are married. But far from being liberating, this idolising of sex leaves us even more sexually broken than before. With refreshing honesty and clarity, Ed Shaw calls on the church to rediscover its confidence in the Bible's teaching about our ability to experience or express sexual feelings. He points us to how God's word reveals that sexuality's ultimate purpose is to help us better know God and the full power of his passionate love. He shows us how this is surprisingly good news for all our joys and struggles with sexuality.

Thank God for Evolution

Author : Michael Dowd
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 9780670020454
Total Pages : 452 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (24 download)

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Book Synopsis Thank God for Evolution by : Michael Dowd

Download or read book Thank God for Evolution written by Michael Dowd and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a philosophy that unifies evolution and religion, discussing evolution as a divine process, how to use insights derived from evolution to improve spiritual life, and how to work for systemic change within this framework.

Mind and Cosmos

Author : Thomas Nagel
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199919755
Total Pages : 141 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (999 download)

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Book Synopsis Mind and Cosmos by : Thomas Nagel

Download or read book Mind and Cosmos written by Thomas Nagel and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-22 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The modern materialist approach to life has conspicuously failed to explain such central mind-related features of our world as consciousness, intentionality, meaning, and value. This failure to account for something so integral to nature as mind, argues philosopher Thomas Nagel, is a major problem, threatening to unravel the entire naturalistic world picture, extending to biology, evolutionary theory, and cosmology. Since minds are features of biological systems that have developed through evolution, the standard materialist version of evolutionary biology is fundamentally incomplete. And the cosmological history that led to the origin of life and the coming into existence of the conditions for evolution cannot be a merely materialist history, either. An adequate conception of nature would have to explain the appearance in the universe of materially irreducible conscious minds, as such. Nagel's skepticism is not based on religious belief or on a belief in any definite alternative. In Mind and Cosmos, he does suggest that if the materialist account is wrong, then principles of a different kind may also be at work in the history of nature, principles of the growth of order that are in their logical form teleological rather than mechanistic. In spite of the great achievements of the physical sciences, reductive materialism is a world view ripe for displacement. Nagel shows that to recognize its limits is the first step in looking for alternatives, or at least in being open to their possibility.

Imagined Life

Author : James Trefil
Publisher : Smithsonian Institution
ISBN 13 : 1588346730
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (883 download)

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Book Synopsis Imagined Life by : James Trefil

Download or read book Imagined Life written by James Trefil and published by Smithsonian Institution. This book was released on 2019-09-17 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The captivating possibilities of extraterrestrial life on exoplanets, based on current scientific knowledge of existing worlds and forms of life It is now known that we live in a galaxy with more planets than stars. The Milky Way alone encompasses 30 trillion potential home planets. Scientists Trefil and Summers bring readers on a marvelous experimental voyage through the possibilities of life--unlike anything we have experienced so far--that could exist on planets outside our own solar system. Life could be out there in many forms: on frozen worlds, living in liquid oceans beneath ice and communicating (and even battling) with bubbles; on super-dense planets, where they would have evolved body types capable of dealing with extreme gravity; on tidally locked planets with one side turned eternally toward a star; and even on "rogue worlds," which have no star at all. Yet this is no fictional flight of fancy: the authors take what we know about exoplanets and life on our own world and use that data to hypothesize about how, where, and which sorts of life might develop. Imagined Life is a must-have for anyone wanting to learn how the realities of our universe may turn out to be far stranger than fiction.

Good Enough

Author : Daniel S. Milo
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 0674504623
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (745 download)

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Book Synopsis Good Enough by : Daniel S. Milo

Download or read book Good Enough written by Daniel S. Milo and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosopher Daniel Milo offers a vigorous critique of the quasi-monopoly that Darwin's natural selection has on our idea of the natural world. In popular thought, Darwinism has even acquired the trappings of an ethical system, focused on optimization, competition, and innovation. Yet in nature, imperfect creatures often have the evolutionary edge.

Darwin's Sacred Cause

Author : Adrian Desmond
Publisher : HMH
ISBN 13 : 0547527756
Total Pages : 513 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (475 download)

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Book Synopsis Darwin's Sacred Cause by : Adrian Desmond

Download or read book Darwin's Sacred Cause written by Adrian Desmond and published by HMH. This book was released on 2014-11-11 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An “arresting” and deeply personal portrait that “confront[s] the touchy subject of Darwin and race head on” (The New York Times Book Review). It’s difficult to overstate the profound risk Charles Darwin took in publishing his theory of evolution. How and why would a quiet, respectable gentleman, a pillar of his parish, produce one of the most radical ideas in the history of human thought? Drawing on a wealth of manuscripts, family letters, diaries, and even ships’ logs, Adrian Desmond and James Moore have restored the moral missing link to the story of Charles Darwin’s historic achievement. Nineteenth-century apologists for slavery argued that blacks and whites had originated as separate species, with whites created superior. Darwin, however, believed that the races belonged to the same human family. Slavery was therefore a sin, and abolishing it became Darwin’s sacred cause. His theory of evolution gave a common ancestor not only to all races, but to all biological life. This “masterful” book restores the missing moral core of Darwin’s evolutionary universe, providing a completely new account of how he came to his shattering theories about human origins (Publishers Weekly, starred review). It will revolutionize your view of the great naturalist. “An illuminating new book.” —Smithsonian “Compelling . . . Desmond and Moore aptly describe Darwin’s interaction with some of the thorniest social and political issues of the day.” —Wired “This exciting book is sure to create a stir.” —Janet Browne, Aramont Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University, and author of Charles Darwin: Voyaging

The Plausibility of Future Scenarios

Author : Ricarda Schmidt-Scheele
Publisher : transcript Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3839453194
Total Pages : 265 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (394 download)

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Book Synopsis The Plausibility of Future Scenarios by : Ricarda Schmidt-Scheele

Download or read book The Plausibility of Future Scenarios written by Ricarda Schmidt-Scheele and published by transcript Verlag. This book was released on 2020-07-31 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does plausibility mean in relation to scenario planning and how do users of scenarios assess it? Despite the concept's ubiquity, its epistemological and empirical foundations remain unexplored in previous research. Ricarda Schmidt-Scheele offers an interdisciplinary perspective: she presents approaches from philosophy of sciences, cognitive psychology, narrative theory and linguistics, and tests key hypotheses in an experimental study. A conceptual map lays out indicators for scenario plausibility and explains how assessments vary across scenario methods. This helps researchers and practitioners to better understand the implications of their methodological choices in scenario development.