Friday, January 26, 2007
Current Books on Stem Cells Part 2 (January 2007)
Three more books on stem cells from the 'Evolution Research - Amazon Book Shop/Store' (links at the end of the post):
Embryonic Stem Cells: A Practical Approach
Edited by Elena Notarianni and Martin J. Evans
Book Description
The groundbreaking isolation of embryonic stem cells (or 'ES cells') of the mouse in the early 1980s triggered a sustained expansion of global research into their exploitation. This led to the routine genetic engineering of the mouse and revolutionised our understanding of biological processes in the context of the whole animal. ES cell biology remains a crucial and growing area of research with far-reaching implications for developmental and comparative biology as well as for human health.
This book serves as a primer to ES cells, their derivation and experimental manipulation. It contains a broad compendium of methods of direct relevance to both graduate students and specialist researchers. An introductory chapter by the principle originator of ES cell research outlines the fundamentals and charts the development of the field. This is followed by comprehensive coverage of state-of-the art techniques for ES cell manipulation, with the mouse as the experimental paradigm, and by recent innovations with ES cells from human and non-human primates. ES cell-based therapies for otherwise intractable diseases are now being developed with the present challenge to control ES cell growth and differentiation for application such as cell transplantation - a recurrent theme in this book. As a volume in the Practical Approach Series (Oxford University Press), the emphasis is on current methods from recognised experts.
About the Author
Dr. Elena Notarianni graduated in Biochemistry from Oxford University, and gained a PhD in Virology from Glasgow University. She then joined Professor Evans's laboratory in Cambridge University, and derived ES cells from ungulate species. This work lead to the recognition that ES cells from ungulates differ from those of the mouse in their growth and morphology, as was shown subsequently also for human ES cells. Elena Notarianni continues to work on techniques for ES cell isolation, and on mechanisms of differentiation.
-------
The Stem Cell Divide: The Facts, the Fiction, And the Fear Driving the Greatest Scientific, Political And Religious Debate of Our Time
By Michael Bellomo
Book Description
There has been much recent debate about the merits, dangers, and nature of stem cell research. Some see in it the answer to every debilitating disease known to man, while others see it as a step away from human cloning.
While the battle has raged, research is moving ahead, and California has already passed a measure that will give $3 billion in support to stem cell research. But as politics, religion, and the media weigh in on this complex issue, more and more of the scientific reality of stem cell research is getting lost. In the search for the truth about stem cell science, the author has interviewed the scientists whose cutting-edge research is at the very heart of this hot-button issue. The book explains what they have accomplished so far, what they're currently doing, and what they see on the horizon.
The Stem Cell Divide does not take sides, and the author debunks the distortions and exaggerations that come from every camp. This book does not tell readers what to think, but gives them the facts necessary to form their own opinions about one of the most divisive, complex, and potentially life-changing developments in history.
About the Author
Michael Bellomo (Los Angeles, CA) works in biopharmaceuticals for Baxter Bioscience, a 4,000-person company dedicated to the creation of new medical and cellular-based technologies. He is the coauthor of Microbe: Are We Ready for the Next Plague?
See "Authors fight misinformation on stem cell science" from the Harvard University Gazette
-------
Tissue Stem Cells
Edited by Christopher S. Potten, Robert B. Clarke, James Wilson, Andrew G. Renehan
Book Description
Tissue stem cells and their medical applications have become a major focus of research over the past decade. With 16 full-color illustrations, this reference provides a thorough and up-to-date overview of the current and emerging technologies for stem cell research and transplantation. Divided into three sections covering general issues, adult stem cells within specific tissues, and clinical applications, this source studies advances in bone marrow transplantation, cancer development modeling, tumor analysis, and gene therapy.
-------
Related posts:
"Current Books on Stem Cells Part 1 (January 2007)"
"Stem Cell Wars: Inside Stories from the Frontline (Review /Video)"
Technorati: stem cells, embryonic, practical, approach, book, description, es, cells, global, genetic, engineering, mouse, biology, human, health, primer, cell, author, biochemistry, stem, debate, disease, books, history, microbe, plague, science, harvard, cancer, gene, therapy, review, video
Add to: CiteUlike | Connotea | Del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Newsvine | Reddit | Yahoo
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Current Books on Astronomy Part 1 (January 2007)
A first selection of books on Astronomy available from the 'Evolution Research - Amazon Book Shop/Store' (links at the end of the post):
State of the Universe 2007: New Images, Discoveries, and Events
By Martin Ratcliffe
Fascinating developments in the understanding of our origins, of the early beginnings of the Universe, of how planets are formed, and how stars live out their lives and die occur every month. Each new result adds a tiny piece to the jigsaw puzzle, leading the way to a fuller and more complete understanding of the Universe around us. Rarely are such details offered in one place - until now. State of the Universe 2007 fills the gap between research and everyday news.
State of the Universe 2007 by Martin Ratcliffe provides an astronomy review suitable for the popular science level reader. The first annual in a new series, this book covers all major astronomical news on topics beyond the Solar System and places them in the context of the longer term goals of astronomers and astrophysicists. The aim is to capture the excitement and vibrancy of modern astronomical research.
Ratcliffe presents a complete list of the major announcements, discoveries and news items from each year. The January meeting of the American Astronomical Society each year will be the major source of astronomical news for the following year's volume. The regular features include an annual chronological list of the latest discoveries announced during the previous twelve months, a review of the major news stories of the year with the main characters, a list of launches of major astronomical observatories/satellites during the past year, and much more. The latest from the BadAstronomy website by Dr. Phil Plait is also included.
Martin Ratcliffe is a regular contributor to Astronomy Now and Astronomy magazine and is the author of Night Sky Deck, a kit for stargazers. He has served as Planetarium Director of Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh, USA and is currently director of the Boeing CyberDome Theater in Wichita, USA. He writes and produces planetarium shows for general public. He has worked as a consultant for various TV series, filmed two total eclipses of the Sun, and maintains an extensive contact network with public information and press officers of all US national observatories and NASA astronomical centers. [Source: Springer Press Release]
-------
Astronomy Today (5th Edition)
By Eric Chaisson, Steve McMillan
Book Description
Chaisson/McMillan's writing style and pedagogically driven art program are recognized as being scientifically accurate yet accessible to non-science majors. The integrated media program contains the market's only E-book. It provides readers with innovative and interactive tools to learn and test their understanding of astronomy concepts. Topics covered include Astronomy and the Universe, Our Planetay System, Stars and Stellar Evolution, Galaxies and Cosmology, and more. For one or two-semester introductory astronomy course.
Content changes from the 4th Edition (Source: Prentice Hall):
Thoroughly updated Chapter 5 - Reflects recent discoveries and innovations, such as Telescope Design in Section 5.1
Introduction to solar system formation added to Chapter 6 - Sets the stage for the planetary chapters (p. 144-45).
Reorganized Chapter 22 - Expands the historical development of Special Relativity and General Relativity.
More contemporary coverage in Chapters 24 and 25 - Reorganizes material to emphasize the connection between normal and active galaxies, and expands the discussion of black holes in galactic nuclei.
Updates include new discoveries and data, including:
New material in Chapter 7 on the Ozone Hole and Global Warming.
Expanded coverage in Chapters 6 and 10 of the most recent missions to Mars.
Updates in Chapter 10 on Martian oppositions, gullies, oceans, and ice.
Final update on the Galileo/GEM mission in Chapter 11.
Updated discussion of solar system formation in Chapter 15; expanded coverage of competing theories, planet migration, planetesimal ejection, plutinos, and the angular momentum problem.
Latest results in Chapter 23 on Sgr A* and the Galaxy's central black hole. This chapter also includes a new discussion of the Shapley-Curtis debate giving historical context to the "Measuring the Milky Way" section.
Extensive revision of Chapters 26 and 27 to include the most recent observations of cosmic acceleration and discussion of "dark energy"
Revised discussions of the cosmological constant and the age of the universe; results from the CBI and WMAP experiments suggesting a flat universe.
Updated coverage of Europa, Mars, interstellar organic molecules, extra solar planets, and SETI in Chapter 28.
-------
A related post:
"The Astrobiology Primer: An Outline of General Knowledge (Open Access/Free)"
Books on Astronomy from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US
Telescopes ('Scopes') can be found in the Electronics section of the Shop/Store
Technorati: books, book, store, shop, amazon, astronomy, evolution, research, state, universe, origins, planets, annual, science, review, solar system, news, now, magazine, planetarium, usa, nasa, today, media, stars, stellar, cosmology, telescopes, galileo, gem, mission, galaxy, seti, astrobiology, primer, europa, mars, milky way
Add to: CiteUlike | Connotea | Del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Newsvine | Reddit | Yahoo
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Current Books on Stem Cells Part 1 (January 2007)
A first selection of books on stem cells available from the 'Evolution Research - Amazon Book Shop/Store' (links at the end of the post):
Essentials of Stem Cell Biology
By Robert Lanza, E. Donnall Thomas, James Thomson, and Roger Pedersen
Book Description
This abridged version of the bestselling reference Handbook of Stem Cells, Two-Volume Set (see below) attempts to incorporate all the essential subject matter of the original two-volume edition in a single volume. The material has been reworked in an accessible format suitable for students and general readers interested in following the latest advances in stem cells, including full color presentation throughout. Although some extra language and chapters have been deleted, rigorous effort has been made to retain from the original two-volume set the material pertinent to the understanding of this exciting area of biology.
The organization of the book remains largely unchanged, combining the prerequisites for a general understanding of adult and embryonic stem cells; the tools, methods, and experimental protocols needed to study and characterize stem cells and progenitor populations; as well as a presentation by the world's experts of what is currently known about each specific organ system.
* Full-color presentation througout
* Each chapter begins with 3-5 defined glossary terms, and all of the terms are collected in a comprehensive list within the book
* References have been eliminated - now there are about 10 bibliographic entries per chapter
-------
Handbook of Stem Cells, Two-Volume Set with CD-ROM, Volume 1-2: Volume 1-Embryonic Stem Cells; Volume 2-Adult and Fetal Stem Cells
Book Description
New discoveries in the field of stem cell research have frequently appeared in the news and in scientific literature. Research in this area promises to lead to new therapies for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and a wide variety of other diseases.
The editors of the Handbook of Stem Cells include: Robert Lanza, Helen Blau, John Gearhart, Brigid Hogan, Douglas Melton, Malcolm Moore, Roger Pedersen, E. Donnall Thomas, James Thomson, Catherine Verfaillie, Irving Weissman, and Michael West. The Editorial Board includes: W. French Anderson, Peter Andrews, Anthony Atala, Jose Cibelli, Giulio Cossu, Robert Edwards, Martin Evans, Elaine Fuchs, Margaret Fuller, Fred Gage, Richard Gardner, Margaret Goodell, Ronald Green, William Haseltine, Joseph Itskovitz-Eldor, Rudolf Jaenisch, Ihor Lemischka, Dame Anne McLaren, Richard Mulligan, Stuart Orkin, Martin Pera, Benjamin Reubinoff, Janet Rossant, Hans Scholer, Austin Smith, Evan Snyder, Davor Solter, Alan Trounson, and Leonard Zon.
This comprehensive set should be a much-needed addition to the library of students and researchers alike.
* Provides comprehensive coverage on this highly topical subject
* Contains contributions by the foremost authorities and premiere names in the field of stem cell research
* The accompanying CD-ROM includes over 250 color figures
Amazon quote the following reviews:
"The Handbook of Stem Cells, edited by Robert Lanza and colleagues, is an ambitious new text that achieves extraordinary completeness and inclusiveness...the editors have succeeded in putting together a reference that is broad enough in scope, but sufficiently detailed and rigorous, to be of real interest to both new and seasoned investigators in the field." Steve Goldman, University of Rochester Medical Center, in Nature Cell Biology (April 2005, Volume 7, No. 4)
"I am firmly convinced this is a set every biologist and physician, whatsoever his specialty, must have on his desk." Carlo Alberto Redi, Book review editor for the European Journal Of Histochemistry (49/1)
"...a collection of definitive articles by the world's experts... the research outlined in this volume is equally certain to contribute to cures for cancer and for a large number of other less famous diseases - many of mysterious origin - that presently represent terrible afflictions for humanity." Bruce Alberts, President of the National Academy of Sciences (from the Foreword to Volume 1)
"These books make an invaluable contribution to the education of researchers and clinicians both of the present day and of the future. They should be available in libraries of all biology and medical schools as well as those of companies and research institutions." Ian Wilmut in Times Higher Education Supplement
"...the Handbook of Stem Cells is highly recommended primarily as a reference for scientists in the field of animal development...Academic medical libraries and other academic or special libraries serving researchers in cell and developmental biology will particularly benefit from having this handbook available." Susan Kendall, Health Sciences Librarian, Michigan State University Library in E-Streams (February 2005)
-------
A recent post:
"Stem Cell Wars: Inside Stories from the Frontline (Review /Video)"
Books on Stem Cells from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US
Technorati: selection, books, stem cells, evolution, research, amazon, book, shop, store, stem, cell, biology, embryonic, organ, system, adult, fetal, desription, handbook, national, academy, sciences, developmental, wars, video, science, bookshop, nature
Add to: CiteUlike | Connotea | Del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Newsvine | Reddit | Yahoo
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Current Books on Intelligent Design Part 4 (January 2007)
The fourth selection of books on Intelligent Design/ID available from the 'Evolution Research - Amazon Book Shop/Store'. More books are available either via the "Intelligent Design" sidebar links (if you are reading this on a webpage) or by RSS links (if you are using a reader) at the end of the post:
Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds
By Phillip E. Johnson
Book Description
For decades, Christians have felt voiceless in the critical debate over evolution. Until now. Finally, ordinary Christians have the opportunity and the resources to defeat the false claims of Darwinism.With all of the complicated scientific debate swirling around the topic of evolution, Christians need an easy way to understand the basic issues without oversimplifying. Phillip Johnson has the answer: the key to defeating the false claims of Darwinism is to open our minds to good thinking habits. Here is first-rate advice on avoiding common mistakes in discussions about evolution, understanding the legacy of the Scopes trial, spotting deceptive arguments, and grasping the basic scientific issues without getting bogged down in unnecessary details.In the bestselling and critically acclaimed Darwin on Trial and Reason in the Balance, Phillip Johnson took on the academic elites and exposed the misleading claims of evolutionary naturalism. Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds provides a new and powerful treatment of these issues for high-school students, parents, teachers, pastors, youth advisors and ordinary readers. Johnson aims not just to defeat a bad theory, but to defeat it in the right way-by opening minds to the truth. (Voted one of Christianity Today's 1998 Books of the Year)
Extract from "Berkeley's Radical: An Interview with Phillip E. Johnson" (Touchstone Journal):
Phillip Johnson: ...The problem with rationalism is that it isn’t rational. It fails to give sufficient importance to the development of the choice of the right premises; it tries to justify them by circular reasoning. Once I was alert to that distinction, I was able to critique the things that previously I felt I had to take for granted.
Such as?
Phillip Johnson: Eventually, the theory of evolution. Remember that my interest was in finding out whether the Christian gospel was rational. Of course, it wasn’t rational by the standards of the academic world. One of the good things about the Christian life was that it opened up a whole world of intellectual input that previously had been closed to me. I began to understand what was actually wrong with the academic culture, and to put a name on my uneasiness. It was the seed of what would later be a full-blown critique of Darwinism. It "evolved" in a directed and purposeful manner!
The Phillip Johnson website contains biographical, book and speaking schedule information along with links to a number of articles including "What is Darwinism?":
There is a popular television game show called "Jeopardy," in which the usual order of things is reversed. Instead of being asked a question to which they must supply the answer, the contestants are given the answer and asked to provide the appropriate question. This format suggests an insight that is applicable to law, to science, and indeed to just about everything. The important thing is not necessarily to know all the answers, but rather to know what question is being asked.
That insight is the starting point for my inquiry into Darwinian evolution and its relationship to creation, because Darwinism is the answer to two very different kinds of questions. First, Darwinian theory tells us how a certain amount of diversity in life forms can develop once we have various types of complex living organisms already in existence. If a small population of birds happens to migrate to an isolated island, for example, a combination of inbreeding, mutation, and natural selection may cause this isolated population to develop different characteristics from those possessed by the ancestral population on the mainland. When the theory is understood in this limited sense, Darwinian evolution is uncontroversial, and has no important philosophical or theological implications.
Evolutionary biologists are not content merely to explain how variation occurs within limits, however. They aspire to answer a much broader question-which is how complex organisms like birds, and flowers, and human beings came into existence in the first place. The Darwinian answer to this second question is that the creative force that produced complex plants and animals from single-celled predecessors over long stretches of geological time is essentially the same as the mechanism that produces variations in flowers, insects, and domestic animals before our very eyes. In the words of Ernst Mayr, the dean of living Darwinists, "transspecific evolution [i.e., macroevolution] is nothing but an extrapolation and magnification of the events that take place within populations and species." Neo-Darwinian evolution in this broad sense is a philosophical doctrine so lacking in empirical support that Mayr's successor at Harvard, Stephen Jay Gould, once pronounced it in a reckless moment to be "effectively dead."
See "'Darwin on Trial' by Phillip E. Johnson: 1st Edition Open Access Book"
-------
Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design
By Barbara Forrest, Paul R. Gross
Book Description
Forrest and Gross expose the scientific failure, the religious essence, and the political ambitions of "intelligent design" creationism. They examine the movement's "Wedge Strategy," which has advanced and is succeeding through public relations rather than through scientific research. Analyzing the content and character of "intelligent design theory," they highlight its threat to public education and to the separation of church and state.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. How the Wedge Began
2. The Wedge Document: A Design for Design
3. Search for the Science
4. Paleontology Lite and Copernical Discoverie
5. A Conspiracy Hunter and a Newton
6. Everything Except Science I
7. Everything Except Science II
8. Wedging into Power Politics
9. Religion First - and Last
Amazon review info:
"This is the definitive work on modern creationism, an exhaustively detailed and compelling exposure of the attempt - by the well-known process in nature called by biologists "aggressive mimicry" - to corrupt science in the service of sectarian religion. In the process, the book explores the larger and seemingly endless struggle between religion-based tribal values and science-based universal values." - Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor, Emeritus, Harvard University.
"Creationism's Trojan Horse documents the disturbing movement to sneak religious dogma back into science education, driven by the vague fear that Americans can't handle the truth. Educators, scientists, and politicians would do well to understand this movement and its tactics, and this book is a superb and timely analysis." - Steven Pinker, Johnston Professor, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works and The Blank Slate
"Intelligent Design 'theory' (ID) has been well described as Creationism in a cheap Tuxedo. One if its luminaries, we are told, has 'angrily denied that ID is stealth creationism.' He is right. There's no stealth about it. It is Creationism. Unfortunately, ID 'theorists' have a streetwise political professionalism to outweigh the amateurishness of their science, and we therefore cannot ignore them. Barbara Forrest and Paul Gross meticulously document their pretensions, destroy their arguments, and expose their true motivation. An excellent and sadly necessary book." - Richard Dawkins.
Excerpt from the Introduction:
Until a few years ago, "scientific" creationism was led by biblical literalists like Duane Gish and Henry Morris, whose Bible-thumping and logic-chopping were easy to discount, even for ordinary (nonscience) journalists, by exposing the obvious errors of fact and logic - independently of the gross errors of actual science. But those old-timers have now been eclipsed by a new brand of creationists who have absorbed a part of their following: the new boys are intelligent design promoters, mainly those associated with the Discovery Institute's Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture (now Center for Science and Culture), based in Seattle, Washington. This group operates under a detailed and ambitious plan of action: "The Wedge." Through relentlessly energetic programs of publication, conferences, and public appearances, all aimed at impressing lay audiences and political people, the Wedge is working its way into the American cultural mainstream.
Also see:
"Current Books on Intelligent Design Part 1 (January 2007)"
"Current Books on Intelligent Design Part 2 (January 2007)"
"Current Books on Intelligent Design Part 3 (January 2007)"
Technorati: intelligent design, evolution, research, amazon, book, books, shop, store, darwinism, phillip johnson, scopes, trial, darwin, christianity, interview, review, creationism, wedge, theory, scientific, science, steven pinker, richard dawkins, religion, discovery, institute, culture, center, bible, harvard, university, amazon, darwinian
Add to: CiteUlike | Connotea | Del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Newsvine | Reddit | Yahoo
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Guns, Germs and Steel: A short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years
Guns, Germs and Steel: A short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years
By Jared M. Diamond - Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Book Review
Life isn't fair - here's why: Since 1500, Europeans have, for better and worse, called the tune that the world has danced to. In Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond explains the reasons why things worked out that way. It is an elemental question, and Diamond is certainly not the first to ask it. However, he performs a singular service by relying on scientific fact rather than specious theories of European genetic superiority. Diamond, a professor of physiology at UCLA, suggests that the geography of Eurasia was best suited to farming, the domestication of animals and the free flow of information. The more populous cultures that developed as a result had more complex forms of government and communication--and increased resistance to disease. Finally, fragmented Europe harnessed the power of competitive innovation in ways that China did not. (For example, the Europeans used the Chinese invention of gunpowder to create guns and subjugate the New World.) Diamond's book is complex and a bit overwhelming. But the thesis he methodically puts forth - examining the "positive feedback loop" of farming, then domestication, then population density, then innovation, and on and on - makes sense. Written without bias, Guns, Germs, and Steel is good global history.
-------
Extract of an interview with Jared Diamond from the PBS Guns, Germs and Steel website:
Question: When you set out to write Guns, Germs and Steel what was it you actually wanted to prove?
Jared Diamond: When I set out to write Guns, Germs and Steel I wasn't trying to prove anything, but I was trying to answer a question; the biggest question of history - why history unfolded differently on the different continents over the last 13 thousand years and the usual answer to this question is the answer that racists come up with; they say its because some people are superior to other people. What we found is that the answer doesn't have anything to do with people and it has everything to do with people's environments.
Q: In what sense?
JD: The answer has to do with peoples' environments especially in the first place because of the differences in the availability of wild plants and animals suitable for domestication, lots of them in a few areas like the fertile crescent in China and virtually none of them in other areas like the western United States or sub equatorial Africa. Another difference had to do with the shapes and orientations of the continents - those are perhaps the two biggest factors contributing to the explanation.
Q: So we're in Africa at moment and it's basically known as the world's basket case, it has the world's worst poverty rate and all the rest of it... Is there anything in the book that can actually help Africa?
JD: Is there anything in my book that can help Africa? I think so yes; I'd say the message of my book is that understanding can help us. There are things in this story that can make a difference to the lives of Africans. We've seen that the economic relative underdevelopment of Africa has nothing to do with African people but it has to do with some very specific factors; tropical agriculture; the history of tropical crops; the tropical disease burden and the history of colonialism - and once you understand these things you can do something about them. For example, one of the messages is, a high priority is to invest in public health; there are other tropical parts of the world like Africa that recognise the public health burden and they invested massively in public health and they are the countries that have grown the most rapidly economically in the last forty years. That's a hopeful message.
-------
Extracts/Excerpt from Chapter 11 of Guns, Germs and Steel:
The major killers of humanity throughout our recent history - smallpox, flu, tuberculosis, malaria, plague, measles, and cholera - are infectious diseases that evolved from diseases of animals, even though most of the microbes responsible for our own epidemic illnesses are paradoxically now almost confined to humans.
Questions of the animal origins of human disease lie behind the broadest pattern of human history, and behind some of the most important issues in human health today. (Think of AIDS, an explosively spreading human disease that appears to have evolved from a virus resident in wild African monkeys.)
Microbes have evolved diverse ways of spreading from one person to another, and from animals to people ... Some microbes ... hitchhike [a ride] in the saliva of an insect that bites the host and flies off to find a new host. The free ride may be provided by mosquitoes, fleas, lice, or tsetse flies [or ticks] that spread malaria, plague, typhus, or sleeping sickness [or Lyme disease], respectively.
To sustain themselves [acute infectious diseases] need a human population that is sufficiently numerous, and sufficiently densely packed, that a numerous new crop of susceptible children is available for infection by the time the disease would otherwise be waning. Hence measles and similar diseases are also known as crowd diseases.
Crowd diseases could not sustain themselves in small bands of hunter-gatherers and slash-and-burn farmers ... [but] could have arisen only with the build-up of large, dense human populations. That build-up began with the rise of agriculture starting about 10,000 years ago and then accelerated with the rise of cities starting several thousand years ago. Among animals, too, epidemic diseases require large, dense populations and don’t afflict just any animal: they’re confined mainly to social animals providing the necessary large populations. Hence when we domesticated social animals, such as cows and pigs, they were already afflicted by epidemic diseases just waiting to be transferred to us. ... The close similarity of the measles virus to the rinderpest virus suggests that the latter transferred from cattle to humans and then evolved into the measles virus by changing its properties to adapt to us. ... Our intimacy with cattle has been going on for the 9,000 years since we domesticated them - ample time for the rinderpest virus to discover us nearby.
-------
Jared Diamond on The Paula Gordon Show (Audio Excerpt):
"Dr. Diamond believes that the biggest question facing us in the world today is the explosion of human population. He tells us why we have 40 years to solve the problems associated with this explosion. He describes the alternative to getting the population explosion and destructive technology under control - our own children and grandchildren inhabiting a world not worth living in. He takes hope in humans' ability to learn from mistakes, to communicate what we know, and to act. He gives examples. He describes powerful, practical implications of China's early unification versus Europe's inability to consolidate, suggesting that all levels of human endeavor profit when more than one solution is available in the face of complicated challenges."
-------
More book reviews by The New York Times (may require free registration), J. Bradford DeLong (Professor of Economics at the University of California at Berkeley), and Michael Levin (Department of Philosophy of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York).
See "The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S. (Paperback))" in the post "Evolution Books for Christmas (UK) [1]"
Technorati: guns, germs, steel, history, jared, m, diamond, winner, pulitzer, prize, ucla, physiology, geography, farming, domestication, animals, resistance, disease, government, communication, china, gunpowder, united states, africa, tropical, colonialism, humanity, smallpox, flu, aids, microbes, epidemic, human, population, explosion, evolution, new york times, philosophy
Add to: CiteUlike | Connotea | Del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Newsvine | Reddit | Yahoo
Current Books on 'Popular Psychology' Part 1 (January 2007)
A first selection of two 'popular' books on Psychology from the 'Evolution Research - Amazon Book Shop/Store' (links at the end of the post):
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
By Malcolm Gladwell
Book Description
"The best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life," writes Malcolm Gladwell, "is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do." Although anyone familiar with the theory of memetics will recognize this concept, Gladwell's The Tipping Point has quite a few interesting twists on the subject.
For example, Paul Revere was able to galvanize the forces of resistance so effectively in part because he was what Gladwell calls a "Connector": he knew just about everybody, particularly the revolutionary leaders in each of the towns that he rode through. But Revere "wasn't just the man with the biggest Rolodex in colonial Boston," he was also a "Maven" who gathered extensive information about the British. He knew what was going on and he knew exactly whom to tell. The phenomenon continues to this day - think of how often you've received information in an e-mail message that had been forwarded at least half a dozen times before reaching you.
Gladwell develops these and other concepts (such as the "stickiness" of ideas or the effect of population size on information dispersal) through simple, clear explanations and entertainingly illustrative anecdotes, such as comparing the pedagogical methods of Sesame Street and Blue's Clues, or explaining why it would be even easier to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with the actor Rod Steiger. Although some readers may find the transitional passages between chapters hold their hands a little too tightly, and Gladwell's closing invocation of the possibilities of social engineering sketchy, even chilling, The Tipping Point is one of the most effective books on science for a general audience in ages. It seems inevitable that "tipping point," like "future shock" or "chaos theory," will soon become one of those ideas that everybody knows - or at least knows by name.
Read The New York Times Book Review and Chapter 1 of The Tipping Point
See "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (Review/ Excerpt/ Audio)"
-------
Emotions Revealed: Understanding Faces and Feelings
By Paul Ekman* (bio)
Book Description
Psychologist and author of Emotions Revealed, Paul Ekman has been studying emotion for over 40 years specialising in the expression, and more recently on the physiology, of emotion. It shows. Emotions Revealed focuses on the universal emotions - the ones experienced by all human beings and for which there are clear universal expressions (sadness, anger, surprise, fear, disgust, contempt and enjoyment). The goal of the book is to help the reader better understand and improve their emotional lives in practical ways.
The fascinating opening chapter describes the history and development of Ekman's research and things just get more and more interesting as we get closer to the emotions themselves. He leads us to the big questions: Why do we become emotional when we do? What triggers each of our emotions and how and when we can change what we become emotional? Will emotion always, somehow (in a "micro-expression" perhaps) reveal itself? Ekman also explains how we can become more attentive to our emotions as we have them and so increase the possibility of behaving in emotionally more constructive ways.
Having prepared the territory Ekman then moves to physiological ground explaining that each emotion has unique signals, most readily identified in the face and voice, that generate a unique pattern of sensations in our body. By becoming better acquainted with those sensations we may become aware early enough in our emotional response that we have some chance to choose, if we like, whether to go along or interfere with the emotion. We are also made aware of the connection this process has to the Buddhist practice and ideal of "mindfulness" through Ekman's discussions with the Dalai Lama. The appendix contains a set of photographs designed to test our skill at spotting the subtlest signs of the various emotions which the reader is advised to take before beginning the book.
Synopsis
Using 40 years of groundbreaking research, Paul Ekman explores why and when we become emotional and what happens when we do - the external signs and facial expressions. So much of what we communicate is non-verbal. In this very practical book, Paul Ekman helps the reader to observe the underlying, concealed emotions that we can observe in those around us, and understand why our bodies react in the ways they do. Emotions Revealed also helps the reader to identify why they might feel 'overly' emotional in some situations, and why some people wear their heart on their sleeve whilst others manage to conceal their feelings, even from those close to them. Chapters include 'when do we get emotional?' 'Changing what we become emotional about' as well as 'Anger' 'Fear', 'Surpise' and 'Happiness'. Most importantly, it shows how we can apply this understanding to everyday situations to improve our quality of life.
*Paul Ekman is author of "Facial Expression and Emotion" published by American Psychologist in 1993:
"Cross-cultural research on facial expression and the developments of methods to measure facial expression are briefly summarized. What has been learned about emotion from this work on the face is then elucidated. Four questions about facial expression and emotion are discussed. What information does an expression typically convey? Can there be emotion without facial expression? Can there be a facial expression of emotion without emotion? How do individuals differ in their facial expressions of emotion?"
-------
See Face to Face: The Science of Reading Faces (text or video):
"Welcome to a Conversation with History. I'm Harry Kreisler of the Institute of International Studies. Our guest today is Paul Ekman, who is a professor of psychology at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California Medical School in San Francisco. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association. He's the author of fourteen books; most recently, Emotions Revealed."
-------
Recent posts:
"Current Books on Social Intelligence Part 1 (January 2007)"
"'In Search of Memory' by Eric Kandel (Interview + Audio)"
"Mind Over Matter - A Review of 'The Emotion Machine'"
Books on Psychology from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US
Technorati: selection, books, book, popular, psychology, amazon, book, shop, store, tipping point, malcolm gladwell, bestsellers, ideas, products, paul revere, boston, connector, maven, rod steiger, social, engineering, science, blink, emotions, review, audio, excerpt, video, american, psychologist, paul, ekman, psychiatry, revealed, intelligence, dalai lama, history
Add to: CiteUlike | Connotea | Del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Newsvine | Reddit | Yahoo
Stem Cell Wars: Inside Stories from the Frontline (Review /Video)
Stem Cell Wars: Inside Stories from the Frontline
By Eve Herold*
According to stem cell research expert Eve Herold, the general public have become the victims of misinformation about this essential science. Over the last few years, the stem cell debate has been intensely political, religious, global, and confusing to many people. Now, Herold explains to a general audience what this science is all about, who is for and against it, and why it must go forward. In this startling book, Herold pulls together fascinating stories to highlight every aspect of this multifaceted field. She exposes the politics of stem cell research and demonstrates how these forces will intimately affect everyone. Packed with real-life stories of the people caught up in this groundbreaking struggle, Stem Cell Wars is a call to arms that will provoke debate and discussion for years to come.
Watch Eve Herold on Comedy Central's "The Today Show with John Stewart": Part 1 | Part 2
Amazon Review info:
"Comprehensive and concise, Stem Cell Wars provides an indispensable primer for anyone interested in what promises to be the most significant medical science breakthrough in our lifetime. It should also serve as a timely antidote to the politically inspired misinformation surrounding this important issue." Ron Reagan
"Eve Herold is a latter-day Edward R. Murrow. She's everywhere at once: behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, beside the scientists and the suffering patients they hope to save, even to South Korea where a fraud of historic proportions threatened to end the great promise of regenerative medicine. Her sympathies are unwaveringly with the patients - whose stories are the warm heart of this timely and disturbing book." Daniel Perry, Past President, Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, and Executive Director, Alliance for Aging Research
"Herold is an eyewitness to history. She chronicles the battle of patients and researchers to advance the greatest medical breakthrough of our lifetimes in this highly readable account of the rancorous public policy debate that has become the #1 wedge issue in American politics. As part of the chronicle of the world stem cell debate, Herold presents the inside story of Woo Suk Hwang and the Korean cloning scandal, and supplies the shocking details about the misconduct that rocked all of medical science." Bernard Siegel, Executive Director, Genetics Policy Institute
"Herold's reporter-like style is effective as she shifts through various layers of the science and the social and religious controversies and provides an easily followed time frame of the major discoveries and events over the past decade in stem cell research, including the most recent revelation of scientific fraud in producing patient-specific embryonic stem cells. The issues with stem cell research are complex and Eve Herold is successful in presenting them in an easily understood fashion." John Gearhart, Johns Hopkins Medicine (see Institute for NanoBioTechnology)
"An outstanding science writer, Herold makes the issues clear in a fascinatingly readable style. Engaging and clearly written, a must-have book..." Don C. Reed, Chairman, Californians for Cures
Stem Cell Wars is available from Amazon Astore UK | US)
-------
Stem Cell Wars reveals a number of untold stories about the stem cell policy wars, including:
The inside story of the Bush Administration and the religious right's attempt to ban stem cell research (nuclear transfer) worldwide by global treaty in the United Nations and how they almost pulled it off, but for the surprising fight waged by determined grassroots stem cell activists.
A minority of religious organizations have created the illusion that being anti-research is the only view of the religious community. Nothing could be further from the truth.
How social-conservative organizations are turning the U.S. into a second-tier nation in scientific research.
What the anti-stem cell research activists don't want you to know: that embryonic stem cell research could go forward full steam ahead without there ever being another abortion.
-------
Read a review of Stem Cell Wars:
"Over the eight year history of human embryonic stem cell research, many have come to realize the potential, many understand the impact, but nobody has offered a broadly based, comprehensive assembly of information, critical to patients and their families. That is until now."
-------
*Eve Herold is Director of Public Policy Research and Education at the Genetics Policy Institute:
"Leading the global cause of stem cell research"
The Genetics Policy Institute (GPI) is the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to establishing a positive legal framework to advance stem cell research. GPI maintains science and legal advisory boards comprised of leading stem cell researchers, disease experts, ethicists and legal experts and a dedicated full-time staff of policy experts that are available to educate the public and media on stem cell issues.
Hundreds of millions of people worldwide suffer from diseases, injuries and birth defects that could potentially be cured through stem cell treatments. These conditions include cancer, heart disease, ALS, spinal cord injury, osteoarthritis, diabetes, blindness, AIDS, brain injury, severe burns, autoimmune disease, kidney, liver and lung disease, and many others. In fact, any disease that involves the degeneration or death of some type of specialized cell could possibly benefit from stem cell transplants.
Funding restrictions in the United States and proposals to ban and criminalize aspects of the research have created major roadblocks to the advancement of potentially lifesaving treatments. GPI leads the charge to defend the rights of patients and for the preservation of scientific freedom against well-funded opposition groups.
GPI is the catalyst of the "Pro-Cures Movement," a global coalition of pro-research stakeholders. Through GPI's meetings, publications, press relations, web site, speaker's bureau and teaching initiatives, GPI educates the public, media and key decision-makers on critical issues. We analyze the law and regulations relating to all aspects of regenerative medicine with an eye to removing bottlenecks, while maintaining rigorous ethical oversight.
The Genetics Policy Institute was the principal global organizer of a coalition that successfully defended vital stem cell research against an anti-research United Nations treaty, which sought to impose a worldwide ban on somatic cell nuclear transfer. GPI convened the world's preeminent scientists for a conference at the UN to educate the delegations about stem cell issues. We organized landmark summits of scientists, bioethicists and advocacy groups at Baylor College of Medicine and Stanford University where we formulated strategies to promote the cause.
GPI's special educational project is the Student Society for Stem Cell Research (SSSCR), which started with a single university student in 2003 and has grown into a network of more than 1,500 students in 15 countries, 35 states and 20 chapters at colleges and universities. Each chapter of SSSCR creates educational programming on the promise of stem cell research.
-------
Recent posts on Stem Cells:
"Scientists discover stage at which an embryonic cell is fated to become a stem cell"
"How does a zebrafish grow a new tail?"
-------
Books on Stem Cells from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US
Technorati: stem, cell, research, eve, herold, wars, frontline, science, religious, global, debate, book, comedy central, today, amazon, review, primer, medical, history, breakthrough, genetics, policy, institute, ban, united nations, abortion, books, embryonic, books, science, bookshop, evolution, medicine, video
Add to: CiteUlike | Connotea | Del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Newsvine | Reddit | Yahoo
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Current Books on Global Warming Part 2 (January 2007)
A second selection of three books on Global Warming available from the 'Evolution Research - Amazon Book Shop/Store' (links at the end of the post):
Global Warming: The Complete Briefing
By John T. Houghton
Synopsis
Global warming and the resulting climate change is one of the most serious environmental problems facing the world community. Global Warming: The Complete Briefing is the most comprehensive guide available to the subject. A world-renowned expert, Sir John Houghton explores the scientific basis of global warming and the likely impacts of climate change on human society, before addressing the action that could be taken by governments, by industry and by individuals to mitigate the effects. The first two editions received excellent reviews, and this completely updated new edition will prove to be the best briefing the student or interested general reader could wish for.
Read a lecture on Global Warming delivered by John T. Houghton in the Winstanley Lecture Theatre, Trinity College, Cambridge on Friday, 25th May 2001:
"... First of all let me explain what global warming is about. Around 1900, the French artist Claude Monet visited London and enjoyed the city enormously. He loved the light coming through the smog and if any of you went to the Monet exhibition last year you would have seen paintings with varieties of smog and lots of variations of light. He must, I think, have worn a handkerchief over his nose or had extremely good lungs because London was not a very pleasant place to be in at that time. It is still a polluted city, much more so than it need be, but a great deal better than in 1900.
The problem in London is local pollution largely arising from vehicles that affect the air around them. But we now know there are forms of pollution - global pollution - which individuals in one place may emit and which then affect the whole world. One example of this is ozone depletion by chlorine-containing chemicals. Very small quantities of these emitted into the atmosphere, for instance from leaking refrigerators or from aerosol cans, can reach the stratosphere. This may be only perhaps in parts per trillion, but free chlorine is released that catalytically destroys ozone, rapidly affecting the whole atmosphere.
Global warming is a second and a more important example of this global pollution..."
-------
Climate Change Begins at Home: Life on the Two-Way Street of Global Warming
By Dave Reay
Description
Climate change is one of the greatest threats that humankind faces in the 21st century. The next hundred years could see coastlines and islands submerged, and a surge in heatwaves, hurricanes, droughts, floods and therefore in pests, disease, famine and displacement. This book argues that while government and industry dither, we could all cut our personal greenhouse gas emissions by 60% - the level necessary to halt the current trend according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. After summarizing today's state of affairs, scientifically and politically, climatologist Dave Reay explores the climate impact of housing, gardening, food, money, work, transport, death even. Packed with provocative case studies, calculations, and lifestyle comparisons, this entertaining and authoritative book makes the complexities of climatology understandable and challenges readers to rethink their notions of 'doing their bit'.
Watch a video of Dave Reay's lecture "Climate Change Begins at Home" (University of Cambridge Science Festival 2006)
-------
Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media
By Patrick J. Michaels
Synopsis
Why is news about global warming always bad? Why do scientists so often offer dire predictions about the future of the environment? In Meltdown, climatologist Patrick Michaels says it's only natural. He argues that the way we do science today - when issues compete with each other for monopoly funding by the government - creates a culture of exaggeration and a political comunity that then takes credit for having saved us from certain doom. Michaels starts with a succinct discussion of climate-change science and then unrolls a litany of falsehood, exaggeration, and misstatement. He cited hundreds of errors and exaggerations in scientific papers, new reports, and television sound bites.
From the Back Cover (US)
"Patrick Michaels fully exploits his incomparable wit and credentialed expertise to dismantle the claim that catastrophic climate change is upon us. Using dozens of examples, this working-stiff climatologist exposes the exaggerations and outright falsehoods promoted by a media industry hungry for 'if it bleeds, it leads' stories." - John R. Christy, Director, Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama at Huntsville
"Pat Michaels has written another fascinating and useful book... I urge everyone, regardless of the extent of his science background, to read Meltdown. But be prepared to change your way of thinking. Just let go of your preconceived ideas, strap yourself in, and enjoy the ride!" - George H. Taylor, Past President, American Association of State Climatologists
"This powerful, lucid, fluent book is a triumph of science over superstition. Pat Michaels, a gifted climatologist, tells the straight truth about the hysteria and ignorance surrounding climate change and how the scientific establishment has been led astray." - James K. Glassman, Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
-------
Recent posts include:
"Current Books on Global Warming Part 1 (January 2007)"
"The End of Eden: Gaia and James Lovelock (Washington Post Review)"
"'Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 Years' (Book + Audio Interview)"
*Books on Global Warming from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US
Technorati: selection, books, global warming, evolution, research, book, shop, store, climate, change, global, warming, human, society, industry, lecture, video, london, pollution, ozone, depletion, atmosphere, aerosol, heatwaves, floods, droughts, hurricanes, lifestyle, science, festival, earth, system, gaia, lovelock, eden, review, natural
Add to: CiteUlike | Connotea | Del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Newsvine | Reddit | Yahoo
Friday, January 19, 2007
Books by John Maynard Smith Part 1 (January 2007)
Two books by John Maynard Smith from the Evolution Research - Amazon Book Shop/Store (links at the end of the post):
The Origins of Life: From the Birth of Life to the Origin of Language
By John Maynard Smith, Eors Szathmary
Description
Life is a long weird trip, and in The Origins of Life John Maynard Smith and Eors Szathmary blast you through its three-and-a-half-billion-year history at breathtaking pace.
Life, we learn, is information, transmitted in ever-more intricate ways across the generations. Self-replicating chemicals walled themselves into cells, organised themselves into regimented communities of chromosomes, swapped notes with other populations to become sexual, cloned themselves to form multi-cellular colonies called organisms, got together with other colonies to form societies, and eventually, in the case of one particular ape, developed the ability to put this whole story down on paper.
For those evolutionists brought up on the theory of "red queens" and "selfish genes", Origins provides a complementary crammer course in the practical nuts-and-bolts biology behind the headlines. The authors describe the technical problems involved in the transition from one stage to another; and explain the ingenious and often fortuitous steps that natural selection took to overcome them. For example, the rigid walls of the first cells gave way to more flexible membranes that could engulf food particles and incorporate "little organs" such as mitochondria. A "cytoskeleton" of filaments and tubules was needed to maintain the cell's integrity, and, hey presto, this structure was the perfect motorway for intracellular traffic, ideal for shearing the cell apart during cloning and provided the earliest means of locomotion, such as the tail of sperm.
With this attention to detail, the book requires careful reading. But it's worth it. Maynard Smith and Szathmary's book makes you realise just how lucky you are to be alive.
Synopsis
In this fascinating book, John Maynard Smith and Eors Szathmary present an original picture of evolution. They propose that during evolution there have been a number of major transitions in the way in which information is passed between generations. These transitions include the appearance of the first replicating molecules, the emergence of co-operative animal societies, and the unique language ability of humans. Containing many new ideas, this book is contemporary biology on the grandest scale, from the birth of life to the origin of language.
See "In conversation with John Maynard Smith FRS" (this interview was conducted in John Maynard Smith's office at Sussex University, February 2, 1999):
the evolutionist: Your new book, The Origins of Life: From the birth of life to the origin of language, is a condensed version of your earlier book, The Major Transitions in Evolution. What are you attempting to do with this new version?
John Maynard Smith: We are attempting to make the ideas in Transitions available to a general readership. Transitions would be hard work for someone without a degree in biology. You still have to do a little work for this new book, but you don't need to know any biology to begin with.
the evolutionist: Origins discusses seven 'transitions' in the development of life. What is a transition?
JMS: The basic idea was that, in a curious way, a lot of modern biology, most of the biology this century in my view, has really been about information. Genetics is about how information is stored and transmitted between generations. Developmental biology and molecular biology look at how that information is used to build an organism. And evolutionary theory is about how that information got there in the first place. Biologists have done their science surrounded by tape recorders and gramophones and television sets and telegrams and so on, and notions of information have been dominant in the way we've thought about biology. What my friend Eors Szathmary and I decided, almost ten years ago now, was that there had been a number of really rather dramatic changes in the way in which information was either stored or transmitted or translated, and each of these transitions made possible further future evolution of complexity. We also thought that there were real analogies between the different transitions and between what happened in the transitions. We wanted to present them all in one book so people could see the parallels between, say, language and the origins of the genetic code.
-------
Evolutionary Genetics
By John Maynard Smith
This second edition of Maynard Smith's now classic text on evolution and population genetics (first published 1989) has been updated throughout. It incorporates new research on game theory; the discussion of sex and host-parasite interactions have been extensively revised; and the author has added a new chapter on molecular genetics and the reconstruction of evolutionary history. It remains an essential textbook for advanced undergraduates wishing to understand population and quantitative genetics within the context of evolutionary biology.
Synopsis
The first edition of Maynard Smith's "Evolutionary Genetics" (first published in 1989) was welcomed as the first comprehensive introduction to the molecular and population aspects of evolutionary genetics, and has now become one of the definitive textbooks in the field. Aimed at advanced undergraduates in the biological sciences, the book covers basic population and quantitative genetics, evolutionary game theory, behavioural evolution, sexual selection and mating systems, speciation, and macroevolution. Theory and mathematics are clearly explained, with the aid of problems at the ends of the chapters, and the author takes care to place these within the context of questions central to current research in evolutionary biology. This second edition has been revised and updated throughout to reflect new findings and research interests. In the chapter on phenotypic evolution, the author incorporates new research on game theory. The discussions of sex and host-parasite interactions have been extensively revised and the author has added a new chapter on molecular genetics and the reconstruction of evolutionary history. "Evolutionary Genetics" remains the essential textbook for advanced undergraduates seeking a clear, comprehensive, and up-to-date account of the theory of evolutionary biology.
-------
Related posts include:
"The Making of the Fittest - American Scientist Book Review (+ Audio)"
"Epigenetic Inheritance and Evolution: The Lamarckian Dimension"
"Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered (Book Review)"
Technorati: john, maynard, smith, evolution, research, amazon, book, review, shop, store, origins, life, sexual, ape, cytoskeleton, cell, major, transitions, emergence, origin, language, biology, developmental, genetic, code, population, genetics, selection, evolutionary, sex, books
Add to: CiteUlike | Connotea | Del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Newsvine | Reddit | Yahoo
Pascal's Fire: Scientific Faith and Religious Understanding
A book from the Evolution Research - Amazon Book Shop/Store (links at the end of the post) on "Science and Religion":
Pascal's Fire: Scientific Faith and Religious Understanding
By Keith Ward
Description:
In the midst of global resurgence of interest in religion, and especially religion's relation to modern scientific knowledge, "Pascal's Fire" offers an erudite and original perspective. Many scientists have written about religion; a few theologians have written about science. However, this is the first contemporary volume in which a theologian takes on science in its own territory. Contrary to Nietzsche's famous assertion ("God is dead"), best-selling author Keith Ward argues that God is far from dead. In fact, the rapidly expanding boundaries of scientific discovery, which many attribute to His murder, actually provide persuasive evidence for His existence. By examining how four ground-breaking changes in the history of scientific discourse (the Earth as the center of the universe, the Newtonian revolution, Darwin's Theory of Evolution and quantum physics) affect our conception of God, Ward argues that each individual challenge elicits a new updated concept of God rather than an obituary. Dealing with modern critics, such as Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion: Amazon Astore UK | US), Ward claims that the key is not to conceive of God as frequently interventionist, nor as exclusively concerned with the human experience. Rather, His role is as the creator of an exquisite and infinitely beautiful universe that depends upon a number of precise mathematical relationships for its existence. Combining cutting edge science with thought provoking discourses about morality, religion and the meaning of life, Keith Ward provides a fascinating take on the science versus religion debate, offering 'a third way' which is guaranteed to spark debate for years to come.
-------
Listen to, or watch a video of, Keith Ward giving a lecture on his book at Gresham College (Holborn, London UK) at its launch on the 27th June 2006:
Introduction by Lord Sutherland of Houndwood KT FBA, Provost of Gresham College:
Good evening, and welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Gresham College. This is a very important event. I know many of you have been here before, but for those that have not, a special welcome. I hope you get some sense of the range of things that we do here and the things that our lecturers and professors do for us with such excellence - give lectures and lead seminars.
The event this evening is to mark the launch of a new book, Pascal's Fire: Scientific faith and religious understanding (Amazon Astore UK | US). I have no doubt that we will get both of these from this book. The reason for having the launch here at Gresham College of course is that the book is built upon lectures given in this College by our current Professor of Divinity, Professor Keith Ward. Keith has been a professor in several different contexts and several different ways: at Kings College London, twice; of course the Regius Chair in Oxford, a great distinction; and at Gresham College, where he is still Professor of Divinity and his lectures will be running again next year.
The book is, as always with Keith, a marvellous piece of writing and, more importantly, a marvellous piece of thinking. The clarity of his mind is awe inspiring; his arguments, the way in which he gives reasons for things, are tremendously well done and convincing. I occasionally disagree with some of the conclusions, but that's an argument that Keith and I have been having over the last 30 years! The way in which he writes, however, is a message to those who wish to talk about the relationship between religion and science, because it can be done badly, both by scientists and by theologians and religious believers; they can get the thing out of context and out of kilter. Keith does not do that. This is, if you haven't already discovered, one of many books he has written, but this one particularly timely and apt, on the relationship between religion and science.
Keith is one of the few philosophers and theologians who will take on the scientists from the standpoint of religion. Not just take them on by running up a flag and uttering a few platitudes, but by discussing, by arguing, by enquiring, and by listening, and coming up always with cogent, clear suggestions, proposals and conclusions. In this I think, by and large, the religious community have failed those of us who want a good argument in this area. There have not been many who have been willing to take the scientists on on their own ground, but - and this is the proof, as well as reference to previous writings - here is a marvellous example of the way in which someone who is deeply engaged in the Christian faith can discuss with scientists about science, and about the conclusions of contemporary science.
There has not been a period, at least not for three or four hundred years, since the founding of Gresham College interestingly, in which the need to interrogate science has been so great, the reason being it has huge impact on our daily lives and on all sorts of issues, and where decisions are required that deeply affect how human beings live.
I am delighted to ask you to welcome Keith Ward, who will talk about his new book...
-------
An excerpt from Keith Ward's "Scientific Understanding and the Point of the Universe" from the Center for Theological Inquiry:
Most religious believers think that there is a God, a supreme being who created the universe, and whose existence does not depend upon that of the universe. Furthermore, in being a creator, God is thought of as free, conscious and active, as intentionally bringing about the universe for some consciously entertained reason. This means that such believers are committed against hard-line materialism. They are committed to the coherence of the idea of a non-embodied consciousness, which can formulate a purpose and implement it by creating a material universe.
Theists do not think that the universe somehow has a purpose inherent in itself. They think that there is a creator God, who exists independently of the universe, and who can create it for a purpose. God, for most believers, has knowledge of everything that is possible and actual. God is able to bring about, to make actual, sets of possible states. So God has knowledge and will. The primary object of God's knowledge and will is said by most classical theologians to be the divine being itself - as Aristotle put it, God's being consists in a "thinking upon thinking". God is aware of and wills or affirms the divine being as it exists in its own proper perfection. So knowledge and will do not, as such, depend upon some material substratum for their existence. Indeed, they are ontologically prior to all material existences. The primary form of being is something like what we know as non-material conscious agency. That is a basic postulate of theism, and it seems a perfectly intelligible one.
-------
Recent posts on "Science and Religion" include:
"Edward O. Wilson and Robert Wright on Video (66 mins)"
"God, Under a Microscope: Review of 'The language of God' (+ Audio)"
"Finding Darwin's God (Review/ Excerpt/ Audio/ Video)"
Technorati: book, evolution, research, amazon, book, shop, store, pascal, fire, scientific, faith, religious, understanding, keith, ward, knowledge, nietzche, god, dead, discovery, books, existence, history, earth, universe, darwin, theory, delusion, richard dawkins, creator, science, christian, theism, religion, review, audio, video, pbs
Add to: CiteUlike | Connotea | Del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Newsvine | Reddit | Yahoo
