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Author Ward, Peter D. (Peter Douglas), 1949- author.

Title Lamarck's revenge : how epigenetics is revolutionizing our understanding of evolution's past and present / Peter Ward.

Publication Info. New York, NY : Bloomsbury Publishing, Inc., 2018.
©2018

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Avon Free Public Library - Adult Department  572.86 WARD    Check Shelf
 Berlin-Peck Memorial Library - Non Fiction  572.865 WARD    Check Shelf
 Canton Public Library - Adult Department  572.865 WARD    Check Shelf
 East Hartford, Raymond Library - Adult Department  572.865 WARD    Check Shelf
 Enfield, Main Library - Adult Department  572.865 WAR    Check Shelf
 Glastonbury, Welles-Turner Memorial Library - Adult Department  572.86 WARD    Check Shelf
 Manchester, Main Library - Non Fiction  572.865 WARD    Check Shelf
 Middletown, Russell Library - Adult Nonfiction  572.865 WAR    Check Shelf
 New Britain, Main Library - Non Fiction  572.865 WAR    Check Shelf
 Newington, Lucy Robbins Welles Library - Adult Department  572.865 WARD    Check Shelf

Description xiv, 273 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 25 cm
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages [235]-260) and index.
Contents Preface: The Jurassic Park of Nevada -- Introduction: Looking back -- From God to science -- Lamarck to Darwin -- From Darwin to the new (modern) synthesis -- Epigenetics and the newer synthesis -- The best of times, the worst of times -- in deep time -- Epigenetics and the origin and diversification of life -- Epigenetics and the Cambrian Explosion -- Epigenetic processes before and after mass extinctions -- The best and worst of times in human history -- Epigenetics and violence -- Can famine and food change our DNA? -- The heritable legacy of pandemic diseases -- The chemical present -- Future biotic evolution in the CRISPR-Cas9 world -- Epilogue: Looking forward.
Summary "Around the turn of the nineteenth century, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck first established epigenetics to explain the inheritance of acquired characteristics; however, his theory was supplanted decades later by Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection through heritable genetic mutations. But natural selection could not adequately explain how rapidly species re-diversified and repopulated after mass extinctions. Now advances in the study of DNA and RNA have resurrected epigenetics, which can create radical physical and physiological changes in subsequent generations by the simple addition of a single small molecule, thus passing along a propensity for molecules to attach in the same places in the next generation. Epigenetics is a complex process, but paleontologist and astrobiologist Peter Ward breaks it down for general readers, using the epigenetic paradigm to reexamine how the history of our species--from deep time to the outbreak of the Black Plague and into the present--has left its mark on our physiology, behavior, and intelligence. Most alarming are chapters about epigenetic changes we are undergoing now triggered by toxins, environmental pollutants, famine, poor nutrition, and overexposure to violence. Lamarck's Revenge is an eye-opening and provocative exploration of how traits are inherited, and how outside influences drive what we pass along to our progeny."--Jacket.
Subject Lamarck, Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet de, 1744-1829.
Lamarck, Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet de, 1744-1829 (OCoLC)fst00037789
Epigenetics -- History -- Popular works.
Epigenomics -- history.
SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Biology / General.
Epigenetics. (OCoLC)fst01893642
Genre/Form Popular Works.
History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
Popular works. (OCoLC)fst01423846
ISBN 9781632866158 (hardcover)
1632866153 (hardcover)
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