Reviews (6)

Valuable Book
"...this valuable book is currently the most complete overview of behavioral procedures available...it is a must have and a must read book..." (Genes, Brain, and Behavior, 2002)

Essential Book
"I would recommend that every behavioral scientist has at least two copies, one for their own use and one that will be on permanent loan to their students, post-doctoral students and colleagues in molecular biology."-- TRENDS in Pharmacological Sciences (Gerard R. Dawson, Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories)

Expert Review
"[T]his volume succeeds as a useful introduction to the realm of behavioral phenotyping for those interested in creating or using the large and increasing number of promising targeted mutant mice."-- TRENDS in Neurosciences (John K. Belknap, Oregon Health Sciences University) ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Animal models    2. Animals    3. Anthropology - Physical    4. Behavior    5. Laboratory Animals    6. Life Sciences - Biology - General    7. Life Sciences - Genetics & Genomics    8. Neurobiology    9. Neurogenetics    10. Neurology - General    11. Science    12. Science/Mathematics    13. Transgenic mice    14. Genetics (non-medical)    15. Science / Genetics    16. Zoology & animal sciences   

Reviews (1)

Comprehensive heavyweight
This is a suitably vast book for a vast subject. It covers every aspect of the application of human genetics to medicine, and the reviews are not only an ideal introduction to a genetic disease, but are heavily referenced as well. This makes it ideal as a guide to the most recent literature on the subject. The introductory chapters are essential reading as well. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Diseases    2. Endocrinology & Metabolism    3. Genetics    4. Hereditary Diseases    5. Medical    6. Medical / Nursing    7. Medical Genetics    8. Metabolic Diseases    9. Metabolism Disorders    10. Metabolism, Inborn errors of    11. Pathology, Molecular    12. Genetics (non-medical)    13. Hereditary diseases & disorders    14. Medical / Genetics    15. Medical diagnosis    16. Molecular biology    17. Oncology   

Reviews (6)

Good as a refresher for the initiated, but not for beginners at all
This new explanation of phylogenetic methods contains a good discussion of the merits and potential failings of many of the methods currently used to study phylogenetics. It may be very good for computer science students, who have a better grasp of the mathematics. It may also be good for biologists well versed in biostatistics, who want to know why systematists use certain, less easily handled, analytical methods. However, it is very difficult reading for other scientists who do not fully understand the complex math presented in the text. It also does not give a concinct summary of the assumptions and failings of each method. The bottom line is that this book is good for experts who easily understand algorithms, but not good for students who don't have a good handle on such things.

very complete reference book
Inferring phylogenies was much anticipated by the large audience which has used Felsenstein's programs, and his website which reviews and categorizes applied tree building and population genetics programs.
not well written
This book, although apparently containing everything, is written in a very opaque style which makes it impossible to simply read through. It probably is a good reference to look in for particular topics, but it is not at all usable as an introduction. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Cladistic analysis    2. Life Sciences - Evolution    3. Mathematics    4. Science    5. Science/Mathematics    6. System Theory    7. Cybernetics & systems theory    8. Evolution   

Subjects:  1. Mathematics    2. Probability & Statistics - General    3. Science/Mathematics    4. Genetics (non-medical)    5. Mathematics / Statistics    6. Mathematics | Probability & Statistics   

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Physical    2. Archaeology / Anthropology    3. Europe - Great Britain - General    4. Life Sciences - Genetics & Genomics    5. Science    6. Science/Mathematics    7. Genealogy    8. Genetics (non-medical)    9. Ireland    10. Science / Genetics    11. United Kingdom, Great Britain   

Subjects:  1. Bioinformatics    2. Genetics    3. Life Sciences - Biochemistry    4. Life Sciences - Evolution    5. Life Sciences - Genetics & Genomics    6. Science    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Biochemistry    9. Genetics (non-medical)    10. Science / Biochemistry   

Reviews (2)

Excellent kinetics book
If you are thinking of purchasing a book on receptor-ligand kinetics, this is a wise choice. It is easy to follow and advanced enough for most graduate work in biochemical and biomedical engineering.

A book for the modern biologist
This book will surely be thought of as the first structured presentation of principles of modern systems biology. This book introduces the application of Chemical Engineering to biologists and molecular biology and pharmacology of receptors to Chemical Engineers. The top-down picture of coupled processes is not only new to biologists but introduces a whole new way to look at biological problems. Especially the chapter which has cell migration explained introduces one to multi-dimensional thinking: cell mechanics, biochemistry, kinetic modeling and molecular biology all in the same problem. This may seem mystical to many. Would probably be read more by Engineers than biologists, who are yet to take the leap in thought to multi-dimensional science.This book would be remembered after many years to be a pioneer in the new science of systems biology, although it was written much before the Human Genome Project. Systems thinking and Chemical Engineering has been much beneficial in solving some very important biomedical problems like Drug Delivery(Robert Langer), Tumor Biology(Rakesh Jain) and Tissue Engineering(Robert Langer et.al.). Lauffenburger's work would be counted among these shining lights when these methods and tools bear fruit sooner than later.(Lauffenburger has already provided a glimpse of success of this approach when he worked with Amgen to produce a much pharmacokinetically improved biologic using physiologically based pharmacokinetic model coupled with cellular modeling of receptor-ligand trafficking and binding model)Nature,5 August 2002.Lauffenburger and Linderman are geniuses seeking support for "return to science" for biology. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Cell Receptors    2. General    3. Life Sciences - Biochemistry    4. Life Sciences - Cytology    5. Life Sciences - Genetics & Genomics    6. Science    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Biotechnology    9. Cellular biology    10. Life Sciences | Biochemistry    11. Science / Biochemistry   

Subjects:  1. Altruistic behavior in animals    2. Behavior    3. Ethics & Moral Philosophy    4. Ethics, Evolutionary    5. Life Sciences - Evolution    6. Life Sciences - Zoology - Primatology    7. Philosophy    8. Philosophy & Social Aspects    9. Primates    10. Psychology    11. Science    12. Science/Mathematics    13. Social Psychology    14. Anthropology    15. Biological Sciences    16. Evolution    17. History of Science and Medicine, Philosophy of Science    18. Popular science    19. Science / Life Sciences / Zoology / Primatology   

Subjects:  1. Immunology    2. Medical    3. Medical / Nursing    4. Nephrology    5. Rheumatology    6. Medical / Immunology   

Reviews (3)

Good biology, Bad philosophy
I read this entire book, and actually found it interesting -- but not for the reason it was written.The book is a very good primer, I thought, on human biological evolution.The author's theories on "language" and "mind", however, were not very helpful, often trite, and at times inane.
Thought provoking trip from monkey calls to tribal song to speech
Starts slow, but soon zooms along. Before you know it, you're in the midst of a fascinating story about monkey calls, baby babbling, opera and rock, and the weird, wired harmonies that cascade through the human nervous system when people engage in speech and song.Then, halfway through the book, using the information of the first half as a lens to bring the second half into focus, the author leads you on a trip from the darkest depths of hominid prehistory to the dawn of homo sapien culture, developing, as he goes, a theory about the origins of oral communication and music.The wonder of the book is not the theory, but the author's protean curiosity and delightful talent for explanation and synthesis. He weaves together strands of thought from all sorts of different disciplines to create an argument so lively and thought provoking that it doesn't matter if it's right.You come away full of ideas that seem to apply to almost everything you see.The book is a lovely, multi-layered intellectual tune, which makes you hummmm with thought as you turn each page.

From "Hmmmm" to "Hmmmmm"
Fear not, dear reader.I'm not making the sounds of indecision.Nor have I forgotten the words to my local national anthem.Instead, those sets of letters are acronyms.Steven Mithen uses them to typify the foundations of our ability to communicate in our distant past.The letters stand for "Holistic, "multi-modal", "manipulative", and "musical".With the addition of "mimetic", he uses the collective phrase to explain why "music" in this broadly defined sense, preceded the development of language and grammar in our species.He also explains the "how" of this phenomenon, which is what gives this book its real value.
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Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Anthropology - General    3. Archaeology    4. History & Criticism - General    5. Human evolution    6. Life Sciences - Evolution    7. Life Sciences - Evolution - Human    8. Music    9. Origin    10. Psychological aspects    11. Science    12. Science/Mathematics    13. Anthropology    14. Science / Evolution   

Subjects:  1. Environmental Conservation & Protection - General    2. Genetics    3. Life Sciences - Biology - General    4. Life Sciences - Genetics & Genomics    5. Science    6. Science/Mathematics    7. Cellular biology    8. Conservation of the environment    9. Nature / Environmental Conservation & Protection   

Reviews (5)

Evolution is accidental???
According to Foxnews: "Fully 92 percent of Americans say they believe in God". Yet this book wants to insult them all by saying: "They are not the result of the unfathomable design of a Creator". There is no reason for Christiane to take this in your face attitude toward Creation Science.
An excellent explanation for embryo development
Explain how animal embryos develop, and what guides the differentiation of various cells.Ever wonder how a single embryo cell can develop into so many different cell types in different organs? In a mere 145 pages, the Nobel laureate elucidates how it all happen in a simple and easy-to-understand manner that anyone with a passing knowledge of biology can understand and enjoy. It also gives me a humbling realization of how similar and closely related all animals are.

From Egg to Us: An Elementary Look at the Biology of Development
I think that very few people ever wonder how an egg grows to be an adult.People don't generally think about what tells one cell it's going to be part of a head and another cell that it's going to be part of a foot.Most of us have seen pictures of early fetuses, but how many wonder why the chick looks so much like the pig?For those who do wonder, this book is a very good place to start.(My 5-star rating is my estimate of the book's value to beginners.)
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Subjects:  1. Developmental Biology    2. Developmental genetics    3. Evolutionary genetics    4. Genetic Research    5. Genetics    6. Life Sciences - Genetics & Genomics    7. Popular works    8. Science    9. Science/Mathematics    10. Science / General   

Reviews (1)

Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology (3rd Ed) (Biol
Good ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biophysics    2. Biophysics (General)    3. General    4. Life Sciences - Biophysics    5. Medical    6. Medical Physics    7. Physics    8. Science    9. Science / Biophysics   

Reviews (1)

Most Elegant Account of Bioinformatics
I was impressed with the 1st edition of this book for its
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Subjects:  1. Bioinformatics    2. Biostatistics    3. Life Sciences - Biology - General    4. Medical    5. Medical / Nursing    6. Statistical methods    7. BLAST    8. Medical / Biostatistics    9. computational biology   

Reviews (12)

Wallace may have seen something further than Darwin
Like what the great scientist Newton said "I see further for I stand on the shoulders of giants" Alfred Russel Wallace may have seen further than Charles Darwin when it comes to human nature when he later on believed that we have souls that has further made us more intelligent not just our brains which are designed by our genes.I believe that the paradigm shift where the soul or spirit needs to be accounted for when studying human nature is overdue.I myself has seen entities that could not be mistaken for something other than ghosts or spirits, although I do not blame you if you do not believe me for ghosts and spirits are hard to emperically observe by scientists so I do not blame them for being skeptical about something they could not emperically study.But I saw what I saw, as countless others all over the world saw.Although Darwin was right, Wallace saw further for he suggested that it is not only evolution that made us who we are but also because of our souls which are, as I must state again, emperically hard to observe by scientists.
high on appeal, low on rigor
I used this book as a text book for a course I taught on Evolutionary Psychology.On the whole, the students really enjoyed the text and they found Buss's writing style to be very engaging and easy to read.I would agree.
HUMAN CIVILIZATION FROM THE PRESENT: WHY WE ACT THIS WAY
Each day for twenty-something years I woke up to see reality as it was presented to me.I noticed many patterns in life that are hard not to notice -- such as the difference between men and women in how they approach sexual opportunities.Men will readily say yes, women firmly no.Why?Read more

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Physical    2. Evolutionary psychology    3. General    4. Genetic Psychology    5. Human Evolution    6. Life Sciences - Evolution - Human    7. Physiological Psychology    8. Psychology    9. Child & developmental psychology    10. Psychology & Psychiatry / General   

Editorial Review

Human life, scientific journalist Matt Ridley suggests, is a complex balancingact: we behave with self-interest foremost in mind, but also in ways that do not harm, andsometimes even benefit, others. This behavior, in a strange way, makes us good. It alsomakes us unique in the animal world, where self-interest is far more pronounced."The essential virtuousness of human beings is proved not by parallels in theanimal kingdom, but by the very lack of convincing animal parallels," Ridleywrites. How we got to be so virtuous over millions of years of evolution is the theme ofthis entertaining book of popular science, which will be of interest to any student ofhuman nature. ... Read more

Reviews (40)

the most interesting book i read all year
examines the relationship between the human instict for social cooperation and the urges of the selfish gene and finds them completely compatible and explicable.
How does your light shine, in the halls of Shambala
In this terrific effort, another in a line of books that for me started with "Sociobiology" by Edward O. Wilson, Ridley gets to the heart of the matter in regard to human nature.He begins with a discussion of the "prisoners dilemma", and its emphasis on mutual aid, by using a story of Russian Prince Peter Kropotkin's escape from a Tsarist jail in 1876.We are quick to learn that the origin of virtue is trust, trust and the attendant cooperation that accompanies it. Indeed, this begs the question: "if life is just a competitive struggle, why is there so much cooperation about?And why, in particular, are people such eager cooperators?"This is Ridley's quest in writing this book, to find the roots of human society.As he says: " society works not because we conciously invented it, but because it is an ancient product of our evolved predispositions.It is literally in our nature."
A Materialist Case for Ethics
Ridley's purpose is not to be the ethicist, but to provide an interdisciplinary account of our constitutional foundations as homo sapiens, in order for a moral theory to reflect these innate foundations. He succeeds masterfully. Indeed, Ridley's "The Origin of Virtue" succeeds in a way that Robert Wright's "The Moral Animal" fails. Whereas Wright focuses only on the Modern Synthesis of evolutionary biology and molecular genetics, Ridley incorporates both and adds ethology, comparative psychology, sociology, politics, economics, game theory, and paleontology. Wright's scope is myopic, whereas Ridley's scope is expansive. The outcomes could not be more radically different.
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Subjects:  1. Altruism    2. Ethics, Evolutionary    3. Evolution (Biology)    4. General    5. Life Sciences - Biology - General    6. Life Sciences - Evolution    7. Science    8. Sociology    9. Biology, Life Sciences    10. Science / Evolution    11. Sociology, Social Studies   

Reviews (5)

Excellent Review
This is an excellent review that follows current thinking in modern invertebrate taxonomy.The author does not take any controversial positions, and discusses the uncertainties where they are.He provides what i think is an excellent basic review of the biology necessary to understand the book, although when reading a book that is on a subject that is not unfamiliar it is always difficult to judge how easy it would be for someone with less knowledge on the subject.Even though the paperback version being sold is july 2006, it is impossible to have a review that is entirely to the date.If you read source articles you will realize that mitochondrial DNA studies fairly convincingly place placazoa basal to porifera, and a new molecular analysis places urochordates closer to craniata (vertebrata)than cephalochordata, but i am not aware of any summary that includes info that new.

Tough, but rewarding
The title says it all, this is a book about the evolution of phyla. It's a fairly advanced book, if you don't know what a phylum is or what natural selection is you'll probably find it a very rough go. However you don't have to be an expert, I'm certainly not, to enjoy it and learn from it.
Fascinating topic
This is a fantastic book that discusses in great (sometimes excruciating) detail the morphological, developmental, fossil, molecular, and other evidence regarding the definitions, circumscriptions, origins, evolution, and interrelationships of the phyla.Mostly well and clearly written although the text is at times frustratingly redundant, and it will probably be difficult reading for anybody without an intense interest in, and some basic knowledge of, biology.However, it is a must-read for anybody who is interested in this topic. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Evolution (Biology)    2. Life Sciences - Evolution    3. Life Sciences - Zoology - General    4. Paleontology    5. Phylogeny    6. Science    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Science / Zoology    9. Science: General Issues   

Reviews (2)

Doing to others
"Morality", that sense of doing good, or at least avoiding harm, to others is one of humanity's treasured phrases.It is one of the characteristics that supposedly sets us apart from the other animals.We use the values imparted to it in judging others, as we are judged in turn.However, it remains an enigmatic term, carrying a host of definitions.And that's not counting the exceptions.Richard Joyce, for all his assertive title, isn't claiming to have the final word on morality.Instead, he's launching a project with areas of study that should be investigated further.Only one thing he insists on - as a product of evolution by natural selection, human beings will find the origins of that valued concept in our biological heritage.
Moral Skepticism Defended
Moral philosophers tend to take the content of morality as given, perhaps by intuition or our cultural heritage, and attempt to derive moral truth from a sparse set of assumptions, such a utilitarianism (Bentham, Mill), virtue theory (Aristotle), or synthetic a priori deontological notions (Kant). Other philosophers attempt to derive valid moral rules themselves on the basis of a neo-Platonic foray into the juggling of abstract universals (Rawls, Nozick, Singer, Dworkin). Perhaps I betray my position as a behavioral scientist by believing that morals are things that people have, like noses and tendencies to procrastinate, and should be studied scientifically rather than philosophically. Happily, I am not alone, however, as Richard Joyce takes the same position in his book, The Evolution of Morality.
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Subjects:  1. Ethics & Moral Philosophy    2. Ethics, Evolutionary    3. Life Sciences - Evolution - Human    4. Philosophy    5. Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy   

Reviews (2)

Speciation is great
Dude, amazon asked me to review this book...an invited review of Coyne and Orr's "_SPECIATION_" for my CV...Booyah!!
A must have for speciation studies
This is an excelent book for anyone interested in the processes of speciation. The book is written so that an advanced undergraduate can understand it, but a proffessor of evolution can still get insight from it. Theories of speciation are well laid out and discussed in-debth. A excelent addition for any professional book collection. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Ecology    2. General    3. Life Sciences - Evolution    4. Science    5. Science/Mathematics    6. Species    7. Evolution   

Subjects:  1. Life Sciences - Ecology    2. Life Sciences - Evolution    3. Life Sciences - Zoology - General    4. Science    5. Science/Mathematics    6. Ecological science, the Biosphere    7. Evolution    8. Science / Ecology