可借阅:*
图书馆 | 资料类型 | 排架号 | 子计数 | 书架位置 | 状态 | 图书预约 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
正在检索... Science | Book | QH371 .P25 2001 | 1 | Stacks | 正在检索... 未知 | 正在检索... 不可借阅 |
链接这些题名
已订购
摘要
摘要
While the ecological scars of human technology have been well publicized, Palumbi (biology, Harvard U.) says that no one has explored the evolutionary consequences of antibiotic and antiviral use, insecticide applications, and herbicide bioengineering. For example, he points out, the evolution of disease organisms adds some $30 million a year to US medical bills and is making some diseases economically incurable, and US farmers pay about $2 billion a year to combat insects that have evolved tolerance to their pesticides. He also explores whether humans impact their own evolution, whether they have stopped evolving, whether they generate their won evolutionary pressure, and other questions. He writes for the general reader. c. Book News Inc.
评论 (3)
出版社周刊评论
Ever since penicillin was introduced in 1943 and declared a medical miracle, humans have haphazardly incorporated antibacterial agents in dish soaps, face washes and other cleansers, unaware that the war against bacteria was only just beginning. With this highly accessible and lively account, Palumbi, a professor of biology at Harvard, adds to the growing body of literature that aims to pique the public's awareness and understanding of antibacterial and pesticide resistance. Palumbi begins with the basics, providing an overview of the natural selection that one can observe in nature and explaining the mechanisms of evolution using a simple comparison to a car engine. Although this section may not appeal to readers who are well versed in the rudiments of science, the narrative quickly tackles the meat of the matter as it describes the progression of resistant strains of TB and the evolutionary arms race that occurs inside the body of an HIV-infected individual. In addition, Palumbi argues that the much heralded advent of genetic engineering has merely added fuel to the evolutionary engine by increasing insect resistance to crops that are engineered to emit a single pesticide. Indeed, Palumbi's suggestion to reduce resistance is to use an arsenal of pesticides rather than just one so that no insects will survive to reproduce. Although this book doesn't offer any groundbreaking insights or solutions to the resistance dilemma, it is a straightforward overview for the lay reader of the dangerous real-life significance of evolution. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
《书目》(Booklist)书评
While some human beings stubbornly refuse to accept the fact that evolution is synonymous with life on Earth, others, such as Harvard biologist Palumbi, try valiantly to explain evolution's astonishing intricacies in order to reveal how our species is "upping the evolutionary ante and accelerating the evolutionary game." The example that hits closest to home is Palumbi's account of how various disease-causing bacteria have rapidly evolved strains resistant to antibiotics, the miracle drugs that briefly seemed to have eradicated such scourges as TB, but are now ineffectual against a host of frightening infections. The war against insects is another arena in which evolutionary wiliness has trumped humankind's efforts at controlling nature: insect species resistant to insecticides now abound. Palumbi's writing is lively and lucid, and his analogies are felicitous. His enlightening discussions of the evolution of HIV, the ecological dangers posed by precipitous bioengineering, and such remarkable evolutionary phenomena as the changes in size and spawning strategies of fish in overfished regions give weight and urgency to his call for evolution literacy. Donna Seaman
Choice 评论
The "explosion" of the title refers to evolutionary processes accelerated by human activities, especially those involving the capacity of pathogenic microbes such as HIV to develop resistance to antibiotics, of insects and weeds to cope with pesticides such as Bt and herbicides such as Roundup, and of our own species to change with its changing environments. Palumbi's goal is to clarify these processes for the intelligent nonscientist reader. To accomplish this, Palumbi (Harvard Univ.) analogizes evolution with events and processes in the more familiar everyday world. The book is thus rich in simile and metaphor; rather few are strained but many are effective and the device generally works. By midbook, the reader becomes accustomed and the writing seems smoother. The most important analogy is evolution as an engine of biological change: its fuel is natural variation among individuals, its energy converter is natural selection, and its gearbox that translates and exerts force is heredity. Palumbi effectively exposes creationists' lie that biologists attribute evolution to chance alone, and his book will help counter deceits concerning "intelligent design" perpetrated by some recent authors (e.g., Jonathan Wells's Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth?, 2000). General readers; undergraduate and graduate students; professionals. A. J. Kohn emeritus, University of Washington
目录
Acknowledgments | p. IX |
Chapter 1 From the Mountains to the Sea | p. 3 |
Chapter 2 Right Before Your Eyes | p. 8 |
Chapter 3 The Engine of Evolution | p. 37 |
Chapter 4 Temporary Miracles: The Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance | p. 65 |
Chapter 5 The Evolution of HIV | p. 95 |
Chapter 6 Poisoning Insects, and What They Can Do About It | p. 131 |
Chapter 7 Biotechnology and the Chemical Plow | p. 162 |
Chapter 8 Evolution All at Sea | p. 184 |
Chapter 9 Are Humans Still Evolving? | p. 207 |
Chapter 10 The Ecology and Evolution of Aloha | p. 231 |
Sources and Suggested Reading | p. 255 |
Index | p. 269 |