Product Description

Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, winner of The Nobel Prize in Medicine, gives a concise and illustrative overview of genetics, evolution, and cellular processes as well as a discussing of current ethical issues in human biology.

Coming to Life is a remarkable journey through developmental biology that reveals miraculous processes in the microscopic world of cells. Through an accounting of groundbreaking discoveries, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard tells us many answers to historical and contemporary questions in science. For example, she brings us the newest knowledge about embryonic forms, explains the genetic mechanisms that influence adult development of all animals, and shares insights into the ethical standards society moist uphold in the face of new scientific discoveries.

As the author leads us from laboratory research to its applications in human beings, we also come to understand why children look like their parents, how an embryonic cell knows to become an eye rather than an eyelash, and other incredible influences hat result in variety in life. Complete with her own hand-drawn illustrations, Coming to Life gives a rare opportunity to understand a Nobel Prize-winner's passion for science in concise, understandable language. 55 b/w illustrations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #173085 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780979845604
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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About the Author
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1995 for her discoveries in genetic research. Her many international honors include those reserved for the upper echelons in science. She lives in Germany.

Customer Reviews

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.)

The topic is not the development of organisms in general, but of animals -- and only those animals (including us humans and most of the others that are important to us), who are called bilaterians because our bodies have left-right symmetry. We also have distinct anterior and posterior ends, with a mouth at one end and an anus at the other; and we have ventral and dorsal sides (front and back in us humans). In the very beginning of development, chemicals are produced in the right places to say, in effect, "This will be front.", "This will be rear.", and so on. All these chemicals do is to switch on genes that will begin to give shape to the embryo. This is the beginning of a process that goes from a single cell to a very rough shape through stepwise refinements to the final mature animal. This systematic development is what makes the subject interesting and accessible to us non-scientists.

Nusslein-Volhard tells the story at a rather elementary level. She covers only a few of the many developmental genes - so that the reader doesn't have to memorize a lot of names - and she says little about molecular mechanisms. She also focuses on the formation of the embryo, with some discussion of the larval and fetal stages and little about adults. Since the same principles apply to the later stages as to the early ones, this allows her to explain how development works while the reader has only a modest amount to memorize.

There are introductory chapters on genes, mutations, and how genes lead to proteins. I don't think that a person who has never seen this material before is ready for this book, but I think that many people who need it for review will be OK.

There are obvious implications for evolutionary theory, but that is the subject of evolutionary developmental biology ("evo-devo") and is beyond the scope of this book. For readers interested in this topic, I recommend the books by Sean Carroll, which I have reviewed. (Click above on "See all my reviews"; there are 3 pages.) If you already know a bit about how proteins interact with the control regions of genes and want to go straight to the implications for evolution, you may wish to go directly to one of Carroll's books. However, Nusslein-Volhard's description of embryology is interesting in itself.

There is a final chapter on current developments, such as cloning and stem-cell research. My first reaction was that this chapter didn't belong. However, the news articles I read on these topics show that a lot of people don't know any of the science involved, and a beginner's book on embryology is a good place to learn it.

In sum, this is a short book well-focused on developmental biology, especially embryology, and written for relative beginners. For such readers, who are interested in the subject, I highly recommend it.

Concentration Gradients Govern the Genes
In 1923, Hans Spemann conceived an experiment that became famous. He transplanted cells from an early newt egg to an inappropriate spot in another newt egg. After the transplant, a second head and trunk section grew instead of stomach. Since the donor cells were a different color, it was easy to tell that the new head and neck did not form from the donor cells. Instead, the donor cells influenced the development of its native neighboring cells.

Embryology is all about morphogens - chemicals secreted by organizer cells that influence genes in other cells by their concentration gradient. This is where our author has spent her life, becoming only the 11th woman in history to win a Nobel prize in science. She is among the key players who have brought embryology to the center stage of current research in biology.

There have been major advancements in our understanding of evolution over the past twenty years. For example: Scientists expected a lot more human genes than 25,000 - that's not too many more than are in a worm. Embryologists began to study evo-devo - how the embryo changed into an adult. Genetic researchers (like Nusslein-Volhard) discovered "core genes" such as the Hox genes that direct body segmentation and the tinman genes that create hearts. Adjacent to the coding genes, "gene switches" were found in the junk DNA. These switches respond to the morphogens, rearranging the effects of the core genes, encouraging dramatic evolutionary change. It came as a surprise that virtually the same core (modular?) genes were found in diverse species - from fungi to humans.

Most successful (nonlethal) mutations were found among the gene switches. Complexity and variety may be created by shuffling the patterns of control on the core control genes rather than by mutative changes in the core genes themselves. Constraints imposed by these core genes and deconstraint on the switches enhance the novelty that begged for more explanation.

Many have wanted to find "something more" than evolution by genetic variation and natural selection. Gould and his group wanted "Punctuated Equilibrium." Creationists and IDer's just want evolution disrupted and they don't care how. Christiane Nusslein-Volhard in "Coming to Life" describes how these recently discovered processes produce dramatic change in evolution.

In the last chapter, she discusses hot political topics - cloning, gene therapy, designer babies, stem cell research, and the moral status of the embryo. She explains, from the point of view of one who has spent her life in research, what is real, what is plausible, and what is utopian. Complete with her own hand-drawn illustrations and concise explanations, this book is a prize.

Not destined to be a popular science classic
This book could be used by a motivated individual who wanted an introduction to the basics of developmental biology. However, it is not destined to be a popular science classic. Nusslein-Volhard is an excellent scientist, and does an adequate job of putting the science down on paper in an orderly and simplified manner, but she does not have the writing skill to keep the reader's interest. So, bring your own motivation, or forget it. There is no narrative skill in telling a story, or solving a puzzle, or building interest, it's just one pile of facts after another. "Here's a simplified description of fly embryo development. Now here's a simplified description of chicken development."

The book contains:

a brief historical review of important developments in the history of biology

an account of how complex segmentation of an embryo could be accomplished from simple morphogenic gradients (probably the best part)

a brief review of development in various model organisms (fly, chicken, mouse)

an attempt to relate this to human development

discussion of current ethical issues