This work brings together new research from paleontology, genetics and neurobiology to explain the runaway evolution of the human brain. It debunks the popular notion that people arose from a single Eve. It also considers "politically correct" revisionist theories of human prehistory. Christopher Wills delves deeply into the arguments that man's recent evolution has been driven by a "feedback loop" between the genes that control brain development and the culture that humans have invented. The book examines both the scientific and political ramifications of the two current competing models for recent human evolution - the "multiple origins" and the "Noah's Ark" models - and shows how genetic data close the gap between them. Christopher Wills is the author of "The Wisdom of the Genes" and "Exxons, Introns and Talking Genes".

Runaway Brain the Evolution of Human Uniqueness

Politics & Social Sciences

Wills, Christopher

Anthropology

Harpercollins Publisher

The Wisdom of the Genes: New Pathways in Evolution

Science & Math

Biological Sciences

Oxford Univ. Pr.

How our growing knowledge of the evolution of complex ecosystems, using the latest genetic tools, can help us heal them - and survive This is not another Chicken Little book about the environment. Every reader already knows how overpopulation, ignorance and tribalism are contributing to environmental destruction and breakdowns in public health. We are all aware of the grim possibility that during our lifetimes the Earth might "flip" to a new ecological equilibrium, threatening our very survival. Why Ecosystems Matter explores an exciting new way to avoid such threats, by using our exponentially-growing knowledge of how evolution has shaped and is continuing to shape the complex communities of living ecosystems on which we all depend. Throughout this book we will visit ecosystems where the author has worked or has had direct experience, beginning with a tour of the amazing series of ecosystems that span the entire eastern slope of the Peruvian Andes. This journey provides a vivid glimpse of ecosystems' diversity and capacity for rapid change. Next, we trace how Darwin gained a fundamental insight about the origins of such ecosystem complexity. He realized that, when subgroups of the same species inhabit even slightly different ecosystems, these subgroups will evolve in diverging directions. This divergent evolution is primarily driven by interactions with the many other species in each ecosystem, which are themselves evolving in different directions in the different ecosystems. We explore how this subtle and fascinating concept lies at the heart of the evolutionary ferment that powers ecosystem diversity and resilience - the bubbling evolutionary cauldrons of the book's title. This ferment pervades ecosystems, but it is especially active in their microorganism communities. We then examine the evolutionary forces that power these cauldrons, starting with between-species interactions and tunnelling down to their causes. Using real-world examples, we explore how the technologies available for measuring these changes are increasing exponentially in precision and scope. We show how this deluge of new genetic and environmental information can be used to protect and restore a wide variety of damaged ecosystems. Ecosystems have survived dramatic changes in the past, often becoming even more wondrous and diverse than before. We are now learning how this happens, and how we can preserve this astounding ability.

Why Ecosystems Matter: Preserving the Key to Our Survival

Oxford University Press

The spark of life: Darwin and the primeval soup

In this magnificently illustrated book, Christopher Wills takes us on a series of adventures. From the underwater life of Indonesia's Lambeh Strait to a little valley in northern Israel, to an earthquake in the coral reef off the island of Yap and the dry valleys of western Mongolia, Wills demonstrates how ecology and evolution have interacted to yield the world we live in. Each chapter features a different location and brings out a different and important message. With the author's own stunning photographs of the wildlife he discovered on his travels, he draws out the evolutionary stories behind the wildlife and shows how our understanding of the living world can be deepened by a Darwinian perspective. Wills demonstrates how looking at the world with evolutionary eyes leaves us with a renewed sense of wonder about life's astounding present-day diversity, along with an appreciation of our evolutionary history.

The Darwinian Tourist: Viewing the World Through Evolutionary Eyes

In Green Equilibrium, award-winning field biologist Christopher Wills explains the rules by which ecosystems thrive, shining light on a set of ecological balancing acts that he calls "green equilibria," rules which keep our world vibrant, verdant, and ecologically intact. To explain the idea of "green equilibrium," Wills draws on a fascinating range of examples, including coral reefs off the densely populated Philippines, the isolated and thickly forested valleys of Papua New Guinea, the changing Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, and a Californian ranch being allowed to return to a wild state. Wills travels to Guyana's rainforests and savannahs, for instance, to provide startling vignettes of ecological processes in action. Among other topics, he highlights the astonishing snake-head mimicry that swallowtail caterpillars use to scare off predators, the symbiotic relationship between the exceedingly rare Golden Poison-Dart Frog and the tank bromeliad plant, and the invisible world of pathogens and parasites that helps to drive diversity. All these mechanisms, and many more, maintain the "green equilibria" of Guyana's rainforest ecosystems. Wills also shows how "green equilibria" have shaped the evolution and history of our own species. We now know that a kind of genetic "green equilibrium" helped populations adapt to changing environmental conditions as they spread out of Africa. Striking new evidence indicates that some modern human populations still carry genes from past hominids (such as the Neanderthals) as well as genetic adaptations to local hazards such as malaria. Traveling to many different ecosystems, from coral reefs to the high Himalayas, and drawing on his own on-the-ground research, Wills illuminates ecological laws in action. Perhaps most important, he introduces us to people, in many countries around the world, who are now using this new knowledge to help heal the planet.

Green Equilibrium: The Vital Balance of Humans and Nature

In this remarkable account, evolutionary biologist Christopher Wills takes us on a voyage of discovery through the exotic pasts of the viruses and bacteria that periodically emerge with such disastrous results for our species. It is our knowledge of their secret lives, the eons spent quietly passing in and out of myriad other life forms, mutating and coadapting, that gives us hope of taming them. By putting these organisms—from bubonic plague to Ebola—at center-stage, Wills shows how we will eventually master them.

Yellow Fever, Black Goddess: The Coevolution Of People And Plagues (Helix Book)

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Basic Books

By focusing on microorganisms that cause human suffering, Wills examines the evolution of diseases, viruses, and plagues from their "point of view," producing a fascinating glimpse into the complex lives of microbes and how they manifest with often disastrous results. He explains that when we alter nature in such ways as burning forests and disrupting the food chain, human beings unwittingly unleash diseases by destroying their host resources. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Yellow Fever, Black Goddess: The Coevolution Of People And Plagues

History & Philosophy

The inside story of the multimillion dollar Human Genome Project describes the scientists involved, the biomedical breakthroughs that led to the project, and how the information it generates will change the way we treat cancer and understand birth, aging, and more

Exons, Introns, And Talking Genes: The Science Behind The Human Genome Project

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wills, Christopher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Wills, Christopher

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wills, Christopher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Runaway Brain the Evolution of Human Uniqueness

The Wisdom of the Genes: New Pathways in Evolution

Why Ecosystems Matter: Preserving the Key to Our Survival

The spark of life: Darwin and the primeval soup

The Darwinian Tourist: Viewing the World Through Evolutionary Eyes

Green Equilibrium: The Vital Balance of Humans and Nature

Yellow Fever, Black Goddess: The Coevolution Of People And Plagues (Helix Book)

Yellow Fever, Black Goddess: The Coevolution Of People And Plagues

Exons, Introns, And Talking Genes: The Science Behind The Human Genome Project

Exons, Introns, And Talking Genes: The Science Behind The Human Genome Project