Search results for ""Author Rudolf A. Raff""
Indiana University Press Once We All Had Gills: Growing Up Evolutionist in an Evolving World
In this book, Rudolf A. Raff reaches out to the scientifically queasy, using his life story and his growth as a scientist to illustrate why science matters, especially at a time when many Americans are both suspicious of science and hostile to scientific ways of thinking. Noting that science has too often been the object of controversy in school curriculums and debates on public policy issues ranging from energy and conservation to stem-cell research and climate change, Raff argues that when the public is confused or ill-informed, these issues tend to be decided on religious, economic, and political grounds that disregard the realities of the natural world. Speaking up for science and scientific literacy, Raff tells how and why he became an evolutionary biologist and describes some of the vibrant and living science of evolution. Once We All Had Gills is also the story of evolution writ large: its history, how it is studied, what it means, and why it has become a useful target in a cultural war against rational thought and the idea of a secular, religiously tolerant nation.
£26.99
The University of Chicago Press The Shape of Life: Genes, Development, and the Evolution of Animal Form
In the book, "Embryos, Genes, and Evolution", Raff and co-author Thomas Kaufman proposed a synthesis of developmental and evolutionary biology. In "The Shape of Life", Raff analyzes the rise of this experimental discipline and lays out research questions, hypotheses and approaches to guide its development. Raff uses the evolution of animal body plans to exemplify the interplay between developmental mechanisms and evolutionary patterns. Animal body plans emerged half a billion years ago. Evolution within these body plans during this span of time has resulted in the tremendous diversity of living animal forms. Raff argues for an integrated approach to the study of the intertwined roles of development and evolution involving phylogenetic, comparative and functional biology. This synthesis should interest not only scientists working in these areas, but also paleontologists, zoologists, morphologists, molecular biologists and geneticists.
£37.00
