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John Maynard Smith
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short reviews by Gert Korthof |
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This is one of his first books for the general reader. Concise and well written.
A beautiful opening chapter about the definition of life. An indispensable topic if one wants to introduce readers
to biology.
The concise one-page-discussion of William Paley is one of the rare discussions in his work of what today is called
creationism or Intelligent Design.
The difference between artefacts and living beings, or the definition of life, is revived today by astrobiologists
looking for extraterrestrial life. Scientists like Tibor Gánti brought the subject to a superior level
of sophistication, but what JMS has to tell us, is still of great value.
His definition is "entities with the properties of multiplication, variation, and heredity are alive, and entities
lacking one or more of those properties are not".
Fire consumes external energy, continuously changes its internal substance (metabolism), can multiplicate itself and it varies,
but since it lacks heredity, it is not alive.
Therefore it can not evolve by natural selection and cannot acquire organs to keep it going. Adaptation is all about organs
that help an organism to survive. Any adequate theory of evolution must explain adaptation.
A definition of life does not need to explain life.
It is sufficient that it reliably identifies life, and rejects non-living objects.
Fire has no parts that help it survive, so it can be rejected whether or not is has heredity. I recommend chapter 5 Problems of evolutionary biology in which JMS concisely answers the 'big questions' of evolutionary biology: 1) has there been time? 2) Is all change adaptive? 3) Does evolution always proceed uphill? 4) Are there group adaptations? 
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"Few people in the world are better qualified than John Maynard Smith to explain
evolution to us, and no subject more than evolution deserves such a talented teacher. Like Darwin himself, Maynard Smith knows that his story is intrinsically interesting enough and important enough to need no more than clear, patient, honest exposition. The new Introduction itself is an elegant essay which can be recommended in its own right as a summary of important recent developments in evolutionary theory." Richard Dawkins in the Foreword to the Canto Edition. This book is a classic with a history of more than 40 years: it was first published in 1958. The new foreword (1993) to the third edition of 1975, is a 25 page summary of all important new findings since 1975. For critics and students of evolution alike this summary is a must. JMS intended the book as a popular account of the modern synthesis. (it is a pity that it never was published with colour illustrations). It starts with: "The central idea that underlies this book is that the origin of new heritable variation is not adaptive."in a paragraph Molecular Weismannism and contains a discussion of the experiments of Cairns and Hall, the experiments upon which Lee Spetner (1) based his Non Random Evolutionary Hypothesis. Together with Chapter 4 Weismann, Lamarck, and the Central Dogma this is essential background knowledge for evaluating claims of the critics of the Central Dogma. JMS is an ultra-Darwinist according to Niles Eldredge. He is not an atheist in his books, nor is he concerned with creationism. We do not find the connection of a defence of evolution with an attack on creation or design, which is so characteristic of the writings of Richard Dawkins. It is difficult to find another authoriative book of this size and prize about the theory of evolution (but see 6). However JMS is rather technical, unlike Richard Dawkins. So some effort is needed, but the reward is the best insight in the theory of evolution one will ever find. New chapters were added in the 1975 edition: the origin of life (6),chromosomes (7), protein polymorphism (11). Even after many years I found very valuable insights which one won't find expressed with such lucidity in modern books (10). The only complaint I have is that there is no chapter about common descent (tree of life).
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DID DARWIN GET IT RIGHT ? Essays on Games, Sex and Evolution. The essays in this volume were published between 1968 to 1986, except Why Sex?, which was specially written for this volume and is an attempt to summarise JMS ideas for a general readership. This volume is a useful addition to his Theory of evolution. The four chapters in Part 3: Did Darwin Get It Right? and chapter 20 (Part 4) are the most interesting for the critics of evolution. Chapter 15 Palaeontology at the High Table, Chapter 16 Current Controversies in Evolutionary Biology and Chapter 17 Did Darwin get it Right? describe what the critics of orthodox neo-Darwinism, S.J. Gould and N. Eldredge, actually claim ('punctuated equilibria', 'stasis', 'species selection', 'developmental constraints'). Chapter 18 Do we need a new Evolutionary Paradigm? is a review of Ho & Saunders' Beyond Neo-Darwinism. Ho & Saunders are often cited by the critics of evolution. Their book is a collection of essays of authors who do not see themselves as orthodox Darwinists. JMS shortly discusses most of them. The fascinating work of Sidney Fox is discussed with approval (polymerisation of amino acids in the absence of living organisms). This work is relevant to non-Darwinian processes because there is no need for hereditary replication and natural selection. Elizabeth Vrba's contribution 'differs from most in this volume by being at the same time rational and about evolution' (!). The contribution of Nelson and Platnick has no relevance to Darwinism according to JMS. They argue about what we should call things (cladistic taxonomy) and not what the world is. The essay of Saunders is a useful one, but the things that are said, have also been said by neo-Darwinists. J.W. Pollard argues for the 'inheritance of acquired characters' based on the work of E.J. Steele (2). JMS has sympathy for those views, but remarks that the inheritance of acquired characters would imply that we would all be born with cancer. Well, do we need a new evolutionary paradigm? Is JMS fair in his judgement? If the authors of Beyond Neo-Darwinism claim a new evolutionary paradigm is needed, then JMS is justified to judge their contributions accordingly. He finds some authors to be right, some to be wrong and some irrelevant to the central claim of the book. But JMS conclusion is that the volume does not convince him that a new evolutionary paradigm is needed. I find that Nelson and Platnick are too easily dismissed. Ho and Saunders claim that Kimura's neutral theory has undermined Darwinism, is too easily rejected by calling Kimura a neo-Darwinist. The Limitations of Evolution Theory (Ch 20) is an interesting essay. It does not happen very often that a leader in the field talks about limitations of the central paradigm of the field. If I understand JMS correctly he admits that the neo-Darwinian theory of evolution is inadequate in some respects and that it is a hypothesis, not a fact. At the same time, JMS claims to be an unrepentant neo-Darwinist. In evolution theory it is rarely possible to think of a single decisive experiment or observation which will settle a controversy.
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SHAPING LIFE
"Evolutionary theory is largely concerned with changes in the frequencies
of genes in populations, brought about by mutation, natural selection and other
processes. What we observe in evolution are changes in the forms of animals and plants.
To link theory and observation, we need to know how changes in genes cause changes
in morphology. And that requires an understanding of development" (p3). |
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THE ORIGINS OF LIFE is aimed at a general readership.
It is a completely rewritten version of The Major Transitions in Evolution(1995) which was aimed at
professional biologists.
This book is a goldmine. Every page contains superb insights into crucial aspects of
life and Darwinian evolution. Every concept is illustrated with relevant data.
There is no place for wild speculations. Very condensed but clear writing, not too much technical terms,
so it is perfectly readable. The introductory chapter is splendid. After nearly 10 years there is no rival
book that explains the origins and evolution of life so clearly and so profoundly. The central idea of the book is that the path of evolution on Earth is characterised by major transitions. These major transitions are in fact the most important innovations of life. The very first step was from individual replicating molecules to a population of replicators in compartments (a 'cell' with a membrane). All life is based upon cells. The second was integration of independent replicators into chromosomes (could we live with 40,000 free floating genes in our cells?). The third was the transition from the 'RNA world' to a DNA and protein world, which includes the evolution of the current universal genetic code. All bacteria are in this phase of evolution. With hindsight they are called prokaryotes, because they lack a nucleus. The fourth invention was the nucleus (eukaryotes). Single-celled organisms are included (Amoeba). Although the fifth transition is one of the most puzzling transitions: from a-sexual (a word again with hindsight) to sexual reproduction, the critics of evolution completely missed it. The remarkable fact is that none of the critics of evolution I know has any problems with the 8 transitions mentioned in this book. JMS and Szathmáry are not only masters in pointing out the problems the transitions pose for Darwinism, but also in giving Darwinian solutions to those problems. This book contains the best problems and the best answers in biology. One can read pages of this book again after years and still discover enjoyable new insights. For example why Lamarckian inheritance would be disadvantageous, why cancer exist, why individuals cooperate, why multicellular organisms like us develop from a single cell, etc, etc. There is a paragraph about Autocatalysis without mentioning Stuart Kauffman's work (3). There are a few remarks about how to distinguish between a living being and an artefact: it can only be distinguished by knowing its history! (4). This book has been reviewed by Nature: (5). I recommend reading also Tibor Gánti (7) and compare his definition of life with the one used by the authors of the current book. The authors discuss Tibor Gánti's chemoton theory favorably (page 12). When new reserach about the origin of life appears (9), and going back to this book, it shows that JMS and Szathmáry have very clearly defined the problem, so are after nealry 10 years still a good guide to the problems involved.
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| Copyright © 1999 G.Korthof . | First published: 24 Jan 1999 | Last update: 29 Jul 2008. F.R./Notes: 24 Oct 2006 |
The Problems of Biology