Product Description

In this fascinating book, John Maynard Smith and Eors Szathmary present an original picture of evolution. They propose that during evolution there have been a number of major transitions in the way in which information is passed between generations. These transitions include the appearance of the first replicating molecules, the emergence of co-operative animal societies, and the unique language ability of humans. Containing many new ideas, this book is contemporary biology on the grandest scale, from the birth of life to the origin of language.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #266858 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Life is a long weird trip, and in The Origins of Life John Maynard Smith and Eörs Szathmáry blast you through its three-and-a-half-billion-year history at breathtaking pace.

Life, we learn, is information, transmitted in ever-more intricate ways across the generations. Self- replicating chemicals walled themselves into cells, organised themselves into regimented communities of chromosomes, swapped notes with other populations to become sexual, cloned themselves to form multi-cellular colonies called organisms, got together with other colonies to form societies, and eventually, in the case of one particular ape, developed the ability to put this whole story down on paper.

For those evolutionists brought up on the theory of "red queens" and "self genes", Origins provides a complementary crammer course in the practical nuts-and-bolts biology behind the headlines. The authors describe the technical problems involved in the transition from one stage to another; and explain the ingenious and often fortuitous steps that natural selection took to overcome them. For example, the rigid walls of the first cells gave way to more flexible membranes that could engulf food particles and incorporate "little organs" such as mitochondria. A "cytoskeleton" of filaments and tubules was needed to maintain the cell's integrity, and, hey presto, this structure was the perfect motorway for intracellular traffic, ideal for shearing the cell apart during cloning and provided the earliest means of locomotion, such as the tail of sperm.

With this attention to detail, the book requires careful reading. But it's worth it. Maynard Smith and Szathméry's book makes you realise just how lucky you are to be alive. --Oliver Curry

Customer Reviews

Information transmission from genes to memes
Readers cruising through the wealth of books on evolution that have appeared in recent years will see one name [after Darwin] appearing almost universally. Either found in the text or the Bibliography, the name of John Maynard Smith stands ubiquitous. There's a good reason for such respect - Maynard Smith is both a capable scientist and strong presenter of science. This book, brief as it is, stands out as a prime example of his skilled writing hand. His collaborator, Eors Szathmary an Hungarian chemist, has clearly provided a wealth of resource information on many aspects of how life's mechanisms determined the path of evolution of early life. This is their second association, and it's a splendid result of the merger of two disciplines.

This work, like their previous book, puts to rest the idea that evolution by natural selection is a 'group' or species phenomenon. Evolution works at individual levels. An animal, cell or even a gene - how it operates, survives and replicates. For all these elements to function successfully and pass their behaviours on to succeeding generations, a wealth of mechanisms must occur without serious hitch. Maynard Smith and Szathmary take us through these biological steps with unsurpassed clarity. Yet with all this wealth of detail, the reader finds nothing obscure or confusing in their descriptions.

This book starts with descriptions of attempts to understand how life started. Now that it is understand that life's history is but a bit less than the existence of our planet, the beginnings of life must be a chemical phenomenon. Maynard Smith and Szathmary show how these reactions occurred and how they originated the steps leading to the complex life forms sharing the globe with us today. If their text wasn't clear enough [and it definitely is that] the accompanying line drawings spell out graphically how chemistry drove, and is driving, life's forces. Those seeking a wealth of information on various species will be disappointed. What this pair superbly depict are the mechanisms uniform over all life.

Discussions of evolution cannot avoid addressing that creature who considers all life to have been created to ultimately produce it - the human being. The pair depart from their basic concept here by addressing human society. And rightly so. The ability of humans to modify their environment utilize powers that overcome the chemical basis by which we live. This ability rests on the use of language to convey ideas. No other animal possesses this capacity and the authors conclude this work with some ideas about the future course of human evolution and the role language will play in it. The major factor will be Dawkins' idea of the meme. They see memes as a Lamarckian element in human culture, guiding the path of our ongoing development. Clearly, a required companion volume to this book is Susan Blackmore's THE MEME MACHINE.

This is a superb summation of evolution's workings and a must read for anyone wishing a start in the mechanics of life. Please buy, read and point your friends to this seminal effort.

Technical read, but one which revolutionized my view of life
In this book, Maynard Smith and Szathmary present their hypothesis on the origins of life as we know it today, and highlight an alternative view of evolution. They discuss 7 major transitions that occurred from the very start of life on this planet, covering topics such as self-regulating molecular cycles and the origins of the human language.

I thouroughly enjoyed reading this book, and learned a lot. It has completely revolutionized the way I view evolution and life. If you are interested, I would suggest reading it even if the proposed hypothesis turns out to be incorrect.

This book is a fairly technical read, and I wouldn't recommend it if you are unfamiliar with some of the concepts in cell biology and evolution. If you are interested in reading this book and are still unfamiliar with these concepts, I would suggest reading another book first, such as the popular science book Genome by Matt Ridley.

Brilliant summary of the steps in evolutionary history
Maynard Smith is perhaps the most sure footed of the leading neo-Darwinists. He lacks Richard Dawkins' supreme skill at inventing powerful metaphors to capture the popular(ish)imagination but his deep understanding of evolutionary theory is well illustrated in this book. I suspect this is a book which will appeal primarily to those either studying the subject, or like myself have read quite widely in the area already. The book sets out in a stark and extremely non waffly form the key steps in the evolution of information processing systems. It gives an honest account of what is known with a reasonable degree of certainty and what at the moment can only be the subject of intelligent speculation.

Having read many book in the area, this is one of my favourite.