Kenneth M. Weiss is Evan Pugh Professor of Anthropology and Genetics at Penn State University. After majoring in mathematics at Oberlin College, he received graduate training in Biological Anthropology and genetics at the University of Michigan, where he received his PhD in 1972. He has written widely on evolutionary principlesand biology, human genetics and the complexities of therelationships between genes and traits like human disease or developmental patterns. He writes a regular column onproblems and issues in evolution and genetics for the journal Evolutionary Anthropology, and is the author of Genetic Variation and Human Disease: Principles and Evolutionary Approaches. He has also been a professional meteorologist.

 

Anne V. Buchanan is Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Anthropology at Penn State University. She has a BA in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts and a DrPH in Population Studies from the University of Texas School of Public Health. She has worked on population-scale problems in relation to health and genetics, and on molecular and developmental genetics, and has published in a diversity of areas, including anthropology, demography, epidemiology, genetic epidemiology, and developmental genetics.

PART I: UNDERSTANDING BIOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY: BASIC CONCEPTS AND PRINCIPLES.  

1. Prospect: The Basic Postulates of Life.  

2. Conceptual and Analytic Approaches to Evolution.  

3. Evolution by Phenotype: How Change Happens in Life.  

PART II: BUILDING BLOCKS OF LIFE: A GENETIC REPERTOIRE FOR EVOLVING COMPLEXITY.  

4. The Storage and Flow of Biological_ Information.  

5. Genotypes and Phenotypes.  

6. A Cell is Born.  

7. A Repertoire of Basic Genetic Mechanisms.  

PART III: INTERNAL AWARENESS OF SELF COMMUNICATION WITHIN THE ORGANISM.  

8. Making More of Life: Many Sides of 'Reproduction'.  

9. Scaling Up: How Cell Build an Organism.  

10. Communicating Between Cells.  

11. Detecting and Destroying INternal Invaders.  

PART IV: EXTERNAL AWARENESS: OPEN-ENDED DETECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT.  

12. Detecting Physical Variability in the Environment.  

13. Chemical Signing and Sensation from the Outside World.  

14. Detecting Light.  

15. The Development and Structure of Nervous Systems.  

16. Perceiving: Integrating Signals from the Environment.  

PART V: FINALE: EVOLUTIONARY ORDER AND DISORDER BETWEEN PHENOTYPES AND GENOTYPES.  

17. A Great Chain of Beings.  

Biblioraphy.  

Index.